| Drive-Cycle-Hiking
Through The Alps |
| Summer
Tour |
| By Jorg Unger |
| December
2005
When your
days at work or on weekends are very scheduled, you may either tend
to plan your vacation, too, or spend these days without any detailed arrangements.
Last summer, we preferred the latter method and just took a map of the
Alps and marked some places, valleys and mountains which seemed to be of
interest. Then I joined up the marks and ready was our route through the
German-speaking regions of the Alps.
To be independent
of any bookings, places, times - and of course, not to overdraw our
vacation budget - we put our mountain bikes, rucksacks, and some camping
equipment into our van and drove to Füssen at the edge of Allgäu,
Bavaria. |
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| For a fee
of ten Euro, we stayed the night on the caravan campsite outside of town.
The following morning, we started our first trip and cycled through the
narrow streets of Füssen. Archaeological excavations in 1955 revealed
that the place originated from a Roman fortress that had been built there
to protect the trade route to the north of the Roman Empire. Over the centuries
the fortress had become a castle and in the late 13th century, the first
town wall surrounded the small settlement as well as the castle that stood
- still unfinished - on a hill near the banks of the river Lech.
When the
bishopric of Augsburg acquired the place in 1322, the castle was completed
to a summer residence for the bishop. Between 1490 and 1504, it was extended
into an imposing Burgschloss (fortified castle) and received its
present shape, including the outer fortifications. The illusionist paintings
that decorate the facades of the castle are unique among German late Gothic
architecture and make the buildings very intriguing.
We cycled
through the old town of Füssen, crossed the river Lech, rode along
the lakes Forggensee and Alpsee, and on up the hill to the royal castles
of Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein. |
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| As we weren’t
interested in seeing the luxury of Ludwig II, King of Bavaria in the
19th century, and didn’t want to join the crowd of visitors into the castles,
we followed a trail up to the mountains. We passed gurgling creeks and
luscious green pastures, dotted with alpine plants, blooming in white,
yellow, red, and blue. Behind a mountain hut, the trail crossed the Austrian
border, and leaving the German peaks behind us, we cycled downhill to lake
Plansee. There we enjoyed the view of the lake and the mountain ranges,
while we had a rest and some ice cream before continuing our round trip
via Reutte back to Füssen.
The second
day, we decided to have a trip to Ehrwald in Austria, where we took
the funicular to Mount Zugspitze, which is with an altitude of 9,721 feet
the highest mountain of Germany. The cross on the summit is on German territory
but you can get up to the top from both the German and Austrian side. |
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Offshore
Resources Gallery
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| But if
you want to save some fare, it’s advisable to take the funicular in Ehrwald.
As the day was clear and sunny, we had a wonderful view of Garmisch-Partenkirchen
and the nearby mountain lake Eibsee in Germany, and Mount Daniel and Ehrwald
in Austria..
After that
short detour, we put the bikes in our van again and broke off to follow
the course of river Lech upstream through west Tyrol. The road led
us across the pass Hochtannbergpass down into the valley of Walsertal.
Shortly before dusk, we arrived in Feldkirch, where we intended to stop
on the campsite. Well, European campsites aren’t as spacious as American
ones and the site in Feldkirch was very crowded right in the middle of
summer but it offered the advantage of being located next to a public swimming
pool. And the fee of 18 Euro for two nights was fairly reasonable. Leaving
the van there in the morning, we cycled to Vaduz, the capital of the small
principality of Liechtenstein, which comprises about 62 square miles and
lies between Austria and Switzerland.
We rode
along grain fields and vineyards, passed high-technology factories,
banks, and modern business buildings, and rode on the levee of the river
Rhine until Balzers, a small and picturesque village in the most southern
corner of this modern principality. |
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| We continued
our tour and drove via Chur to visit the winter sports town of Davos,
which lies in an altitude of 5,111 feet and whose funiculars invite you
to explore the peaks right and left of the alpine road. After a few miles,
we crossed Flüela and Ofen Pass, and drove up the narrow, winding
road to Umbrail Pass at the border to South Tyrol. This is the most northern
district of Italy, where still two thirds of the population speak German
today. Then we arrived to the crest of Stilfser Joch, where many Italian,
Austrian and Swiss soldiers lost their life in the mountain ranges during
the battles in the first world war for the important supply routes across
the passes. After that war, the region of South Tyrol went to Italy, according
to the peace treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye in 1919. From the pass of
Stilfser Joch, the road winds with 48 bends from an altitude of 9,045 feet
down to 3,020 feet into the valley of the river Etsch. But watch out for
the racing cyclists who practice there as soon as the road is free of snow
and ice. |
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Offshore
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| Then we
arrived the small place of Glurns, which is one of the smallest towns
south of the Alps and still completely surrounded by a medieval town wall
with three gates. The numerous cafes and restaurants that surround the
picturesque market are great places to have a pizza or a traditional pasta
dish. In the late evening, we parked the car at lake Rechensee, tucked
away from nosy people and hidden between some bushes.
After having
a swim, we broke off early in the morning and went to the small place of
Schluderns for breakfast. Then we paid a short visit to Castle Churburg
before we followed the roads, lined by apple orchards, to Meran and Bozen,
the capital of South Tyrol. After having a walk through this ancient town
and buying some fresh food, we drove on through the chalk mountains of
the Dolomites. On both sides of this fascinating alpine road, snow-covered
peaks and the glaciers of the Marmolada ranges rose into the sky. We stopped
in Cortina d’ Ampezzo, where you shouldn’t miss the view from Belvedere
Pocol upon the Cortina valley at sundown.
It was late
when we arrived the campsite in Misurina, where we intended to see the
peaks of Tre Cime (three pinnacles). Though you can take the toll road
to get to these well-known mountains, we preferred getting up shortly after
sunrise to follow the hiking trails and former military footpaths to reach
the base of peaks before noon. Also in these mountain ranges, we noticed
several look-outs and army shelters of the first world war in the rocks.
Sometimes steel ropes helped us in making our way over difficult passages
and scrambling up the trail to the Auronzo hut to take a rest. On our way
back, we passed lake Antorno, where we had a great view back to the three
pinnacles. After having some fried sausages from the camping stove, we
used the hour before sundown to cycle around the lake of Misurina, where
several hotels compete with each other for the more well-to-do tourists.
To have
a change from cycling, scrambling and hiking, we decided to cross the
border to Austria again and pay a visit to Castle Bruck in Lienz – which
is not to confuse with Linz at the river Danube. The medieval castle Bruck
houses the local museum and a gallery with the paintings of Albin Egger-Lienz
today. Many wooden staircases led us to the top of the castle tower, where
we had a nice look upon this town where the rivers Isel and Drau meet.
We went on to the campsite in the valley of the river Möll to spend
a few days in the mountain ranges of Mount Grossglockner, which has an
altitude of 12,460 feet, the highest mountain in Austria.
One morning
after a heavy thunderstorm at night, the sky cleared up at dawn and the
air was clear and crisp. So we decided to break off by van so to have
the whole day in the mountains. Driving through the small place of Heiligenblut,
we could already make out the peak of Grossglockner, standing out against
a blue and sunny sky. As the summit is usually shrouded with clouds, it
was the most appropriate time to visit the Pasterze glacier in front of
the mountain range. The toll road, which begins shortly behind Heiligenblut,
led us into the largest national park of Europe, whose existence goes back
to the initiative of Albert Wirth, a rich lumber tycoon from Villach. He
was the first visitor from Austria to the national parks of Yellowstone
and Yosemite. After having met John Muir there in 1899, Albert Wirth returned
to Austria as an enthusiastic environmentalist, filled with the idea to
create a protected area in his native country, too. 19 years later, he
took his chance and bought 15.8 square miles around the eastern slopes
of Mount Grossglockner, including the Pasterze glacier. He gave this land
to the Austrian Alps Association on the condition that the plot was to
be preserved as a national park forever. In the early 1980s and in 1991,
the territory was extended and today the national park, called Hohe Tauern,
comprises a total area of 695 square miles, of which 70 square miles are
covered with perpetual ice.
We went
up the road to the visitors center to park the van and put on our hiking
boots again. Soon we followed the trail along the glacier rim. Small
creeks run over ground and polished rocks and down the slopes into a reservoir
before the waters become the river Möll. The temperature rose to a
pleasant 65°F when we crossed a large snow field that stretched between
us and the Oberwalder hut at an altitude of 9,754 feet. Now and then, a
butterfly fluttered by, maybe wondering about so much snow right in the
middle of July. Sometimes we could discern a chamois on the horizon or
hear the warning whistle of a marmot.
Then we
drove on along the Grossglockner High Alpine Road and reached its highest
point at 8,212 feet in front of the Hochtor tunnel, where Celts and
Romans had already crossed the crest of mountains. After a few miles, we
arrived at the Edelweiss-Spitze, a peak of 8,435 feet, where we had a spectacular
panorama view of several peaks that rose up to over 9,500 feet. The paved
and narrow winding road to the top turned out to be a true challenge for
the driver.
After staying
the night on the campsite in Zell am See, the skiing resort at the foot
of Schmittenhöhe, we returned to Germany. And before we finally
went home, we allowed ourselves a rest at Lake Hintersee near Berchtesgaden,
filled with many new impressions of the Alps and looking forward to the
day we can take another route through these fascinating mountains.
The following
are the previous articles Jorg wrote for the magazine:
To contact Jorg
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