Garmisch-Partenkirchen: Partnachklamm, Königshaus am Schachen and maybe Linderhof

Now, Königshaus am Schachen, Ludwig II of Bavaria's high altitude mountain chalet. Of all the various palaces that Ludwig II built, renovated or lived in, this is probably the least visited. Mainly because it's so hard to get to. You can only reach it by a steep 3.5 hour hike from the distal end of the Partnachklamm, or a longer but less steep hike from the 5-star resort hotel of Schloss Elmau. I chose to continue my walk through the Partnachklamm to Schachen.

Quite bluntly, don't even attempt this hike unless you're in fairly good shape, you wear hiking boots with good ankle support, and you have some kind of system to carry enough water for about a 6-8 hour round trip walk. Trekking poles would also be a good idea (I forgot to bring mine!). There's no half-way point for a car to drive you up, no cable car access, and no mountain restaurants along the entire route until you reach the chalet. It's just a very long slog up a steep mountain. Most of the trail is pretty rough too. I repeat, you need good ankle support if you want to try this hike. The first 3/4 of the route is mostly through forest, so the views aren't even that great. Once you push above the Alpine level and the trees start to thin out, though, the scenery really opens up. And there it is, sitting prominently at the top of an Alpine meadow, the Könighaus am Schachen!

Tours of the chalet are only in German, they only offer a few per day, and each group is limited to 30 people, although if there's significant overflow, they'll let in an additional group after the first one finishes. I can imagine in peak season, July or August, access must be really tight, it probably helps to get there early. Meaning, since the first tour of the day begins at 11.00, you need to start your hike well before 8.00.

If you've visited more than one of Ludwig II's residences before (ie, Neuschwanstein, Herrenchiemsee, etc.), you've probably noticed that the guy had very esoteric and extravagant tastes, and that the buildings and decour are almost a psychological portrait of the man. Therefore, I was kind of surprised by the interior at first. Although not exactly spartan, the first floor decour was rather plain and functional. Apart from some stain-glass windows in Ludwig's surprisingly modest bedroom, most of the first floor is pretty low key. There's the inevitable pictures of scenes from Wagner's operas, of course.

Now, the upstairs... now, that's the Ludwig we know! As extravagant as the first floor was low key, the upstairs consists of a single room elaborately decorated in a Turkish style. Brightly colored, extremely elaborately decorated with exotic furniture, Persian rugs, and huge stain glass windows that give the room a reddish-purple hue. There's even a fountain in the middle of the room (no longer operating).

Outside, there's a small mountain restaurant and a garden that features all kinds of Alpine plants. Plus, amazing views of the Zugspitze, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen off in the distance.

Hiking the Partnachklamm from the Olympic Stadium (see below) is about a 60-90 minute round trip. If you continue up to Schachen and back, the whole trek will last 6-9 hours.

A common request we read on this website for people traveling to Germany is that they want to visit "WWII" sites, which I think sort of means "Sites associated with the Third Reich". I've written before that the legacy of the Nazi era in Germany is mostly what's missing, not what's remaining. However, there's one big site left over in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, mostly in it's original preserved state- the Olympic Stadium. I took a brief look after finishing my hike. The ski jump itself is modern, but minus the swashtikas and Reichsalders that likely originally decorated the walls, the structure looks like it has undergone very little changes since it was built for the Olympics. Although it blends in somewhat with the folksy vernacular Alpine architecture of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, it also has some of those modernist and triumphalist touches that leave no doubt that a totalitarian government constructed it.

The hike to and from Schachen left my legs feeling like two infelxible steel cables, so I decided to leave Linderhof for another trip. I'm sure I'll be back, because Garmisch-Partenkirchen is one of my favorite places in Germany. I still don't understand why it's barely mentioned in the Blue Book. It's the most prominent, most famous resort town in the Bavarian Alps. It would be like a guidebook of Florida not mentioning Orlando, or one about New York City excluding the island of Manhattan.

Tom,

appreciate the information; my wife and I have booked the Edelweiss lodge in Garmisch-Partenkirchen for 2 weeks in August, looking forward to the trip and will keep in mind your suggestions referenced.

Brian

Not to dissuade you... but let me describe what I've seen of Edelweiss. It sits on the far edge of town, away from most of the action, and it's surrounded by a wall topped with barbed wire. To me, it answers the unasked question of "If Disney's Fantasyland had a prison, what would it look like?" I also understand that if you're not lower enlisted, it isn't particularly cheap. I've never been inside the compound, so I have no idea how nice it is or isn't.

"The hike to and from Schachen left my legs feeling like two infelxible steel cables, so I decided to leave Linderhof for another trip."

You don't have to hike TO Linderhof. The bus from GaP to Füssen stops at the Oberammergau Hbf/ZOB. From there there is another bus, about 15 minutes, to Linderhof. But once at Linderhof, the grounds are quite extensive and there can be a lot of walking.

I would have driven, obviously. The point was, my legs were so stiff that I didn't want to do any walking at all. Not even the relatively short distance from the car park to the Schloss.

Why would you want RS to mention this area in his book? It would be overrun with blue bookers!!

Thanks. For my next trip to Germany, I will definitely allocate a few days for this area.

And while the castle isn't that far from the parking lot at Linderhof, if you want to see the gardens from above, the Grotto, or some of the huts, there are some seriously steep short hills in the complex.

We really loved Garmisch-P- seemed like the classic Alps village and so many places to explore nearby.

Next time, hike the Höllentalklamm and continue on to the hut. From there you can hile up over the Rinderscharte to Osterfelderkopf and the top of the Alpspizbahn for a ride back down to town. One of my all-time favorite hikes.

It can also be done in reverse if you prefer hiking downhill.

Lola, is it less steep?

I'm in very good shape, but Tom's experience got me a bit scared for myself. Downhill is hard on the knees!

I find myself back in GaP for an extended stay, so after a few days of hiking and climbing, I decided to give Linderhof a look.

I got there soon after opening in the morning, which was a good thing. By the time I left the complex at around noon, the line at the ticket counter was about 100m long! Seeing how few people can fit in the Schloss at any given time, I'm sure some of these people probably had to wait several hours.

Linderhof gets anough descriptions elsewhere, so I won't go into too much detail, but I'll note this. With every visit I make to one of Ludwig II's lodgings, the weirder I think the guy was. The Venus Grotto looks like something you might find in a Disney amusement park, but he had this elaborate Tannhäuser-inspired cave built for his own private use! The interior of the Moorish pavillion looks very similar to the second flood of the Köningshaus am Schachen. And I found Hunding's Hut fascinating as well... I have no idea if it's historically accurate, but it looks exactly like the type of lodge where you might think an early Germanic warrior would live. But of all the locations from Wagner's Der Ring des Nebelungen, why did Ludwig choose to recreate the one that's... well, strongly associated with one of opera's most notorious incestuous relationships?

Other notes- on my last several visits to GaP, including this one, the summit of the Zugspitze has remained shrowded in perpetual clouds. If you want to ascend a high mountain, but it looks like your view from the Zugspitze is going to be obscurred, an alternative you can try is the Karwendelbahn by Mittenwald.

I've written before that I've seen snow fall in the Alps every month of the year except August. Well, scratch that one off. I was attempting the ascent of the Alpspitze, but rain moved in that quickly changed to snow (it fell only as rain down in GaP).. No chance that I was going to try to finish a very difficult climb in that weather.

Tom, I'm glad you finally got to the Partnachklamm. Now you'll have to go back in winter when it's an icicle wonderland! I've always rather selfishly hoped it would not make it into the blue book, since I discovered it in the narrow green book back in the 80's, and hold out some hope that it may stay pristine and quiet -- except for the roar!

Ruth- Visiting the Partnachklamm in the winter probably isn't going to happen for me, because that would take away valuable time from the slopes. Perhaps if my fantasy of moving to GaP someday ever comes true, I could consider it...

Here's another note from GaP. As I've written previously, there isn't much remaining of WWII and the Third Reich in Germany. To get glimpses, though, you often have to stumble upon them in unexpected locations. One such I saw today is the Wallfahrskirche (Pilgrim church) of St. Anton. If you're familiar at all with GaP, you've probably noticed it. It's that white church located on the mountain (Wank) just above the Partenkirchen section of town. My hike today led my by it, so I decided to take a look.

The path leading to the church displays paintings of the stations of the cross, but that isn't what struck me. On the gallery walls outside the church, family members have posted memorial plagues for all the local residents who died in the world wars. Only a handful date from WWI, but the plagues from WWII number in the HUNDREDS. Now, GaP isn't a small little town, but it's nowhere near to being a city either. I can only imagine how devestating it must have been for the community to lose so many of its young men. And unlike the other subdued memorials to German war dead I've seen elsewhere, almost all of these plaques feature a photograph of the fallen. The majority were barely out of their teens, and most seem to have been killed in Russia. Several plagues feature two or more members of the same family. It's quite moving to see all those young faces, some of them dressed in traditional Tracht. A few are wearing SS uniforms, and I'm not going to feel too sorry for those bastards. But the rest... it really humanizes the senseless barbarity of that conflict.

You can also see a rather remarkable paiting inside the church. This might be the only work of religious art hanging in a chuch that features members the US army. The caption under the painting was written in Kurrent, a distinct style of German handwriting which is very difficult for most people to decipher, so I couldn't determine exactly what is says. I caught a few of the words here and there, and the painting shows some villagers giving thanks to St. Francis, so I think it has something to do with praying for peace. Two other paintings in the church show similar scenes with historical French and Austrian armies, so I think praying for peace might be the general theme of the church. All in all, one of the more remarkable churches I've visited in Europe. If you're in GaP and you want to check it out, it's located just above Ludwigstraße, the historic core of Partenkirchen.

One final note. If you've visited the Berner Oberland in the summer, you've probably noticed that it's one of the favorite vacation destinations for visitors from the Indian subcontinent. Likewise, Salzburg, Hallstatt and Füssen are popular with east Asians. GaP has long been popular with Americans, due to the Armed Forces Recreation Center that's been here since the 1940s. It's also caught on as a favored destination for families from the Arabian peninsula. I asked a guy at the table next to me at breakfast how GaP became so popular in the Middle East, and he laughed and said "Have you been to Saudia Arabia in August?" Considering that temperatures have remained in the low 20s °C and below since I've been here, I can see his point. And I'm not sure why, but I saw more than few women in full black burqas shopping for Dirndls.

One last teaser, in case you aren't yet convinced. The Kurpark in the Garmisch section hosts nightly live music throughout the summer. Tonight was Blasmusik, featuring various polkas, marches and waltzes. The concert ended with Strauss Sr. 's Radetzky March, much like the Vienna New Year's Concert. Other nights offered big band, and various types of Volksmusik.

I never even really considered visiting GaP since it was pretty low on the visitng list relative to other places in south Germany. What you wrote about the church cemetery pertaining to WW 1 and 2 has piqued my interest and curousity (also on the Austrians and French) for me to look into. That type of display with photos I've never seen at all at a cemetery. Maybe one reason for a GaP having a disproportionate loss is that it was a military district HQ.(mountain troops).....Wehrkreis Hauptquartier (Gebirgsjägerdivision)

I should note that it's not a cemetery. As far as I could tell, no bodies are interred on the church grounds (besides some saint relics). What I described were memorial plaques on the outside wall of the church.

Got it. I may have misunderstood you. Still, memorial plaques with soldier photos I never saw. The closest experience was Sigmarigen in 1971 and in Rüdesheim in 1977, my first time in both, where I saw at the train stations photos along the wall similar to what you would see in a US Post Office (wanted posters) of missing/unaccounted for soldiers with the question at the top "Wer kennt ihn?" (Who knows him?), ordinary soldiers in their Wehrmacht dress uniforms, or they were enlarged photos usually of a woman carrying the missing's photo. Yes, even as late as 1977, as far as I know, these poignant photos were still on train station walls in small towns.

Wow, that's an interesting story. Still looking for news of their loved one thirty years later- I'm going to guess that most of them probably died or disappeared somewhere in Russia.

There is one other location where I've seen something kind of like this. Some of the graves in in the cemetary outside of the main church in Berchtesgaden feature photographs of soldiers in their full uniform. But this is more along the lines of a normal cemetery that just happens to have a few soldiers buried here and there, by no means is it any kind of military memorial. The St. Anton in Parteknirchen, though, that's the first time I've seen a war memorial where virtually every name has a portrait to go along with it.

I would be interested to know what the caption under the painting I referenced means, since I could barely read the script. Also interesting that unlike the paintings that showed the French and Austrian armies... the US army never left town.

A short comment about the Edelweiss, mentioned earlier. Most visitors not on active duty will pay $149 a night for a standard room. This is about €111 at today's rate.(8/18) There are cheaper accommodations in the various hotels around. The advantage, as such, of the Edelweiss is that there is a feeling of comfort for folks who may not be as adventurous as many of us are about mixing with the local population. It is also a bit removed from the town itself and access can be a bit annoying at times, due to the security features.

Tom, we did a "companion" to your hike last year, first up the Eckbauer (from a parking lot near a bobsled run), then down through the "back door" of the Partnachklamm to the Olympic Stadium parking lot. Walking through the "entrance" of the Partnachklamm after a long hike was VERY refreshing, and I highly recommend that route for anyone considering spending a day hiking in the area. There is also a small biergarden at the top of the Eckbauer for a quick stop for refreshments before heading downhill. We considered some of the route you described as part of a longer hike between G-P and Mittenwald but ended up taking this shorter hike instead.

We also fell in love with G-P - we had the benefit of having a friend that lived there who helped us scout out the sights for our visit, but were were still unprepared for how beautiful the area was as well as the variety of activities there. We did not make it to Konighshaus am Schchen but did visit Linderhof (on a different day), which was much more enjoyable than the overcrowded Neuschwanstein (although we did enjoy visiting Hohenschwangau)-our best memory of Neuschwanstein was the view from afar, which IMHO is its best feature anyway.

Anyway, thanks for posting this-it revived memories of a particularly enjoyable day!

Late addition... here's a picture I found online, showing a small sample of the memorial plaques hanging on the outside gallery of St. Anton. I could not find any photographs featuring the painting with the US army in the background, but here's one that shows the other two similar paintings in the church, in which it appears the citizens are appealing for heavenly intervention against the French and Hapsburg armies. You can't really see the details, though.

Thanks for the two links. I thought you had shot the memorial plaques from the front so that the inscriptions on the plaques could be read. It would have been interesting as to the painting inside the church to pin point exactly those 18th century uniforms.

They weren't my pictures, I just found them using Google images... come to think of it, though, why didn't I take pictures of everything when I was there that day?