July 26, Thr: climb to Ehrenburg ruins

We are in the community of Ehenbichl. A hidden gem in the heart of the Tirol/BavarianAlps region. Slept til 9am. Crisp cool air and tired body will do that. Best breakfast to date. Breads, jams, yogurt, meats, fruit, cheese, juice, coffee. Plenty to keep us going for much of another beautiful, sunny day. Most all our clothes are dirty and we asked Sieglinde (the owner) about a laundry mat. She just smiled and said I´ll do them for you. Upon returing later in the day they were all done. This place is too good to be true.

Headed up the mountain behind us that contains the Ehrenburg ruins. Worked through some fields and hit the forested base. Eventually found a small trail that headed upward. Pretty steep towards the end as we approached the old rock walls. I can´t imagine trying to attack this fortress. The base walls were steep and it took us quite a while to find a weak spot where we could work our way through to the interior. There were additional walls as we continued upward, but there is an upper trail system that is well developed, apparently from the other side of the mountain and it was easy going from here.

I took a 360 degree panarama video from the summit. Hopefully I can reduce or stream it for all to see. Looking back down into the valley, the river flowing through it, and all the surrounding mountains makes this place my favorite so far. Most folks just don´t drift over this far. They stop where the train stops (Fussen) and have no idea what they are missing.

There is a tiny airport runway where hang gliders take off once the winds pick up. We watched about 6 or 8 take off and cruise around us for about an hour. For launching, it appears they have some type of motorized contraption that accelerates them less than 100m down the runway then they rise at nearly 45 degrees to 1000 feet (level with us) in a few seconds. Then they drop this device and it plummets down to the earth and lands at the end of the runway (kind of parachutes). Not only are they buzzing around us, but there are hang-gliders on the other side of the valley also.

We met a young man (only 56) who came up from the other side of the runis and had a good conversation. He is from Colo. Springs but his wife is stationed near Reutte for a few years so they are currently residing here. He loves the area and says it is one of his favorites of all of Europe. He hasn´t been to Switzerland, but barring that I would certainly agree.

Took a little different route down. Went over the walls in a more direct route towards Reutte. Eventually pushed out to a path and side road which led back to town. Phoned home, got a bite to eat, stopped at the Information booth to get more info of the area, walked around town a little, then walked the 2 miles down the river back to Ehenbichl.

We decided to stay an extra day. Called over to Oberstdorf and said we´d be a day late. No problem. We decided to rent bikes tomorrow and bike about 10 miles back into Germany on a back road and visit the castle created by crazy von Ludwig (Neuschwanstein). Enough people have talked us into taking the tour, although it´s not really our thing. We´ll then lock up the bikes and climb up to the Tegelberg Hutte (several thousand feet) which will look down into Forggensee Lake area and over to the mountains near Reutte. Get a quick bite to eat then then descend a different route that goes back into the valley floor and back to our bikes. Bike over to Fussen for dinner and back to Reutte/Ehenbichl by dark.