Bountiful Bavaria With its deep gorges, dazzling lakes and massive peaks, this beautiful German state becomes the ultimate playground for an adventure-loving family WORDS: Helen Werin PHOTOGRAPHY: Robin Weaver

Obersee, Berchtesgaden National Park Germany TRAVEL

magine being inside a giant telescope- cable car, we’re told that there’s a race up ABOVE LEFT The path to the Special’: huge scoops of rich raspberry, that went in to the construction of what like structure jutting over the edge of the mountain next day. I look down at the summit of Karwendel Mountain vanilla and chocolate ice creams. was codenamed the Eagle’s Nest. The bus a cliff with mountains as far as the eye precariously narrow, shaly path above a ABOVE The Marktplatz We cram onto a bus to visit the deposits us on a viewing platform near the Ican see. The effect is incredible. I imagine nasty drop. I wonder how the runners do (marketplace) in Kehlsteinhaus – the mountain chalet built rather eerie 124m (407ft) tunnel bored in Berchtesgaden with fountain the telescope moving, but it’s just the it, until the car attendant tells me the race and Hirschenhaus (deer house) high above Berchtesgaden for Hitler’s to the mountain. At the end is the brass- sensation of being 2,244m (7,362ft) high. is up the other side of the mountain. “But I fiftieth birthday. We’ve been able to see the panelled lift built to carry Hitler up to what We’re on the Karwendel mountain, walk up this way all the time,” he shrugs as if lights of the Kehlsteinhaus from Camping- was also known as the Tea House when it looking down on the wide Isar valley. Below it’s nothing. Resort Allweglehen. Now we’re weaving was used for private parties. is Mittenwald, where a multitude of walks More adventures follow with our walk up the 6km (3¾ mile) road carved into the There’s none of the usual excited and cycle routes spread out and from through the Leutasch Gorge. Our original granite mountain. chatter as we ride up to the chalet, now a where we’ve ascended in Germany’s second plan to go to the Partnach Gorge is thwarted It’s impossible not to ponder the restaurant, at 1,834m (6,017ft). The mood Helen Werin... highest cable car. because it’s closed for safety reasons, but incredible amount of effort, manpower only lightens when we reach the spectacular There are challenging via ferrata routes we’re so not disappointed. The Leutasch and engineering skills – not to mention panorama at the top. Hitler only made for adrenaline junkies on the Karwendel, delivers as we negotiate a 970m (3,182ft) cost (about £133m in today’s money) – about 14 trips here but the Kehlsteinhaus ➤ ...is MMM’s Travel Editor and but we take the Passamani Panoramaweg. long section of metal grating walkway and loves exploring mountainous countries with loads of Sophie, our teenager, who thinks she’s a bridges and steps clinging to the craggy opportunities to walk. She mountain goat, disappears towards a cross sides high above the gorge and its churning really doesn’t like flat high above the easy path, pulling herself Devil’s Pool. Trip summary landscapes! up by a steel cable and climbing up ladders We’ve actually parked in Austria and to ledges. “It’s like a playground, mum!” followed the river, across the border, back OUR MOTORHOME THE JOURNEY she declares as, once she’s safely down, we towards Mittenwald. Along the way we 2002 five-berth Roller Team Auto-Roller 41 We spent 10 days in Bavaria in July as part of a two-month European trip. We began our chuck snowballs at each other from a few pass chimes, a viewing mirror, even a scary with Fiat 2.3-litre diesel visit in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and left near Freilassing patches left on the slopes – even though ‘mountain spirit’ in a tiny cleft in the rock, engine. Roly’s it’s July. And this is just the first day of the to amuse youngsters. Every child that we generous storage space THE COSTS southern Bavaria leg of our summer trip. see is far more excited about what is – and six seats Fuel average 26mpg (€207.67)...... £187.61 Attractions family tickets for This region of Germany gives us one indeed, isn’t – beneath their feet. suits our family Ferry Dover-Dunkerque, return Karwendelbahn and salt mine; exhilarating, fun-packed and memorable Later, as we return along the narrow via Calais...... £144 three adults for Almbach Gorge; day after another. We’ve got off to a fantastic road level with the incredibly tall pines Site fees (€247.60)...... £223.68 Rossfeld panorama road and two start with the first of our three campsites in shooting up from the Leutasch Gorge we Parking Leutach Gorge, salt mine, adults/one student for Königssee Bavaria, Alpen-Caravanpark Tennsee. It sits catch glimpses of the metal walkway. The Karwendel, Königssee (€20.50)...... £18.52 boat trip (€172.80)...... £156.11 in the shadow of the Karwendel, surrounded road instantly widens as we come back by sublime alpine scenery. into Germany and head for Mittenwald and 2002 Roller Team Auto-Roller 41 909 miles Total £729.92 On our ride in the Karwendelbahn the understandably popular ‘Mittenwald

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“The sight of sparkling Waginger See and the soothing sound of the water gently lapping the pebbly beach is too tempting’’ ABOVE LEFT View from was a popular destination for others in his else we could get hurt. Though that makes Alpen-Caravanpark Tennsee to inner circle. me a little bit nervous, I’m more concerned Karwendel Mountain Heading away from the Kehlsteinhaus about making an undignified landing at the ABOVE RIGHT Inside the we reach a cross and a narrow path bottom, so make sure that I’m last in the information centre on Karwendel Mountain, between rocks to yet another stunning queue to save embarrassment. ‘Sliders’ go Mittenwald view just as the clouds drop down. Making in groups of three or four so I tuck myself a rapid descent to the sunnier panorama in tightly between my husband’s knees and, terrace, we marvel at the sight of so many with my legs raised stiffly around Sophie, mountains – including the just-visible peaks who’s in the front, we whizz down. By the of the Reiter Alpe ranges – and the sparkling second slide, I’m enthusiastically trying to Königssee lake. Unfortunately, we spend queue jump. such a long time admiring the gorgeous Some of our biggest thrills in Bavaria are INFORMATION scenes from the top that the Documentation distinctly damp ones. It’s raining as we park visitbavaria for general Centre and the underground bunker for the Almbach Gorge (Almbachklamm) tourist advice on the region beneath it has closed. about 3.7km (2¼ miles) from Camping- We face far cooler (12°C) and dimmer Resort Allweglehen. The water dripping Make the most of your visit to Wagainger See tunnels at the Berchtesgaden Salt Mine. down the sheer sides and thundering just waginger-see.de/ This time it’s a train on which we sit astride, below us considerably enhances the drama tourismus tightly packed, which whisks us 650m of the experience. Find out about cable car (2,132ft) deep in to the mountain to see We may be squelchingly wet as we prices and attractions of where the high-quality ‘white gold’ is mined. negotiate metal grating bridges and slippery Karwendel Mountain Sporting overalls and hard hats steps clinging to the cliffs here, as in the karwendelbahn.de (provided) we follow our guide under Leutasch Gorge, yet the weather effects For Konigssee boat low roofs, learning about the mine’s more a more exciting atmosphere, particularly timetables and info than 500 years of continuous extraction of as we’re much closer to the roaring water seenschifffahrt.de salt from deep within the mountains and most of the time. Wooden bridges and steep Get a sense of the views fascinating snippets about the workers’ steps hewn from the rock lead us upwards you’ll see from the lives along the way. We float across an and onwards with steel cables to hold on to Rossfeld road underground lake, though undoubtedly, the in most (but not all!) places. We edge past rossfeldpanoram most fun comes with whooshing down the overhanging rocks and through a tunnel, astrasse.de wooden slides to the next level (there are gazing down in fascination at the mighty For The Eagle’s Nest steps/walkways if you don’t want to slide). river and up at the towering cliffs. kehlsteinhaus.de We’re told to keep our hands and legs up We could spend all day here; there are ➤

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lots of walks indicated by bright yellow ABOVE CLOCKWISE Waginger Plummer were filmed for some of the scenes signposts from the gorge car park. However, See; the twelfth century in The Sound Of Music. Sophie is cheekily Collegiate Church in Sophie’s spotted a leaflet for the highest Berchtesgaden; the determined to record me doing my Julie scenic road in Germany at Rossfeld; the Kehlsteinhaus (aka the Eagle’s Andrews’ running-through-the-meadows mountains are calling again... Nest), Berchtesgaden stunt here. Inevitably, it turns out to be Let me make this clear; Roly is not a cringingly amusing for a party of Portuguese powerful ’van and we probably frustrate tourists. I laugh off any self-consciousness. many queues of motorists behind us as TOP TIPS I’m too ‘high’ on being in such a beautiful we tootle up hills. However, the Rossfeld Parking at Mittenwald railway place to care! Panoramastrasse – which wends 15.3km station is free and plentiful It’s a glorious day again when we drive (9½ miles) to the summit with an altitude from Camping Allweglehen to park at You can take a guided nature difference of around 1,097m (3,600ft) – is walk at St Bartholomew on Königssee, Germany’s deepest lake (up easy, plus a brilliant sun comes out. Königssee or accompany a to 200m/656ft), in one of the designated We cough up €8 (£7.22) at the toll booth; park ranger on a rare plant motorhome spaces. We run the gauntlet it seems a small price to pay considering the and wildlife observation tour of cafés, waffle makers and shops selling road costs nearly three times as much as a nationalpark-berchtes marble, dirndls, lederhosen and every state highway to maintain and it’s kept open gaden.de size of cow bell to reach the clear emerald all year. That’s also despite up to 5.8m (19ft) Get an AlpenweltCard when water in which the Berchtesgaden Alps are of snow on the summit in winter. staying in the Alpenwelt mirrored in its stillness. A quiet electric boat There are loads of enticing walking paths Karwendel area to get free carries us on one of the loveliest lake trips and did I mention the sensational scenery? buses and guided hikes. Stay that I’ve ever taken, below almost vertical more than two nights to get a The vista takes in the huge mountain free chairlift ride and cliffs and passing the 1,600m high (5,249ft) massif of Hoher Göll (2,522m/8,274ft), the swimming pool entry Königsbach waterfall. Kehlstein to the south, Tennen and Hagen alpenwelt-karwendel.de/ The much-photographed seventeenth to the southeast, over the Berchtesgaden alpenweltcard century church of St Bartholomew, with its Alps to the southwest and the Salzburg Alps Some sites have motorhome distinctive onion-shaped domes, is set on and Dachstein range to the east. areas that are far cheaper a tiny peninsula jutting into the fjord-like From the summit parking area we than regular pitches Königssee. There is no path around the 8km follow the short panorama trail, along There’s motorhome parking at long (5 miles) Königssee as the cliff sides which information boards tell us that this Berchtesgaden Salt Mine are so sheer though, at Salet, the farthest is where Julie Andrews and Christopher salzbergwerk.de landing stage, we can stroll about ➤

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15 minutes to Obersee. Again, the scenes are dazzlingly pretty. The Hagen mountains WE STAYED AT are reflected in Obersee’s clear waters and Alpen-Caravanpark Tennsee, Am allweglehen.de  All year the Röthbach waterfall – one of Germany’s Tennsee 1, 82494 Krün £ Two adults, pitch and electric: highest – plunges 400m (1,312ft). Our day at ☎ 0049 8 825170 From €15 (£13.55) for the Königssee is going to be very hard to better. camping-tennsee.de camperstop with use of facilities Our final Bavarian campsite is on the  16 December – 3 November picturesque and popular lake of Waginger Gut Horn Camping and Apartments, £ Two adults, pitch and electric: See in the heart of the Rupertiwinkel region. Gut Horn 2, 83329 Waging am See From €25.50 (£23.03) plus This is the gently undulating hill country electric at €0.75 (£0.67) per kWh ☎ 0049 8 681227 gut-horn.de close to the Austrian border.  1 March – 30 November Waginger See is the warmest lake in Camping-Resort Allweglehen, £ Two adults, pitch and electric: upper Bavaria, as Herr Stepper, the very Allweggasse 4, 83471 Berchtesgaden From €25.90 (£23.39) plus helpful and friendly owner of Gut Horn ☎ 0049 86 522396 electric at €0.75 (£0.67) per kWh Camping on its shores, is proud to tell us. He quickly reels off just some of the things to do here; fishing, kayaking, stand-up paddle boarding, windsurfing, sailing, innumerable other water activities, a network of hiking BELOW LEFT On a cycle ride to I can just hear the faint hum of activity and biking paths including around the lake Tachinger See from Camping from the opposite side of the lake where Gut Horn and one of those amusing barefoot paths at people are getting ready for a traditional fish nearby Taching am See… BELOW RIGHT The suspended festival (fischerfest) at which there’s to be walkway through the Phew, I’m overwhelmed. It’s another Leutasch Gorge delicious food and music and revelry later. sweltering day and, just over Herr Our days at Lake Waging are spent Stepper’s shoulder, the sight of sparkling swimming, kayaking and walking. We Waginger See and the soothing sound of enjoy cycling through the pretty woods to the water gently lapping the pebbly beach neighbouring Tachinger See and across the is too tempting to ignore. As soon as Herr bridge, along an off-road path, to Fisching Stepper’s gone, I change into my swimsuit and Waging am See. Evenings are spent in (I’ve never undressed so quickly!). A few the good-value restaurant that dishes up steps and I’m in. some particularly tasty Turkish specialties, I can truthfully tell you that Herr plus takeaway pizzas and enormous, super- Stepper hasn’t been exaggerating about yummy, ice cream sundaes. the temperature, in high summer, anyway. Bavaria has served us up some fabulous Drifting on my back, cares floating away, treats; it’s going to take some licking…

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