A trip together with the Munich Mini Club (or: Italians meet Brits)
The visit of a Fiat 500 delegation from Rome inspired the Munich Mini Club to plan for a special ride. No doubt that they have been knowing each other for a very long time. The longest journey to Munich was more than 900 kilometres – what an achievement! The 6 Fiats from Italy had more engine power and they used radio communication to keep in contact with each other.
a report by Angie Schlegel
Italians meet Brits – photo courtesy of Harald Metz.
We all met up at the Höhenrain motorway service area. 44 cars had gathered there altogether: 14 Fiats and 30 Minis of all colours and models. Due to the great number of participants and cars, the organisers were forced to change the intended route. Otherwise, it wouldn’t have been possible to stay on schedule. Our destination: the Zugspitze mountain. We were greeted by Stefan (main organiser and link to the Italians) and Eisi (co-organiser and secretary to the Munich Mini Club) who also roughly explained the planned route. A flat tyre on a Mini was repaired quickly. Road books were handed out to everyone and off we drove. We took the motorway and left it at the Kochel/Murnau exit. Rolling along the Kesselbergstraße – a formerly infamous country road due to a high number of serious motorcycle accidents, but which has been made “motorcycle-proof” in the meantime – the convoy reached the Walchensee lake. Passing Krün, Wallgau, and Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the first leg ended at the Zugspitze cog railway/Eibsee cable railway car park near the village of Grainau.
The Munich Fiat 500 IG in the foreground and the Romans directly in front of the entrance.
Zugspitze is the highest peak of the Wetterstein mountain range (2,962 metres above sea level) and at the same time Germany’s highest mountain. One part of the Zugspitze range is located south-west of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria, the other part in northern Tyrol (Austria). Since December 2017, a record-breaking cable railway takes visitors up to Germany’s highest mountain. This unprecedented project took six years of planning and construction work to completion. The spacious cabins, glazed from floor to ceiling, carry up to 120 passengers each to Germany’s highest peak. Along their journey, they pass the world’s highest steelwork pylon for aerial tramways at 127 metres and cover the world’s greatest overall height difference of 1,945 metres over one section, as well as the world’s longest unsupported cableway span of 3,213 metres.
View from the cabin: The Fiats at the left and the 30 Minis, neatly lined up, at the right.
When we arrived on top, we were unlucky: The peak was wrapped in clouds, barring the view of 400 German, Austrian and Swiss mountain tops. At least, a covered path took us to a platform on the Tyrolean side. In the Münchner Haus peak restaurant, at an altitude of 2,964 meters, we had a quick soup and then it was already time to return to our cars as the departure was scheduled for 2 pm. We continued towards the Ettal abbey, to the Oberammergau passion play village, the village of Bad Bayersoien and reached the famous Wieskirche church. As we had lost the Italians on the way, they missed this gem from 1754 which is lavishly decorated in the Rococo style. In 1983, the Wieskirche was added to the UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites list.
After the sightseeing tour, Harry (chairman of the Munich Mini Club) invited us to the summer party at the “Zwicklwirt” inn of Aubing (a district of Munich). With a giant suckling pig and other treats, the event came to a glorious close. The Romans thanked the Mini Club by presenting them with a big Parma ham. Harry got a Fiat 500 Club Europe shirt as an additional gift. He immediately performed a “striptease” to try it on and it fitted!
Evidence photo: a number plate from Rome.
Many thanks for this perfectly organised event, also on behalf of the Munich Fiat 500 IG. And a big thank-you for the dinner, it was absolutely great!
P.S.: The cable railway had to be shut down in September 2018 when, in the course of a mock rescue, the rescue platform collided with a cabin which was damaged beyond repair.