Januarys Past Part I: Garmisch 2007

This time last year I was in my second trimester and getting itchy to get out of Baumholder and away from work. Over a holiday weekend, Justin and I packed up Chokydar and headed to Garmisch, a favorite haunt for many living in Baumholder, even though it is across Germany in Bavaria.

Justin always kicks and screams a little when I want to take trips here in Europe. I can understand...they include headaches (sometimes major ones, aka the flat tire outside Saltzburg) about 60% of the time. On our Garmisch trip, I'd say the only headache came in the form of a stau (traffic jam) that we ended up being stuck in for HOURS at a time without moving so much as an inch. If I remember correctly (Justin will have to chime in to check me on this), we sat for 3 hours and then got all excited to start moving again, only to go about 100 meters and come to a dead stop again for another 2 hours. We ended up having to call our hotel to tell them we'd be arriving late, and they made special accomodations for us arriving after the usual reception time.

Once we finally did arrive, however, I can see why Garmisch attracts so many admirers. It is, in short, absolutely lovely. While we were there, we did a fair amount of walking around and just admiring the landscape. As it was January, it was quite cold and I remember Chokydar got really muddy sloshing around in patches of melted snow.

I remember one funny exchange, after we walked up to the St Anton's church, we rested at a bench for my sake and watched a group of people playing with their dogs. The dogs were big--maybe labs or retrievers and off their leashes, frollicking merrily. Chokydar sat, firmly leashed at my side. After a few minutes, one of the dogs comes bounding up the hillside, crossing a small stream and leaping over rocks and past trees to approach Chokydar. You could almost hear their doggie conversation:

Friendly stranger dog: Hey! How's it going!? I've never seen you here before. You look nice, though. Wanna join me and Frank for some frollicking?

Chokydar: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Friendly stranger dog: Ummm...okay...I'll just...back away slowly...

We were told about this Thai restaurant by the owner of our hotel. It was SO amazing--I wouldn't have thought to find it in Bavaria--and the atmosphere was really cool! As Americans, we were eating earlier than a lot of the Europeans do, so almost until we were ready to leave we had the place to ourselves. It'd be worth another trip just for the food again.

There were lots of sites nearby, including the Linderhof Palace and the Ettal Monastery. With Chokydar in tow, we took turns going inside while the other waited outdoors with her.

Next post I'll have more pictures from our walk around the Eibsee lake (frozen solid at the time) at the base of the Zugspitze, Germany's tallest mountain.