Tag: Germany

Planes Trains and Autobuses

Traveling to Bavaria
3:30 this morning. An ungodly hour. Why are we doing this again? Because I love my kids and they want to go skiing this second week of vacation. So we have to get up and out of Budapest on the first flight so that we can get to Munich and then take the 2 hour train ride to southern Germany so that they can get fitted for their ski/snowboard equipment this afternoon to be ready to ski tomorrow morning. We made it from the cab to the plane to the train to the other train and now I’m falling asleep at 10am as our train winds through the countryside. And I’m going to have energy to get up and do snowsports tomorrow? Sleeping in, sitting by the fire, and reading a book all sound preferable at this moment. 
We made it to Munich. Everyone looks wiped out. 
The commuter train from the airport to downtown. Making themselves at home. Thankfully it is early on a Sunday morning and the train is almost empty. 

We made it to Munich and transferred to the regional train to Garmisch. I’m so grateful that we first did this trip in the summer — all the transfers with extra luggage this trip were seamless. 

It looks like fall here, not winter. It’s cold and the leaves are brown, but the grass is still green and there is no snow. And none in the forecast either. I guess we brought Bahrain weather to Germany — it’s projected to be 55 instead of 32.

We arrived in downtown Garmisch and wheeled all our luggage across the street to wait for the public bus. It’s only 11am, but since we’ve been on the road since 4am, it feels like a long day already. No since in taking a cab since the bus stops right outside the back gate of our hotel. 
Because we haven’t traveled enough today, we arrived at the hotel, had them hold our luggage until check-in time and set out on foot for the 3k walk to the ski lodge to get fitted for our ski equipment. 
We passed a Christmas tree lot — it seems that everyone here (and in Budapest) waits to buy their trees until the week before Christmas. 
If we weren’t hoping for snow, this would be perfect weather. 
We took care of all the details for our ski week and then walked home. The kids loved “skating” on all the puddles and stomping on them and trying to crack the ice. 
Classic Bavarian house with a yard full of chickens. 
The sun rises at 8am and sets at 4pm. It’s 3pm, but getting dark fast.
Night, night Bavaria!

skiing day 2

I haven’t been taking any photos because I’ve been busy in my own ski school, but tomorrow I’m going to try and get some photos of the kids skiing/snowboarding. I was going to attempt it while going up the tow lift, but between juggling gloves and being pulled up the mountain, I was afraid I’d either drop my phone, cross my skis and fall down, or somehow end up looking like an idiot. 
It’s really fun to be skiing on the same hill that Calvin, Josh and Carter are snowboarding on and being able to see them improve over the course of the day and this afternoon Caleb “graduated” to our big hill so I got to watch him ski with his group too!
I snapped this one before we headed out for the day

This is called the “magic carpet” it’s an inclined moving walkway that you ride to the top of the kiddie hill — kind of like the long flat people movers in the airport. 
Camille coming off the ramp at the end of the walkway

When we picked her up after school she was ready to show off again. 

Even better than yesterday! She was proud she could weave through the “lollipops.” 
trying to follow her down the hill — she’s fast! She was telling me that her legs get tired so she goes down the hill and then asks her teachers if she can take a break to play in the snow. After every run. Oh goodness. 

ski school

I guess it’s a been a pretty busy vacation since I haven’t had time to write about it. Lots of thoughts, but not a lot of energy to share them from all the walking and adventuring we’ve been doing. (I think Josh estimated that we walked 60 miles the week we were in Budapest — average of 8 miles/day, one day was 12 miles.)

Today was our first day of skiing and it couldn’t have gone any better. The three boys were excited, Camille and I were not as excited. She’s been saying for months that she’s nervous about skiing and yesterday when we arrived she was in tears at registration. Literally crying about it. I was ready to bail for the both of us because I was fine with the idea of skiing, but since Europe has been having an extra warm winter, there’s no snow on the bottom of the mountain so all the skiing is taking place way UP, UP, UP and requires a gondola ride to get to the snow.

I was measuring the tradeoff between easy mornings, sleeping in and lazing around the hotel OR being put in a tiny swinging box suspended by a wire and it seemed like an easy decision — I’ll “sacrifice” and not ski myself so Camille can stay home. Besides, she’s only 5. Why would I be a mean mom and make her go to ski school all day with strangers when she’s petrified?

I’m pretty sure that Josh could see through my rationalizing because he talked Camille into trying it for at least the first day. Oh Lord, I’m going to have to get into one of those boxes. And then get back in another one to get off the mountain.

Funny enough, or maybe not if you know her, as soon as she found out that she got special gear to wear she became a lot more excited about skiing and all her nervousness vanished. Not content with her skis, boots and helmet, she wanted pink goggles. I told her if she did the first day of ski school like a big girl, I would get her goggles. 

Also excited about his snowboard for the week. He claims he’s going to shred the mountain. He’s a big talker and full of confidence. 

The next morning we dropped her off for ski school — the 5 to 7 year olds have a special room where they color and watch movies while they wait for everyone to arrive, then they build snowmen and have snowball fights before going to ski. She was a little tentative, but not nervous. 

If she can do it, so can I! I was determined to not be nervous about riding up the mountain so I chatted with my other Adult Beginner skiers in my group and pretended I was somewhere else. Easy peasy. It moved pretty fast so I as least could be content that it would be over as soon as possible. 

At the top this adorable German mom had a toddler with a sled and a baby in this moses basket sled. She had a vest and straps so she could tow the baby around the mountain. 

The runs themselves had plenty of snow, but in-between the slopes was grass and dirt peeking through. It’s all man-made, but there’s enough of it. The nice part is because it’s so warm we only had to wear a shell and I didn’t need gloves until after lunch. The ski instructors joked that we were getting spring skiing in December. 

On the beginner hill going up the tow rope. I was in a class with 7 other adult beginning skiers. Josh, Calvin and Carter were all together learning to snowboard, and Caleb was in the youth skiing class. At the end of the day, everyone had had a great time and was happy to go back tomorrow. 

Plenty of snow at the top of the beginner hill. 

Josh in the neon helmet, working on his turns. It was fun to be in different groups, but to be able to see each other on the hill — as I zoomed past the snowboarders all grouped together on their butts halfway down over and over again. I asked Josh why their class stood around in groups and tried to crash into each other, but I guess they weren’t supposed to do the crashing part. Snowboarding is tough on day 1. 

Carter, not quite carving yet . . . 

We picked Camille up at the end of ski school and she was anxious to put her skis back on and show me that she could ski down the hill by herself. I was impressed she could put her skis on by herself! Those ski instructors are worth every penny. 
Showing off her skills. Caleb is in the blue jacket and comes down the hill first, then Camille is the pink bomb that I’m following. She earned her goggles. 

#selfiesof6arehard

On our way back down the mountain. The gondola isn’t so scary anymore. 

Back to the lodge to change and store our gear for tomorrow 

We did a quick change at the hotel and then headed into town for dinner. We had plans to meet Josh’s friend who is in the German military who lives in Garmisch — they went to school together in Monterey. 

This town is adorable on any given day, but lit up for Christmas? It’s like a scene out of a movie. 

We met up with Josh’s friend and family at the Christmas Market — drank hot wine, ate melted cheese on bread, 

and of course Germany is where you get the biggest and best Bratwurst. 
We headed back to the hotel early and sent everyone to bed so we’re all rested for another day on the mountain tomorrow.