Saturday, October 24, 2009

Berlin to Garmish-Partenkirchen

The second day of our expedition started out as Adrian and I woke up simultaniously at 6:55 - 5 minutes before our alarms were to go off.
Ten minutes later we were standing at the reception with everything packed and our bedsheets in our hands.



As we got our deposit back and went towards the U-bahn station we congratulated ourselfs on the military-like efficiency with which we had begun the day. Approximately half an hour later we were back on Berlin Hbf. where we got some breakfast, and coffee which were to be consumed on the way.



The day was to be spent inside the warm and secure bowel of a number of benign DB trains - using the übercool "Schönes Wochende" ticket which allowed the both of us to get from Berlin to Garmish-Partenkirchen for the sum of €35 equalling €17.5 pro capite (the price would have been the same if we were 5 people making it a whopping €7 pro capite).

Our first connection was to be Berlin Hbf.-Falkenberg am Elster a pleasent ride with a nearly empty train where we had time to wake up and eat our breakfast.
One of the passengers also decided to bless when he was getting off at his station, adding to the pleasant anticipatory feeling of seeing the Alps that lay ahead.

In Falkenberg we had 10 minutes before our next train arrived, this one nearly filled with travellers of who many seemed to be using the "Schönes Wochende" offer.

A couple of hours later we had arrived in Leipzig. We had about half an our before our next connection towards Gera, this time was spent on walking around the trainstation and resulted in the purchase of a couple of Currywursts which were devoured in the train towards Gera were we had a quick shift to the next train, which was to take up to Hof (in Bavaria).

From Hof we were travelling along the German/Chech border.
A bit further southwards as the border was still further to the east of our location, we were instead following the western outskirts of the dense Bavarian Forest all the way to Regensburg.

In Regensburg we had the next connection taking us to München where we had time to get some Red Bull before entering the last train of the day, which was to take us to Garmish-Partenkirchen.
As we sat down in this train, and drank our Red Bulls, the taurin and coffein uplifted our spirits, which had been dulled quite a bit by spending the entire day sitting in warm trains.
As the train set out from München Hbf. we were already plastered to one window each, scouting for a first glimpse of the majestic alps.

As we passed Starnberg and traveled alongside the lakeshore of Starnberger See there was a clear view and we could already see the Alps towering up in the background still some 40-50 km away.


Half an hour later out train mellowly rode into Garmish-Partenkirchen trainstation with a little delay.

Our hostel (Hostel 2962) was located only 100 meters from the trainstation, and as we were checking in we found out that some mix-up had occured.

We ended up getting our own room with a bathroom put only paid the price for a dorm room, as this was what we had ordered via hostels.com when making reservations.

By now it was early evening and we had to get some dinner. After going around town, we ended up at a Burger King on the train station, and by 22:00 we were back "home" in our hostel room planning the hike of the following day before taking a bath and going to sleep.