Carl Reiner once said "A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water. " Well he obviously had not been to Garmisch.
When I told friends that I was going on a Christmas/Skiing holiday they thought I would go somewhere like France, Switzerland, Austria or even Italy, not one of them thought or had previously concieved Germany to be a possible resort for this type of holiday. Well, trust me they will now because I not going to keep quiet about this place.
My
family and I arrived in Munich airport on the 23rd of December following a very comfortable and exceptionally resonably priced flight with BA (around £500 for a family of 5 return with taxes inc.) We had decided not to take the car as to make the trip less stressful for everyone involved, so the train station beckoned.
We managed to purchase a Bayern ticket (a special family ticket, for around 60 euro's return- Munich airport to Garmisch station). A short trip on the underground and we arrived at a station called Pasing. My first impressions were not great, the station was bleak, dirty and the surrounding town looked like a decaying, garbage bin, the industry this area once relied on had obviously ceased leaving some reminents behind, large warehouses for instance. But this dirty exterior was coated in pure, white, snow, and for some reason snow always puts a smile on my face.
From Pasing we caught a very old, wooden train, which was fit to burst. As I was squashed by a window in between two carriages I turned my attention to the countryside and was mesmorised. Living in England, being surrounded by warm waters and a huge climatic influence that is the Gulf Stream we do not get winters like our latitude would suggest, but boy Germany do! This pristine environment with underlating hills looked beautiful with a deep smoothering of snow, shimmering in the mid-day sun. Gradually as we made our way to Garmisch we recognised the growing mountains around us and of course the depth of snow was increasing. As we pulled into Garmisch station the sun was just dissolving behind the highest peak in Germany, the Zugspitze...it was truely a winter wonderland!
A short 8 euro taxi ride to our apartment and our holiday could begin! We had found this second floor apartment in a wooden chalet on a holiday rentals website and we certainly were not dissappointed. Two good sized bedrooms, large kitchen/diner and a wonderful bathroom (my mum went wil, what with the underfloor heating and sunken bath). The apartment also had a balcony where we could stand and appreciate this beautiful (and cold) environment.
The fun started when we went skiing!!!! People often question Garmisch as a ski resort due to unreliable snow fall, well when we arrived the bottom slopes had 30cm and the tops over 130cm- more than enough, no need to be greedy, especially when it snowed on and off for the next four days.
The actual skiing area is pretty plentiful, if you purchase a Happy Ski Card you can ski in 4 areas, one of which is in Austria. For beginners the ski school was excellent, we booked all our ski hire and lessons as soon as we arrived, all of which were reasonable and the ski guide spoke great English. With numerous blue and red runs the novice to intermmediate skiier will not be dissappointed. For the expert very few black runs exist, but well...there is the world renowned Kandahar (World Championship Downhill Venue).
As for the town, Garmisch rules, with its traditional buildings all beaming out christmas lights, the people selling mulled wine on the streets and the general spirit and atomosphere about this place just made everyone smile. We have not even mentioned the restaurants yet, if you like meat and cake come to Garmisch, both are in plentiful supply. One place I would recommend is cafe Kroner, cakes all under 3 euro's and honestly they are amazing....go for the sacertourte, the choclate is divine.
To be blunt, I could talk for hours about this place,sadly though I do not have the time. I've previously been to Zermatt, Gstaad, La Cluzaz, Les Diablarets, Villars and Bad Kleinkirchen all of which are also amazing, but for some reason Gamrisch Partenkirchen is the winner!!!
Regards
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Jan 2nd, 2005
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