Tuesday, August 03, 2004
So, as I was saying in my earlier post, we decided on Thursday night to go to Garmisch on Friday afternoon. The weather forecast was perfect and we decided it would be a great weekend to get away. We ran into so much traffic on the autobahns - the little signs were up flashing "STAU" (German word meaning - you are going to be sitting here for a while). It is truly a four letter word when you are traveling on the autobahns. But we finally got down to our hotel about an hour later than planned, and settled in for the night. We stayed the same place we did last time, the Hotel Forsthaus.
Saturday morning we woke up and the weather looked great, so we decided to splurge and go to the top of the Zugspitze.It is the highest mountain in Germany, and we have always wanted to go, but we wanted to wait until the weather was clear so we could fully enjoy the views. Saturday appeared to be the perfect day for it so we headed over to the Eibsee ( a beautiful lake at the base of the Zugspitze) to start our ascent. We got our tickets (43Euros for Kenny and I, and Jacob was free) and decided to take the cable car up the summit. It is about a 10 minute ride straight up, with amazing views of the lake and the surrounding area. At the top we stopped to layer up our clothes, it was much cooler up there. But with the sun it was very pleasant, not too cold at all. There was a little guy at the top playing one of those alpine horns, you can click here to hear it. The quality may not be the best, and hopefully it won't take to long to download. But at least you get the idea of the music. The views from all around are awesome, and it's possible to scale the last little bit out to the actual highest point. Kenny decided to do that, Jacob and I watched from the safety of the observation deck. You can check out pics of him out there on the photo site. Once he made it back safely we went to an inside observation deck to enjoy the view and plan our return trip down the summit. Jacob was coloring and of course wearing his little hat from the Black Forest, apparently he looks quite Bavarian. A lady came up and was asking us something, all we could figure out was "photograph" and she had her camera. I thought she wanted us to take a picture of her and her companions, but then she clarified in English. She wanted to take a picture of Jacob, to show her family and friends back in Russia. But once she realized we were American she said "Oh, I thought he was a real Bavarian child" I said, "well, he lives in Bavaria, but he's not Bavarian". She replied "Well, I just won't tell the people in Russia that" and took his photo. We had a good laugh over that.
We decided to take a different cable car down to the Zugspitzeplatt, an area just a little below the summit. This is the area that is the center for skiing in cooler months and also home to Germany's highest church. It is only a few minutes in the cable car to that area. We wandered around there for a bit, Jacob enjoyed playing in the snow. Then we caught the cog-wheel train that took us back to the base, although half of the ride was inside the mountain. It was beautiful once we came out of the tunnel, and we arrived right back where we started. After that we headed back to the hotel so Jacob could have a nap, and then went back out for more fun when he woke up. Next post I will finish up the remainder of our trip!
Saturday morning we woke up and the weather looked great, so we decided to splurge and go to the top of the Zugspitze.It is the highest mountain in Germany, and we have always wanted to go, but we wanted to wait until the weather was clear so we could fully enjoy the views. Saturday appeared to be the perfect day for it so we headed over to the Eibsee ( a beautiful lake at the base of the Zugspitze) to start our ascent. We got our tickets (43Euros for Kenny and I, and Jacob was free) and decided to take the cable car up the summit. It is about a 10 minute ride straight up, with amazing views of the lake and the surrounding area. At the top we stopped to layer up our clothes, it was much cooler up there. But with the sun it was very pleasant, not too cold at all. There was a little guy at the top playing one of those alpine horns, you can click here to hear it. The quality may not be the best, and hopefully it won't take to long to download. But at least you get the idea of the music. The views from all around are awesome, and it's possible to scale the last little bit out to the actual highest point. Kenny decided to do that, Jacob and I watched from the safety of the observation deck. You can check out pics of him out there on the photo site. Once he made it back safely we went to an inside observation deck to enjoy the view and plan our return trip down the summit. Jacob was coloring and of course wearing his little hat from the Black Forest, apparently he looks quite Bavarian. A lady came up and was asking us something, all we could figure out was "photograph" and she had her camera. I thought she wanted us to take a picture of her and her companions, but then she clarified in English. She wanted to take a picture of Jacob, to show her family and friends back in Russia. But once she realized we were American she said "Oh, I thought he was a real Bavarian child" I said, "well, he lives in Bavaria, but he's not Bavarian". She replied "Well, I just won't tell the people in Russia that" and took his photo. We had a good laugh over that.
We decided to take a different cable car down to the Zugspitzeplatt, an area just a little below the summit. This is the area that is the center for skiing in cooler months and also home to Germany's highest church. It is only a few minutes in the cable car to that area. We wandered around there for a bit, Jacob enjoyed playing in the snow. Then we caught the cog-wheel train that took us back to the base, although half of the ride was inside the mountain. It was beautiful once we came out of the tunnel, and we arrived right back where we started. After that we headed back to the hotel so Jacob could have a nap, and then went back out for more fun when he woke up. Next post I will finish up the remainder of our trip!
