Day 9 - The Zugspitze

  I have to confess, I am a little homesick.  (James is too which is very rare.)  I miss home, my bed, and familiar food.  I miss my family and friends.  I miss ice in my drink and free refills.  I miss being able to order food or ask for directions (or just say hello!) without worrying if people can understand me.  I miss my alone time.  Since I can’t have all of that, last night we settled for some American comfort food, pizza from Pizza Hut.  It tasted just like it does at home.  :-)

  This afternoon we went to the top of the Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany.  To get there we had to take a slightly terrifying gondola ride.  It wasn’t scary for the kids, they cheerfully called out “Here comes a big swing!” whenever we passed a tower.  I, however, couldn’t stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong.  (Of course, nothing did.)  For the last stretch we were pulled straight up a cliff until we arrived at the large station which, in German tradition, featured three restaurants.

  

Our ride, straight up the mountain

The drop

waiting for the gondola

James on top of the Zugspitze

  Our first stop was for hot chocolate which gave us time to acclimate to the thin air.  Then we wandered the platforms admiring the amazing view.  On one side we could see Lake Eibsee and Grainau below us.  On the other was the barren slope of the Zugspitze and the endlessly receding Alps.

Hot chocolate break!

Birds over the Zugspitze

Will above Lake Eibsee

A fisheye view of Lake Eibsee

Will on top of the Zugspitze

Will sneaks up on a bird

Boys on the top of the world

  Will and Jon didn’t care about the view; they only wanted to find snow.  There was a ton of snow the last time James and I were here and we’d had a snowball fight.  The Zugspitze does have a glacier (although it seemed smaller this year) but we didn’t have the time to take another gondola down to that part of the mountain.  The boys were heartbroken.  But they cheered up when we walked to the Austrian side of the mountain and found snow!  The ensuing snowball fight was occasionally broken up so we could warm our frozen hands.

Look out!  Jon has a snowball!

Mommy hands out snowballs

Snow on the top of the world.

  After the mountain, we ate at a restaurant on Lake Eibsee before heading home.  Then James, Camille and Jon went out on the town for some ice cream and shopping.  As you can see Jon had his usual eye for toys and candy.  Will stayed home and took a nice long bath and I was able to have some precious alone time to read and blog, a perfect end to a great day.

Jon at Lake Eibsee

Jon drinks his "beer"

I want that!

Jon loves ice cream

Yum!

 Auf Wiedersehen!