Tegelberg and the King’s Round: A Royal Viewpoint

Where Maximilian and family used to like to come up and have a look round

“You’re looking at the cross on the peak of the Tegelberg, in Germany’s Alps, where we are on the way up, having taken the cable car from Schwangau in, I might add, the cloudy and completely invisible above 1000 feet landscape. Neuschwanstein Castle – completely hidden. But up here, all is sunny.

It’s a popular hiking area (I have to go into the sun here) but you know the views are magnificent. All free telescopes. And we’re on what is called the “King’s Round”, where Maximilian and family used to like to come up and have a look round.

As you can see over there, the cloud layer is still complete, and I’ll show you later how complete it is. It’s supposed to be mostly sunny today, which is one of the reasons we planned to come up here, and there’s one of the routes to the top, but down there, completely overcast.

On the way to the peak

There we are, there’s the peak. The cable car, well, we’re sort of halfway up to there from the cable car, not a difficult climb so far, although it seems to get steeper as you get towards the top. So, no time like the present, Helen’s with me, let’s see how far we get.

Well, everyone seems to be enjoying the sun up here, and we’ve found a sign – there’s the route we’ve just come – we’ve found a sign here which sends you off on the King’s “Rund” or “Round”, which appears to be the route he used to take round the Tegelberg. The other way goes up to the peak, it takes around 15 to 20 minutes, I’m not sure how we’ll find that acceptable, and so we’re off down on the King’s Round; let’s see how we go.

It’s certainly enjoyable, it’s also the way down to the cable car, but then, all these routes lead to everywhere. Let’s have a look to see what’s happening here. Unfortunately, as you see, most of these signs are just in German, we’ll just push on. See, even nuns up here. The cloud has not lifted from down there below, so, off we go.

I’m being immortalised by Helen, let’s see how far we get!

The “King’s Round” is not so strenuous!

As far as I can see, this “King’s Round” just seems to go back to the original trail, down there. If so, it wasn’t a very big round, was it? Maybe the kings weren’t that athletic. Anyway, we’ll press on and see how things go.

“Please don’t leave the red markers on the ‘Wanderweg’, wandering route or way, or trail. We decided to have a walk up at least a partial way to the top, because the other route simply led down, straight down to the original trail – a very short “King’s Round”. This one looks a little rougher, anyway, we’ll see, but I wanted a view of the cable car, so we had to go up a bit higher for that. Anyway, let’s press on.

Well, there’s the cable car station that we’ve come from. Unfortunately, as you’ll see if I zoom back, the cloud has not cleared at all. Oh, and here’s Helen, doing quite well, struggling a bit! Well, press on, slow but sure…(to Helen)what do you think?

Helen: “I wouldn’t like going down…”

Fortunately, there’s a cable car to go down! There we are…

Here’s the path to the top, but it’s a little too alpine for me at the moment, especially carrying this gear. Helen’s waiting behind me, so I think I’ll return. You’ll notice that there are iron/steel cables here to help you keep your footing. So, discretion is the better part of valour, I’ll return to Helen where she’s waiting for me.

The intrepid climber returns…

Well, a short scramble later, here we are back at the beginning of this last part of the trail and here’s Helen, patiently waiting, she knew I’d be back. And here’s a dog that I don’t think will make it to the top – hello, dog!
(To Helen) OK, do you want to sunbathe, or you want to go down? Alright, off you go, you can lead.

The road, the trail, is a bit uneven here with the rocks sticking up, so you do have to be a bit careful with your feet. Everyone seems to have these walking poles here, they’re very keen on their Nordic walking poles. Well, they seem to help.

Those clouds are still there, it doesn’t make you want to go down, does it? I think we’ll check out the restaurant.

Well, safely down at the lower level of the King’s Round, Helen checks out the free telescope they’ve got here, which interestingly has the names of the mountains sort of overlaid on the image you are seeing. And right there in the distance, if I can zoom in, is, according to them, with that flat top, it looks familiar, is the Zugspitze, the highest mountain in Germany.

Meanwhile, in the time since we were here last, nothing much has changed in the valley. The cloud’s very picturesque, and you can see the Alps, the German Alps, the Alps stretching away. But unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to give you the shot of Neuschwanstein or Hohenschwangau because of the cloud.

I think we’ll go and have a meal in the cable car and hope that something clears. The jackdaws here are pretty keen on any scraps that are handed them. Actually, there’s more of them at the cable car restaurant, all over the place. Look good when they fly. Amazingly tame.

Relaxing time in the Tegelberghaus restaurant

So now we’re back in the cable car restaurant. Actually there are two restaurants, this is the one that’s below the other one, and we’ve just finished eating. I had a beer and camembert, not too bad, not too expensive. Helen’s meditating on the cable car and the prospect of going down into the cold!

There’s a good view here, I’d recommend the lower one, service is small, er, slow, and small, nevertheless, somehow it’s funkier! There’s the upper restaurant, up there. As you can see, we’re at the Tegelberghaus, at 1707 metres, not so high really, but a pleasant place.

Well, that’s it from Tegelberg, we’ll be taking that cable car down, but as you see, I won’t be able to give you the shot that you can get from the right hand side of the cable car coming up and the left hand side going down I am reliably informed of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau. Well, you win some, you lose some – I hope you have better luck!

Cheers, from Tegel.”

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