Germany - Zugspitze and the Romantische Strasse

Sarah and I in Wurzburg











We made it to a town called Garmisch-Partikan on the Austrian-German border later that evening and headed to the only campsite in the area to price it up and see what it had to offer facilities wise. The owner was an arrogant arse who asked us to move on when we parked in the car park looking at the prices and working out when we were going to stay there. That made our mind up for us that we were not going to stay there at all. We’d rather drive back over the border to Austria! The following few nights we stayed in a couple or decent lay-by’s right a larger river that ran through the valley so it was not all that bad.

On the Saturday we went for a half day hike to stretch the legs out after a few days out from any strenuous activity. We headed up from the base of Alpspitze meandering up through old ski runs and up to the lower cable car. We were going to head down from here but the weather was great and we got up in good time so we carried on up to the second cable car station. A quick lunchstop and some photos and it was time to head down. We both would have loved to carry on to the summit which only looked like a few hours from where we were but then we would have still had a 5 hour trek down and we had a nice weather window to Zugspitze the following day.

We set off nice and early for the start of the climb hoping to get ahead of most of the large weekend groups that we had been reading about and headed off op the river gorge. As the sun started to poke over the edge of the gorge we were snaking in and out of tunnels and over bridges that had been carved out of the gorge to give access to the huts and glacier below the summit. Within a few hours we had cleared the gorge and only bumped into one other group who had set off just behind us from the lower car park.

When we made it to the hut about 2 ½ hours in we got some funny looks from people as it was only 07:30 and they realised how early we must have left to make it there by that time. There seems to be a much more relaxed attitude in Germany and Austria to the whole glacier crossing scenario. It gets drummed into you that they should be crossed as early as possible to avoid having to cross them later in the afternoon when the sun has been baking them for a few hours.

Admittedly this was a one way crossing as we were going to descend via the cable car but still, we wanted to get over the glacier and onto the rock well before lunchtime, mainly to avoid having to climb in the heat. The long slog from the hut to the base of the glacier felt like it took forever. Some straightforward scrambling and a little via ferrata over the Brett section was fun but the never ending scree that followed was tough. Once on the glacier we could see the route across onto the main climb. It was far simpler than out research had shown, very lightly crevassed and a new ladder had been installed to avoid a large leap over from the ice onto the rock. From this point it was all via ferrata up 700m to within 10m of the summit.

It took us about 2 ½ hours to complete this section and we seemed to be going at a decent pace with very few people passing us on the way up. The few that did were either soloing without any equipment or only using their equipment for the tougher sections. The entire climb was great fun, some tougher sections but what was really nice was that not too much of it was hauling yourself up a cable, there was lots of scrambling to be done.

When we finally broke up onto the final ridge we had a little snow to contend with but nothing more than we had seen over the past few weeks. A few metres from the end of the route we could make out the crowds that were on the summit and a fully dressed up monk was waiting at the top of out path taking photos of the emerging climbers. I guess he was fascinated by the way in which we had climbed the mountain but for us, having just climbed it, having a monk at the top of the route was equally as fascinating, so I took a photo of him as he took one of us.

We had lunch and a beer at one of the summit cafes before wandering round the huge venue that was perched up there. A cable car ride down and then a little train ride saw us make the car park for about 3pm. It had been another great day and another great route in the mountains. Confidence was pretty high after this but it was now the end of our trip. We had planned to do one final via ferrata back on the Austrian side of the border and a mountain called Wankspitze but the weather blew us out once again so we headed to Fussen in Germany to start the 3 day drive up the Romantic Road. We had less than a week to make it back to Dunkerque so we packed up the kit bags for the final time and waved goodbye to the Alps.

We started the Romantic Road with a trip to Neuschwanstein Castle which is the fairy tale castle on which the Disney logo is based on. After this we started North up B17 which is known as the Romantische Strasse. It is a 400km drive, ride or hike that takes you through Southern Germany’s prettiest towns and villages. There were loads of great walled medieval villages to explore and little castle and market towns along the way. Halfway up we took a detour into Munich to meet my Dad as he was on holiday there so we met up for an afternoon in the Englicher Gartens for a picnic and some ale. From here we headed back onto the main route and took the next 2 days to get up to Wurzburg where we met up with Sarah and Roland on Friday who were friends of Lisa’s from back home.

That evening we decided to head towards the ferry and get ourselves to Brugges for a day of sightseeing before jumping on the ferry early Tuesday morning. This is where the breakdown saga begins...

Austria to Germany

After such an amazing experience on Austria’s highest mountain we had asked Matthius for some other easier routes in the area. He had given us advice on some via ferrata. We got all excited and then the weather as expected turned awful again for the next 4 days so we were all but rained out from rock related activities boooo. We managed to get a day out on the bikes and did a half day valley ride and also spotted a cool via ferrata that we returned to the next day.

It was up a steep side little gorge and took you up a few hundred metres over a few wire bridges and then under a viewing platform and pops you out by the falls. From there, there was another 4 hour climb that could have been done but the grading was a little tougher than we had done before and we had no water or kit for a full day on the rock. This aside, I gave the first section a try knowing that there was an escape route off about 60m up. It wasn’t climbing that’s for sure, it was hauling yourself up a cable over slick polished slab rock. Not much fun but good to know I could haul myself up a grade D ferrata. I took the escape route down and met Lisa back on the platform.

Our next big stop was going to be Zugspitze in Germany so we gave ourselves a few days to get over the border and get some maps and info before the good weather slot 3 days later. We made an overnight stop near Europe’s highest waterfall and spent a morning walking around there and up to various levels of the falls although it was a damp and misty morning so the views weren’t spectacular. From here we headed to Innsbruck for the afternoon. After eventually finding a non underground parking that we could squeeze the van into we had a wander, found a few good shops and the map we needed for Zugspitze and did a mini tour of the old city centre. Definitely somewhere to spend more than an afternoon exploring and a great base to be near the mountains.

Austria - Mt Grossglockner 3798m

Sponsor us?

From Balaton we headed West towards the Austrian Alps. We had Mt Grossglockner as our target for the week. On the first day we had a pretty full day of driving and a TomTom input error by me (Lee) we ended up missing our junction by about 100km so with the rain lashing down we called it a night and made up the miles the next day. We had to cross over the mountain range from the north to the south and the options were a paid tunnel, a vehicle train or a super high and expensive toll road. Not knowing if they would accept the van on the train and not wanting to pay 25 euros for the road we opted for the tunnel that ended up being only 10 euros and taking us close to the destination. We found a great little waterfall and car park to set up for the night and decided to explore and enquire at the mountain guide office about the route.

The following evening we chatted through with the guides and decided to pay out and organise for a guide to join us once the weather had settled. This was Sunday and the weather window was not opening until Tuesday so we reserved the English speaking guide and hoped for the weather to improve. That day we found ourselves a great little campsite up in the valley which was almost brand new with great facilities and yet another chance for us to sneak onto a free electricity hookup to charge the laptop and the phones. That morning saw us riding up to the start point of the route up Grossglockner. A pretty gruelling 1 ½ hour slog continually uphill on a good road saw us at the trail head car park and some pretty amazing views of the mountain. Daunting to see it in all its surroundings and pleased that we had opted to go for a guide. Although not cheap, we wanted to use it as an exercise to see what level of routes we could manage and safely attempt ourselves in the future. The blast downhill was down an old gravel access route and rated as a black run so Lisa managed to convince me to give it a go, or was it the other way round?!?! Good fun and we both made it down in about 15 minutes. We played about revising crevasse rescue and a few rope techniques that afternoon using the van as an anchor and a grass drop off as the crevasse. We attracted a few funny looks in the campsite but no one had the guts to ask us exactly what we were doing

Monday we headed into the nearest town of Lienz for a wander and to pick up a few extra bits of climbing hardware and then a valley ride in the afternoon to get the legs warmed up for the following few days. We spotted a via feratta on the route which looked fun so we added it to the list of to do’s after Grossglockner.

We headed up to the trailhead nice and early on the Tuesday to avoid paying the toll on the road up that car’s have to pay. The bike recon mission had proved successful and saved us a few more euros. We had to get to the Studdlhutte by 12noon to meet out guide and although this was only indicated as a 4 hour hike up from the trailhead (1918m) we left in good time to allow us to rest up before meeting our guide and have lunch. 2 ¼ hours later we reached the hut. A little (read lot) ahead of schedule and with snow falling at 2801m we headed into the hut and had lunch. We met up with our guide Matthias just after 12 and headed off at about 1pm to cross the glacier. He stripped us of almost all of our climbing gear bar 1 screwgate, rope, bivvy bags, flip flops for the hut, my ice axe, Lisa fought for hers and won and wash bags. We know light and fast is the best way and we are often too heavy but to be stripped of this seemed a little odd. Leaving so late to cross a glacier was also against everything we knew but we had to trust the guide. As we headed up the trail to the glacier we started to pick Matthias’s brains on various things to get to know him a little and also to get our money’s worth. He was a great source of info and was going to be a good guide. Once at the glacier about 45 minutes after leaving the hut we “roped up”. For those not familiar with mountaineering this normally involves a long rope, carry some excess coils over your shoulder and tied in several times with extra rescue lines set up in case of a fall/crevasse incident. This rope up consisted of us clipping into pre-tied loops on Matthias’s rope, basic but effective considering that the glacier was barely crevassed and short. We crossed over it in about half an hour before heading up onto the ridge and some simple via feratta up to the Erzhog Johann-Hutte (3454m) for about 3pm.

Until now we had had no views of what lay ahead, between the snow falling and the low cloud it wasn’t a great day to be out in the mountains We dropped our bags off and then had a hot chocolate and a few moments outside and took a few photos of the route ahead, as visibility suddenly improved, both excited of what lay ahead. A nice mountain dinner and a quick beer saw us getting an early night before the 5am wake up call.

The weather was pretty clear as we set up the route after a quick and efficient breakfast. Roped up and crampons on we headed up a snow slope which rapidly turned into a 50 degree zig zagged route before we stashed the axes and poles and headed up onto the ridge for some mixed climbing. The route was immensely exposed but with lots of natural and man placed protection we made good progress over the ridge passing one guided group and down to the Alps worst bottle neck in peak season. A 50cm wide snow bridge which you have to down climb to and then climb up out of for about 10m up to the summit. We crossed with relative ease and made the final ascent up to the ridge.

A stunning cloud inversion was waiting for us and almost clear skies above made for some extremely dramatic photographic moments. We worked out that we were the 3 group up to the summit that day and after the obligatory poses and group shots we headed back down to the bottleneck before it got too busy. By this time the queues were building and with ascending groups having right of way we sat to one side and let the guides haul up a few of their groups and lightly assisting the more able others in their groups. We eventually found a slot and made a dash for the bridge and got ourselves across and then made our way steadily back down to the axes which although exposed and icy was easier than it had been on the way up.

After recovering our kit and heading back down the snow slopes which had melted fast and were now more slush over loose scree in places, we had time to reflect on the route and although not down safely yet we felt happy we could repeat the route in good conditions without the assistance of a guide. We enjoyed a few more poses and photos and shared a few laughs on the way down to the hut to collect the rest of our equipment.

We made it back by 9am and headed down the via ferrata towards the glacier. This path was well in the shade and icy so we took our time and made it down to the glacier, crossed back and headed to the studdlhutte to recover our banished equipment.
We had planned on going round to another glacier field to practice a few rescues and some rope work on our own but we were tired and with things to do the next few days and a long drive we decided to leave on a high and head down the 2 hours back to the van. A straightforward descent, some lunch and a quick snooze in the van saw us heading back to our waterfall sleeping spot and reflecting on a fantastic couple of days.

Hungry in Hungary

So onto Hungary. We had been looking forward to the bull’s blood wine and a spa retreat of some sort in Budapest. All of our research had warned us that it was not an adrenaline junkies paradise of a country so we were looking for a slower paced week of exploring. We started off in a town called Eger known for it famous horseshoe street of wine tasting cellars.

We found a campsite to base ourselves, spent the afternoon wandering the town centre getting a feel for the place. The night time is really when Eger becomes unique! Within walking distance we strolled down into a hub of activity, people sitting happily at tables drinking wine bought directly from the cellars and young folk drinking out of plastic bottles some wine costing 50p a litre. In the middle of this horse shoe shaped street is situated a park where people happily sat drinking their wine out of plastic bottles while BBQ-ing their dinner, listening to friends playing guitars only lit up by the flicker of small fires. A real buzz. We set to tasting some wines and found ourselves getting swept up in the moment, a group of happily drunk Hungarians dancing to their local music whoop whooping to folk songs as a small band played beside them. Everyone was enjoying themselves.

The next day we decided we’d had enough driving and stayed on (not just for the wine). Next to the campsite was a 4 star hotel which allowed the campers to pay and use the pools throughout the day. So armed with books, towels and sunscreen we relaxed ourselves in the sunshine cooling off regularly in the water. As night arrived we set out for a nice dinner in the wine street, this time with the knowledge from last nights recky we took our own plastic bottles to be filled with wine and enjoyed trying new wines, and choosing some to take back as presents. Sadly we had to say goodbye to Eger, Budapest was waiting.

Budapest was a city Lee had always wanted to see, and we were excited by the draw card of the local thermal spas and being spoilt with a hotel stay. What I hadn’t realised before was that Budapest was actually Buda and Pest, 2 cities separated by the river. We checked into a campsite at the base of the hills slightly out of town but serviced well by a bus. We had an afternoon in the city, most things were closed but it made for a nice stroll around soaking up the beautiful architecture of the buildings in relative solitude and allowed us to find a hotel for the following night. We’d managed to save some of our budget for this one splurge. Excitedly I found an ice cream shop that made the scoops into petals of a flower, a beautiful creation and even yummier to eat.

The following morning we went for a run, the campsite was situated at the base of hills and running tracks led to the top, past rock (not climbable as it was constantly crumbling) a really good cardio workout to start out the day. A bus ride and a few tram rides saw us find the famous indoor markets. Finally a market which had local produce, fruit, veg, meat and cheese downstairs and local crafts and tack upstairs. We thought we’d have found more like this on our travels but this really was the first. A few presents bought and we decided on our Paprika. Paprika is famous in Hungary as the traditional spice so we couldn’t leave without some of the hot stuff. A walk up to the top of castle hill, we happened to be in time for the change of guard and just generally wandered before it was time to check into the hotel.

We stayed on Margaret Island in the centre of an island that separates Buda from Pest. We decided on our hotel as it is the first spa resort in Budapest Margaret Danubius Resort, hence the oldest and well established. Luxury awaited us in the form of a king bed, lush big bathroom and balcony overlooking the park. You have to remember for the last 2 ½ months we have happily slept in our small van in a ¾ width bed so all this was supreme luxury for us. We had booked 2 Thai massages to help us relax further after all our hiking and biking adventures. I (Lisa) had never had a Thai massage before but wanted to try something new, I’m not sure I’d have another one, not quite the sports massage I usually go for, but all part of the experience.

The Thermal spas themselves were fantastic. We went from hot steam rooms, to freezing cold plunge pools then floated through different temperature pools and under the jets of the thermal waters (yes they do smell like rotten eggs but good for you they say). We topped off the night by going for a walk through the park and opening Lee’s Moet and Chandon champagne he’d got from his work when he left. Talk about a night of romance and being spoilt, lovely ☺



Next stop Lake Balaton

We’d read in our guide books that Lake Balaton is a busy tourist destination not only for foreigners but for Hungarians in Summer. Still keen to see Europe’s biggest freshwater lake we headed to what was called the quieter Northern side. Instead of quiet peaceful shores what we were confronted with were hoardes of tourists, cars and campers everywhere. The areas to swim were only accessible if you paid to enter (remember this is a lake and not a beach) but because of the numerous reeds, access was limited to a few certain points. After consulting the TomTom for possible off road free accessible areas to swim we found our selves on a safari. We were driving on 4wd only tracks but thankfully as they were dry Smurfette managed well. All this proved fruitless but a fun little adventure.

In the end we stumbled across a car park beside the lake that had one tent set up. When we enquired about staying overnight he only charged us for the full days parking, though it wasn’t a campsite as such, we could stay overnight with day toilet facilities. Brilliant as it was quite, only 6 other campers staying and other day trippers, plus it was free access to swimming in the lake.

While we sat eating our cooked dinner by the lake, we both noticed snakes heads popping up out of the water. They were intrigued by the swimmers but never got too close, though it did cross my mind they were in there when we were swimming, we in fact were swimming with snakes! Lee went fishing for a few hours but despite a few bites on the line unfortunately didn’t manage to catch anything this time. We had a lovely sunset over the lake. A nice ending to a hot day.

After dark we sneaked off to have a quick shower near the toilet block. What then developed was an awful experience I’m not keen to witness again. We could hear really loud yelling in Hungarian between a man and woman next to the toilet block, then followed by loud crashes like something was thrown (it turned out to be a chair), then into our view we could see them all but physically hitting each other, suddenly on the ground wrestling angrily with each other. There were 3 French guys close by collecting water and we all went over to intervene. It turned out it was the 2 people who ran the paid for toilets during the day, neither spoke English but both were very worked up and drunk. I (Lisa) managed to get the lady to walk away with me, while the guys kept the guy off to the side, the only thing I could get out of her as she was short of breath and lacked English was she had a pacemaker and showed me the scar, I tried to get her to slow her breathing down and she got out her angina spray. It was a really messy situation, in the end as she calmed down she decided to get the bus away as they both normally stayed overnight in a cheap pink beach shelter on 2 air mattresses, even then we had to keep him away so he wouldn’t start up again.