Deciding on travel destinations

Salzburg: Typical Europe

After our day trip to Zugspitze and the Baltic trip, we still had time before the GSoC Mentor Summit. We were contemplating Innsbruck and Salzburg. But given the activities in Innsbruck seem similar to Zugspitze, we decided to go with Salzburg. It was a pleasant surprise to see tourists in large amounts in autumn. A contrast to what we witnessed in the Baltic states. Austria is indeed touristic. Anyway, this Austrian town was charming in its true European form. So it surely is not a disappointment to anyone. I still haven't been to Vienna, although I have been to Austria two times by now. Maybe I will visit Austria again in the future again anyway, including Vienna and Innsbruck.

P.S: I found these live cams quite useful.

Zugspitze by public transport

Crossing the border by foot, to Austria ;)

Zugspitze is the tallest mountain summit in Germany. It shares the border with Austria. Since Austria has taller peaks, Zugspitze has more interest from the German side, dubbed as the Top of Germany. This time we visited Zugspitze from Munich, using public transport. It was quite an easy trip, thanks to this blog post. At 2,962 meters, Zugspitze is also the highest elevation I have been in my entire life. Sri Lanka's tallest peak Pidurutalagala is 2,524 m. My other summits, Vall de Nuria, Spain (2013) is at 2,252 m and peaks of Malbun, Liechtenstein (2016) slightly less than 2,000 m. I will wait to see when I will overtake my current highest elevation in the future.

We managed to catch only the 10:32 train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. We ended up spending almost an hour buying the ticket from the DB Travel Center (Reisezentrum) in the Hauptbahnhof (Hbh, the central train station). We take a number from the slot machine and wait for our number to come. That, combined with the metro lines renovation in Munich, ruined our plan to catch the 9:32 train. We bought the 69 Euro combo-ticket. 

The summit

We had 2 tickets each. One is a return ticket from Munich Hbf to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the DB train, and the other one is a return ticket from Garmisch-Partenkirchen to Zugspitze including the cogwheel train and cable cars. Once we reached Garmisch-Partenkirchen, we follow the sign that marks Zugspitzebahn underground. We had to change the second ticket to a proper ticket from Zugspitzebahn. From there, we take a train to Zugspitzeplatz, the Zugspitze glacier. Of course, it was not a single train. We had to switch trains somewhere in the middle. But it was smooth and straight-forward. Nothing complicated. From there, it was a quick cable car (Gletscherbahn) ride to the summit. From the summit, you can walk to the Austrian side of the summit, have some meals in the German or Austrian side.

Even in these autumn days, Zugspitze had the ice on the glacier and the summit. I believe this must be permafrost that never melts. The glacier was so bright and watching them made me lose eyesight for a few seconds! The snow-capped mountains were reflecting the sunlight from all the angles, making it brighter than directly staring at the sun. On our way back, we take the big cable car (Seilbahn Zugspitze) to Eibsee, a middle train station on the Zugspitzebahn railway line. We see a beautiful lake there. Then, we continue to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the cogwheel train. Then, it was the same train back to Munich. 

Overall, it was a pleasant journey in early Autumn (Oct 13th). It had snow in the glacier and the summit of the mountain. But it was warm enough. A simple jacket would be sufficient. If you like to do a snow fight, you would need a pair of water-proof gloves.

End the year in walks!

Cloudy Feldkirch!

We completed the year with hikes in 3 cities/towns: i) Zurich, Switzerland, ii) Feldkirch, Austria, and iii) Vaduz, Liechtenstein. A hike in the Feldkirch is a good one, from the city center to the wild park! Give it a try even if you are not into visiting wild animals in parks or zoological gardens.