Casey Snook

I just picked my college major based on my favorite school subject in high school, not based on what I saw myself doing for my career and not based on what I was deeply passionate about. A lot of them seemed plenty good, but I felt like I struck gold when I found a program in Marine Conservation at the University of Plymouth. Not only was it focused around advocacy with a multidisciplinary approach instead of being just a hard science course, but it also paired each master’s candidate with a partner organization to help them get real experience in marine conservation while completing their thesis. One awkward email to my high school (which I graduated from nine years ago, by the way) and a frustrating call to England later, my application was finally complete.

There are alpine lakes, the river Pöllat with multiple waterfalls and gorge areas, cozy forests, the cute town of Füssen, and of course, incredible views over southern Bavaria. Definitely hike up to the castle first, head across the Marienbrücke for some great views, and then hike down through the canyon and back to the town of Hohenschwangau. If you’re looking for a bit of a longer hike in the area, hiking from Tegelberg to Hohenschwangau (or even the other way around) might be the perfect fit. When we got back to our starting point, we also decided to take a little walk near the Alpsee, although we didn’t do the entire loop.

Less than 25% percent of the route is actually secured with metal fixtures like a typical via ferrata route and even where there are places to clip in, the iron is wiggly and old. If you’re searching in German, it’s possible to find a lot more information about the Watzmann tour but that’s not so helpful if you’re In a German documentary we later watched (try watching with closed captioning auto-translated to English,) we learned that a good portion of the rescues that happen on the Watzmann via ferrata happen simply because people got too tired or too scared and then froze, simply stuck up there. However, once you round the corner, there’s a tiny hut precariously wedged into the rock face and a bench where people rest before taking on the “via ferrata.

It has crazy blue-green water color, no fewer than eight different islands, and sits right at the base of the country’s tallest mountain, Zugspitze. Consider hiking a little north of the lake to get some gorgeous views of the Zugspitze, Germany’s tallest mountain. Many people choose to rent bikes in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and then cycle to the lake, but be warned, there are almost no sidewalks or bike paths on the roads. It made the perfect relaxing day after some strenuous hiking and is definitely one of Germany’s most stunning natural gems.