Eifel eyeful

27-10-12

View from top of the tower

After following the Rhine for a while I headed off north west and up into the High Eifel mountains and stopped for the night on a patch of land off the road. In the morning I discovered that it had been snowing and it was so cold that the door was frozen shut. To warm up I drove a few kilometres to the car park at the foot of Hohe Acht (747m P536) before attempting to open the door and have some breakfast.







Hohe Acht is the highest point in the Eifel mountains and is an old volcano with a basalt summit. I made my way through the snow to that summit on which there is the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm, a tower built in 1908 to celebrate the Kaiser's silver wedding. If you have been following this blog carefully enough you will realise that this Kaiser has been mentioned at least a couple of times before. Because of the breeze, it was quite cold at the top of his Eifel tower.

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm

Hohe Acht summit

Rainy Rhein

26-10-12

River Rhine from Loreley rock

From Gr. Feldberg I headed for the Rhein/Rhine and met it at its narrowest point at the Loreley rock (194m) on the eastern bank near St. Goarshausen. And would you believe it, is part of yet another UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Upper Middle Rhine Valley.

To make it a proper walk (between showers) I walked down to the Rhine and found one of the Loreley statues then came back up to the summit to find the other one.

Loreley siren 1

Loreley siren 2

Misty mountain

26-10-12

I arrived at the top carpark of Großer Feldberg in the dark and in a thick pea-souper mist, parked up and stayed the night. In the morning there was slightly less mist but more rain.

Großer Feldberg is the highest mountain (879.5m P666, a Major) in the Taunus mountains and there is a great big transmitter mast. However, there is room for a cross and a bus-stop. Bet not many Majors have their own bus-stop on the top.

Royal chair - Königstuhl

25-10-12

Rubbish looking king

According to Wikipedia:

"The Königstuhl (German pronunciation: [ˈkøːnɪçˌʃtuːl]), translated "Kings seat", is a 567 metre high [P296] hill in the Odenwald Mountains and in the city of Heidelberg, in the German state of Baden-Württemberg. The Königstuhl summit allows visitors a spectacular view of the city of Heidelberg and the River Neckar as well as the Rhine Valley. On days with good conditions the view extends to the Pfaelzerwald (Palatinate Forest), which is roughly 40–50 km away." 

Obviously, I have chosen a day when conditions are not good.

I parked up and headed off down this path:

And came to this sign.

Obviously, the wrong way, then.

But I am sure the highest ground is past this sign.

I wandered around the woods and made an arbritrary choice for what could be the top.

My arbritrary choice

Actually, the highest ground was probably inside the fence and is probably not natural either. If you look closely you will see there are two fences - the outer fence could be climbed relatively easily, however the inner one has some vicious looking razor wire coiled round the top. It wasn't until after I took the picture that I realised the sign said 'no photography'. I had visions of a repeat experience as to what happened to me at Karlskrona naval docks.

Handy seat

Alien space ship

Mooching in München

24-10-12

Rathaus glockenspiel

Well, what I did was to head north and found that the sea of mist was actually low cloud once I left the Alps.
Bavaria/Bayern, north of the Alps, does not have an altitude problem (Munich is around 500 metres above sea level and hence, chilly) it just lacks kurtosis.
Munich was alright - I wandered around the centre a bit, saw the Glockenspiel in action in the Rathaus in Marienplatz, mooched around the Residenz  and visited the Neue Pinakothek art gallery.
I even found a good vegetarian restaurant, the Prinz Myshkin - no idea what the idiot connection was. But, I was missing those hills.

Looks like the copper thieves don't steal Henry Moore sculptures in Munich

One of those hills - Koch's Der Schmadribachfall

Not the right way home

22-10-12

Gr Traithen fromUrsprungtal

So, with my commitment to head north and eventually home, what did I do? I drove east to Ursprungtal near Bayrischzell. Most people tackle Grosser Traithen (1852m P1007 – a Major) from the eastern side from Gasthaus Rosengasse. However I did not want to drive all that way. 

 

Gr Traithen from Fellalm

So I set off from the Stockerhutte car park (820m) on track 658 which winds its way through the autumnal coloured forest to an alp at Fellalm. At that point it meets track 652 which climbs through the dwarf pines to the summit. With another great view of the Wilder Kaiser – and I could see that the rest of Bavaria to the north was covered by an extensive blanket of low cloud. And that later that day I knew I would be driving under that cloud – oh bother! My internal dialogue, as I watched the leaves fall off the trees and headed back down to the van, was along the lines of the old Clash song. What  should I do?

Bavarian coastline!

View of Fellalm

Rock dog with lipstick?

Wilder Kaiser, again

Willow leaved Gentian, again

Welcome to Bavaria

Wilder Kaiser from Rotwand

21-10-12

The weather was so good. Why not just stay in the Tyrol? I was so tempted. But I knew I had to head north and better to do it at a leisurely pace in fine weather. So, I crossed the German border near Kiefersfelden by the river Inn and headed into the more gentle Bavarian Alps.

As it was still very sunny and a weekend the roadside huttes and car parks were very busy. And I had some difficulty finding anywhere to park near the lake Spitzingsee. I started from the Stumpflingbahn ski-lift car park on a traffic free but people busy tarmac road. There weren’t many people going up, but a lot coming down. At a junction, not having a map, I took the gamble that the Hermann-Klebber Weg would lead me to the summit of Rotwand (1884m P741 – a Major) – which in English means red wall. This unpaved road traversed back and forth through the forest before breaking out onto the alp meadow below the decidedly non-red wall of Rotwand. 

Not red wall

There was a very well worn track to the summit. 

Ignoring the cross, I admired the view south the Austrian Tyrol and north to the lowlands of Bavaria. Hey look , there’s the Wilder Kaiser.

Trig point

There was a rougher track that traversed below the wall that met a maintained path heading north. I took another gamble that this might take me back to the junction by an alternative route. Where it did take me was to a hut and a ski lift that was operating. That explained the crowds. Not for me though – there were a few hours of daylight left, the weather was great, there was a big queue, it would cost money and all I had to do was walk downhill, if I could find a way. 

Below and, sort of, in the right direction I could see another hut, the Obere Maxlrainer Alm -  but there were no signs to it. I made my way down a rough track and found that it was open and had a welcome glass of pop. No evidence of a path, though. Isn’t it odd how quickly you can become Europeanised? In GB in a similar situation I would just simply walk downhill and thrash my way through the pine forest in the hope of picking up a forest road or firebreak. I was so busy berating myself for becoming so trail dependent to notice that there was a skilift – surely one end of the skilift will have an access road going to it. So down I went and yes, there was a track and this eventually took me back to the unpaved road I had started on.

Grosser Traithen (on left) from Rotwand