 1 Friday 25 June, 2010 Today the sun was shining, I did not need to go to hospital after all and life could not be better. We decided to return to Mittenwald and to ride the Karwendelbahn again and see Karwendel in the sunshine. |
 2 Friday 25 June, 2010 Some of the villages along the way are little bigger than a barn and a few buildings. This is Bäcker. The yellow sign means 50km through the village. |
 3 Friday 25 June, 2010 This time we travelled by the southern shore of the Walchensee. |
 4 Friday 25 June, 2010 The water is not only a beautiful blue-green, but it is also very clear. |
 5 Friday 25 June, 2010 We have not taken a picture of our rubber-band car for a while. The build quality is not very good because there are a couple of pieces of trim falling off |
 6 Friday 25 June, 2010 We ride the Karwendelbahn again but this time it costs us full price of €23 each. |
 7 Friday 25 June, 2010 The walking trail visible on the mountain opposite winds through dense foliage and opens onto two lakes. Claus recommended we visit them; he said sitting by the lake watching the sun set, sipping wine was a sublime experience |
 8 Friday 25 June, 2010 Looking uphill, we still have quite some way to travel on our 10 minute journey. |
 9 Friday 25 June, 2010 The mountain with the snow in it is the caldera of an extinct volcano. |
 10 Friday 25 June, 2010 One of the lakes that Claus told us about, the Lautensee, is becoming visible. |
 11 Friday 25 June, 2010 Now the second lake, the Ferchensee at 1060 metres , comes into view. |
 12 Friday 25 June, 2010 The round building, the Nature information center "Karwendel Alps" is open today, but with it hanging 7 feet over the edge, I decided there was nothing inside that I wanted to see. We were here only five days ago and it was snowing, now the sky is a brilliant dark blue. |
 13 Sunday 20 June, 2010 This amazing scene is Karwendel in the middle of summer. It's actually snowing as we watch. |
 14 Friday 25 June, 2010 t is quite warm and people lounge around in chairs at the Mittenwaldhaus. At the restaurant, the tables are out and people are enjoying morning tea (or whatever the equivalent is) |
 15 Friday 25 June, 2010 We walk through the tunnel for 420 metres and emerge on the other side of the mountain. |
 16 Friday 25 June, 2010 The tunnel was slightly downhill, melting snow was dripping through the roof and it was a little slippery. The Karwendell Range is made of limestone, which is porous, hence the water seepage. |
 17 Friday 25 June, 2010 The sun tends not to shine on the northern side of the alps and some deep snow drifts remain. |
 18 Friday 25 June, 2010 What if the dog jumped up and snatched an eagle out of the air? Valleys filled with dead eagles? |
 19 Friday 25 June, 2010 Nature Reserve. There are no fences or concrete paths, nor are there signs to warn me that standing on the edge of a crumbly precipice, in the wind overlooking jagged rocks below, with no handrail is dangerous. All we had was a sign to indicate that this is a nature park. How refreshing without nanny around. |
 20 Friday 25 June, 2010 Karwendel is a mountain range and not a single peak. Karwendel is the part of the Alps between the Isar in Germany, and the Inn river and the Achensee in Austria. |
 21 Friday 25 June, 2010 The Karwendel is the largest range of the Northern Limestone Alps. Four mountain chains stretch from west to east , there are many fringe ranges and an extensive promontory in the north. |
 22 Friday 25 June, 2010 There are 125 peaks above 2000m in the Karwendel. |
 23 Friday 25 June, 2010 Hiking through the Karwendel is a very popular summer activity. The trails are all marked and signposted with a degree of difficulty. |
 24 Friday 25 June, 2010 Lake Walchensee is just visible in the distance, twenty or more kilometres away. |
 25 Friday 25 June, 2010 In the distance are the villages of Krün and Wallgau with the River Isar flowing past the two towns. The firing range for the Federal Forces (Bundeswehr) is adjacent to the peak in the exact centre of the picture. |
 26 Friday 25 June, 2010 We walk back up through the tunnel to the Karwendelbahn station and then climb a trail marked as the easiest degree of difficulty. |
 27 Friday 25 June, 2010 Part way up we look back at the Karwendelbahn complex. |
 28 Friday 25 June, 2010 I reach the top of this part of the climb. This is where we get the fantastic views of the mountains to the south in Austria. |
 29 Friday 25 June, 2010 From this viewing spot, we can see the remains of the uplifting that started about 100 Mya. The snow-covered peak is called Östliche Karwendelspitze at 2537 metres on the border between Bavaria and Tyrol. |
 30 Friday 25 June, 2010 Karwendel is part of the Northern Limestone Alps located in the alpine states of Austria and Germany. |
 31 Friday 25 June, 2010 If viewed on a west-east axis, the Northern Limestone Alps extend from the Rhine valley in the west extending along the border between Germany and Austria through Salzburg ending at the city-limits of Vienna in the east. |
 32 Friday 25 June, 2010 The formation of the Alpine landscape as it is today is a recent development – it is only about two million years old. During that time five known ice ages have remodelled the region. |
 33 Friday 25 June, 2010 The easy climb is worth it for the views both north and south. The telescope building looks decidedly precarious. |
 34 Friday 25 June, 2010 There is still a way to go to reach this peak which rates as the second degree of difficulty. My aerobic conditioning was fine but my ankle hurt like crazy so unfortunately I was unable to continue to the top. |
 35 Friday 25 June, 2010 The peak is the second tallest in this area. I notice that there are no safety messages plastered all over the place stating the obvious. |
 36 Friday 25 June, 2010 Beautiful, very small plants cling to life in the smallest of crevises. |
 37 Friday 25 June, 2010 This picture is not all that interesting except that it is blurry because the lens started to mist over in the cold. The air temperature is very cold but you feel much warmer because of the sunshine. |
 38 Friday 25 June, 2010 Jenni sits in Austria while I take the photograph standing in Germany. |
 39 Friday 25 June, 2010 Zugspitze, Germany tallest peak is visible in the background, just to the right of the peak in the foreground. |
 40 Friday 25 June, 2010 In places like this, photographs cannot do justice to the vista and it takes a movie to show it at its best. |
 41 Friday 25 June, 2010 The border between Austria and Germany - two free countries. No visas, no bums with badges and guns, no fingerprinting here. |
 42 Friday 25 June, 2010 The small alpine flowers are at their best. |
 43 Friday 25 June, 2010 Zugspitze (Zug = Up-draught, Spitze = peak) in the background is 2962 metres above sea level. We go here in three days time. |
 44 Friday 25 June, 2010 A green valley nestles between the rocky outcrops. |
 45 Friday 25 June, 2010 This is the Westliche Karwendelspitze (Western Karwendel top) at 2385 metres. It was the highest degree of difficulty. The young person (no doubt) in this picture must have amazing views and not suffer from acrophobia. |
 46 Friday 25 June, 2010 Our feet are killing us, plus my ankle is screaming, so we decide to have some lunch and go back home and rest. |
 47 Friday 25 June, 2010 We sat at a table and ordered lunch. I told the waiter that I would like sausage of some kind. He pointed to three options on the menu so I chose the top one. I was a bit surprised when it came out and it was white and served in a bowl of hot water. |
 48 Friday 25 June, 2010 The beautiful town of Mittenwald. The two lakes that Claus told us about are visible in this picture at the top left, the Lautersee and the Ferchensee. |
 49 Friday 25 June, 2010 Curiously, because of the way the border follows the peaks of the alps, the caldera of the ancient volcano to the left is in Austria and Germany is the other side of it to the north. |
 50 Friday 25 June, 2010 Bloody hell, but this is a beautiful part of the world. To me it is like Southern Utah: they are places I could visit again and again and never tire of them. |
 51 Friday 25 June, 2010 With our feet so incredibly sore, we catch the Karwendelbahn back down fully intending to go straight home. But we never made it. Next stop: Eng Austria - Unbelievable |
