Garmisch-Partenkirchen

            Next time you are looking for a vacation spot and plan on visiting Germany, and you like the outdoors, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the perfect place.  No matter what season it is, there is always something to do.  All the way from skiing to just laying by a lake surrounded by beautiful mountains in the sun.

            Garmisch-Partenkirchen is located in southern Germany on the border of Austria.  It is a little city in a valley full of beautiful mountains.  No matter which way you look, there will always be a mountain.  But what makes these mountains so special is that they are the tallest mountains in Germany.  The Zugspitze is the highest peak, standing at 2,962 meters tall.  It is an absolutely breath taking site.  Here is a picture of it during the winter time.  This is just the north face of this beauty, on the south face there a giant bowl, where you can ski and snowboard.  It is so tall that there is only one 6-man chair lift and the rest are all T-bars, for the skier and snowboarders.                             

                                             Alpspitze (Left), Zugspitze (Right)  (My picture)

            This is a great winter vacation place to visit.  As I said earlier, there is plenty of skiing and snowboarding that you can do, not only on the Zugspitze but there are plenty more slopes on the Alpspitze as you can see on the left-hand side of the picture above.  But if you are not a skier or snowboarder, there are plenty of other things you can do in Garmisch.  There is a gorge, that you can take a tour of, and during the winter time they have torch lit tours at night to see the half frozen gorge. 

                                                          

                                                    Frozen Gorge (www.seattlepi.com)

            You can also walk through the town and shops.  There is almost always something happening down there.  In fact, last time I was there they were having a biathlon in the streets, it was a big fest with lots of people and venders everywhere.  All the locals were out watching and drinking their glühwein, which is a hot spiced wine that is very tasty and warming on a cold day.  

                                                       Just one of the streets in the town

Once you are done seeing the town and all the shops, you can take a gondola ride to the top of the Zugspitze's where there is an amazing view.

                                   

                                 Just one of the views from the top of the Zugspitze (My picture)

            Now Garmisch is not just a winter vacation spot, it also has plenty of things to do during the summer as well.  The number one summer activity you could do is go hiking.  There a tons of trails there, you are surrounded by mountains, you can hike to just about any peak you see.  After you reach the top, there is usually a restaurant that you can sit down rest and have lunch at, while enjoying one of the most beautiful views you will ever see. 

            If hiking is to slow for you, you can always rent a bike and go mountain biking up and down the mountain.  There are plenty of mountain biking trails from the expert trails where you are about to fall off the cliff, all the way down to leisurely rides through the city. 

One of my favorite rides is a trail that will take you to lake Eibsee.  This is a gorgeous lake, that is surrounded by the mountains and trees all around.  As you can see from the picture, its water is crystal clear.  During the summer you can rent paddle boats and go out on the lake and you can even swim in it as well.  It is a great way to spend a sunny day in the summer.

                                                      Lake Eibsee (felixhaag.blospot.com)

            Another day trip during the summer, is seeing the Olympic stadium, that was used for the 1936 winter Olympics, then take a short walk up the road where you can find the gorge during the summer fully flowing and you can take the trail along side it.

            Now on to food, there are plenty of places you can eat all throughout the town, from Indian, to Mexican, but why would you go all the way to Germany just to have Mexican?  Germans are very proud of their food and make lots of it.  My favorite German meal is the Wiener-art schnitzel mit pommes.  Schnitzel is a thin breaded pork steak that is cooked until its crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.  Mit pommes means with fries, I personally love German fries, they are thin, long, and crisp. 

           

 This is a picture of one of my last meals I had in German this summer.  It is spaetzle, spaetzle is an egg noodle, very common in a German meal.  The meal I got was spaetzle covered in cheese with fried onions on top.  It is a very delicious meal and highly recommend it.  I also had a weisse beer with my meal.  These are one of the most common beer in Germany.  A weisse beer is a wheat beer, they have a crystal weissen, and a hefe weissen.   The difference between the two is that the hefe weissen is the regualar wheat beer, the crystal weissen is the hefe weissen filtered.  To me they are both very good beers, and also highly recommended. 

            So overall, Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a great place to go on vacation.  No matter what time of year it is, from skiing in the winter, to hiking in the summer, there is always something to do.    Even if you are not a high risk taker, and do not ski or bike, from seeing the gorge to laying by the lake, there are still plenty of things to do.  And finally, there food is great, you can order just about anything on the menu and you will be satisfied and full.  So defiantly consider Garmisch-Partenkirchen for your next vacation!