Wamberg
Wamberg, what are the chances you heard of this little village if you are not German ? and even if you are German ! This post is about a wonderful little village, pretty well known in its area and a popular hiking destination in Bavaria, south Germany.
Wamberg church
Wamberg is famous due to this white church on the left, the small mountain village being the highest village in Germany, that has its own church. The church is here since 1721 and if you are lucky to catch it open it is worth visiting, at least for the altar.
At an altitude of almost 1000 meters above see level, surrounded by forest covered mountains and snow covered mountain peaks, this place is a natural wonder. It is easy to understand why the first people settled here.
To reach Wamberg most people hike, although the people living here do own cars and various agricultural equipment so the area has asphalt covered road. Trust me, you want to hike all the way here. Another way to reach Wamberg is by combining a hike with riding a wire "gondola", the one you can see down the page, which is the Eckbauer cable car.
Regardless if you want to hike here or ride the gondola part of the way, the starting point is the famous Olympia Ski Stadion in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It takes one hour to reach the gondola end of line, by foot, from the Skistadion. It is the option we took when we visited the area and it is a very worth option. The views are incredible and the air is fresh, no traces of pollution here either, the people going down or up always salute (except a bunch of americans, those did not salute). It is polite to salute them back and in Bavaria, just like in the neighboring German speaking country of Austria, the way to do it is by saying "Grüß Gott", which is more or less a "bless you". To grüß is to salute and Gott is God, translating it closely would mean Salute God. This local salutation is a common base for jokes in other parts of Germany, a southerner saluting a northerner by "Grüß Gott" may receive a rather unexpected answer "I'll salute Him, when I'll see Him".
Gondola - Garmisch to Wamberg
Once you reach the end of the line for the wire gondola, which only has two seats, there are a few hiking choices available. Since the subject of this post is Wamberg, I will not cover the other choices.
If tired and thirsty there is a nice Gasthaus ("pension") nearby with terrace and umbrellas where you can lodge, eat and drink.
If not so tired Wamberg is only 45 minutes away, most of which are decent. The views are wonderful and we discovered a couple of benches along the way, not something you would expect up there. These benches are well thought out, not in the sense of construction but in the sense of positioning, sitting on the bench you get one of the best views possible form that spot.
On the way to Wamberg be careful of mountain bikers, not that anyone would bother you, simply because they go up from Wamberg, reach the top at the gondola end of line and go down one of the other ways; and on their climb up there momentum is important the effort is considerable.
Wamberg goats
As you get closer to Wamberg the trail becomes more city like, as you can see in the image on the right it is covered with asphalt. Do not let this bother you, the views are just as great and the reason the asphalt is there is agriculture. We got the chance to see a small tractor like vehicle on our way up before reaching the gondola station and a few fenced parcels where animals were kept, like th goats in this photograph on the right. We also saw cows and sheep, dairy products and meat being some of the income sources for the local population.
As we heard from a very nice gentleman up here, nowadays most of the people work in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, in the tourism industry, services or other industry branches, this is because the pay is just as good if not better and the work is easier compared to mountain agriculture. Also the tourism in the area is booming, the entire southern region of Bavaria being covered with very popular tourist attractions and being a tourism magnet since the 1930s.
Once you reach Wamberg you get to see the view from the first photograph of this post, with the village and the white
Wamberg graveyard
church dominating the surrounding area. On the left side of that is the village edge and the very small graveyard. We were wondering how come a village with such a long history and a church since 1721 only has such a small graveyard. There are two reasons for that, one is that Wamberg is very very small, about 20 houses, second is that they use the city graveyard and third is that having a family grave or crypt is not uncommon.
Than as you keep descending and getting closer to the village the stones on the rooftops start getting your attention. They certainly did capture our interest. It seems that at this altitude winds can be very strong and tiles from the roofs can be blown away or even worse, depending on the construction type. It is certainly not a common view, quite a wonder for some and something to tell others about, especially city folk which may have never gotten the chance to visit such a beautiful place. As you can see in the two images bellow, the size of the stones is not a joking matter.
Stones on the roof
Cabane with stones on the roof
What we have seen as something common to German villages is also present here, the flowers at the windows and balconies, the benches in front of the houses and the Biergarten or Gasthaus. Wamberg certainly has flowers, benches and a Gasthaus where the hungry group of ours had drinks and food and good conversation.
Reaching the Wamberg Gasthaus
Wamberg Schnaps
Bavarian beer
Wamberg ham plate
Before the gear recommendation I want to make a note about German hospitality, this is because all kinds of nincompoops bother me by saying that Germans are cold, distant, or some other stupidity. Germans are polite and due to their politeness they may seem distant, put simply they do not want to intrude. However if approached and talked to Germans are quite warm people and fun and they have their own type of humor.
To support the above is the fact that the waiter from the Wamberg Gasthaus offered us a ride to Garmisch, as he was driving for the city and we were the last guests. We did not ask for the ride, we simply paid and started walking, his car caught up to us and as it was getting dark the man stopped and offered to take us into Garmisch. Needless to say it was a free ride, the conversation was good and we ended up taking a group photo and eating dinner at the restaurant he recommended to us. It was a good choice.
Photographic gear reccomandation
We had both Canon and Nikon gear and that has to do with personal choice. Both served us well and there is nothing to complain about. For lenses we had: 28mm and 50mm primes, 18-55mm, 18-200mm, from which the 18-200 was the most versatile lens, followed by the 18-55mm and the 50mm. The best addition to the lenses was a polarizing filter. I think regardless of the lens choice, the polarizing filter had the most impact.
We missed a tripod or monopod, not that we needed one much but at some points I wished I had one for group shots, angles, positioning and so on.
Thanks for reading and if you visit Garmisch-Partenkirchen, hope you decide to visit Wamberg, it is certainly a worthy hike.
Blaubeuren
A few weeks ago, in fact more than a month ago, I got the chance to visit the small city of Blaubeuren, a city situated about 18km west of Ulm, in Baden-Wuerttemberg, Germany.
We had decided to do something in the weekend from early in the week and I asked around for some suggestions. A work
colleague of mine is a passionate traveler and knows the area around the city of Ulm quite well, since this area offers lots of things to do, especially for hikers, climbers and speologists. After considering various options we took his recommendation and decided to visit Blaubeuren.
We reached Blaubeuren on a sunny Saturday morning by car. The gps navigation system took us directly in the center of the city and from there we took it on instinct to find our way around and a good parking place. On Saturday the stone paved center street becomes a walking street from morning till afternoon and a small market rules the area. A lot of fruits and other local agriculture products were available for reasonable prices.
We were able to find a parking place close to the center and while looking around on the street we quickly spotted a tourist information office. It is the first sign that this little city is tourist friendly. Close to the tourist information office is a public toilette, which has served us well after sitting in the car for some hours. So if you are in a quick need to go.. and know where the information office is, there you go.
We took our time looking through the small center and then had brunch. The center square is called Kirchplatz which means Church Square. The prices were fair and the portions were typically german: you need to be hungry and used to this king of quantity. The food is generally good and this brunch was quite good too, it becomes hard to abstain from eating it all. The place we ate at had nice tables and umbrellas in the city center, on a stone paved square. On one side is the restaurant building, on another side is the church, on yet other side is a flower shop and the other more of the square and a water fountain. We were drawn to it because of the Paulaner writing on the umbrellas.
With our bellies full, considering the good food and of course the local beers we tasted, we decided it was time to see more of the city.
The first thing to see from out location was the nearby church right in the center and so we did, but never 
got inside, just around it. That is something to do next time. The photograph on the right is of the church tower where the bells are and you can see something rather common to churches in Germany, the clock tower.
From here we decided to see the monastery or as they call it Kloster. This is situated north from the center of the city, same direction as the Blautopf and is easy to find, due to markings and tourist information tablets or signs. If everything fails you can just ask any local on the street and they will be able to point you in the right direction. Bellow are some photos I took while walking inside the monastery area, it seems to be called Klosterhof.
The area looks like the interior square of the old monastery and besides the few paved alleys the rest of the area is covered in grass and there are a couple of trees as well. Under these trees there are wood chairs where tired travelers can sit and rest.
On the photograph on the left you can spot some dates related to the building. I think they are 1671 - 1964. Blaubeuren Abbey was founded in 1085 by the Benedictine Order. Starting as a Roman Catholic monastery it is now a Protestant seminary with an attached boarding school. The photograph in the middle shows the monastery building while the one on the right shows the walkway, with the church on your right side, which leads to the Blautopf. Once you exist through the gate there, turn right and just walk forward.
Walking north from here after you exit the Klosterhof you reach the Blautopf, the river spring. This spring has influenced the name of this city and the building of this monastery here. The name means "blue pot" and fits the water spring very well. The location is round and deep and the water is blue, the flow is calm and all things around reflect in the water mirror. 
Circling the spring there is a pathway made for tourists and you can go round the Blautopf to get all kinds of views from different angles. There are also benches where people can sit and we were pleasantly surprised by the big number of tourists here and locals with small children. Kids were fascinated by the blue colors of the "lake". The source of this spring seems to be the cave system in this part of the Swabian Alps (Schwaben Alb). The underwater area was explored by divers and remote controlled submarines and this was confirmed by an accident in the mountains: a truck carrying apples had an accident and the cargo was lost, only to surface in the Blautopf days later.
The power of the river that is born here was used by man since ages and the water mill still standing today at the riverside is proof to that. Today the watermill building is used as bar with terrace and souvenir shop. The souvenir shop had all kinds of things, from which I clearly remember animal teeth necklaces and all sorts of sweets with forest fruit flavours.
From here we walked around the area and went on a small hike because there are a few caves and ruins worth visiting, sadly the time was short and the night caught up to us before we managed to see all we had planned. This must be a sign that we must visit Blaubeuren again in the future. I got the chance to photograph a couple of airplanes dancing in the sky before sitting down to eat dinner.
As we were eating dinner at the same place we had brunch early in the day the light went completely away and the night took over. We had learned from the serious meal we had there and decided to cautiously order the child portions this time. I was not surprised when the "Kinderportion" the waiter brought was more than enough to settle my hunger.
Now with our bellies full and our feet a little bit rested we decided to take another look at the Blautopf and try a few night shots. Unfortunately we lacked a tripod or even a monopod and we were left with hand holding or improvising, which we did. This is a shot I took handheld and it turned out ok.
I hope you enjoyed reading and that you found this post useful in the event you decide to visit Blaubeuren. I have a couple of advices: plan ahead so that you do not run out of time like we did. Carry a monopod and a polarizing filter because there are plenty of things to shoot and the nature scapes are wonderful. Use a map of the area and mark the places you plan to visit and the approximate times it takes to get there. If unsure visit the tourist information office, the people there want to help you.