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Woo-hoo ! We're at the top of Germany !

Today, our little group decided to visit the very south of Germany, which also happens to be the tallest part of Germany! That's right - we went skiing on the Zugspitze in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. That has a nice ring to it. At least, it would if you skied. I did not. Instead, I rented skiis, walked out the door, looked down the slope, and walked right back inside. No way was I going to try to work my way down a sheer drop in those freaking uncomfortable ski boots.

I grew up in Illinois. To those of you unfamiliar with the particulars of the midwest of the United States, people from Illinois are endearingly known as "flat landers." It's pretty self explanatory - we're great at farming, but skiing? It's no Vail.

Needless to say, as cool as skiing in the Alps would have been, I was a bit out of my league. It didn't help that there was a near white-out on top of the mountain that made it impossible to see past a few meters. I probably would have died. Or been badly injured. Instead, I spent a great afternoon drinking doppelter espresso from the cafe and writing postcards. That was fantastic.

The rest of my group did ski though. For the most part, I think they enjoyed it. It would have been lovely if the day had been nicer, and had there been more visibility. But what can you do? We're in the Alps in December... go figure it's snowy.

The train ride up and down to Zugspitze (as well as from Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen) was amazing. Amazingly beautiful. The trees were snow-capped, tiny little villages and huts were blanketed with a white layer, the sheer grandeur of the Alps was pressing in on us. That part did not disappoint. We even spent a lot of time walking from the gondola exit at Eibsee back to our train and missed our connection by 2 minutes because we had stopped so many time to take pictures. It was just too easy. Luckily, the train we missed was the second to last train back to G-P/Munich.

Our friends Rob and Rachael leave to go back to the States tomorrow, unfortunately. Keith and I will be venturing back down in this area again to check out Ludwig's Neuschwanstein. After that, we take a night train to Rome. So excited!

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