Wanderen

Yesterday I climbed an Alp! A WHOLE ALP, the entire mountain, from foot to summit. Granted, it was one of the smaller mountains in the area, but it was within sight of the Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany, so it couldn't have been that small.

Shortly after posting on Thursday I met Vicky at the Hauptbanhof and we went back to her family's house. I got the same room as four years ago. Horst and Sonja, Vicky's parents, and her brother Tobias, were much the same as I remembered them.

The next day Vicky had to work, so Toby and I went to the Olympic Park to view an exhibition on Tutankhamen's tomb and the Egyptian politics that surrounded his death. I learned that despite however much people want to believe he was murdered by the high priest Ay or his successor General Horemheb, the forensic evidence actually points to a chariot accident. The exhibition was full of replicas of the treasures found in his tomb and the sheer number of objects, let alone the sumptuous quality of them, was staggering.

Saturday Vicky, Toby, and I got up early and drove to the mountain town of Garmisch, intending to hike to Partnach-klamm, a long and geographically unique canyon cut by an alpine stream. Klamm is actually German for "U-shaped canyon." But it was closed due to the stream being flooded from snowmelt, so we started up the aforementioned mountain to the village of Eckbauer at the top. The terrain was very steep, but the views of the Alps all around were unforgettable. I didn't know that Toby had packed a veritable feast for us and we had lunch on the deck of a nineteenth-century tavern. On the route down we went through another tiny village that had a church that was built in 1720. The meal when we got back to the Preglers was astounding; Vicky' boyfriend Flo came over and grilled schweinebraten while Sonja made two salads. We all stayed up talking in mixed German and English until almost midnight.

This morning I wake up packed quickly, and left for the Hauptbanhof with Vicky. At her suggestion, I bought a book for the journey: A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. 'F anyone tells you this book is equally as good as The Kite Runner, don't believe them; it's about four times better. The story arc between Tariq and Laila is one of the greatest love stories I've ever read. I'm already about four-fifths through.

With the book to occupy me, the train ride passed fairly quickly. There was some minor unpleasantness while leaving Stuttgart about my not having a reservation for the TGV back into France, but once I said I was perfectly willing to cough up the €15 fee, the comptroller relented and let me sit in the space between cars again.

Thirty-nine hours till I leave for Madrid. Now, if you'll excuse me, these six episodes of Lost aren't gonna watch themselves.