Rodney Campbell's Blog

We were on our way for a day trip to Zugspitze on Christmas day. In part to satisfy our desire for a white Christmas but mostly to see some amazing scenery for which we have no equivalent here down under.

Once at Garmisch-Partenkirchen we purchased our Zugspitze tickets which would allow us to ride the cog train from here to Eibsee and then to ride the newly (just a few days ago) opened Seilbahn Zugspitze cable car up to the peak.

Zugspitzbahn

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/320 sec at f/5, ISO 100

After six (6) years of planning and construction the new cable car features three new world firsts: the world’s highest cable car support tower measuring 127 metres, the greatest altitude difference of 1,945 metres and the world’s longest free span covering 3,213 metres.

Zugspitze Cable Car

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/60 sec at f/5.6, ISO 220

Once at the top the views are simply breathtaking. We have nothing like this in Australia – our highest mountain (Mount Kosciuszko) sits at just over 2000m and the range looks more like a set of undulating hills. Nothing like the jagged massif’s which stretch into the distance here.

Garmish

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 62 mm, 1/500 sec at f/10, ISO 100

Note: These photographs (especially the wider shots) look much better when larger. To see larger versions in an inline overlay slideshow gallery viewer click any of the images.

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 28 mm, 1/400 sec at f/9, ISO 100

Ehrwald

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 55 mm, 1/200 sec at f/9, ISO 100

Jagged Peaks

NIKON D750 + 28.0-300.0 mm f/3.5-5.6 @ 72 mm, 1/250 sec at f/9, ISO 100

The Zugspitze belongs to the Wetterstein range of the Northern Limestone Alps. The Austria–Germany border goes right over the mountain. There used to be a border checkpoint at the summit but, since Germany and Austria are now both part of the Schengen zone, the border crossing is no longer manned. Conveniently we could cross back and forth and even stand one foot in each country – something else we can’t do in Australia :). We ate lunch “in Austria” sitting at a table at the window with this amazing view :).

Don't forget to Share...

Google

Facebook

Twitter

Linkedin

Pinterest

Email

Print