I still can’t believe how lucky I’ve been. I was working only ten hours a week at Cornell after Kaitlin was born, and when we moved here we decided it didn’t make sense for me to find a job, so I took ten years off to stay at home with her. The last couple of those years I took computer classes at the local University of New Mexico campus, then I got a dream job using my computer skills and physics background.
Our group was collaborating with a group in Germany to develop programs used in the design of particle accelerators, so I went to Germany every other year. On one of those visits one of my colleagues (the one whose email account has recently been hacked) and I had to go to a conference in Graz, Austria afterwards. As luck would have it, it was a three-day weekend, so we each had two days to have a mini vacation anywhere on the way. She wanted to go to Salzburg for a Mozart festival, and I wanted to go walking in the Alps. So we booked a sleeping compartment on a night train to Munich, then she took a train to Salzburg and I took one to Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Every Christmas Andy’s father had sent each of us a calendar with pictures of the Alps, and I loved them. When I went searching for pictures now I couldn’t find any with the skies so sunny and the air so crystal clear as in those pictures. The new pictures are pretty, but not as vibrant as those calendar pictures or like what I experienced when I went to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It had rained every day for the previous two weeks and cleared just before I arrived. The scenes were just like the calendar pictures and those memories still blow me away.
I didn’t walk much that first day. Instead when I got to the train station I stored my luggage in a locker and took two other trains to the the platform near the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany.
This modern map shows a cable car running from Eibsee to the platform near the top of the Zugspitze, but that wasn’t built until about 2017. I took a train to near the summit. The views were spectacular, of course.
I did the touristy thing and walked the trail to the top. It wasn’t long, but it was steep and slippery because the rocks had been polished by all the gazillion of sightseers.
On the way back I took a walk part way around the lake at Eibsee while waiting for my connection, then when I got back to the station at Garmisch-Partenkirchen I picked up my luggage and took a taxi to the hotel.
At that time no one spoke English there, so I was relieved that I had brushed up my German enough to have no problems.
March 22, 2022
A wonderful adventure.
Yes! 🙂
Wow, the adventure of a lifetime! The photos are stunning! Were there handrails or anything? It looks very dangerous! Are you an engineer?
Yes, there were handrails. If you look carefully at the last picture you can see them. Notice that even a little boy is doing it. I’m afraid of heights but felt it was perfectly safe.
This picture shows the railing more clearly. I’ve added it to the post.
No, I’m not an engineer. I have a bachelor’s degree in physics and years of experience in scientific computer programming, which I dearly loved.
Wow, what a wonderful adventure. These pictures are beautiful and make me want to see it in person.
It was great.
Well, I must be honest, this this was an experience of a lifetime…I’d go to a Mozart festival instead.
I wanted to walk not sit. 🙂
the photos are gorgeous and I am wondering if the difference in what you remember and now is caused by climate change caused by millions of humans since way back then… I am impressed that you went to Germany and that you split up with someone and went off by yourself. More impressed with going places by your self than those stunning mountains. I live within 10 minutes drive of many wonderful gorgeous places and don’t go because no one will go with me. As a child I did not like mother to drop me off somewhere and come back and get me because I was alone…. I wish I were like you and others that just go do what you want to do alone…
Around here I could sometimes find people to walk/hike with, but not always, so I learned to do it by myself. Maybe you could try baby steps? Also now that you blog you wouldn’t really be alone. You could be thinking about what to say to share the experience. You could even record what you wanted to say in the moment then use speech-to-text for blogging. Blog fodder! 🙂
Wow! These are sure some fantastic views! I cannot imagine doing that now.. but think I would have been a bit braver in my youth/younger years.
That was over 30 years ago, when I was in my mid to late 40s. I wouldn’t do it now. Now one of my favorite sayings is, “You don’t have to leave home to have an adventure.” Bless the internet!
Oh my word! I don’t know if I’m more envious of this adventure — or, your spirit. Unfortunately, like my mother before me, fears and ‘what-iffers’ have kept me sidelined most of my life. That’s okay; I’m happy to applaud like crazy for those of you out on the field.
Now, thanks to the internet, if we’re curious we can have all sorts of adventures without leaving home. 🙂
I would not have gone up that mountain for a million dollars. (I can’t even walk on a sidewalk without tripping over my own feet and I’m afraid of heights.) But I love your spirit of adventure that took you up there.
I’ve always been afraid of heights, but I wouldn’t do it now. Now when I walk on uneven ground I use my walking sticks for balance. 🙂
All I can say is “WOW!!!” What a dream trip of a lifetime that has given you such wonderful and fun memories – it’s what life is all about!
Yes. I still have a lot of adventures, but without having to leave home. 🙂
what Glorious pictures! and that countryside. oh my!
but I’m like most of the others. don’t think I would have done it alone.
must have been a hermit crab (or is it a crabby hermit? LOL) most of my life.
I’m loving your adventurous younger self! xo
Thanks. 🙂
how wonderful
as I look at the comments, I think “when we were younger” we did a lot of things we are so afraid of now!
Although on saying that in 2019, I took off to unfamiliar places in my own country and even though I was mostly safe, I didn’t put my life back in my “young days” understanding that I could get into strife. But I had a wonderful month…and in 2020, I was about to leave again, when you know what stopped my adventure and I’ve still not got out there!!!
I was so sorry that COVID got in your way. 🙁