Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Zugspitze!!!! Highest Point in Germany

This last week one of the high points (pun intended) of my Germany trip was a gondola ride to the highest point in Germany - the top of the Zugspitze!!! What a journey!! Gorgeous!!!


Checked out the map upon entering the gondola area.




Yikes, this is the thing I have to ride to reach the top??? - Warning - fear of heights not encouraged here!!!



Entrance to the gondola ride- many Asian tourists in Germany - hence the sign.


This is the view from the ground - it is a long way up!


Okay the ride begins- we arrived in the Garmisch area late in the day - so we took the last gondola ride up the mountain- it was about 3:30 pm and we had the gondola to ourselves on the way up!


George was fascinated with the car- he kept saying -"Oh that's how James Bond gets out of here"- Fearless!!


Passing these large structures was the worse part of the ride- you almost have a feeling of falling for a short time- and the crunching and grinding - OY!!!!! I was scared!!!


I am saying - why in the world did I say yes to this!!!!!! YIKES!!!!!!



The setting sun - over the Alps- just gorgeous- it was slightly shady on the German side of the mountain.


We are getting close to the platform - arriving at the top- almost 3000 feet above sea level!!!


Yes - George on the cell- this scene has been repeated all over the world!!!!



View toward Austria- much sunnier on this side! These pix are all out of the window from the cafe. Completely surrounded with windows the cafe is a great place to view the surrounding mountain ranges!!



This side of the mountain enables the many skiers to ski on a glacier!!! Unbelievable!!!



Terrific views ...



I really don't think we need any warning signs out there - don't worry I have no intention of going out there!!!!!!



The cafe is called 2962- the exact elevation of the mountain.


Gotta have a little treat after all that stress in the gondola!!!



Getting ready to head back down in the gondola with all the skiers- there was no one on the way up but we were packed in with about 25 people and their skis on the way down!!!





Back on the ground!!!


Heading back to the Lodge- what a day and what a view - even this parting shot is terrific !!!!!
More posts on the trip to follow - this however was truly the high point!!!!!!!

2 comments:

Penny said...

Wow Marcia! You were brave. The views are awesome. Can hardly wait to see more of your trip.

Chris Rothenbach said...

I want to go here! Beautiful pictures. I was looking for the highest point in Germany and your blog came up! I was in Mittenwald in the spring and I thought that was high!