The summation of today is a long drive with beautiful views.
After our three nights in Berchtesgaden it was time again to hit the road and head the 130km (80 miles) west to Mittenwald, the next overnight destination on our trip. With frequent complementary buses in and around Berchtesgaden I'd enjoyed a few days break from driving, but today it was good fun exploring part of the Alpenstrasse, the German Alpine Road.
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| Google Maps showing the turn-backs ahead. |
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| Heading between the mountains on the Alpenstrasse. |
Whilst as the crow flies the distance between the two towns is the modest 130km as mentioned above, taking into account all the mountains and lakes with twists and turns to travel around or up and over, the distance travelled today was close to 220km (135 miles). The S-Max being diesel with a lot of low end torque made very light work of all the hills, it really has been the perfect vehicle for our trip so far.
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| The Wendelsteinbahn rack-railway at the bottom station. |
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| Forrest enjoying the view as we near the top station. |
To break up the journey we'd decided on a stop off for a trip on the Wendelsteinbahn, a rack-railway from Brannenburg up to very near the top of the Wendelstein mountain. The railway dates from 1912 and whilst the trains today are much newer having been introduced in the early 90s, the lack of air conditioning on a 30ºC plus summer's day didn't make them the most pleasant train to ride on. Fortunately the kids were much better behaved than yesterday and spent most of the journey looking out of the windows.
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| One of the many views down from the top of Wendelstein mountain. |
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| Looking the other way, with the railway track and snow tunnel below. |
The views on the trip up Wendelstein and particularly at the top made up for the warm and sweaty journey. Having done the Jennerbahn yesterday we felt the landscape today was much more impressive (the photos really don't do it justice) and we enjoyed a quick lunch whilst admiring the view. Forrest and Paloma also enjoyed the new play equipment close to the summit.
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| The play equipment kept the little ones entertained. |
Soon it was time to head back to the car and continue our journey, taking a small toll-road through a long single carriageway tunnel, as we headed for the picturesque lakes of Kochelsee and Walchensee before reaching our destination of Mittenwald. From a quick explore it looks a lovely historic town, with a nice pedestrianised centre and a wide selection of eateries.
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| So much traffic, just like High Wycombe on a Friday afternoon! |
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| The centre of Mittenwald. |
We took the easy option and went Italian with pizzas for all. On the walk back to our B&B we stopped for ice creams, something that we said we wouldn't do again this late in the day after the chaos it caused earlier in the holiday, but when we both fancy one, the kids get to break that rule! Fortunately bedtime wasn't too bad and it gave the opportunity to watch second half of England vs Argentina in the Woman's World Cup, once I found a German website that was streaming it!
Tomorrow we plan an early start with a day trip through the mountains by train to Innsbruck.
Blogged by Matt.
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