On Top of the World

Even though this is our fourth (fifth?) trip to Garmisch, we've never before made the trip to the top of Germany's tallest mountain, the Zugspitze.  As this is very likely our last trip here, we made sure to add it to our list of things to do.  We started our journey at Lake Eibsee where we got our tickets for the trip there and back.  We had dropped Madison off for girls camp at lunch time and we made it to the train station by the lake just in time for the last train going up that day.  The lady in the ticket office told us to run because they were holding the train for us and she wasn't kidding, as soon as we sat down the train started moving.  


The ride up in the train was steep and slow going, but the views were fantastic.  The train made a three minute picture stop on the way to the top so we jumped out and snapped a quick photo.  It was already cooler than where we'd started our journey.  The rest of the ride was through a long, long tunnel that ended at the glacier station just below the summit and from there it was a short cable car ride to the top.


We were so lucky to have such great weather - sunny skies, fluffy clouds, and a light breeze.  The views were amazing.  It was mountain after mountain as far as we could see with clear blue lakes dotted here and there.  Because there was a long wait for the cable car ride back down we had plenty of time at the top.


The Zugspitze is on the border of Germany and Austria and in the past you had to bring your passport if you wanted to pass from one side to the other.  Now you can go back and forth without a problem so we took the time to visit both sides.  The Germany side, where we started out, was more crowded with people, restaurants, exhibits, and gift shops. We skipped most of that stuff and took our time admiring the views. The girls loved these big telescopes so they each took a turn looking out of every one we came across.


The Austrian side was much quieter and less crowded.  Well, it was until we arrived.  It seems that Jared's one of Jared's goals this week has been to photo bomb as many people as possible.  He even got Natalie in on the game.  If they were successful there are lots of people out there with either Jared or Natalie in their vacation photos.  I was trying to get a picture of Natalie with the goat because she was fascinated by it's "pee-er" but she ran away and, as you can see, he even photo bombed his own wife's picture.

We finally got on the cable car back down about two hours after we made it to the summit.  Our plan once we got to the bottom was to go to the lake and find ice cream but while we were searching for ice cream we saw a place to rent paddle boats.


Jared wasn't super excited about taking a boat ride, but the girls desperately wanted to and their cute pleases won him over.  I feel as if our only goal this week has been to have fun and paddle boating was definitely fun.


Jared was doing the majority of the work because I was too busy being distracted by our cute kiddos and the beautiful scenery.


Our boat was open in the back and after some persuasion the girls scooted off their seats and put their feet in the water.  Our little boating excursion lasted just thirty minutes and then we were on the hunt for ice cream again.  Another one of our goals this week has been to have ice cream as much as possible and I'm happy to say that we've been successful!

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