Blogs from Mittenwald, Bavaria, Germany, Europe

nice weekend with friends at Mittenwald and Wolfratshausen... read more

Mittenwald - Winter 2010 On the last day of the year, we decided to take a trip that I had been looking forward to down to Mittenwald, Germany. I had been thinking about the Karwendel Mountains for the entire year that I was deployed, and New Years Eve, 2010 was the perfect time to go back and see them again, this time with my new wife and daughter with me. The trip was wonderful! Mittenwald was covered in snow, as were the Karwendels. We took a trip up the Karwendelbahn (cable car up the mountain) to the top where there is a large wooden tube-shaped viewing platform (more on this later). We spent about 2 hours walking up the trail to the saddle above the restaurant, then looking out over the Austrian Alps and back over ... read more

Christ, what a day. We hit the road from Trier at 8 this morning, German time, for a 548-kilometer (er, 340-mile) burn across southern Germany to Mittenwald, this tiny hamlet tucked away in the Bavarian Alps. A couple of hours in, as we navigated the tunnels and narrow river valleys of the upper Black Forest, a blip of German radio news broke through: ". . . blah blah scheigen fergen swaller explosion blerghof London derkaderk doppel-decker bus auf blahgerzwei Russell Square dergblekkerdanke . . ." Holy crap. We flipped around, and over the next half hour or so, what we gleaned or thought we gleaned from the German gibberish -- neither of us has any working handle on the language -- only instilled in us a deep sense of unease. Did he just say a bus ... read more