Longest, Oldest, Highest Two Cable Circular Big-Gondola Cableway, Royal Grub

The Swarm suggested, to print this and to pinn it on the wall in the office.

I also heard the suggestion to use it in bedrooms.

Update 11.2024

The swarm finished the season with several trips during a stable atmospheric inversion situation. Going down from the summit it felt like diving into a not completely filled jar of palm oil butter. But we knew that somewhere in the mist is the restaurant where King Rama X stopped for lunch during one of his bicycle tours through our picture book Bavaria.

Still sunny in the Ammertal in the morning but fog pushing in from the north.

View overlooking Ettaler Sattel and the Loisachtal with the Zugspitze filling up

And the Passion Play theatre which Rama VII visited 1934.

We used the chance as good Konsum-Enten to grab some more royal grub in Eschenlohe where Rama X was a regular guest. After passing Secret Project Ente (Duck), tunnels part of the U-Verlagerung 1944, we had lunch at the Brückenwirt in Eschenlohe.

The bridge which looks kind of like the Bridge At The River Kwai

Of course, Sheila got her Black Forest Cake which was on the menu.

We found another statue of holy St. Nepomik, Who was the father confessor of Queen Sophie of Bavaria (Wittelsbacher), Second Wittelsbacher wife of Wenzel IV. Bohemian king and German-Roman King.

After the Ducks finished lunch (delicious pike from the nearby Kochelsee) we hiked up to the pilgrimage church St. Nikolaus which is on top of Secret Project Duck and enjoyed the view.

The old Romans had a fort here too and there used to be an old castle.

Today the place is notorious for its frequent traffic jams at the weekends, but another tunnel is being built now to connect with the bypass-tunnel at Oberau.

We found another tunnel the swarm had to walk through, an air-raid protection tunnel for the folks in Eschenlohe next to secret Project Duck. A Bat Cave.

Update 10.2024: we just came across this documentation of the Public TV Station „Bayerischer Rundfunk“, (payed by the kind German fee payers). Which shows the procedures of keeping the operation going on.

Update: early Oktober 2024 more fresh snow

little window in the clouds open for a minute

Update: Mid September 2024 first snow, first snow duck built

The Swarm wanted to post this last year but, I never did. Since I have been up on the Laber Mountain several times this year too, now is high time to start.

We went up on our Bavarian Mountain Laber in the Longest, Oldest, Highest Two Cable Circular Big Gondola Cableway.

Before I entered, a small group of tourists were queue-jumping,

and I therefor retaliated and stated in the gondola:

„They did a great job welding in the floor since the last time.“

The “Laberbergbahn” is the longest, oldest, highest Two Rope Circular Big-Gondola Cableway on earth now. It is the only one which uses this technology. Operation started 1957 and it is an attraction in the village Oberammergau.

It takes you up on a mountain full of flowers, birds, paragliders, mountain rescue forces practicing in helicopters, glider planes, hang-glider and hiker. The mountain offers a great view, on a clear day as far as to Munich in the North or overlooking the Wetterstein Mountain Range in the South. There is a restaurant at the summit and a nice mountain pasture on the hike up or down. Underneath lie the villages Oberammergau and Ettal. And here is a selection of photos from several years and seasons.

Here is a link to the Webcam.

Watching it now, the swarm must have been visible there too live. They should be in the Best Shots Collection.

Über Deine Gipfel Jagen Nebelschwaden. My Schicksalsberg.

Seen from another perspective. The mountains are partly privat property which was seized from Monastery Ettal (1803 secularisation) by Wittelsbacher King Maximilian I. And because the Wittelsbacher royals could not manage it (uncontrolled deforestation took place) Ludwig II. gave it to the local farmers 1873. To save the hunting grounds for the Wittelsbacher.

The Ettaler Manndl lies on the way and is a challanging hike. It requires walking at a climbing rope at the summit and shurefootedness. (recently used for promotion)

In early spring you might pass a small lake which drips dry soon before summer. (this is not my picture, might be copy right protected). There is a leakage.

Woodwork art is present too on the hike.

In fact, alpine Ibexes had been seen in the Ammergauer Mountains, but they just came to visit.

Birds flying low round in the Ammergal:

Royal Visit 2024

The beer here comes direct from Monastery Ettal, the „Benedektiner“.

One shareholder of the cableway is monastery Ettal. They provide for the beer and an advertisment memorial Gondola which commemorates 400 year old Hotel Ludwig der Bayer, owned by the monastery.