Last week my sister came with her husband and two of their kids to visit. They had a difficult time getting here due to massive snowstorms on the East Coast, and were actually delayed by a day, so as soon as they arrived we headed for the Alps for some Winter fun together. We stayed at Edelweiss Lodge again. It is an American hotel for US service members, and while it isn't very "European" it does give us a nice break from doing everything in German and we actually feel like we are on vacation. So we like it.
Despite all of our time spent in Garmisch over the years, Rob and I had never made the trip to the top of the Zugspitze. This is the tallest mountain in Germany and you ride a HUGE gondola to the top. (Or you can take a cogwheel train.) I decided for my 40th birthday this year, that i wanted us to all go up to the top and do some sledding together. We enjoyed this little alpine horn band before hopping in line for the gondola.
The ride up was surprisingly fast! I took this photo out the window from the visitor's center on the peak. This is the glacier skiing and sledding area that is actually below us. We took another gondola down to the ski lodge in the center of this photo to go sledding.
There are some SERIOUS sledding runs up here. The kids and I stuck to the family runs because a number of people told us that the other runs were too dangerous for children. I had a great time and was not at all sad to skip the more dangerous runs. Especially after Rob, Mark, and Leah all had serious crashes... one of which may have resulted in a broken or bruised rib.
Just being up there made me happy. It is really spectacularly beautiful.
There is also a small church on the glacier. I thought it was super cute, and they actually hold mass there every Sunday.
Sledding selfie.
The downside of the family sledding area was that they didn't have a lift to take you back to the top. The kids quickly became tired of trudging back up the slopes dragging their sleds. Slightly thinner air at nearly 10,000 feet may have had an effect too.
I'm glad we went! This was a memorable day and despite having VERY tired kids after a few hours, we had a lot of fun.
When the kids were just DONE, Leah (who was hurting from her sledding accident) and I took them back down to the hotel and we relaxed in the pool. Edelweiss recently redid their whole pool area and it is very kid friendly and nice. When everyone else got back from the glacier, we met up for dinner, and ate a hearty German meal.
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