Garmisch Ski Trip with the Lustenbergers

Some friends of ours, the Lustenbergers, are currently stationed outside of London.  We have been trying to connect with them in Europe since we got here with no success.  Then, a few weeks ago, they contacted us to say that they would be down in Garmisch this weekend and invited us to join them.  We decided this would be a quick trip since we were just in Bavaria two weeks ago and the girls missed two days of school for that trip.  Since Garmisch is only a four hour drive, we decided that a weekend was do-able.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate.  It was snowing in Heidelberg and everywhere in between, so we decided to pull the girls out of school early in order to get down there before dark.  We left Heidelberg at 12:30 and arrived in Garmisch 7 HOURS later!  And this was with only one quick 15 minute potty/gas stop.  The girls were great!  However, I was left wondering "exactly why didn't we take the train"?????

The drive was just one traffic jam after another.  And if we weren't in a traffic jam, then we were in a snow storm.  This is what my view was for most of the drive down there!

And this was the view about 1.5 hours out from Garmisch.  We are still on the autobahn which is now completely covered in snow.  I could not even see the lines on the pavement.  Scary stuff.

The next day, we hit the slopes.  Turns out, the Lustenberger kids had never skied, so we skied while they were in ski school.  We did not see them again until dinner that night. 

Leena waits patiently for Taryn to catch up to her!

Is that the sun????  It was actually in and out for some of the afternoon.

Greg and Leena wait in the que for the main lift.  It was crazy.  Lots of elbows being thrown and no organization what-so-ever (so basically very European!).  It took about 20 minutes to get through it each time.

Taryn and I were not too excited about skiing today.  I did not like my skis and Taryn was tired from her late night the previous night (due to our late arrival).  So, we spent a lot of quality time together in the restaurant near the lift.

Our day finally ends and the girls and I took the gondola back down to the parking lot area.  A MUCH better decision than the last time when we skied down!  Here is our view from the gondola.

It feels good to sit down!  And the view was amazing!

Lucky for us, we were staying at the Edelweiss Resort in Garmisch.  It's a resort that is run by the U.S. and is exclusive for military members.  My favorite part of the resort was the food!!  Usually, we like to get out and eat locally while vacationing.  However, this time, the resort had foods that we have not eaten in almost two years!  The first night, I enjoyed a USDA filet mignon with garlic mashed potatoes and the second night I had a real American-style mushroom-swiss hamburger!!  Oh, my mouth waters just thinking about it!  You can't get that food over here.  Anywhere.  Another luxury was the resort hot tub!!  After our day of skiing, it was great to relax in it.  The hot tub was outside and we had a great time sitting in it while snow piled up in our hair!!  The only hard part was getting OUT of the hot tub!  Unfortunately, I did not have my camera with me, so no hot tub pics! 


After the hot tub, we hooked up with the Lustenbergers for dinner in the resort.  We haven't seen them in two years!  The kids were shy at first, but then ended up having a great time.  Here are Taryn, Leena, Virginia, Jillian, and Amanda.  They ran around in the game room (with a lot of other kids) while the adults got to enjoy uninterrupted conversation in the restaurant.  The kids ran around until 10:30 that night!!



We woke up Sunday morning to his glorious day!!!  We wished we could stay longer.  Here are the girls standing right outside our hotel room.

Heading back home.  The drive was MUCH better on the way home that it was on the way down.

Not far outside Garmisch is a little town called Weis.  Not only is this town little, but it's in the middle of no where!  However, this town has a very beautiful church called Weiskirche.  We decided to stop and check it out.  This church is new by European standards - built in the mid 1700's.

Entering the church.  Just beautiful!  Only downfall... NO HEAT!!  It was 19 degrees outside and COLDER inside!!  We didn't stay long!

The alter.

The ceiling.

View from the alter looking toward the church entrance.

Close-up shot of the alter.

Back on the road, we kept seeing many (and I mean, many!) people out doing some cross-country skiing.  Yes, the sun was out, but it was cold... below freezing!  We drove through many small German towns for about an hour after leaving Garmisch before we reached the autobahn.  The picture below shows what we kept seeing over and over again.  These Germans are hard-core!  Gotta admire that!

Four hours later, we were back home.  Thank God for small miracles!!  Word of advice, if you ever travel to Bavaria in February..... TAKE THE TRAIN!!