What a place to end the trip! Bavaria du bist Wunderbar!

What a surprise we got when we arrived in Garmisch-Partenkirchen! We had only booked 2 nights here as we were expecting a sleepy little town with nothing much to do, where we could recharge and get ready to head to Munich for the final days of our holiday. Little did we know that we wouldn’t get to Munichat all except for a direct trip from here to the airport! After our first night we went to reception and extended our stay here until the day we were flying out.

This town is simply stunning J

Surrounded by the Bavarian Alps, the town of Garmisch–Partenkirchen held the 1936 Winter Olympics and still has many of the facilities from that time. It also held the World Alpine Ski Championships in 1978 and 2011.

Imagine Nathan’s reaction when we found out that there was skiing guaranteed here for 7 months of the year and the day after we arrived a massive dump laid down some lovely fresh powder!

After a week of starving in Italywith ordinary (at best) food and ridiculously tiny portions we were looking forward to some hearty Bavarian food and we definitely weren’t let down here either! We have not managed to finish a single meal that we have been served since we got here.

We were both feeling quite run down as red meat and vegetables seem to be scarce in Italy(at least in the places where we ate!) and we had used a huge amount of energy while we were there, most days consisted of a minimum of 8 hours walking and we don’t stroll!

After just 2 meals we were already feeling better and a lot of our sore muscles had recovered J

Another surprise for us was that this little town sits at the base of Germany’s highest mountain at almost 3000 metres, the Zugspitze, so we decided we needed to go up there! Catching the cog wheel train it took us about an hour and a half to get to the top but the time just flew past as we were travelling through some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen. Getting out of the train at the top we walked through the ‘station’ and walked straight out into a snowstorm! We retreated to the restaurant to grab a hot chocolate and try the Bavarian version of Apfelstrudel mit Vanillesauce. It came in a very close second to the amazing Fuhrmannstube dish that we became addicted to in St Anton. As we were leaving on the train to return to town, the snow stopped, the clouds rolled away and there were blue skies and sunshine again! The landscape on the way down looked so different that it was like we had taken another route J

Day 4 here turned out to be a very quiet day. We woke up to rain in town which meant more snow was being dumped on the Zugspitze! I was also quite unwell, seems that I started the holiday with a cold and would be finishing it the same way! Rest was on the cards for me and since Nathan wasn’t keen on skiing while it was snowing he took a rest day as well. It was lovely to sit around with nothing to do; it’s been a very rare occurrence in the last 7 weeks!!

We finally left the hotel room at about 6.30pm to go and find a restaurant for dinner and made another great choice. I think no matter where we eat in this town the food will be amazing J

Day 5 is our last full day in Garmisch-Partenkirchenand my cold is worse but the blue skies and sunshine are back! Up a bit earlier than usual so we can have a quick breakfast and then I wave Nathan off to his day of skiing!

I spent the day just lounging around and repacking my backpack for what would be the final journeys of this holiday, the train trip to Munich and then the flight home to Brisbane.

Nathan came home just before dinner, his raccoon face back in full force after a day out on the slopes in blazing sun with no sunscreen! I had been used to seeing people with raccoon faces in St Anton but I had forgotten how funny he would look :D

We chose another restaurant for dinner and I was right, no matter where you go here the food is excellent and once again we couldn’t finish our meals let alone think about ordering dessert! No final Palatchinken for me sadly!

Our final day in Europe was nice and relaxed. Lazy breakfast, final pack and head for the train station to catch our train to Munich. I finally got to taste the Chilli cheeseburger from Hungry Jacks and it was good! Absolutely loaded with jalapenos!

Munich Airportis ridiculously huge and we managed to fill the hours between checkin and departure with eating, shopping and wandering around and the flights home were not as smooth as they could have been, but did nothing to tarnish the feeling of wellbeing that Garmisch had given us.

So that brings our Amazing European Adventure to an end. Thank you all for sharing the journey with us J

Europe…..Du bist Wunderbar!