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Published: October 10th 2010
Today I went on an excursion with the school into the Alps. They were even more beautiful than I thought they would be. At 9:15am we got on the train for Garmisch, a town right next to the Alps. Unfortunately, there was construction on the tracks so after an hour on the train we had to get off, catch a bus to the next train station, then take a train from there the rest of the way. But we made it. We started by going through a gorge called Partnachklamm that led right to the foot of Alps. The gorge was breath taking. We walked along the side of the gorge on a small ledge. Beautiful blue water rushed through the gorge below and we went through several caves. As soon as you get to the end of the gorge, you’re at the foot of the mountain Eckbauer. This is the one we hiked. It’s definitely not the tallest mountain in this area of the Alps, but it offers an awesome view of the others which are either very difficult to climb, or impossible to.
The hike up Eckbauer was pretty long. It started as if you’re going up a
small hill. Not too steep and there was amazing scenery. A lot of the trees were starting to change colors and the air was so fresh and clean. The “hill” slowly turns into a nice path that goes by fields. A lot of them had sheep and one had goats and one had cows. All of the animals had bell colors, which I thought was really cool and traditional. So as we hiked up the mountain we heard the little clinking bells of the sheep.
We eventually came to a field that we had to cross through up the mountain that had a few cows. I got a lot of pictures and as I was walking by a pair of them, they started walking towards eachother. A few of us stopped to take pictures and watched them for a minute. At first, as soon as the cows got close enough to eachother, they locked horns a little bit. Everyone thought they were fighting, but I decided to wait and see what happened. Then the cows started rubbing each others noses and one of the cows started licking and cleaning the other one. It was cute. We kept walking and
then it started getting a little tougher. It was a back and forth path, you walk up and to the right, then the path does a 180 turn and you’re walking up and to the left, then a 180 turn ect ect. It wouldn’t have been hard except it seemed to go on forever and we didn’t have time to stop to eat the food we packed.
Every part of the trail we went through reminded Déborah of some scene from Lord of the Rings, so every time she noticed something she pointed it out to Lisanne and I. First, was the river that we walked along towards the gorge. That was the river that Arwen crosses with Frodo and then she calls the river to attack the Ringwraiths. Then it was a cave in the gorge that was the Mines of Moria. Then the long hike was Legolas, Gimli, and Aragorn tracking the orcs who took Merry and Pippin. Ect Ect ☺
So the trail up seemed to take forever. It actually did take about an hour and half to do that part. It was the steepest part yet, but was definitely rewarding. As soon as we finally
got to the top we were at a mountain top log cabin restaurant with an awesome panoramic view of the Alps. It was so beautiful. I wish my grandma could’ve seen it too. We got there just in time because as soon as we started to eat lunch, a thick fog came down on us, since we were at the very top of Eckbauer, and it made it impossible to see more than 5 feet in front of you, let alone the Alps that were a ways away. We enjoyed the view though when we arrived at the top. We were all glad to finally have a break too so we all laid out on the grass behind the restaurant on top of the mountain and ate lunch.
When it was time to go back we all agreed in a vote to take a shorter, but much steeper way back down the mountain instead of the same way back down. I liked the new scenery and it was a fun hike back. We came across a pen of goats between the halfway point and the bottom of the mountain. They were so cute. We picked up grass and they
came over and ate out of our hands.
When we finally got back we had to take a bus to the train station, then do the same train-bus-train routine we did on the way there. Luckily we got on the bus early this time. Between trains before, we hadn’t had enough time to get to the buses early so we all had to stand on the bus for the hour long trip to the next train station. This time we made it just in time and we all found seats. The lady behind me brought her dog with her on the bus too. I’ve liked how in Germany they don’t care if you bring dogs with you anywhere. I see them all the time walking behind their owners with no leash, or sitting with their master outside of a café. I’ve seen a few on the subway too. Germany seems to be very pet friendly. Overall, it was a fun hike and the weather was great, which made it even better.
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