After our jaunt in the Swiss Alps, we headed to the Bavarian Alps to meet up with the rest of the family. The US military has a beautiful resort in the mountain town of Garmisch, Germany at the base of the Bavarian Alps that we stayed at for a few days. Our first day there was rainy and we were recuperating from our climb the day before so we decided to head to see Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles that were the homes of King Ludwig I and Ludwig II respectively. These castles are relatively new in that they were built in the 19th century. Unfortunately King Ludwig II was only able to live in his castle for 180 days before dying in suspicious circumstances after being declared insane. To this day some of the floors of the Neuschwanstein castle are not finished but the areas that were completed before his death were beautiful. The next day we found a alpine slide to go ride there in town by the old Olympic stadium from the 1936 Winter Games. It took some coaxing to get Whitney to go on the sleds but after dragging her on the first time she loved it and went many more times.
Afterwards, we went on a nearby bungee trampoline which is fun but very tiring after 10 minutes of doing flips. Maren even got in the action and loved it.
Saturday, Jim and I awoke early to head out and climb the Zugspitze (Germany's highest mountain at 2962 m). The approach included a walk through a beautiful gorge and canyon with a glacier crossing and the climb was done along a series of cables called a klettersteig (in Italy they are called via ferratas).
There were some points along the route where you would have to climb an iron ladder that was pounded into the rock or step across on iron spikes. It was a very fun climb with the diversity of scenery and climbing that it provided.
My dad, brother, and the girls rode the tram to the summit to meet us at the end of the climb. I must admit that it was nice to descend the 7,000 feet we climbed that day by tram instead of having to hike back down though it meant sharing the summit with tons of people.
After our jaunt in the Swiss Alps, we headed to the Bavarian Alps to meet up with the rest of the family. The US military has a beautiful resort in the mountain town of Garmisch, Germany at the base of the Bavarian Alps that we stayed at for a few days. Our first day there was rainy and we were recuperating from our climb the day before so we decided to head to see Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein castles that were the homes of King Ludwig I and Ludwig II respectively. These castles are relatively new in that they were built in the 19th century. Unfortunately King Ludwig II was only able to live in his castle for 180 days before dying in suspicious circumstances after being declared insane. To this day some of the floors of the Neuschwanstein castle are not finished but the areas that were completed before his death were beautiful. The next day we found a alpine slide to go ride there in town by the old Olympic stadium from the 1936 Winter Games. It took some coaxing to get Whitney to go on the sleds but after dragging her on the first time she loved it and went many more times. 
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