Rainy Days and Mondays...

You have not heard from us in a while because our internet has been down at the hotel since Friday afternoon! We have found that if a problem like this occurs in Europe, no one works on the weekends (and apparently not on Friday afternoons, either), so you cannot expect a resolution until Monday morning. So, time to catch up!

On Friday, we skied in Germany for the first time. We skied through some drizzle at first, but that was nothing compared with what was to come! Any way, the snow was soft and it was warm out, and we had fun exploring the area. Eventually clouds and drizzle gave way to sunshine, then we started taking more photos.

Brock discovered he has a hole in his mitten! Thank goodness it was a warm day! This would not have been a good problem to have in Montana!

If you look closely, you can see the rain falling on the gondola window behind me.

The Men's World Cup Skiers are following us around Europe! First Kitzbuhel, now Garmisch! The organizers were setting up downhill and Super-G courses for them, which they will run on Saturday. One of the courses passed right over this tunnel:

We kept rising on the mountain, using a series of trams and gondolas:

We found a beautiful part of the mountain:

Behind me is the Zugspitze, "Top of Germany". More on that later!

At one point we took a large tram, Alpspitzebahn, to the highest point in the area.

This is the Alpspitzbahn tram we rode up to the top:

On the way up, a rainbow appeared over Garmisch. How beautiful! You can see both ends, plus the cables to the top.

I was to get too close to the edge, content to stay back and hold the skis!

There is an Alpspitze restaurant at the top:

From the top, we skied through this interesting pass:

And we went down to a second tram, Hochalmbahn, that took us back to the top. It was very slow and very old:

More amazing scenery! You can see a cross at the top of Zugspitze, which is the highest point in Germany:

We enjoyed a nice lunch on-mountain at the Kreuzeckhaus:

Once again, the views were amazing!:

As we descended, part of the World Cup course came into view:

As we were downloading on the Hausbergbahn, the valley and town of Garmisch were revealed:

So we had a pretty fun day of skiing on Friday, and we got to see most of the resort. While limited in size, the warm day made for pleasant conditions.

Vertical feet skied on Friday: 9000.

Saturday was beautiful, sunny, and warm. I took the day off from skiing to rehab my back, while Brock went out for a short time to ski. He found the conditions icy. It was extremely crowded with long lift lines due to it being a weekend, plus a World Cup ski racing day. He managed this shot of the World Cup finishing area from the Kreuzeckbahn:

He told me I didn't miss anything!

Vertical feet skied by Brock on Saturday: 3500.

We enjoyed having an Italian lunch together, and we explored the pedestrian area near our hotel. It is quite sizable. We found an excellent shop, "Conrad Sports," the "Dillards" of sporting goods stores. Brock came verrrrry close to buying a new pair of ski's that he found a good deal on! He was able to find a new pair of ski gloves, and I found a new pair of white ski poles to repair the ratty poles I've been using for the last 20 years. It was high time!

Sunday was drizzly and warm. We wanted to go up on the train to the Zugspitze, but we decided to save that for Monday, hoping it would be less crowded. Instead, we slept in, had a leisurely morning, and returned to Fussen (about 1 hour away). We had been there 2-1/2 years ago when we took delivery of Brock's Audi, "Bella". We were able to find the Italian restaurant that we liked, Michelangelo's. After that we went to the area where the Neuschwanstein Castle is. Since we have already toured that castle, we decided to tour the other one there, Schloss Hohenschwangau. This was a knight's castle heavily damaged almost 1,000 years ago, but the family restored it in the 1800's, and King Ludwig lived in it while he was building his second castle, Neuschwanstein. He was able to view the construction progress from this castle.

There was a pretty lake that we passed as we hiked up to the castle:

We could imagine the castle entry being used for defense. Picture flaming bales of hay coming towards you from above:

Knights greet you as you enter:

From the entry, Neuschwanstein Castle sits like an ornament upon the walls:

And valley views adorn like a tapestry:

We had a great visit and are glad we got to see this castle!

We went to bed relatively early, then woke up in the middle of the night (around 2:30 a.m.) to watch the second half of the Super Bowl! The same German announcers who covered our Titans' playoff game with Kansas City were in Miami covering this game. They were a hoot! We feel like we are getting to know these guys! They embellished the coverage with lots of exclamations. Mike Keith better watch out! What a great game! We're glad we woke up in time to watch! We don't feel so bad now that our Titans lost to the eventual Super Bowl Champs.

Overnight, it began to rain, more than a drizzle. I would liken it to a monsoon, which lasted the entire next day.

We had planned to ski the Zugspitze. Despite the weather, we proceeded. The train station was a 10 minute walk from the hotel. We arrived with our ski equipment, dripping wet with sweat and rain. Turns out the Zugspitze was closed to skiing due to the heavy rain and winds. So we rode the train as far as we could.

New ski poles, still unused:

If you could pick one photo to sum up Monday this would be it, below, taken from the rainy train window. This is the base of the ski resort, note there is no more snow at the bottom, and plenty of parking spaces available:

There were not many skiers today, with good reason. We decided to bail on skiing and just enjoy the train ride.

When we got as far as we could go, we turned and rode home.

We even made friends with the conductor, Matthias! He was exceptionally nice and helpful to us:

This is as close as we got to the tram that goes up to the Zugspitze. It was closed today:

Some interesting shots of the train tracks:

We got soaked to the skin walking back to the hotel due to the heavy rain.

Here is a shot of our Hotel, the Hotel Zugspitze, where we spent most of our day on Monday. This shot was taken on Saturday when it was not raining:

We have had all our breakfasts and dinners there, and the chef is really wonderful! All of our meals have been delicious! Since it was so rainy on Monday, we ended up staying at the hotel for lunch too!

Brock had a great hamburger, and I had Wiener Schnitzel (scalloped, breaded veal) which is pounded very thin, fried, and served with German potato salad, cucumbers, and cranberry sauce:

If this rain continues, we will need to build an ark!

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we head to St. Anton, where similar weather awaits!