Guten Tag!

A few weeks ago Dan and I went skiing in Germany with some friends from Harrogate.  I'm happy to report that we had a great time and no one broke any bones!

We stayed in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria in southern Germany--about an hour from Munich.  The views were absolutely stunning!  Neither Dan nor I are experienced skiers and we found the mountain a little challenging for beginners.  Nevertheless, we had a great time.

  

A bunch of us went sledding in Austria the first night.  I didn't know what to expect when I signed up for this excursion, but it wasn't this.  We sledded down a regular ski run in pitch black on tiny plastic sleds.  It was cold and scary...but definitely an experience.

Susan is saying what we're all feeling

What made sledding a lot more fun were the pit stops at the top and middle of the mountain.  We stopped in for some schnapps and brats and were treated to live music.

We were told in advance that if it's a clear day we need to drop everything and go to the top of Zugspitze.  I'm so glad we listened!  It was absolutely gorgeous at the top. It's the tallest mountain in Germany and you can see the German, Austrian and Swiss Alps.  We even crossed the border into Austria at the top.  It was very neat.

View from the top of Zugspitze

Three of us went to see the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles. Neuschwanstein was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle.  The castle originally belonged to Ludwig II but he died before it was finished.  The parts that are finished are gorgeous though!  Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside the castles.

Hohenschwangau Castle

Neuschwanstein Castle

It was snowing pretty heavily while we were touring the castles.  I loved it.

We also took a day trip to Innsbruck, Austria.  I skied for half the day and toured for the other half.  This town is really beautiful.  I loved seeing the colorful buildings on the river and eating the delicious strudels.

Innsbruck, Austria

 

We visited a schnapps store that had more than a hundred varieties!  We brought home the apple strudel flavor.  Can't wait to try it out.

Schnapps

I didn't know it when we booked our trip, but we were in Germany over Carnival.  Bavaria is an especially Catholic part of Germany, so this pre-lent festival is celebrated to the fullest. People were dancing and drinking and dressing-up.  We got into the spirit at dinner when a gang of costumed men barged in and started dancing with the diners.

Dancing with the masked man

We were also lucky enough to stumble into a huge Carnival festival in Munich.  Our flight didn't leave until late evening so we planned on spending the day touring the city.  We kind of did that...

Hofbrauhaus 

Delicious donut

Carnival in the Marienplatz

Everyone was in costume--from tiny babies to 80-year-olds. It was really impressive how inclusive this party was.  

Vendors were selling bags of confetti for 1 Euro.  How could I pass that up?

I had the best time throwing my confetti around.  There were lots of confetti fights, including this one:

Yup, I am in a confetti fight with a little girl.  And I'm pretty sure she won.