Last month, we took our first trip to Garmisch-Partenkirchen to go snowboarding at Zugspitze, the tallest peak in Germany. Garmisch is a popular destination for Americans living in Germany because it has a vacation resort that is on a former military base. However, this resort does not allow dogs and is usually booked out months in advance, so we stayed elsewhere. I am pretty happy we didn't stay at the military resort because the German hotel cost a fraction of the price and didn't require us to pass through security checkpoints every time we entered or exited.
Garmisch is a beautiful little town right along the Austrian border in Bavaria. There is a lot of cool things to do in that area. We were a short drive from Neuschwanstein castle and just along the start of the Alps. We pretty much spent the whole weekend snowboarding, though.Our first day was extremely snowy, which was great. We've only had one good snow day in our town all year. We took the gondolas up to the Zugspitze ski area at around noon to do a half day of snowboarding. The gondolas were terrifying. This wasn't like the ones at Colorado's luxury ski resorts or even in Switzerland. They were huge, open industrial-looking bays meant to fit as many people as could cram into them. There were openings in the ceiling that snow blew through. I have a huge fear of heights and basically any activity that requires my feet to leave the ground. The route up the side of Zugspitze was almost completely vertical and the gondola swayed and shook back and forth with each gust of wind. The second day, I convinced Greg to take the train up to the summit instead.
The Zugspitze ski area isn't particularly big, but it did have plenty of fresh snow and was not too crowded. One thing I have appreciated about snowboarding in Europe rather than Colorado is how less crowded the resorts are here than Colorado. It makes it a lot easier to learn when you aren't surrounded by expert snowboarders getting in your way at every turn.We ate and drank beer on the mountain until the last gondola back down. Zugspitze is pretty cheap in comparison to other places, which may account for the terrifying gondolas. We were able to eat on the mountain for about the same price as in town, which is rare. It's Germany so beer is cheap no matter where you go.
The second day, we took the train to the top and spent the whole day snowboarding. It was a bit more crowded than the first day. Because it was a holiday weekend, there were a lot of Americans around. Most were using a smaller area away from the pistes to allow their children to sled. That evening, we went to a restaurant that advertised having "wild game" on the menu. The only real game it had was deer, but it was still a good restaurant. We didn't make reservations so we ended up sharing a table with someone Greg works with who also happened to be spending the weekend in Garmisch. One day, we will learn to make reservations in Germany.
Our drive home on Monday took us through some beautiful, snowy scenery. Garmisch is close enough that we will probably take trips there again in the future. It's a popular area year-round for outdoor sports. We'd like to go back and do some hiking and visit Neuschwanstein. But, it was an okay place to take a short snowboarding trip as well.
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| On top of Germany |
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