Blogs from Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria, Germany, Europe

July 26, 2023 – Top of the World We’re all sitting around the breakfast table enjoying another great German breakfast. It’s raining hard outside, I’m thinking AWESOME! Rest day, kicking back reading my book, updating the BLOG, it’s going to be a perfect rest day. As I’m taking a bite from my breakfast sandwich, Kirsten informs us were going up on the Zugspitze, I choke and spit out part of my sandwich while trying to say “I thought this was going to be a rest day” with a mouth full of food. Everyone looked at me like I was some crazed man, and in sync all say, “but it’s snowing on top of the mountain!!”. After breakfast and putting on multiple layers of clothes, we loaded ourselves into the car and off we went. On the ... read more

We're still shaking off the combination of jet lag and weather differentials so forgive my brevity if this entry seems a bit skimpy with regard to verbosity. We arrived in Germany at 6 in the morning, picked up our rental car. Arrived at our hostess's apartment about 8. I met Melanie in September when I came over to spend a week with Noah. We're both members of Couchsurfing.com which is basically a crash pad site for people who are not only tight with money but also like to meet and talk with the locals. Melanie is a sweet gal and makes the best cup of coffee to be found in Germany. Bar none. We met Noah and his crew that night at a Wiesbaden Bistro called the Whiskey and Soda. Great bunch of people. Those who ... read more

I haven't updated because this is a travel blog and I have not been traveling. I spent $700 on a ski pass and I intend to use it until my money spent per day on skiing is in the single digits. All of this plus I make minimum wage so traveling is hard. I have been making new friends and progressing from equipment handler to instructor. I get certified next month by the Professional Ski Instructors Association or something like that. As the ski season comes to a close I have applied for summer jobs. The one I hope to get is a full-time accounting position. I came to Germany because I didn’t want a desk job but now I decided that I would rather work more and spend more than work less and spend next ... read more

Bonjour tout le monde, tout d'abord désolé pour le délai depuis notre dernier message ... internet dans les petits villages bavarois, c'est plutôt rare. Alors, on en était au 20 août. Déjà notre dernière journée chez Maria à Cologne. Nous sommes allés au château Schloss Augustusburg à Brühl. Ce site inscrit au patrimoine UNESCO est un chateau de style rococco, vous pourrez voir sur nos photos que l'extérieur et les jardins étaient plutôt biens. Heureusement pour vous, les photos à l'intérieur étaient interdites alors vous n'aurez pas à voir ce "gachis". Trop de couleur pastel mélangé, trop d'ornements, trop de tout. Bref, c'est bien beau vouloir impressionné, mais trop c'est trop. En plus, visite seulement en allemand et l'audioguide était plutôt 'minimal'. Pour oublier le tout, on s'est rempli de gaufres, de Chantilly, de crème glacée ... read more

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 ... read more