Glamping under Zugspitz

It's fair to say that now we were in a quandary about where to go next. The original plan to stay three nights around Bodensee, then four in the Fussen area had been somewhat screwed. Somehow I'd managed to pre-book only two nights in Camping Gohren am Bodensee, which left us hopping from one stelplatz to another. By the time we got  back to the van after the Neuschwanstein visit it was early evening, the town was swimming in motorhomes all looking for a pitch. All three stelplatz were full, the campsite up the road was full, eventually we found a little stelplatz in the car park of a motorhome service company in Roßhaupten with a couple of places free.

A good option a few miles from Fussen if places there are full.

With elections pending I think Dr Wengert is in need of a new PR team!

Perhaps it's a two week treatment....

The storm was followed by the appearance of unusual mammatus clouds. 

Very much parked up on asphalt in the middle of nowhere, but as the thunderstorm which threatened in Neuschwanstein arrived with all the noise and drama of a Wagnerian finale, we were simply  happy having somewhere to put our heads down.  In fact the facilities were excellent, and next to us the Swiss pastry chef who had learned her excellent English in Canada, was really friendly and helped us communicate with the place's owner about the whereabouts of the grey water sluice. My initial impression that the owner was none too bright was reinforced on discovering that they had situated the sluice so close to a geranium festooned balcony that a any van with an over cab bed, like Maisy, could  not access the drain. She'd just have to cross her headlights and have a widdle later!

Sitting in the van with torrential rain drumming on the roof and strum und drang crashing all around us we chatted about options. Gill connected to the Internet on her phone and the forecast for Innsbruck looked much better than on the German side of the Alps so that decided it - Austria here we come.

Where we eventually  ended up was on a small place above Ehrwald on a campsite next to the cable car station for Zugspitz, the highest mountain in Germany. You might be thinking hikerish austerity here, but the opposite was the case. Situated within an upmarket Alpine resort, the campers could share all the beautifully designed spa and swimming pool facilities; the restaurant was excellent and the services run by the friendly, multilingual fräuleins in Tyrolean dress first class. Not cheap at 50 Euros per night but after the complications of the past few days we all felt the need for a bit of pampering.

Not your average campsite reception

Gill in the campsite shop with Tyrolean Fraulein at the till

The campsite restaurant - Laura chooses Wienerschnitzel

The bathroom facilities included an individual toilet, shower and dressing room suite.

The Bauhaus Badehaus, - well actually it was more Alvar Aalto really...

Within two hours of arriving Laura and I were standing  3000 metres up, admiring the view from the balcony of the cable car station at the top of Zugspitz. It is a spectacular prospect; you can see the peaks of four countries, Austria, Germany, Switzerland and Italy. What looks like a tiny hut from below is in fact a four storey complex sprouting antennae and satellite dishes like something out of a Bond movie.

The Zugspitz cable car station

Looking towards Switzerland

Erewohl,  from the summit

Oddly enough despite the technology I could not get a mobile signal!

The summit complex has a small exhibition charting the history of mountaineering on Zugspitz starting with the first recorded ascent by an Austrian army officer in 1820 through to the building of a cable car in 1926 and subsequent development to the point today where the gondolas now whisk 100 passengers at a time to the summit in less than eight minutes. We both had fun defying gravity by standing on the glass tiled floor suspended from over the sheer drop, took loads of photos then headed back down as the weather closed in. The temperature in the valley was 35 Celsius, on the summit less than 10 degrees. I was glad to have had the foresight to pack a light jacket.

Laura defies gravity

From  below the mountain looks equally beautiful. Unlike the mountains surrounding it which have sharp, Matterhorn style peaks,  Zugspitz is a massive lump of grey limestone topped by three small peaks resembling petrified wavelets.

Zugspitz from the campsite

The dream pitch

The dream view

 It is the mountain's colour rather than shape which gives it beauty. The pale limestone is wrinkled like the hide of a white rhino. In the sunlight it shines with a translucent, pewter-grey brilliance. In gloomy weather the colours become dark and menacing. In the evening most of the mountain is overshadowed by its neighbours, so loses the sun quickly, its broad expanse darkening except for the highest peak which catches the sun' s last rays and takes on a rosy glow. 

Zugspitz shining momentarily 

moments later wreathed in cloud

Morning mist

Light and mountains, I could spend hours just watching clouds scud across them, it's fascinating and curiously calming like watching waves crashing ashore.