Gabrielle and I started on March 1st, 2025. Neither of us had slept much the night before, as Gabrielle had taken the night train during carnival (from the Netherlands), and I had just come home from my night shift in the hospital. The weather forecast was good, however, and we were very much looking forward to starting this long run through the Alps in Germany and Austria, filled with wonderful towns, alpine panoramas, and very impressive chapels and churches. Overall, we loved the route despite some asphalt. We started in Brannenburg, at the Maibaum in front of the school in Brannenburg (Realschule Brannenburg in the Kirchenstrasse), as our accommodation was located in Brannenburg. We completed the entire loop (first towards Rosenheim and Prien, to return afterwards via Kufstein and Kiefersfelden back to Brannenburg). The temperatures at night were below freezing point, so we struggled to keep our body temperature up. This turned out to be the main challenge, especially at the end. We powernapped briefly on the trail. We stopped for warm food in Rosenheim and Kufstein. We also had some traditional cake in Nussdorf am Inn. The first 80 kilometers were relatively flat, the second part had more significantly more heightmeters. Especially between km 150-170, where we climbed above 1000m and even had to cross some snowfields. Overall , we can recommend the route! We had a great adventure in nature and enjoyed the variety.
Two important notes on where the route deviated from the one originally described on the website (https://euregio-marienwege.eu/euregio-marien-weg-m5/), hence the slightly different (and longer) GPX-file uploaded here on the FKT-Website:
1) Schloss Brannenburg turned out to be a private property with a fence, which is why we had to take the path around the property without crossing it.
2) The short stretch of trail alongside Weber an der Wand, in Oberaudorf was closed as there was a risk of stones falling. We took the parallel trail.
We can encourage other trail runners to explore the trail, which is also possible in the winter when there is not much snow!
Feel free to reach out with questions!
To many more adventures :)