From Mittenwald we head into the Karwendel range, which is only a kilometer or so from Mittenwald horizontally, but 1311 meters away vertically. (That's about 4,000 feet, or four-fifths of a mile, you dirty American.) We got there in this gondola (no, not this exact gondola, dammit! Remember what I said about the buses!), which was quite a white-knuckler. You're hanging there, hundreds of feet above the ground, and you know that if the cable breaks, you are not only going to fall to the ground, you're also not going to stop when you get there. I've felt unsafe in cars, and in planes, but swinging from a cable above a 70-degree mountain face takes the cake. Not that I wouldn't do it again.

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