Nanaw and Papa's vist Day 11: The Zugspitze!

On our 3rd day in Germany it was decided that no matter how rainy and overcast it was, we were going to the top of the Zugspitze. This is ''the thing to do'' so to speak, while in Garmisch. It's the tallest point in Germany and you get to the top via cogwheel train or cable car. It's 2,962 meters high...definitely a big deal for my mom who is scared of heights and myself, who has a fear of bridges and pretty much anything that requires me to be suspended in the air. So we drove to the little train station and waited (for a very delayed) train.

It was a crowded station:

 Once on this cog-wheel train, it was so crowded, we didn't have seats. The kids sat on the floor and the grown ups stood...

 It stops half way up to let off the yahoo's that want to hike to the top...or those that want to take pictures. I did NOT get out as it was a very steep dropoff right after that gravel. Papa did though and he hustled to get back on. There was one poor guy who got left behind (and I'm not kidding...train totally left his ass on the side of the moutain, he had gone to pee somewhere).

 The cog wheel train stops at the glacier. In the winter time, this is full of skiers and sledders...in August it was full of tourists and a little bit of snow.

 From the Glacier to the actual Summit, you have to take one of these cable cars....

 Yeah, it's freaky. I took a dramimine as I knew I would get motion sick when it was time to ride that!

 In the above picture you can see that silver/grey metal near B's head that is jutting over the side of the mountain ..here we are on that overlook.

 After a few pics (slightly terrifying to be hanging of the side of a mountain...literally...on a metal thing that you could see through the bottom of on a windy day) it was time to ride the cable car. Here goes nothing!

 

 We made it!

 These are the people that went to the literal peak...I was not about to trek out there...1/2 our group was in in flip flops!

 It was obviously, extremely overcast out. We were in a cloud and could see absolutely nothing below. In all honesty, it was probably better for Nanaw as you really couldn't tell how high up you were.

 On a clear day you can see into Germany, Italy, Austria and I think Switzerland. We had to take the postcards word for it though...

So after all this, we ate lunch and then prepared to take the really BIG cable car all the way back down to where we parked. Took the cog-wheel up, take the cable car down and experience both...except a storm rolled in complete with lightning. They prohibited anyone from using the Cable Car and just about pushed us down in a cog-wheel train. After all of this, we decided we would just head home. We were leaving early enough in the day that we could stop and see things if we wanted to. Good thing we did that because by the time we reached Austria, the rain had stopped and Austria is GORGEOUS!

 We kinda got temporary lost and found this adorable cemetery!

 These tiny cabin/sheds were everywhere. Nanaw and I loved how they stacked the wood 'just so' around each window.

 Looking down at the city of Telfs...

 We decided to stop in Innsbruck Austria for dinner. Such a cute, cute town!

 I felt like I was walking around on a movie set!

The picture above, with us in front of the Golden Roof...funny story. We're standing there and see this family all taking turns of taking pictures of 2 in their group since the 3rd had to hold the camera...I offered to take their photo and it ended up being the SAME family who took our photo when we were on the Glacier of the Zugspitze, in Germany earlier that morning. They were on vacation from Korea. Such a small world when you run into the same family, on the same day, in TWO different countries!

After walking around the pedestrian area, we ate dinner and headed home.  See ya next time Innsbruck!

ciao!

Flashback: Nanaw and Papa Visit Germany

So life got in the way and I never got to finish the series of blog posts on ''Nanaw and Papa visit Italy'' but reassured they stayed longer than the 3 days that I did blog about. I figured better late than never and I'm going to try to finish up their European Vacation in the next few days.

So I previously mentioned that they arrived then we hung out near Vicenza. We spent a day in Venice then got up early on Nanaw's 50th birthday and we headed to Pisa, Italy. The following morning we went to my favorite little Italian town (thus far) and spent a very, very hot day in Lucca. We came home from Lucca on a Wednesday night and then we got up Thursday and went to....Garmisch Germany!

Views from the drive:

View from Austria, looking back at Italy.

 When we got to Eldeweiss (the military resort we were staying at in Garmisch) a storm was rolling in. We got there later than we had planned, so we unpacked and settled our stuff, ate dinner, explored the hotel and then went to bed.

 I was so so very excited to see this in the hotel....STARBUCKS! That folks is a Vanilla Latte...I drank 6 of them in three days and they were just as heavenly as I remember.

So that was Thursday. Friday we got up and explored the town of Garmisch. It was still dreary, still rainy and overcast and actually did rain much of the day. But the town is SO cute!

 We found the downtown area and we walked around sight-seeing and window shopping for quite awhile. Here is Nanaw and Papa with a street performer.

While we were shopping, it started to rain. We realized quickly we weren't going to be able to make it to the Zugspitze as we had planned and the kids were tired and whiny. We ended up going back to the hotel, napping and relaxing before eating dinner. After dinner we made our way down to a festival we had heard about through the hotel.

 

There was a beer tent, a few carnival rides and some vendors selling candy. It wasn't very big but it was neat to see people in their lederhosen and Trachts.

By this point, it was getting pretty dark out. We started to make our way back to the hotel. We stopped for Gelato (good, but not Italian good) and prepared to get some sleep. We only had one day left in Germany and we were going to go up the Zugspitze!