Hiking & Biking in Bavaria!!

This is just a short little entry today to share with you all our recent fun filled weekend adventures of hiking and biking in Bavaria.

Last weekend we were invited by a super fun family from school to go hiking with them. It's funny actually, this family is from Switzerland and they lived in Pleasanton, California the same time we lived there!! We totally could have crossed paths there but never did and here we are now hiking in the German Alps with them...crazy - it really is a small, small world!! Anyway, we met Michele, her husband and their 3 girls in mountain resort town of Garmisch about an hours drive from our home. We were well equipped with sandwiches, snacks, water and Henry's new walkie talkies that he bought with his pocket money. In fact, the walkie talkies were a great way of keeping in touch when we broke into 2 groups so we can highly recommend taking them on your next group hike!! It took us 3 long hours of steep, steep climbing to reach the top of Stepbergalm and it was well worth the sweat and tears (of which there were plenty of both!!). Our view from the top was simply breathtaking - we overlooked Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain (2,962 m). 

First sighting of the hut!! Hooray!! We made it!!

The German Alps have many long distance hiking tracks. Many of the original routes were used by cattle drovers, bandits and the military. Dotted throughout the Alps are huts that offer a warm, hearty meal and a cold beer as a much earned reward after your tiring climb. I believe in some cases the food and drink is delivered by helicopter due to the remote locations of some of these huts. The alpine huts are quite solid buildings that are maintained and staffed by the local alpine associations and some of the huts can accommodate up to 70 people. Most huts are open from May/June through to Sept/Oct. These huts are a wonderful resting spot after hiking these steep, rough tracks and it also means you don't need to pack a lot of food with you so you can treat yourself with a delicious German meal to energize you for the treacherous hike back down. All the kids did fabulously on the hike. The hut was a very welcome site after our challenging 3 hours of hiking in the warm, humid weather and the beer went down way too easily ;-)

It took us 2 hours to get down in the thunder, lightening and heavy rain. A weather change that we were not prepared for at all!! The hiking was steep and long and I couldn't walk for 3 days afterwards ... but I loved every minute of it and would do it all again in a heartbeat - in fact we are already planning an overnight hiking trip where we will stay in one of these huts and then continue climbing the next day. When you all come to visit, you need to do this hike ... here is the link to this hut: http://www.stepberg-alm.de/

From hiking to biking ... 

We had more gorgeous sunny weather this last weekend here in Bavaria and on Sunday we all set off to watch Nick race 20 laps of a 3km course amongst 100 other German racers. Nick's race was fast and furious and fabulous to watch. It makes me want to race bikes too ... until I learned of an awful crash and saw two ambulances arrive on the scene .... I think I'll stick to my recreational riding for now ;-)

One huge difference I noticed from Nick's Californian races are that apparently the German fans don't cheer. However, this Australian family does so we showed them how it's done!!! Polly, Henry and I were THE ONLY people cheering out there. Polly had made a sign for Nick, we were ringing bells, screaming and jumping up and down every time Nick rode by. Nothing and no one was going to stop us cheering!!

The kids and I walked the course during the race and yelled out our support at every possible moment. We got many, many strange looks from the Germans but we are getting used to that in our every day lives so that was no big deal ;-) Henry was cheering in full face paint as he wanted to be the tiger from Kung Fu Panda - I guess face painting, too is very unGerman as he was quite the talk of the race, posing for photos in between cheering for Nick.  Nick did a great job and had a blast ... it was a long day in the sun but loads of fun too. GOOOOOOOOOOO NICK GOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Very happy, sun burned racer post race!!

So much for the 'short little entry' ... haha!! I just have sooooooo much to say about all the fun we are having here!! We really are doing our very best to make the most of this wonderful opportunity of living in Germany and we are enjoying every moment .... while the sun is out at least ;-)

This week we have a long weekend and we are headed to the beaches of Trieste for some rest and relaxation in gorgeous Italia!! Italy, to me, feels like going 'home' ... I love the smiling faces, warmth and yummy food and wine in bella Italia!!

Until next time!!

Ciao!!