Garmisch Day 2

 We got up early on Sunday and enjoyed a trip through the Buffet at the Resort.  The breakfast buffet was awesome! 

 Then we headed straight over to the luge track by the old Olympic Stadium from the 1936 Olympics. 

 After the first nervous ride the kids were hooked. 

 We love the "no rules" in Germany.  No seat belts and Cole could ride with us or the big kids.  He just loves "his girl" Hanna

 These smiles say it all

 The long jump ski ramp

After several rides on the luge track, we hiked to the Partnach Gorge.  It was about a mile and a half in.  It was hot and we were ready to cool down after finally reaching the narrow portion of the gorge. 

 Of course then skinny little Joshy got cold....but the rest of us enjoyed the coolness.  There were lots of waterfalls,  rushing water, narrow corridors/tunnels, and too many smelly people.  Thankfully the beauty made it worth it. 

 Cole mostly walked, but had to be carried by both Jared and I for parts of it.

 We finally reached the end of the narrow gorge and it opened up to this:  a bunch of Europeans making balanced rock sculptures.  We weren't sure what to think about it.....so we joined them! 

 a last look back before we walked back through. 

Our day three plans in Garmisch got a little foiled.  Our plan was to stop at the Neuschwanstein Castle and Hohenschwangou Castle since they are on the same road that would take us back home.  Then....we hit a STAU.  (German word for traffic jam), not the kind of STAU where you creep slowly making your way.  The kind where you sit in one spot for 1 and 1/2 hours, turn off your car, and don't move an inch.  We finally heard that a logging truck had overturned and it was going to be another hour and a half before it got cleaned up.  So begrudingly, we had to turn the car around, head back to Garmisch and then take the long way home through Munich.  It was a long day in the car and no visits to castles. Bummer.  Jared started call that night at 8 pm so we didn't have a choice.  We'll just have to head back....there is still so much to see!

Bavarian Show

  On account of it being a holiday weekend when we got a reservation at Garmisch, we were lucky to get a few extras thrown in. On Satruday night, they had bouncy houses, bungee trampolines, a Mechanical Bull for the kids, and fireworks.  Then a little later they had some local Germans come in and put on the most amazing Bavarian show for us. Jared and I thought this was the best part of the whole weekend. 

 These three Alp horn players could not only blow these horns, they could make music together with melody and harmony.  It was seriously so cool.  We learned that each horn is carved all from just one tree that grows a certain way on the hill side to make this crook in it.  These skinny trees are all over Germany. 

 This guy spoke great English.  Isn't he so cute?  I think he's put down a few Brewskis in his lifetime. 

 Coolest music and instruments ever

 As for the dancing, these 'single adults' learn dances native to their villages and can only perform them while they are trying to win over a wife or husband.  Lots of knee slapping and jumping from the guys and twirling by the girls. 

You can't tell from the picture, but the guy on the far left is yodeling.  And not just cheap american yodeling that we all have done that sounds terrible.  Really cool musical yodeling to the music.  It was shocking how much we really liked it! 

As for this gal, she spends her time robbing the local cows of their cowbells and making music with them.  It was crazy how fast she had to go to keep up with the song.  Her hands were just flying!  It was a great ending to our Saturday.

Garmisch Day 1

We started out the day by heading to the Alpspitz tram ride

The view was amazing on the way up and breathtaking when we reached the top

We couldn't help but have the song "Climb every Mountain" running through our heads along with "The Hills are Alive".   The Sound of Music was filmed just on the other side of these mountains in Salzburg Austria.  (A trip already in the works to visit Salzburg next summer) WE can hardly wait! 

The city of Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Dieter loved the view

This darling older couple who were quite the avid hikers....offered to take a family picture of us.  They were in awe at all of our children and we were in awe at there ability to hike so far.  They had hiked all the way down the day before and were back for round two today. 

Hang Gliding is a popular passtime off the mountain.  You can even pay to do a paraglide with them.

Josh wore this watch everywhere we went this weekend....He is such big kid these days

Carter, Jake and I hiked really far down to get a close-up of these cows and their bells.  The bells could be heard ringing from far away.  They are how the hearders identify where the cows have roamed.  It was pretty cool sounding. 

After riding the tram back down to where we started, (and all the kids trying to make faces and stick their tongues out at the people in the trams going up, we ate at the little restaraunt at the bottom.  It is by far the best German food we've had yet.  This picture is of Hanna's Cheese Spaetzle which is a homemade egg noodle.  Seriously, Jared and I took one bit and wanted to commandeer her lunch!   

It was nice to dine outside in the shade.  It was a really hot weekend in Garmisch.  We didn't even use our sweatshirts at the top of the Alpspitze

The little boys weren't very adventurous.  they stuck to fries and Chicken strips.  Jared and I had pork Schnitzel with the spaetzle noodles, but with a brown gravy not the cheese.  It was heavenly.  Carter tried potato soup. He's really into soups as of the past year or so. 

The salads in Germany are awesome.  They hardly use any lettuce.  Its often lots of grated carrots, cucumber, cabbage, potatos, beans, tomatoes etc.  with a very light dressing.  Much healthier than your average american salad for sure

I would love to eat here again. 

After an awesome lunch, we headed to the town to explore and find some ice-cream/gelato.   

 The town is quite touristy, but quaint and cute.  And the ice-cream was perfectly amazing. 

The scenes painted on the sides of houses in Bavaria are called "Luftmalerei" which came from the name of the house in the Bavarian city Oberammergau, where a man lived who first started the practice in the 18th century.  As the paintings became popular during the Counter-Reformation Baroque age, themes tended to involve Christian symbols, saints, and stories (such as scenes from Christ's life) to reinforce the Catholic Church's authority in the region.  Some scenes also depicted an important historical event that took place in that house or town.