We awoke to a chilly cloudy morning and after a lazy breakfast we started to plan out our itinerary for the remainder of this year’s odyssey. Unfortunately, we have only 20 days left before we have to return and we have to prioritize what we want to see and do. Peggy really wants a short cruise along the Rhine. (Everyone knows I’m not the cruise type – I had mine – but a day cruise I can handle.) So looking for a route that would take us where we wanted to go, we opted for Frankfurt as our next stop after Schliersee.
After sketching out an itinerary for the last 20 days, the sun peeked its nose out through the clouds and we decided to take a trip up to Spitzingsee, a small alpine lake town about 10 km south of Schliersee.
Skiing is very popular up there and there are a number of ski lifts that operate all year long. We opted for the Stumpflingbahn ski lift because it takes us to the crest of the mountain about 1500 meters (5000 ft.) high and you can see the valleys on both sides and other mountain peaks in the distance from the top. The gondola ride was fun and the scenery at the top was magnificent. By the time we reached the top, the sun was out and there was lots of blue sky.
At the top of the mountain there is a small restaurant that serves wonderful food. The mountain air really whets your appetite and we pigged out on potato soup and barbecued spare ribs (and, of course, beer). There is a service road leading up to the top that winds back and forth across the lift line, so I chose to work off my lunch/dinner by walking down the 2 mile road to the bottom of the lift. Peggy chose to ride the gondola back down, but worried that I would get lost or break a leg or something terrible. Alas, no such luck. It was an exhilarating walk down the road with parts reaching a 25% grade. The loose gravel made it a little tricky in parts, but otherwise very manageable. Along the was a group of people came roaring down the road in small 3 wheeled carts. That looked like a lot of fun, but I wasn’t going back up to the top just for a joy ride back down. The descent was about 1500 feet at the end of which my calves were complaining.
I found Peggy waiting for me in our car at the bottom of the lift. She had the heater running full bore thinking I would be cold. Actually, I had worked up a sweat coming down the road so the first thing I did was turn off the heater. After that, we took off for Schliersee and “home”. Peggy later went to a lodge sponsored rendezvous with pizza and bowling and I decided to stay and catch up with the blog that I had ignored for the past four days.
So here we are at the end of another wonderful and fun day. Not sure what’s on tap for tomorrow – we’ll have to wait until then to find out. Obviously, the weather will have some impact on our outings. In the mean time, guten nacht from Schliersee.