Day 9: Skiing in the German Alps

We made it today to the German Alps!

We got up super early to make our trains.  We got to Garmisch-Partenkirchen just a little after 8 and made it to the top of the slopes around 9:30.

Garmisch-Partenkirchen was the location for the 1936 Winter Olympics.  These are pictures of the ice stadium where figure skating and the ice hockey finals were held.

As an aside: I've now been to sites of the following Olympics: 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirsch, 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver (Whistler) Canada, 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City (Utah Olympic Park, Park City), 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.  We ran of of time to see sites from the 2012 summer Olympics in London and the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich.

We caught the cog train up the mountain to ski.

When we got to the top, the weather up there was worse than at the bottom. We were in a snow cloud!  Visibility was limited like yesterday, but much less wind to deal with. 

We had fun skiing and boarding. We didn't stay out as long as we could on the slopes because it was really hard to see. Especially the slope in front of you!

At the end of our skiing day we took the cable car to "The Top of Germany".

It was a little cold up there.

We took the gondola down the mountain, but because of the cold the windows in the car were frozen over and we couldn't see out.  :-(

And our train whoas continued today.  We were at the next to the last stop to Munich and sitting in the station.  The conductor came across the PA and made an announcement in German.  Suddenly everyone got up and started leaving the train.  I asked if anyone on the train spoke English and a nice lady told us there was an accident blocking the train train tracks so we needed to leave the train and take the light rail system back to the main train station.  This added some time to our return trip.

We finished off having another great day at the Augustiner Keller Biergarten, allowing Rob to have another of his "Best Dinner Ever!"

It was a good last day in Germany. 

Up next: travel to Paris and the Paris lights tour.