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Back to Bavaria: GaPa, Wank and Fussen
Wednesday 18th - Monday 23rd September 2026.
Summary:
Back y.
From One Alpine Picture Postcard to Another. (Wednesday, 18th September)
Day 194 (48 to go) The train ride from Innsbruck was one of the best ever. So smooth. Such endless beautiful views. The carriage looked brand new and even though the windows were clean already, a staff member came through the carriage cleaning them again before we left, just in case.
Within an hour and a half we were approaching our next destination, Garmish-Partenkirken (or GaPa for short) past the strangely enticing Wank Mountain.
It was quite a long walk from the station to the guest house but we received a very warm welcome when we arrived. A nice cold beer, our welcome card for free public transport and lots of good advice on what to do. Our room is comfy enough and has a glorious view of the mountains.
Angela (as I assume the owner is called) recommended we take the train and cable car to the top of Zugspitze (the highest peak in Germany... technically true, but only 50m from the border with Austria) one day but the price of €72 each seems a bit steep to say the least. We booked two return flights to Morocco the same day for the same amount. I don't think so.
She also recommended the walk we spent the first afternoon here doing: A gentle (and of course free) walk through the stunning Bavarian countryside facing Zugspitze and its brother Alpspitze. The scenery is simply gorgeous with the charming sound of bells dangling from grazing goats and cows.
The only disappointment for me was that a restaurant at the far end of the circular walk (a beer in which had acted as a distinct carrot as I walked up some of the steeper slopes) was closed. Honestly, they had the beer garden from heaven. Maybe Friday?
Anyway coming back down was easier than going up and having returned to the valley, I couldn't resist popping into the stadium of 1FC Garmish-Partenkirken: Stunning backdrop, Shame about the running track. They play in the South East Bavarian Landesliga which I think puts them at the 6th tier of German football. Think of clubs like Scunthorpe United, Chester and Hereford United. (I know you are!) The English pyramid is simply the strongest in the world. Clubs like these would love the scenery but they'd actually sneer at the stadium and the crowds GaPa get.
Anyway then we crossed the scarily fast flowing Loisach River to stroll through the cute town centre to choose somewhere to eat. Some of the Bavarian cottages here look like they've been painted. Every flower in the right spot. Hedges that look like they've been trimmed with nail clippers. This part of the world is a bit pricey for visitors from Australia though, especially ones on a long tour budget, so we satisfied ourselves with a burger (for me) and a salad (for me darlin')
So ended yet another fantastic day. It's forecast to be even warmer tomorrow but with more cloud cover. More walking. Wank comes to mind.
From One Alpine Picture Postcard to Another. (Thursday, 19th September)
Day 195 (47 to go). Wandering around Wank Mountain for hours. (Question: Did this make us "wanky wanderers"?)
Garmish-Partenkirken is certainly a spectacular place surrounded by alpine peaks with several cable car options. Which one to choose?
The most popular tourist destination is probably Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany. But at €72 per person we balked at that. Alpspitze is also pretty huge, stunningly spectacular and popular but also a bit pricey. So we decided to go for the third option... Mount Wank.
The day started early with breakfast (included in the price) here at Gästhaus Angela, which was a fantastic buffet. We certainly scoffed enough to keep us going for a long day of walking.
According to what I'd read on one of the web sites, a hike to Wank Mountain was an easy family hike. "It's a gentle uphill walk through windy steps to Tannenhütte" I seem to remember it said. Too blady easy! I thought. We'd get that done in a couple of hours and then walk to the start of the Partnachklamm, a hike through a beautiful gorge near the Olympic ski jumping structure.
However, once we set off with full bellies towards the peak ahead of us that was Wank Mountain I immediately began to have second thoughts. I remember being daunted by the size of Queenstown "Hill" back in New Zealand in March, but this was an absolute stonker. Queenstown Hill 907m - Wank Mountain 1,780m. (For comparison Alpspitze is 2,628m and Zugspitze 2,962m).
There was no way I was climbing up that! So by the time we got to the Wankbahn Station (the cable car that takes you up) it was a no brainer, we'd get a ticket on the wankbahn to go to the wank-haus and have a beer and a bite to eat in the wankstüberl. Actually coming down from 1,780m was probably going to be tough too, so we got return tickets.
It nearly killed me even clambering up to the wankbahn station so I knew we'd made the right decision as we took our place in the cable car carriage.
Soon we were off and being pulled, at amazing speed, up the mountain. The engineering involved in these structures is awesome. I mean how is even one pylon built on the side of a mountain? Within ten minutes we were smoothly being propelled through mittelstation, where we could have got off, and then up and away again up to the peak.
As we approached the summit we noticed we'd passed the snow line and the ground between the pine forest trees became increasingly white. Damn! Why didn't I bring my sunnies!?
Up on the top, the views were absolutely stunning. Garmish-Partenkirken was laid out before us like Google Maps on Satellite view. Snow covered most of the ground and the roofs. Only the footpaths were more or less clear.
We decided to go to the very top, to Wank Haus itself, and grab a table with the best views I think I've ever had. I ordered a dunkel and Leb a mulled wine and we shared another kaiserschmarm (Appel strudel, eat ya heart out!) Surprisingly, despite being so high up, it was really warm as it was so sunny and neither of us wore our jumpers. My forehead feels decidedly burnt as I type this.
After finally being able to pay the bill (the waiter was very quick at taking new orders but left me waiting for ages to pay), we pottered around the summit for a bit before getting the Wankbahn back down to the mittelstation. This time we jumped off and decided to do the rest of the journey on foot. As we studied the map and plotted our route back down to Garmish-Partenkirken, it soon became apparent that even the mittelstation, not even half way up to the peak, was still high above Tannenhütte (the easy family hike target I'd seen earlier). And here's me thinking that was the place at the very top. What a Wank... mountaineer!
Anyway, the walk down was even more stunning than the hike yesterday with amazing views around every corner.
Eventually we did reach Tannenhütte where we rested our feet while we had another beer. Then, it was time for the final descent starting with a wobbly walk over a scary suspension footbridge. It took another hour to get to what I call "Wank End" even from there. Much of it was a series of zig-zag steps that led you further and further down the mountain until we heard the ever increasing sound of rushing water. Two fast flowing streams met and continued down from there to the town. Just after that point there was a small dam and then, just ahead, the first of many cute Bavarian cottages on the edge of town.
We followed the river down steep streets until the slope finally levelled off and we were back in Partenkirken, the other side of town from our guest house, which is in Garmish. We still had about an hour to walk though - even from there, and, desperate not to spend much on food, we stopped for a quick slice of the dullest ever margarita pizza and a nice fruity lemony beer.
With my feet aching, we finally arrived back here about seven hours after we left.
Certainly the idea of having a Wank Mountain hike to the top and back and THEN to the Partnachklamm afterwards was ridiculously ambitious but at least we ticked off the cable car ride up a mountain thing at last - and, I'm a little ashamed to admit, I ticked off my juvenile need to explore a mountain... just because it is called Wank. Pathetic, I know.
I asked ChatGTP why it got its name.
The reply...
"Despite its amusing connotation in English, the name has entirely different origins in German and carries no such meaning there. The mountain is popular for hiking, paragliding, and offers stunning views of the surrounding Alps." It actually comes from the German word for 'sway' or 'waver', it said.
Oh well, I thought it was funny. Simple things please simple minds, they say.
At least I didn't do the selfie I really wanted to do!
From One Alpine Picture Postcard to Another. (Friday, 20th September)
Day 196 (46 to go) ~ Doing our tax in Garmish-Partenkirken.
After yesterday's exertions we were ready for a less taxing day. It occurred to us that after our next stay, in Füssen, we have a series of one day stays, so we had an opportunity today to do time consuming chores as we'd had two good days exploring the town.
First we had another varied and delicious breakfast. Danke schön!
Leb is always early lodging her tax and just because we're travelling it was no excuse for a delay. So she used my laptop to go through her finances and submit. Meanwhile I took a load of clothes round the corner to the nearest laundrette. Then it was my turn. So we've both lodged our 2023-24 tax returns. Hopefully, as we've not been earning as much as usual, the figure shouldn't be too much.
After that, we walked into town to do a bit of a shop. Leb bought a tiny needle and thread kit so she could do a few minor clothing repairs. It cost €5, more than twice the price of a bottle of red wine I bought! Then we had a nice, well priced meal. I had Nürnberger bratwurst mit sauerkraut und kartoffl. Leb had a salad. After that we wanted more kaisersmarm and so ordered one from a cafe here. We waited half an hour and then it arrived... a mountain of cake. Too much!! Come back, appelstrudel, all is forgiven!
So, feeling as fat as a pig, I had to pull the plug on the last evening in GaPa and head back to gästhaus Angela.
So not much exploring or tourism today but nevertheless it is very satisfying to get two big jobs done.
From One Alpine Picture Postcard to Another. (Saturday, 21st September)
Day 197 (45 to go) Let's take the positives. We woke up to another gloriously sunny day in Bavaria and had another great breakfast. This time we even dared ask for "ei mit speck, zwei mal" and received a lovely scrambled egg with smokey bacon - on top of the usual deliciousness. Italian Alpine Comte is a great cheese discovery.
Then we packed efficiently as always and we were gone. I'd hoped we might catch the bus to the station and be able to finally use our Garmish-Partenkirken welcome card but we'd just missed it so it was quicker to walk there than wait for the next.
This set the theme for the rest of the day actually. We bought tickets for the first leg of the journey easy enough. And the train ride was beautiful... right under the awesome Zugspitze and then seamlessly back into Austria through wonderful Tyrolean countryside. All good up to Reutte im Tirol where we had to change to a bus. Trouble was it wasn't for two hours. Never mind. Time to catch up on some reading.
One of the ebooks I'm reading at the moment is Tony Judt's in depth history of postwar Europe. In the chapter I'm on he's discussing Adenauer, the West German leader who ruled the Bundestag for many years despite a history that was, shall we say, somewhat tainted with Nazism. Judt compared him with Kurt Schumacher, the Socialist, who had no such skeletons in the cupboard (he was jailed by Hitler) and who made his disdain for the Nazis clear with a couple of brilliant quotes...
"... a continuous appeal to the inner swine in human beings ... ceaselessly mobilising human stupidity."
Anyway, it's interesting seeing all this from today's light with so many Americans apparently going down the same stupid fascist route bringing out the inner swine in everyone.
The 100 bus was pretty much on time and took us quickly, again seamlessly, back into Germany (although Leb heard today that Germany are pulling out of Shengen) and on to Füssen where we decided to find somewhere to have lunch, a beer and connect to the WiFi - ooh and find out the scores in the football going on in England.
I had lovely bratwurst mit sauerkraut, kartoffl und semf (again) washed down by a dunkel (again) and Leb had a very colourful salad.
After that it was time to catch the bus to Hohenschwangau and our 80th accommodation I reckon. Soon there were scores of tourists waiting to catch the bus with us to take them close to the famous castles nearby and when the bus finally came there was some very unseemly behaviour with several people simply stealing a place at the front of the queue. Shameful. We'd waited long enough to deserve a seat on the bus but it soon filled up totally - standing room only. One poor old man got on (yes, even older than us) and he was squeezed right up next to the front of the bus.
Finally when we reached our stop I got off and turned to see that Leb had made sure the old man got our seat and not two of those who had pushed themselves to the front. Well done that girl!
We found our new place for a couple of nights, noticing our room has (kind of) a view of the famous Schloss Neuschwanstein (think Disneyland castle).
Leb wanted to chill but I wanted to see if I could find a bar to watch the big football matches tomorrow. Nothing local so I was going to walk back to Fûssen to see if there was anything there. As I set off, I saw a few people waiting at the bus stop so I thought I might join them. The next scheduled bus was in ten minutes so perfect, right?
Wrong. An hour passed by and still no bus and there were now maybe a hundred tourists waiting.
Finally a 78 bus came and again, some people decided it was fine just to go to the front of the queue and try to get on. It got a bit heated but no aggressive behaviour was shown.
Anyway I arrived in Füssen and headed straight for the first place I'd been recommended. Nothing on the TV screens was not a good sign and the barmaid confirmed that they no longer had Sky there. "Try Bayrish. They have it." So I trundled across town to the Irish pub (every city has one, right?) This time there was a TV on and it was showing some football.
I ordered a pint (not Guiness!) and got online to see the results. I was impressed that Fulham had beaten Newcastle, Solanke got his first and Brenan Johnson scored again for Spurs and that Man U were drawing 0-0 with Palace.
"Entschuldigung" I said to the barman, I think maybe impressing him a bit, before buggering it up by slipping straight into English "Any chance of seeing some football here?"
"Yes, we show all the Bundesliga games"
"What about English Premier League?"
"It depends. What game?"
"Tomorrow Manchester City play Arsenal in the biggest game of the season so far".
I figured if they would show this they might agree to show the Brighton v Forest game first.
"Ah... sorry. We are closed tomorrow. And we are the only bar in town with Sky."
Damn! So that was that. A quick check on the bus times revealed I'd already missed the last one so I texted leb I was walking back. Expect me in about 55 minutes.
It actually took less time to walk back than it had taken going on the bus there and although I had to walk along a pitch black pathway through spooky woodland, at least I got some wonderful views of the two nearby castles magnificently lit up.
All's well that ends well but I think this place is a Füssen tourist trap. It's possibly the first destination regret of the tour.
From One Alpine Picture Postcard to Another. (Sunday, 22nd September)
Day 198 (44 to go) Spectacular views of Schloss Neuschwanstein in the morning then off to the bierkeller to follow Forest stretch their unbeaten start to the season to five games.
This stay was always going to be about the fairytale looking castle Neuschwanstein. That's why I booked accommodation within sight of it. It's what draws so many tourists here. Apparently 1.4 million people come every year, many of them Americans who just want to see something Disney-like in the real world.
"Wow! There it is!" shrieked one lady from North America on the bus yesterday as we approached. And, yup, I was guilty of following the same hype too.
So, today was going to be the day we visited it close up. No chance of going in though, note. To do that I would have had to have booked tickets six months ago. Never mind.
So we got up and had a decent breakkie, included in the price again, and then headed off.
Although our guest house and the whole town it's based in, and the surrounding land, is as flat as a pancake, the foothills of the Alps are just a few hundred metres away and the incline gets very steep very quickly. Ten minutes into the walk I was gasping for breath and needed to keep stopping for a rest. This repeated itself as we ascended the beautiful wooded hillside below the castle. The trickle of people walking up the same path we followed turned into a bigger and bigger stream of tourists. It wasn't quite like Wembley the other week. I mean there weren't 70,000 heading for the castle, but there was a similar kind of buzz. More like the 8,000 heading for Plough Lane to see the Franchise Derby.
We turned a corner and there it was, towering above us. A collosus of a folly. Extravagance beyond compare. Thousands of huge stone bricks laid on top of each other on the edge of a precipitous drop. How many died building this thing? [At least 30, apparently, over 17 or so years] The result of just one of the oligarchs of his day [King Ludwig II of Bavaria] showing off his wealth and power for all to see. Inside, no doubt, there are endless fancy paintings and gold plated stair cases. Ivory this, velvet that. Like Ceacescu in Romania, he would never see his mega vanity project finished. Trump would, no doubt, love to have something like this built for him.
Sorry, I can't help but be cynical about these monuments by and for the obscenely rich. That so many people queue up to see them makes me feel sad really and that I'm one of them makes me feel... a little dirty.
Anyway, apart from all that, the surrounding natural beauty is truly stunning. At one point we could see the other big nearby castle, Hohenschwangau and its neighbouring Lake, Alpsee. Further on up, the view of it all, with the endless flat green land beyond, from Marienbrücke, is really magical and well worth the effort getting there (especially as it was, I have to say surprisingly, free). The bridge itself is rather industrial looking and I wasn't the only one who felt a little nervous walking along its wooden planks along with thousands of others. What is the safety load of a plank of wood?
Anyway, once that was done, I'd ticked off three or four of the boxes I had in mind for this stay earlier than I thought, so I was ready to leave the throng of tourists and get back to the real world... of football!
Leb continued her hike down to Alpsee and around it while I headed for the pub I'd been recommended in Schwangau... Milchhaus. I was told they were the only place in town that had Sky so I figured I'd go there early and see if I might watch Brighton v Forest and then Manchester City v Arsenal. I had a double on both being away wins. Even if they didn't actually show the matches I'd be able to follow them on their WiFi as the one here at the guest house is very poor indeed.
The walk there was really pleasant - as it was FLAT - and only took twenty minutes or so.
My dream afternoon was shattered straight away, though. "We don't have Sky any more and we have no WiFi".
The guy was really nice about it though and told me to go to the Schloss Brauhaus just down the road. They don't have Sky but they do have WiFi.
This I did, and sure enough the signal was great. I texted Leb to update her about where I was and after watching a part of some kind of umpah umpah band show, I settled down at a table with a half litre of dunkel and started getting in touch with my network of football fans in blighty and Oz who might be about to watch the game.
I managed to scoff an enormous pork knuckle with potato dumplings and sauerkraut before the game started so I was well set. Of course, it's not the same as watching the game live, but thanks to the text commentary on the Fotmob app, Paul Markevicius, Des Shanks and a few others I managed to keep up with the game pretty well. Leb joined me for the second half and had a salad and an alcohol free beer. Anyway, by all accounts Forest were a little lucky to leave with a 2-2 draw but it does mean they are still unbeaten after five games.
Leb and me then had a glorious walk back here with the Bavarian Alps in the background along with their two extravagant diamond implants.
I managed to follow UAE City v Arsenal on the WiFi here after all and shared at least some of the gooners' heartbreak when Stones equalised in the dying seconds.
So, a day of two halves really. Next stop. .. Lindau on Bodensee.
From One Alpine Picture Postcard to Another. (Monday, 23rd September)
Day 199 (43 to go) On to Bodensee (Lake Constance)
It was time to put Bavaria and Tyrol behind us and head towards Lake Constance (Konstanz) or Bodensee. The plan here was to hire bikes and cycle around the vast Lake, taking four days to do it, stopping at four towns/cities along a circular route beginning and ending in Lindau.
Although the distance from Schloss Neuschwanstein to Lindau is not huge as the crow flies, unfortunately we are not crows so we had to take the public transport and its somewhat convoluted route via Kaufbeuren.
We started with another nice brekkie with the big Disneyland look-a-like castle peering down on us. Then we were packed and gone.
It was just a 7 minute walk to the bus stop where we waited to catch the 78 back to Füssen. Already waiting there was a woman who very confidently started talking to us about her plans and her morning spent at the castle. She was there last night at sunset and wanted to be there again this morning for sunrise.
"My husband. He think I'm crazy"
We asked where her next destination was...
"Munich" and where she was from... "Boston, in the USA." Apparently she and her husband had immigrated there from near Shanghai in China 34 years ago.
I couldn't resist subtlety asking about Trump to hear what she might have to say about him.
"I hope you Americans get that orange-faced crook locked up after the elections in November" I blurted. (At least, that's what I wished I'd blurted, with the benefit of hindsight. What I actually said then, and in the following conversation snippet, was far too polite and reserved. It's only after the event that you think of all the things you wished you'd said.)
"Oh don't get me started on that" she said.
"I think they're both as bad".
Leb and I tried to suggest that there was, in fact, no comparison. One's a stupid, lying, crook, con man, traitor, misogynist, convicted felon, the other a highly intelligent, educated, experienced public servant, gifted prosecutor and champion of women's rights. Never has there been such a clear and straightforward difference between two Presidential candidates. Did she even know Kamala Harris was the alternative to Trump?
She repeated some MAGA lie about immigrants staying in first class hotels which Leb suggested might not actually be true and I tried to remind her that apart from indigenous people, we were all immigrants. She certainly was.
"Legal" was her one-word retort.
Her flailing argument was saved by the bus as the No 78 came around the corner at that moment. She was immediately joined at the front of the queue by her husband who looked very familiar and his timely arrival did too. These were two of the people who had pushed to the front of the bus queue on that first day in Füssen. The ones Leb successfully blocked from taking our seats and allowing a 75+ year old man to take it instead.
Bloody Trump supporters!
Anyway, once in Füssen it was a case of hoping off the bus, and walking two minutes to the platform to buy a train ticket to Kaufbeuren. Within minutes we were speeding off, even if it was heading north when we really would like to have gone west. As we got off the train who should we see but our queue jumping anti-immigrant immigrant Trump supporters.
Kaufbeuren station is odd. The tunnel connecting the platforms has a complete absence of signage and we struggled to find the ticket machine for a while. As we waited we were entertained by about twenty "lads" all beered up tut eyeballs, dressed up in their leder hosen, clearly off for some Oktoberfest drinking session. I also had time to look at the football ground (I think home of SpVgg Kaufbeuren) just opposite the station.
The train duly arrived on platform 1 but the destination given on the screen above was a bit confusing. It was apparently going not to one, but two destinations. It turned out that at the town of Immenstadt the train splits in two. The front two carriages go onto Lindau, the back two to Sonthofen. Luckily, we had sussed this out before it happened.
We arrived at Lindau-Reutin, one of two stations in town and not the one I was hoping for. I'd booked a room in a hostel right next to the other station, Lindau-Insel. And I thought I'd been so clever.
No problem. Two bus rides and we were there. No-one was at reception but Leb spotted a board with the words "self check in" written above and an envelope with my name on it. Too easy!
With that all settled the next question was bike hire. There was a good bike hire store just around the corner - another thing I'd researched before hand but, hold on... what about the weather? Now I love bike riding and the whole point of this Bodensee leg of the tour was to do a bit of a cycling holiday, but... I'm the first to admit I'm a fair weather cyclist. No way I'm biking in the rain. And, of course, what did the forecast say for the next four days? Rain. Fair. Rain. Rain.
Damn! It's a good job I didn't hire the bikes in advance. So much for that idea.
Change of plan. Instead of cycling full circle around the lake we'll get a train up one side to Friedrichshaven, get a ferry over to the other side, staying at three places I'd already booked assuming we'd be cycling, and then get the tram to Konstanz rather than biking back to Bregenz. So that's a result at least. It'll save some time and money.
With that settled we spent the evening strolling around the old town of Lindau nestled on a little island connected to the mainland by two little isthmuses. It made me imagine a tiny Crimea or a massive Sveti Stefan.
We had a nice meal (Turkey schnitzel and kartoffl salad for me, salad for Leb) and a beer. We swooned at the beatifully painted facade of the old rathaus and bought some provisions before heading back in the ever increasing drizzle.
Financial Summary
As I writ
As I writ
Mood Summary
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Time ha
Holiday Summary
Austria
Austria
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