As we were back early today, we’re making use of our balcony.

We are in bright sunshine, but it’s also raining…

We had another ‘free’ day today, and decided to get the train to Innsbruck. It was a lovely journey through the mountains, with excellent views of the valley as we descended into Innsbruck.

Innsbruck itself is a nice town, and being Saturday, fairly quiet. It also has a nice park.

After a salad for lunch (with some more beer…), we explored the rest of the centre, including the cathedral.

Then back on the train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

Today was castles day. We went on a coach through Austria and back into Germany to Schwangau (literally ‘Swan Town’).
The forecast was for rain all day, but it was fine and sunny instead!
In the morning, we had a tour of Hohenschwangau, the older castle.

Very interesting – an 1800’s castle made look medieval…
Then time for some German sausages and beer for lunch.

In the afternoon, we climbed up the hill to the other castle, Neuschwanstein.

This wasn’t as interesting, and our guide wasn’t a patch on the one this morning.
Then back on the coach, arriving just in time for thunder, lighting and heavy rain!

Today was a visit to “The highest mountain in Germany”, the Zugspitze (2962m high).

We walked to the local station and got the rack railway train.

The train started by going gently up the valley, through alpine fields, then the rack was engaged, and it started climbing in earnest, then into a very long tunnel, eventually stopping by a glacier near the top.

A cable car took us to the summit, where the views were spectacular. Not too cold (6.5C) and a light wind.

We then walked over the border into Austria, with even better views

All too soon, it was time to take another cable car down the side of the mountain to Eibsee.

This is the view from the bottom looking back up

We then walked through lovely woodland around Eibsee Lake, then caught the train back to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

We were really lucky with the weather, as it got increasingly cloudy as the afternoon progressed. A good day.

We caught the train to Munich today. This is the group at Garmisch-Partenkirchen station.

On arrival, we had to use the S-Bahn to get to the centre – an interesting experience with 36 people..
We then watched the carillon in the main square.

The figures half way up the tower moved with the bells. All rather quaint!

We then had a walking tour around the centre, led by an excellent guide with a clear voice – this makes so much difference.

We then found a lovely cafe for a salad and a few beers.

We then explored part of the English Garden, which is an enormous (and quiet) park.

Then back to the station for our train home.

A lovely day, and we were lucky with the weather.

We caught a bus to the Olympic Ski jump Stadium after lunch

Then walked up to the gorge in the rain…
Once there, we followed the raging river upwards.

We then followed a steep path up the hill to a cafe, where we are having tea, beer and cake (in various combinations).

The view from our balcony last night.  We were able to sit outside in the rain and not get wet.

We have a ‘free’ day today, so we’ve spent the morning exploring Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It’s pleasantly warm, and more importantly, not raining!

We also found a  couple of geocaches – more challenging when the description is in German.

There is an interesting park in the town, complete with concert area and herb garden.

And a small waterwheel.

Then back to the hotel

We had a very nice dinner in the hotel last night, followed by a stroll around the older part of the town.
Luckily, we’d thought to borrow an umbrella from the hotel…
It’s a nice morning now though (albeit with some rain forecast for later} and its lovely to be on our balcony looking at the mountain peaks over the rooftops.

It was a very early start in Cologne this morning, but we got to the station and got on our train to Munich without incident.

The route from Cologne took us down the Rhein Valley – a route we’d done before. Unfortunately, there was a problem further down the line, and after a wait at Koblenz, our train took a different route down the other side of the Rhein.
This gave us an opportunity to literally see the other side of the Valley.

Eventually, we reached Munich and transferred to a local train for the final part of the trip. After a while, more and more mountains and lakes came into view.

And not long after, we reached Garmisch-Partenkirchen,were it was a short walk to our hotel.
This is the view from our balcony:

Time for a beer!