Monday 28 July: Alpspitz and Edelsberg

(Written on Monday 28th – delayed posting due to lack of internet)

For the last week we have had internet access and every night I have Googled “Weather Fussen”. Ignoring the forecast which kept telling me that it was either 3 degrees and snowing or 2 degrees and foggy, I would look at four or five different forecasts and pick the most favourable. That has generally given a fair representation of the reality of the weather.

Last night all five forecasts said it was going to rain today, so it was a surprise to wake up and find that there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We quickly removed ourselves 20 kilometres up the road to Nesselwang where, after settling Colin onto the Stellplatz, we made haste whilst the sun shone, in the (upwards) direction of Alpspitz.

It turned out not just to be a sunny day but a very warm one too. We sweated our way up the hill, knowing when we were nearly at the top by the sudden presence of people who weren’t glowing – they had caught the cable car up.

Having enjoyed our summits in solitude this last week, Alpspitz was a shock to the system. Being so accessible from the cable car, it was the destination of the majority and there were queues of people heading up there.

Our second summit of Edelsberg wasn’t on our agenda until I saw how close it was, and how much quieter it looked. It was quieter, although these things are relative. By my definition, it was still a busy top, but we found space on one of the flat-topped logs up there and enjoyed an early lunch.

Mick found a friend on our way up Edelsberg

Our way down took us, on nice (and almost deserted) woodland paths, past the church of Maria Trost, thence past (in reverse order) the thirteen shrines which lead up to the church.

With hindsight, the far better way to have done this outing would have been in reverse order and with greater assistance from gravity. If I was to do it over, I would walk up past the shrines and the church, then go up to the summits, before heading down to the start of the 1.2km zip-wire. About a minute later, from the end of the zip-wire it would then be a short walk (down our ascent route) to the top of the Sommerrodelbahn (summer bobsleigh track), where a ride on that would have taken us down to within a three minute walk of Colin.

As we hadn’t appreciated the length and speed of this Rodelbahn track until we walked up past it and as we hadn’t known of the existence of the zip-wire, we did the entire outing on foot. However, we did then head back up for a go on the Rodelbahn (great fun – much better than the one in Schwangau, although I do reckon you really need at least two goes, so that the second time you’ve got a better idea of the course and can go faster). If we find ourselves in Nesselwang again in the future, I’ll make a point of doing the zip-wire.

All that was then left to fit into our day was a trip to the bakery. There I rued the fact that we hadn’t come to Nesselwang a few days ago. There aren’t as many interesting-looking walks around here, but one day just isn’t enough when faced with such a counter full of excellent cakes.

It was bigger than that; I’d already cut a slice off to share with Mick.