Garmisch

This past weekend we drove to Garmisch with our friend Wells (he and Brian cruised together when they were both in Lemoore and Wells is now working in the same building as Brian...small world!). We were looking forward to some fun outdoor winter activities!

The drive to Garmisch only took about 3 hours. The weather was a little dicey when we left Sindelfingen, but Brian powered us through in our rear-wheel drive sleigh. We stayed at Edelweiss, which is a military resort located a few kilometers from downtown Garmisch. We were amazed by how nice and cozy Edelweiss turned out to be. There's a HUGE lobby with a wood burning fireplace, a gorgeous outdoor hot tub, 3 restaurants, campgrounds, cabins, and so much more! Take a peek at the beautiful lobby and the view of the outdoor hot tub area from our balcony:



The first night in town we ate at one of Edelweiss's delicious restaurants and then enjoyed a few cocktails. The next day we decided to get some sledding in. We chatted with the folks at Edelweiss and they pointed us in the direction of a little sled hill. Once there, we rented some ridiculous German sleds and made our way towards the hill. (We got the feeling that not a lot of adults rent sleds in Germany...) We figured out how to maneuver our funny little sleds and had a great time zooming down the hills.

Since it wasn't a sled-only hill, you did have to watch out for skiers and snowboarders on their way down. After we had our fill of sledding we had a quick bite to eat (bratwurst) at the bottom of the hill and then headed to downtown Garmisch to check it out. Garmisch was lovely. There were boutiques, restaurants, hotels, and cafes everywhere. Here's a shot of us enjoying some window-shopping in Garmisch:

We made our way back to Edelweiss and soaked in the ginormous outdoor hot tub. It felt great after spending a few hours outside in the cold! That night we went to a different restaurant at Edelweiss and drank some tasty German beer. We hit the sack pretty early since we had an early morning of skiing ahead of us.

From what we gathered Zugspitze was THE mountain to go to for skiing. It is also the tallest peak in Germany...who knew?! Since it was gray and foggy the whole time we were in Garmisch, we were excited to get to the mountains and hopefully get out of the fog layer.

Getting to the mountain was a bit of an ordeal. We parked our car at the cable car lot and then road a cable car for about 15 minutes directly up the mountain. It was the steepest ride we'd ever had! After about 10 minutes on the cable car we punched out of the fog layer and were awed by the glory of the Alps. There were snowed covered peaks every direction you looked and piercing blue sky. Once we reached the top, we had to take a different cable car down a little ways to get to the ski lodge. This was the remarkable view we were greeted with at the lodge:



I felt like we were in some magical winter wonderland. Since it was only 0900 when we reached the lodge, the bright morning sunshine cast a sparkly spell over everything. Here's a shot of the lodge and the boys heading out to ski:

While the boys skied, I took a bunch of photos and then cozied up in the lodge with a good book. This next photo gives you a good idea of how thick the fog layer was...between the snow in the foreground and the mountains in the background you can see the cloudy/foggy layer rising up. It looked like a lake of fog.



Below is my favorite photo from the day. Directly to the left of the lodge there was this teeny, tiny church. I loved how it looked against the crisp white snowy mountain.

We had an absolutely fantastic time in Garmisch.
We can't wait to go back in the spring for some camping!

If you'd like to view the rest of our photos from Garmisch, please click on this link:

Garmisch Photos