Laberberg

The Laberberg (1685m) is located between Oberammergau and the monastery Ettal. In the vicinity of it you can also find Palace Linderhof, built by King Ludwig II. It's a small but quite nice castle and surrounded by a large and beautiful park.

My first hike in this area started in Oberammergau, leading through a meadow were I was overtaken by a car of the small cable railway. After a short rest I suddenly was standing right in front of a ferocious bovine beast (a.k.a. cow). Fortunately it already had had its breakfast.

So I trotted on towards my next encounter, which should have been a lake. At least that was what my map said. But instead of it I only was able to find a muddy pond after crossing an alpine pasture.

From there on the path got more and more beautiful. On the left is what it looked like from the summit.

Though there's a second summit that's rocky and harder to climb, I preferred to have lunch at the easily reachable restaurant. (At least I didn't take the cable railway.)

Afterwards I had a look at the scenery, which mainly consists of the Wettersteingebirge, a mountain range that includes Germany's highest mountain, the Zugspitze (2962 m). It can be seen on the right side of this picture.

My next stop was the monastery Ettal, about 800m down. The way there would have been a bit boring, because it first led through a dark conifer wood and then through a hot and almost treeless valley. But I made it more interesting by taking a wrong turn and ending up in a brook at the valley floor. While fighting my way back up to the regular path on slippery logs and through spiky shrubs, some hikers that took the right path tried to encourage me with comments like "It's impossible to go up there." (It was not.)

After this short delay I arrived in Ettal and took a bus back to Oberammergau. Shortly after I arrived there, a really heavy thunderstorm broke out. You couldn't see the Laberberg's summit any more, because it was hidden in the clouds. Perfect timing.