German Holiday

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Traveler German Holiday
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- Dec 18, 2023, 3:37pm
- ☀️ 10 °C
- Altitude: 524 m
- Germany Free State of Bavaria Munich Mary's Square 48.137506, 11.58007848°8’15” N 11°34’48” E
Day 10
Hofbräuhaus
December 18, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C
We wrapped up our time in Munich with a visit to the famous beer hall, Hofbräuhaus München.

This cool beer hall is what I think most folks imagine when they hear "German beer hall". Big long tables, boisterous people talking, live music, good beer.

We stayed for some pints, the guys getting the hefty 1.0 L glasses, and a pretzel. All delicious!

In the evening, we took it easy by ordering in some Uyghur food. The Uyghurs hail from Xinjiang province in the PRC, a region sandwiched between Tibet, Mongolia, and Kyrgyzstan - the CCP government has oppressed them pretty aggressively over the last decade and it's a fairly small population to begin with, so it's not a cuisine that's readily available.Read more
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- Dec 19, 2023, 3:21pm
- ☀️ 9 °C
- Altitude: 654 m
- Germany Free State of Bavaria Schwaigen Plaiken Höhenberg 47.582967, 11.16992547°34’59” N 11°10’12” E
Day 11
Onward to Garmisch
December 19, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 9 °C
Today we head out from Munich to the German part of the alps.

While Igor stayed at the hotel to await the car, the rest of us went and did a quick morning shopping around town. We came across Dallymar, a luxury grocery store, the day before where it was packed with last minute shoppers. So we made sure to get there around open and snag some German goods before it got crazy!

Along with a few other stops, a potato pancake & mayo incident, and another potato tornado later, we were all set to head out to Munich.

The biggest hold up? No car.

Enterprise does a car delivery service and while this sounds fantastic in theory, in practice it leaves you waiting on the side of the road trying to navigate an automatic German phone call system where all the prompts are in German 😅

After many struggles, the car finally made it and we packed up!

On recommendation from Will (thanks Will!) we stopped at a cool monastery brewery for lunch on our way south. With a tasty beer and even tastier pretzel and sausage lunch, we continued our drive down to Garmisch. (Sadly in our haste for food and beer we took very little photos !)Read more
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- Dec 20, 2023, 1:02pm
- ☁️ -3 °C
- Altitude: 2,938 m
- Germany Free State of Bavaria Grainau Eibsee Zugspitze 47.420917, 10.9846547°25’15” N 10°59’5” E
Day 12
Up the mountain
December 20, 2023 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ -3 °C
On our first full day in Garmisch we trekked up the tallest mountain in Germany: Zugspite.

Our adventure started with a nice 30 min walk to the train station along the geologischer lehrpfad trail.

The train part of our journey goes from Garmisch up to Eibsee and then up the mountain in a cogwheel train! The cogwheel train is a cool work of machinery, allowing the train to go up steep slopes of the mountain, climbing over 1,700 meters up. It goes through many tunnels built into the mountain and comes out to one of the mountain tops for skiing.

From here we have a quick cable car ride up to the peak! Up at the top we are basically in a clouds and eat lunch in the panorama restaurant.

Up top we strolled around the outside which was very artic feeling. Lots of whipping wind and ice covered equipment. Up here the peak marks the border between Germany and Austria. A short stroll across the top let's us walk into Austria for a few minutes :)

To get down we rode the big cable car back to Eibsee and got some beautiful views of the Bavarian forest and the Eibsee lake.Read more
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- Dec 21, 2023, 5:35pm
- 🌧 6 °C
- Altitude: 731 m
- Germany Free State of Bavaria Partenkirchen Gudi-Berg 47.487036, 11.11900647°29’13” N 11°7’8” E
Day 13
Saunas & Schnapps
December 21, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 6 °C
The rest of our time in the German Alps was more laid back after our trek up the mountain.

A lot of this time was spent in the sauna, alternating with some cold plunges/cold air cool downs. Our chalet had a nice small sauna that overlooked the mountain which made for a nice pre-bedtime relaxation session.

Also during our stay we visited a hotel nearby where we were able to reserve the entire spa for ourselves! From 830-1130pm we had full access to the spa facility. They basically closed the place for the night and told us if we accidentally left and the doors locked no one was here to let us back in 🤣 so it was very private!

The spa itself was amazing with 2 different heat saunas (one at 65 and one at 95! Celsius), an infrared sauna, a steam room, and heated pool. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring the spa and the mountain air from the pool!

Any time not in saunas included many schnapps tastings, delicious meals prepared by chef Igs, reading, and relaxing.Read more
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- Dec 23, 2023, 9:42am
- 🌬 8 °C
- Altitude: 130 m
- Germany Hesse Frankfurt Flughafen 50.052372, 8.5901250°3’9” N 8°35’24” E
Day 15
Homeward bound
December 23, 2023 in Germany ⋅ 🌬 8 °C
After a very relaxing few days at our chalet, we're headed back home in time for Christmas!

We took our rental back to Frankfurt and checked into the JW. The night consisted of take out and cards, and polishing off the last of our wine/beer purchases.

At the airport this morning, we all upgraded to Delta One, for a reasonable price! Looking forward to a comfy flight back across the pond :)Read more
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Hofbräuhaus

Onward to Garmisch

Up the mountain

Saunas & Schnapps

Homeward bound