Did I have the gravitas for the Philosopher’s Way? Or should I choose the simple stroll of the Woods Walk?

Each path eased through a forest dotted with blue violets and primroses, surging with little streams melting moment by moment from the snows above, and offering vistas of medieval towns cupped in the craggy embrace of the Alps ― a mere wanderer could break into poetry, or song.

Welcome to the “Gap Season” in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a play on words that also refers to the automobile license plates of this southern German town, which read “Gap” (short for Garmisch-Partenkirchen). Spring is the perfect season to enjoy the delights of Bavaria, without the crowds that fill this “Aspen of Germany” for winter sports or summer music ― an excellent time for quiet rambles, good food and the luxurious experience of a fine spa hotel.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen is 55 miles (89 km) south of Munich. While it might be handier to refer to the area as “Garmisch,” don’t! Each town has a long individual history. The Romans built a road through the valley and established an outpost at “Parthanum.” During the Middle Ages, traders stopped at Partenkirchen on their route to Italy, and Garmisch loggers sent the area’s timber down the River Loisach. The area was “discovered” by 19th-century travelers, but the 1936 Winter Olympics brought the world to this valley ― leading to the forced union of the town names.

“To this day, we are still separate ― two fireworks, two ski clubs ― generation to generation,” says hotelier Renata Kauffmann.

Well marked walking paths, such as the Philosophenweg, an easy trail through spring woodlands, make getting around Garmisch-Partenkirchen a breeze.

Partenkirchen is the elder sibling, with a well-tended historic district along the Ludwigstrasse, as well as a modern commercial center. Our home base in Garmisch, the Hotel Zugspitze (Klammstrasse 19), lives up to its name, with balconies that face the icy talon of Germany’s highest mountain (9,721 feet or 2,964.9 m). The Kauffmann family has blended Eurostyle with Bavarian tradition to craft a manorial experience for guests ― classy rather than kitschy, and downright comfortable. It’s within easy walking distance of the train station and just down the street from the Marienplatz that centers Garmisch.

Walking is the way to get around town ― and indeed, all of Bavaria. Well-marked trails network the valley and the mountainsides, with shelters, restrooms and inns. I began my ramble in Partenkirchen, at the “Plague Church” painted with a giant fresco of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Following the signs for St. Anton’s, I headed up steep streets, past a fountain and toward the green hillsides. The cherry trees and daffodils were in bloom. I heard chickens cluck, and saw a sign for fresh milk beside a pocket pasture and small barn. Steep-roofed houses presided over tiny flowerbeds or sheltered behind clipped hedges.

At the edge of the village, Stations of the Cross appeared beside the road, each in its white-painted arched niche. The Pilgrim Way was steep, toward a white church with black onion domes. A chapel offered a moment of meditation, to the flicker of candles and the sound of birdsong ― on the porches of St. Anton’s, plaques bore images of World War I soldiers and pleas for prayers.

As I continued to the Berggasthof (Mountain Guest House) Panorama and its view of “The Golden Land,” signs warned that the hillside path through fields occupied by spotted cows was private. So it was back to the crossroads, and the Philosophenweg. While edelweiss may have been blooming at the edge of mountain snows, here violets and primroses were thick among last fall’s leaves.

I checked out the Woods Walk next, then the byways of Partenkirchen. Backyards were often guarded by wooden fences, but glimpses of daily life were frequent ― from woodpiles stacked with Teutonic precision to a man grooming one of the horses that pull Pferdekutschen (horse cabs) and sleighs through the streets.