Garmisch part 1

Over Spring Break we took a small vacation.  We went a few hours south to a Bavarian town right on the borders of Germany and Austria, cradled in the Alps, called Garmisch.  It's surrounded by wonderfully snowy mountains full of activities.  It is also where a great spa and resort provides luxurious rooms and services for military personnel.  I didn't take too many pictures inside the resort but trust me it was big and had a lot going on.

They had a nice big lobby with lots of rocking chairs and lounges and a big fireplace.  We didn't spend too much time down there since we have crazy children, but it was still nice.

The first evening we were there we went on a little excursion to a nearby lake.  Gracie's biggest goal was to climb a mountain so every opportunity she got to climb she took it.  Let me just say, it took far too long to make progress around this lake. 

                 That first day it snowed.  It was kind of a nice atmosphere for the mountains.

Gracie took off climbing up this mountain with Levi cautiously following behind.  She got up pretty far before we had to reign her back in.  She's really adamant about the importance of mountain climbing.  Levi was fairly hesitant on account of the bears and wolves that must surely be behind those trees.

 So apparently this lake we were walking around was the place of a bobsled track used in the winter Olympics in 1936.  It was a fun little bit of history to see and explain to the kids.

 It was a very gloomy, foggy, cloudy and snowy little hike we made.  Beautiful mountain weather.

 One of the really fun parts of our trip was a trip up Mt. Wank in a cable car!  It took about 18 minutes to get to the top.  Mildly terrifying, but mostly a great experience.  I was the only one who thought it was a little scary.

                                         Both of the kids really loved the ride.

 Once we got to the top we were free to get out and wander around the top of the mountain snapping amazing pictures of the range.

 Scenes don't really get much better than that.  It's impossible to even take a bad picture from the top of a mountain.

Slide down a mountain, anyone?  I couldn't really emphasize enough to Levi that he should probably step lightly.  He did not heed.

 It was quite windy and harshly cold up there.  Nathan found a little hidey hole to stick the kids in for a couple wind free minutes.

 Obviously we had a to get some "Lovey Couple" shots up there.

 This is Christmas card material

 It was a great, great view and I was very grateful that we were using our spring break wisely instead of at home on the couch.

 There was also a little wooden park on top of the mountain.  I mean, I can't think of a better place for running and jumping then on a mountain peak where you could fall to your dead, dead doom.

 And then back down we went.  It was quite amazing if you can look past the dreadful heights.

We passed by a very German looking Chinese restaurant a few times so we finally decided to give it a try.  It started to feel like Spring within a couple days of being in Garmisch.  The sun was shinning bright and the air was actually warm, so we got to eat lovely Chinese food on the outside patio of this cute little German house turned restaurant with the mountains surrounding us.

Nathan looked very pretty in the sun with that crisp snowy mountain looming behind him.

 

   

 We continued our explorations by walking around the Garmisch-Partenkirchen part of town where in 1936 they held the Olympic ski jump.  It was a fun little area to walk into and see the arena and the ski paths.

 I tried to find an old picture from the 1936 Olympics because the idea of something so historic happening right where we stood is so cool.  But they were all full of swastikas and Hitler so I decided I'd rather have an image of my cute kids sitting in those stands than any of that Nazi nonsense.
And that was the first half of our German Excursion for Spring Break 2013.