Our hostess was awaiting us and showed us into a truly charming little apartment, right across from the Reptile zoo, and coincidentally next door to the Dedler Haus, where we stayed 5 years ago. Here's our place:
Pretty sweet!
We just bummed around town after arriving: grabbed some dinner, walked around, then turned in early.
The next morning, we got more ambitious. One of the landmarks of Oberammergau is a cliff called the Kofel. You can't miss it from anywhere in town. It's a stark tower of granite, with a big cross on top. After a cup of coffee and a little bread and cheese, we thought, "hey, we ought to try to climb that!" And I looked at the map that our hausmeister had left us, and it was only about an inch long trail on the map, with only one switchback, seemingly when you got to a ridge behind the cliff. Piece of cake.
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| The Kofel, from the Ammergau river (a block from our apartment). Piece of cake. |
So we headed out, in the back of our minds thinking, "well, if it's too tough, we can always turn back." We learned that Germans don't use switchbacks, not because they're not needed, but apparently because doing anything but walking straight uphill is wimpy. And we are wimps, and grossly out of shape. It was OK when we were passed by 20-somethings. It was even OK when we were passed by locals our own age. But getting caught by the guy with the 2-year-old running beside him... that was just sad.
In fairness, we did beat them to the top, but I'm pretty sure I heard the man say to the boy, "let's take a break and wait awhile... we don't want the pathetic old people to feel bad."
I can't be sure, because he was speaking Russian, but I'm pretty confident that was what he meant.
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| Judy praying to Jesus that we're almost there. All prayers are answered... just not necessarily the way you want them to be. |
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| Passing Kolbenalm, a stopover for skiers looking for a hot or cold beverage. Closed for the season, less than 1/3rd of the way up. |
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| "Are we there yet?" No. Kofel on the right, just to the left of the highest tree. |
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| AND we're still climbing. Kofel looks to be below us (but it's not). |
We got to a fork in the trail and couldn't decide whether to go left (which would take us back toward the Kofel) or stay to the right (which was clearly the main trail). Judy saw a local bopping up the trail toward us and said, "do you speak English?" to which he responded "but of course!"
Of course.
He told us that the trail to the left would, indeed, take us to the Kofel but would get pretty robust pretty quickly. The trail on the right, in contrast, would take us to the Kolbensattel, a ridge between two peaks with a lodge with beer, food, and music... and a ski lift down to the base of the mountain.
I know what you're thinking, but you're wrong. We didn't wuss out. We opted for the tough trail for the Kofel.
For 10 minutes.
After which the trail turned into something for mountain goats, or at least not out-of-shape 60-somethings. Invoking the wisdom of the old and infirm, we said, "screw this" and headed back to the main trail. It was still no picnic: another 45 minutes of steep climbing, and we reached the promised land of Kolbensattel. Dunkles Weissbier. Zweigelt wine. Schweinschnitzel and suppe. 2 guys in lederhosen playing Bavarian folk music on accordian and guitar.
Families playing and dancing. A glorious day - partially cloudy, probably 70 degrees in the sun and 65 when clouds passed over.
We took our time eating, drinking, and enjoying the music, weather and company. Then we found the T-bar, paid the fee, and hopped on... only to get yelled at by a guy who wasn't paying attention when we hopped on. It took a few seconds (after we were airborne) to realize that he was telling us that we weren't allowed to hop on without assistance. Oh well. We got on just fine, nobody fell to their deaths, and we got a nice view on the way down.
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