calibusje
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Hellow cali enthusiasts,
Everyone knows the Alps; you heard of them or read about them, many have been there, visited them, or driven through them. In July, we explored a section I hadn't seen before. And wow, what a surprise! I'm going to try to describe our road trip through the German Alps and how beautiful and fascinating it was. We started in Bruges, Belgium, and first stopped at a museum I'd recently read about and thought: I have to see this. And yes, the Loh Museum is definitely worth it (https://www.nationalesautomuseum.de/en/).
You can stay overnight with your camper in the parking lot (quiet and beautiful surroundings) and there's a restaurant that stays open after the museum closes. Then we continued to our starting point of the German Alpine Road: Lindau.
https://www.deutsche-alpenstrasse.de/en/home
Be sure to stop here and visit the town on the peninsula of Lake Constance (Bodensee 'see' = lake). Climb the lighthouse and enjoy the view from the top. Stroll through the streets and don't miss Luitpoldpark. There's a lot to see in Lindau but also along the whole route; I won't describe every location; you can look up more online if you're interested. I downloaded a travel itinerary (it was €10 and worth every cent). Written in Dutch, of course. It was very comprehensive and, for us, served as a good guide, driving from point to point, looking at what we wanted to visit along the way; we didn't do everything on the itinerary.
Our final destination of the route was gordeous Lake Königssee. Just before Königssee and in the same beautiful surroundings, we visited the Kehlsteinhaus, better known as the Eagle's Nest.
https://www.kehlsteinhaus.com/
Man, what a view up there! And the food was delicious too. A ticket for the bus to the top—where you then travel the rest of the way to the Kehlsteinhaus via a tunnel and elevator—also gives you access to the Dokumentationszentrum Obersalzberg.
https://obersalzberg.de/en/
Don't miss out on entering and let everything come in as it was meant to; it kicks in and should never be forgotten.
From the town of Berchtesgaden, you can drive up a steep climb to the large parking lot where you can buy the bus tickets. So, you already know the starting and ending points. In between, chronologically, we did the following:
We visited Scheidegger Waterfalls: not large but still impressive, but most of all a beautiful, though strenuous, hike to get there. Worth it just for the scenery. We swam in the Waldsee. The temperatures during the day were fine so from time to time we jumped into the beautiful water of one of the many lakes you encounter along the route which was very refreshing and relaxing. Water sandals recommended for most lakes. We drove the Oberjoch Pass and I love doing passes with our cali. And there are even more passes. Along the German Alpine Road, you occasionally cross into Austria because you drive sometimes right on the border.
The Falkenstein castle ruins are also recommended and the drive there is exciting, and at the top, there's a hike to the ruins. Not too far and easily doable, and again, a magnificent view of the surroundings.
We reached our next destination by horse and carriage: Neuschwanstein Castle.
https://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/tourist/index.htm
We didn't visit the castle itself: it's rather expensive, has few finished rooms, a visit is only possible as part of a guided tour and you're apparently herded through like cattle to accommodate as many visitors as possible. And for a longer period -weeks- sold out. We walked on to the Marienbrücke bridge, where you have a magnificent view of the castle. You can take the most beautiful photos there, truly postcard-worthy.
Want to see a truly beautiful church? Then visit the Rococo-style pilgrimage church of Wies. A wooden Christ figure is said to have shed real tears.
King Ludwig II's Linderhof Palace was another highlight.
https://www.schlosslinderhof.de/englisch/tourist/index.htm
What a captivating figure Ludwig II was! Feel free to look up his life story and be amazed. Now, you can take a long walk in the park, and along the way you'll encounter various buildings, including the Venus Grotto, a truly bizarre one. We also visited the palace, and our guide was fantastic: both informative and entertaining.
Alpencamp am Wank, a camper site on the Wankbahn in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, offers the absolute highlight of the route, literally: the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain (just under 3,000 meters).
https://zugspitze.de/en/Service-information/Plan-your-trip/Camp-at-Mount-Wank
Unfortunately, there was zero visibility at the summit (we could tell by the cameras above), so we visited the town (a free bus ride is included with our campervan site ticket). The next day, we booked breakfast atop Mount Wank, which we reached by cable car. Highly recommended. And once again, a beautiful view of the surrounding area. Further along the route: swimming in Lake Walchensee, seeing the Sylvenstein reservoir with its fjord-like lake, and buying Bavarian whisky.
Also: in Prien am Chiemsee: boat to two islands.
https://www.chiemsee-schifffahrt.de/en/home
With a little imagination, you can even experience the boat trip as a mini-cruise on the lake. The first island: Lake Herrenchiemsee. There stands the Herrenchiemsee Palace (Ludwig II). Be amazed. The other island, Frauenchiemsee, has a Benedictine nunnery. Both are very beautiful: enjoy a lovely walk on them and of course the scenery.
We stopped at other places and visited even more, but this is an attempt at a brief overview of the German Alpine Road.
From our final destination, Königssee, we returned the same way to give it another chance to go to the top of the summit of the Zugspitze, hopefully with a good view. When we arrived, we were lucky because there was an open view at the top. You can take the train from Garmisch-Partenkirchen station to Eibsee and from there the cable car to cover the last 2000m to the summit. From there, you can descend with another cable car to the glacier and go sledding. Back at the top, enjoy the view. Note: it is possible to drive to Eibsee but that parking can easily be full.
We stopped in Bad-Waldsee, among other places, to visit the Erwin Hymer Museum. https://www.erwin-hymer-museum.de/?L=1
A wonderful museum for anyone who enjoys camping. I saw the VisionVenture prototype there, which is also produced a few hundred meters away from the museum as the Hymer Venture S. What a special thing, and exactly what I wanted, but too expensive: starting at €250,000. It was a warm day, so we went swimming at the Beach and Pool Bad Waldsee. You can spend the night at the Hymer Museum. It's very peaceful there.
Back to Bodensee where we visited the flower island of Mainau.
https://www.mainau.de/en/home
Don't miss it; enjoy the walk there, the views and of course the planting of trees and flowers. There's also a castle and a butterfly garden. Only a few rooms in the castle are open to visitors, as it is still inhabited.
Afterward, we went swimming in Lake Constance at the Strandbad Horn in Konstanz. Then the time had come to start our way back home and we were very happy we chose the German Alpine Road as our road trip this summer.
Also this: Finding a place to sleep was easy along the entire route: either a camper site using one of the well-known apps or a small campsite and there are plenty of signs that lead you to a camper place. At many places, they rely on your honesty and require you to put money in an envelope and post it in a mailbox along with a completed form (the ‘honesty box’). Campsites often offer a cheaper spot for those staying just one night, but sometimes you can't use all the facilities. Of course, you can choose for yourself how beautiful the place is where you spend the night and possibly eat in the evening and/or in the morning.
We don't take much food with us (only our so-called emergency food) and only enough underwear for a week (and in between in the washing machine at a campsite, of course).
Our California Coast is a 2022 and has now driven 72,000 km, the vast majority for travel. It has 150 hp and a DSG automatic transmission, making it the perfect travel companion for us.
The German Alpine Road itself is just under 500 km long; in total, we drove just over 3,000 km for our trip. Our full trip lasted 15 days of which 13 along the German Alpenstrasse (plus visit Hymer museum). You can complete the Alpenstrasse in fewer days or even longer, the choice is yours.
Regarding the weather, keep in mind that you're in the mountains and there can be frequent clouds. We had a few isolated rain showers and a heavy thunderstorm. Otherwise, the weather was beautiful and warm, but not too hot.
So, that's it, and I hope it was informative, maybe fun to read and perhaps it even inspired you to explore this incredibly beautiful region of Germany. People from Bavaria are very friendly and helpful. You feel welcome in their region.
I hardly met any English people there and actually also only a few Belgians and Dutch. Most of the campers I saw had German license plates. But what did I see, and a lot: California’s, I saw dozens of them along that route... kinda every day
Greetings
Calibusje
Some photos in chronological order from our road trip.
Everyone knows the Alps; you heard of them or read about them, many have been there, visited them, or driven through them. In July, we explored a section I hadn't seen before. And wow, what a surprise! I'm going to try to describe our road trip through the German Alps and how beautiful and fascinating it was. We started in Bruges, Belgium, and first stopped at a museum I'd recently read about and thought: I have to see this. And yes, the Loh Museum is definitely worth it (https://www.nationalesautomuseum.de/en/).
You can stay overnight with your camper in the parking lot (quiet and beautiful surroundings) and there's a restaurant that stays open after the museum closes. Then we continued to our starting point of the German Alpine Road: Lindau.
https://www.deutsche-alpenstrasse.de/en/home
Be sure to stop here and visit the town on the peninsula of Lake Constance (Bodensee 'see' = lake). Climb the lighthouse and enjoy the view from the top. Stroll through the streets and don't miss Luitpoldpark. There's a lot to see in Lindau but also along the whole route; I won't describe every location; you can look up more online if you're interested. I downloaded a travel itinerary (it was €10 and worth every cent). Written in Dutch, of course. It was very comprehensive and, for us, served as a good guide, driving from point to point, looking at what we wanted to visit along the way; we didn't do everything on the itinerary.
Our final destination of the route was gordeous Lake Königssee. Just before Königssee and in the same beautiful surroundings, we visited the Kehlsteinhaus, better known as the Eagle's Nest.
https://www.kehlsteinhaus.com/
Man, what a view up there! And the food was delicious too. A ticket for the bus to the top—where you then travel the rest of the way to the Kehlsteinhaus via a tunnel and elevator—also gives you access to the Dokumentationszentrum Obersalzberg.
https://obersalzberg.de/en/
Don't miss out on entering and let everything come in as it was meant to; it kicks in and should never be forgotten.
From the town of Berchtesgaden, you can drive up a steep climb to the large parking lot where you can buy the bus tickets. So, you already know the starting and ending points. In between, chronologically, we did the following:
We visited Scheidegger Waterfalls: not large but still impressive, but most of all a beautiful, though strenuous, hike to get there. Worth it just for the scenery. We swam in the Waldsee. The temperatures during the day were fine so from time to time we jumped into the beautiful water of one of the many lakes you encounter along the route which was very refreshing and relaxing. Water sandals recommended for most lakes. We drove the Oberjoch Pass and I love doing passes with our cali. And there are even more passes. Along the German Alpine Road, you occasionally cross into Austria because you drive sometimes right on the border.
The Falkenstein castle ruins are also recommended and the drive there is exciting, and at the top, there's a hike to the ruins. Not too far and easily doable, and again, a magnificent view of the surroundings.
We reached our next destination by horse and carriage: Neuschwanstein Castle.
https://www.neuschwanstein.de/englisch/tourist/index.htm
We didn't visit the castle itself: it's rather expensive, has few finished rooms, a visit is only possible as part of a guided tour and you're apparently herded through like cattle to accommodate as many visitors as possible. And for a longer period -weeks- sold out. We walked on to the Marienbrücke bridge, where you have a magnificent view of the castle. You can take the most beautiful photos there, truly postcard-worthy.
Want to see a truly beautiful church? Then visit the Rococo-style pilgrimage church of Wies. A wooden Christ figure is said to have shed real tears.
King Ludwig II's Linderhof Palace was another highlight.
https://www.schlosslinderhof.de/englisch/tourist/index.htm
What a captivating figure Ludwig II was! Feel free to look up his life story and be amazed. Now, you can take a long walk in the park, and along the way you'll encounter various buildings, including the Venus Grotto, a truly bizarre one. We also visited the palace, and our guide was fantastic: both informative and entertaining.
Alpencamp am Wank, a camper site on the Wankbahn in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, offers the absolute highlight of the route, literally: the Zugspitze, Germany's highest mountain (just under 3,000 meters).
https://zugspitze.de/en/Service-information/Plan-your-trip/Camp-at-Mount-Wank
Unfortunately, there was zero visibility at the summit (we could tell by the cameras above), so we visited the town (a free bus ride is included with our campervan site ticket). The next day, we booked breakfast atop Mount Wank, which we reached by cable car. Highly recommended. And once again, a beautiful view of the surrounding area. Further along the route: swimming in Lake Walchensee, seeing the Sylvenstein reservoir with its fjord-like lake, and buying Bavarian whisky.
Also: in Prien am Chiemsee: boat to two islands.
https://www.chiemsee-schifffahrt.de/en/home
With a little imagination, you can even experience the boat trip as a mini-cruise on the lake. The first island: Lake Herrenchiemsee. There stands the Herrenchiemsee Palace (Ludwig II). Be amazed. The other island, Frauenchiemsee, has a Benedictine nunnery. Both are very beautiful: enjoy a lovely walk on them and of course the scenery.
We stopped at other places and visited even more, but this is an attempt at a brief overview of the German Alpine Road.
From our final destination, Königssee, we returned the same way to give it another chance to go to the top of the summit of the Zugspitze, hopefully with a good view. When we arrived, we were lucky because there was an open view at the top. You can take the train from Garmisch-Partenkirchen station to Eibsee and from there the cable car to cover the last 2000m to the summit. From there, you can descend with another cable car to the glacier and go sledding. Back at the top, enjoy the view. Note: it is possible to drive to Eibsee but that parking can easily be full.
We stopped in Bad-Waldsee, among other places, to visit the Erwin Hymer Museum. https://www.erwin-hymer-museum.de/?L=1
A wonderful museum for anyone who enjoys camping. I saw the VisionVenture prototype there, which is also produced a few hundred meters away from the museum as the Hymer Venture S. What a special thing, and exactly what I wanted, but too expensive: starting at €250,000. It was a warm day, so we went swimming at the Beach and Pool Bad Waldsee. You can spend the night at the Hymer Museum. It's very peaceful there.
Back to Bodensee where we visited the flower island of Mainau.
https://www.mainau.de/en/home
Don't miss it; enjoy the walk there, the views and of course the planting of trees and flowers. There's also a castle and a butterfly garden. Only a few rooms in the castle are open to visitors, as it is still inhabited.
Afterward, we went swimming in Lake Constance at the Strandbad Horn in Konstanz. Then the time had come to start our way back home and we were very happy we chose the German Alpine Road as our road trip this summer.
Also this: Finding a place to sleep was easy along the entire route: either a camper site using one of the well-known apps or a small campsite and there are plenty of signs that lead you to a camper place. At many places, they rely on your honesty and require you to put money in an envelope and post it in a mailbox along with a completed form (the ‘honesty box’). Campsites often offer a cheaper spot for those staying just one night, but sometimes you can't use all the facilities. Of course, you can choose for yourself how beautiful the place is where you spend the night and possibly eat in the evening and/or in the morning.
We don't take much food with us (only our so-called emergency food) and only enough underwear for a week (and in between in the washing machine at a campsite, of course).
Our California Coast is a 2022 and has now driven 72,000 km, the vast majority for travel. It has 150 hp and a DSG automatic transmission, making it the perfect travel companion for us.
The German Alpine Road itself is just under 500 km long; in total, we drove just over 3,000 km for our trip. Our full trip lasted 15 days of which 13 along the German Alpenstrasse (plus visit Hymer museum). You can complete the Alpenstrasse in fewer days or even longer, the choice is yours.
Regarding the weather, keep in mind that you're in the mountains and there can be frequent clouds. We had a few isolated rain showers and a heavy thunderstorm. Otherwise, the weather was beautiful and warm, but not too hot.
So, that's it, and I hope it was informative, maybe fun to read and perhaps it even inspired you to explore this incredibly beautiful region of Germany. People from Bavaria are very friendly and helpful. You feel welcome in their region.
I hardly met any English people there and actually also only a few Belgians and Dutch. Most of the campers I saw had German license plates. But what did I see, and a lot: California’s, I saw dozens of them along that route... kinda every day
Greetings
Calibusje
Some photos in chronological order from our road trip.
Last edited:
