We decided to take advantage of the extra long winter and ski season we experienced this year and spent Easter weekend in Garmisch, Germany at the Edelweiss Military Resort there. Steve and I have been to Garmisch many times as it was always a great place to bring visitors when we were stationed at Spangdahlem. Garmisch is in the Bavarian Alps, at the base of the tallest mountain in Germany, the Zugspitze, at 9,718 feet above sea level. The border of Germany and Austria run over it’s summit which means the area has a rich, alpine culture and it is beautiful year round. Our friends, the R Family, joined us there. Their 3 youngest children (out of 4) are perfect playmates for our kids and we always have a blast with Casey and Darla.
Steve and I had never skied in Garmisch before, so on the first full day, we got Emily a spot in the base daycare, got Brian signed up for a ski lesson, and Steve and I skied part of the Garmisch Classic Resort. I’m still working on becoming a skier, but Steve was nice and stuck with me most of the time. Even when, on a icy part of a steep red run, I removed my skis and slid down 50 yards on my bottom. He did pretend not to know me but waited at the bottom for me anyways. Brian’s lesson was over at lunch time so we grabbed a bite to eat with him at a chalet on the mountain and then hit the blue runs a few times. Then he showed us his skills on the kiddy-area jumps.
The next day, we woke up to clear skies and decided to summit the Zugspitze that day since the weather was promising a good view from the top. Steve and I never summited the Zugspitze before and had always wished we had. None of us have ever seen a glacier before and the Zugspitze is home to 3 of Germany’s 5 glaciers. We joined the R family on the train from a station nearby the resort and then at the Eibsee station, we switched to a cog train that would take us through a long tunnel to the top. When the train first entered the tunnel, it halted and an announcement was made in German. None of the Germans aboard the train seemed worried, so we figured everything was fine and it was just a slight delay. But not Emily. She was all doom and gloom and predicting the train was going to slide backwards and never stop and we were “all gonna die!” Even when the train started up again a few minutes later without incident, she continued her doomed prophecies from my lap and it was all I could do to keep her from having a full-on panic attack. It was a long half hour and she was shaking as she ran from the train when the ride was over. From the train stop at the Zugspitzplatt, you can ski on the glaciers or take a short cable car up to the summit. We skipped the skiing that day and summited the mountain. Luckily Emily had no aversions to cable car rides and we made it to the top without any fits. Most of the R family stayed below to ski, but their oldest daughter, C, and their youngest, S, rode up with us. Little S is who you see in the pictures with our kids. The summit was unbearably cold, like your fingers freeze when you take your gloves off to snap a picture kind of cold! So we snapped a few pics and then got in line for the cable car back down to Eibsee, since there was no way we were taking the tunnel train back down! The cable car takes only 10 minutes from the top down (the train takes about 40 minutes) and it’s mostly straight down. It was a little scary but we made it down in time for a quick lunch back at the resort and some wandering around Garmisch and some time at the resort pool.
The next morning was Easter and we attended the resort’s egg hunt, got pictures with the Bunny himself, who Brian later told me was “just a guy in a bunny suit Mom!” Uh oh, he’s getting too big too fast! Then we had a lovely Easter brunch with the R family and we all hit the road back home, about a 5–hour drive. It was a great vacation, so great that 4 days later we were back in Garmisch for another long weekend over spring break. More on that soon!
Above: taking the cable car up to the summit. Below: at the summit of the Zugspitze. It had clouded up a little by the time we made it up to the top so we could only see the mountains and not the valleys at the base.
Above: taking the cable car from the summit down to Eibsee, 10 minutes, almost straight down!
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