We had some special visitors this week! Our dear friends and neighbors from Maryland, Kathy and Elsie, came to spend a week skiing and catching up with us. We chugged along through the week until Thursday when they arrived at lunchtime. They returned to our house for a nap until school was out, and then we went to the school to surprise the kids and Matt.
Wrestling practice was still going on, so we gave Kathy a mini tour of the school and the base while Elsie stayed for the remainder of the practice. Then, we went back to pick up the kids. For dinner, we went to the Brauhaus to show Kathy and Elsie our local brewery and then finished the evening back at home with some wine.
Friday, I was off, so we left first thing in the morning for Garmisch. We had planned a long weekend of skiing in the German and Austrian Alps. The forecast had been calling for rain all weekend, so we were surprised by a beautiful, sunny day.
Our skiing destination for Friday was the glacier on top of Zugpsitze, Germany’s tallest mountain. We have visited the viewing platform on top before but never skied there. It’s a bucket list skiing destination for many people and has also been on our list for a long time, so we were excited to cross it off.
On our previous two visits, we took the gondola from the Austrian side of the mountain, but this time, we took the cable car from the German side at Lake Eibsee. We bought two-day lift passes that covered both Garmisch Classic and Zugspitze and included an ascent on the Zugpsitze gondola. We purchased one family pass that included two adults and two kids, which was about $40 per person daily. Quite a deal!
We took the Eibsee gondola to the Zugspitze mountain station and then rode a separate gondola down from the peak to the glacier for skiing.
The skiing area at the Zugspitze Glacier is really cool. There are a couple of restaurants, a ski lodge, ski rentals, and even a church. It was pretty cold and windy at the top, but still bearable.
The skiing conditions were excellent, though: there were no moguls, no ice, just light powder, and it was not crowded at all. We spent the afternoon doing multiple runs and never had to wait once at the ski lift. We would advise, though, that if you are an inexperienced skier, do not start here! There were no easy runs; even the blue runs could have been classified as red on any other slope.
After we had finished skiing, we had pretzels and drinks at the mountain lodge before returning to the Zugspitze mountain station. Before we descended all the way to Lake Eibsee, we walked around the mountain station, even crossing the border into Austria. The sun was setting, and we got some great pictures; then, it was back down to the car.
Once we were at the base, we stopped at Lidl to pick up some snacks for the hotel and then headed to Edelweiss Lodge to check in. We were all pretty tired from the drive down and skiing that day, so we ate at Zuggy’s Base Camp, the pub-style restaurant at Edelweiss Lodge. After we were done with dinner, we changed into our bathing suits and spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub.
We were up early and at the slopes on Saturday by 9:30am, this time at Garmisch Classic. As opposed to skiing at Zugspitze, Garmisch Classic was packed! We had to wait almost 20 minutes just to board the gondola to reach the top. Once there, the slopes were pretty crowded, and as it was a warm day, the snow conditions alternated between icy, slushy, and mogul-ly. We also discovered that the Women’s World Super-G qualifying race was being held on the Kandahar slope. Hence, that slope was closed to regular skiers, and even more spectators were pulled up to the Garmisch Classic for the day. Despite the crowds, it was still a beautiful sunny day, and we enjoyed skiing all day except for a lunch break in one of the many lodges. At the end of the day, Elsie and Brooklyn took Kathy to the highest point in the resort. I was not excited about going down some of the more challenging slopes, so I started my aprés ski break a little early ☺️.
Once we were done skiing, we stopped at the Haüsberghutte, a lodge at the base of the ski gondola, for some glühwein and hot chocolate. Then, we had dinner at the Flosserstube Guesthouse, a German restaurant in downtown Garmiach where we’ve eaten before. At the end of the evening, we headed back to Edelweiss for some more hot tub time.
On Sunday, the last day of our skiing weekend, we were up not as early as the day before after a late night in the hot tub and then rain that morning. We were on the road by 10, though, and reached Lermoos ski resort in Austria by 10:30.
We had never skied at Lermoos before but had heard about its long, beautiful runs from the peak of Grubigstein Mountain all the way to Lermoos town in the valley below. As you ski down, the ski runs provide the most stunning views of the Zugspitze and the Lermoos Valley below.
The weather started as rainy at the base, and then, as we ascended one of the two gondolas we needed to take to the top, it started snowing. At the top, it was almost white-out conditions, and the snow was a super thick powder, definitely different from our last two days’ skiing conditions. It wasn’t too crowded, but the fresh snow made some of the slopes pretty mogul-ly. As expected, we started at the top and skied back and forth across the mountain, taking in some fantastic views of Zugspitze and the valley below. The entire trip took us almost an hour. As we skied, the sun miraculously started to come out, and it turned into a beautiful day.
We stopped for lunch in one of the mountain huts, where we all got lunch and drinks for less than $50. It always amazes me how much more affordable all the skiing is here. The funniest part of lunch was how Kathy wanted to order something “new” and ended up with a green split-pea soup with cut-up hot dogs in it! That was definitely a first for both of us!
When we were done skiing in the late afternoon, we packed up and made the three-hour drive back to Stuttgart. By the time we got home, we were all exhausted, so we ordered a Thai food takeaway and ended the evening watching the NFC Championship Football game, which the Commanders sadly lost. We all slept soundly after a jam-packed three days!
Gilcrests Abroad 