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I like it a lot, but I don't think I'll live here. Let me justify that after I go through Garmisch-Patenkirchen.
G-P is gearing up for the 2012 ski jump championships, and is a major skiing destination for Germany - there's a ridge of five or six peaks set up as a single resort, and after hiking through a lot of it I can see why. The two highest peaks, the Zugspitze and the Alpspitze, get above the tree line; there is a continuous two thousand meters of ski-way from the top to the bottom, through various grades and so on.
As for hiking - I nearly took the 'hell climb' up the Zugspitze, which would have been suicide; I ended up climbing up a narrow ravine on a winding stair, up to about 2000 meters, and taking a wicked cable car down. Everything I said about the hiking near Sonthofen applies to G-P, only replace Raspberries with Strawberries. I ended up taking one day off because my legs felt like they were made of jelly, but I still wandered about on flat ground.
The geography and geology of this region is really weird; the mountains pick up pretty sharply out of flat ground - there are no foothills to speak of. I got to the top of the ridge and could look about me for a while, and it's pretty unique to this valley - the rest of the mountains are pretty much what you would expect: narrow valleys, steep cliffs, etc. Great views from the top, by the way; the south side of the mountain was clear for miles (I could see into Austria!) but the north side was covered by pea soup - there's a very scary sensation of a yawning void beside you, especially if you're on one of the narrower trails. You can also feel the massiveness and age of these mountains - once you get out of the tree-line you can almost see how the mountains have been thrust upwards, by the patterns on the bare rock.
The food is good; there is a restaurant that does wild game near where I stayed, but because I took the cable car I couldn't afford it - went for the Italian place instead, and I may have found the only restaurant in Germany that serves 'polite' portions. There are multiple grocery stores within the downtown shopping area, and while there selection of vegetables is somewhat limited, I ate pretty well every night (I picked up a camp stove in a discounter in Sonthofen, and found some gas for it here.)
That's that about Bavaria; let me give you my impressions about Germany.
It's not as live-and-let-live as I would like.
I did end up getting a lot of stares from people when I practiced Gumdo, but a few of them were dirty looks. I also have had some trouble with the completely arbitrary rules at the hostels here. For instance, instead of providing a cheap kettle (5 euro at a second-hand store) at this particular hostel, you would ask the front desk for hot water and wait for them to put on the kettle. It's little things like that, but I think it applies on a much greater scale: no-one jaywalks, everyone wears the same Jack Wolfskin clothing and brings hiking poles with them when they go hiking, and it all feels very regimented.
This might be more a reflection of the countryside than the cities, because Berlin was a wonderful mosaic of culture and fashion and doing basically anything, but I got the same feeling in Sonthofen and, to a lesser degree, in Munich.
The diet is also less than great; there's a lot less selection in Vegetables than I'm used to and everyone seems to eat a lot of bread and meat. And drink a hell of a lot of beer, too.
Still, there's upsides: some parts of France are much more conservative, renewable power is much more common and a much greater priority, being a vegetarian is easier (there were multiple veggie options at the Italian joint, for instance) and people tend to be friendly rather than cold (as they are in Paris or the Czech republic). On the whole, I like Germany a lot, but I'm glad I'm going back to Canada at the end of this trip.
Heading to Munich for the night (again at the Tent; got myself a bunk rather than the floor this time) before moving on to Paris - tip: book germany-france connections well in advance, preferably more than a week - I had to argue with the representative for an hour before I managed to get my tickets, and I was considering doing a morning Frankfurt -Strasbourg-Paris connection because I might have been able to get that. I'm going to check out the Deuches Museum tomorrow (1 euro museum day! hurray!) and the Hofbrauhaus or Augstiner-Grossgraststatte tonight - I would prefer to do the Chinese Beergarten in the English Garten, but it's cold and rainy yet again.
Hear there's flooding in Kingston and that the crazy summer weather is going to continue in Canada; everybody, I hope you're holding on tight, because s*** is only going to get worse from here on in. With that depressing though, Cheers!
- comments
Ritchie Geoff I think this is very insightful.... we found Germany a great place to visit but not sure I could live there. We had friends over for dinner yesterday and one of them related a story about her sister, who lived in Germany for several years. The sister got into trouble with the locals for hanging out her laundry on the wrong day. It's weird that you make rules about something as trivial as that.