Germany - Part 2

On my last entry, I left off just as we were going up in the cable car to the top of the Zugspitze.  So let's pick up from there. 

This is what we rode in:

and this is where it pulls in at the top:

Kate taking in the view:

There was some graffiti on an inside walkway where many people left their mark, and one especially appropriate sentiment:

Self portrait and some more from the top:

It was time to leave and I snapped a few on the way back down.  Someone skiied there:

It was quite an experience being up there.  Once we were back on land, we went back to the hotel to get ready for dinner.  Sadly I don't recall the name of the place we went, but our server (who was from Italy), was kind enough to take a few shots of us in the restaurant.  Just outside the window there, we saw a woman ride by on a sled with sled dogs.  True story.  I couldn't get my camera out in time to get the shot though.  That was a frozen lake out there behind the fence which we probably could have skated on if 1.) we had skates, and 2.) if we hadn't been drinking prosecco.  Although, the prosecco may have made it even better.

The next day we spent some time in the Marienplatz, which is a quaint part of downtown Garmisch.  Many of the structures have very intricate paintings on them, both homes and shops:

There was this neat shop that had a ton of Christmas ornaments and all kinds of handcrafted items:

Can you tell we're related?  I didn't notice that we basically had the same stance until after these photos were taken:

We went to this place called Kronner's two days in a row because it's so good there.  Kate ordered this Cream Orange tea the first time and told me how amazing it was so after trying hers, I got it the second time we went.  I made sure to photograph the tea bag so I'd remember the name to be able to search for the tea back home or online.  They serve it to you on a tray with your own little teapot, tiny creamer receptacle, cup and saucer obviously, and this amazing sugar.  It's like rock candy but smaller and not on a stick.  The tea tastes like a creamsicle.  It is basically heaven in a tiny cup.

This is what we had for lunch that day.  Both things were very good and I am not much on sausage products but it's not the same type of processed gristle-filled meat as many of them are in the U.S.  That tiny condiment dish has fresh horseradish and it definitely was fresh...and strong!  I don't think my eyes have watered as much from eating something.  So good though.  Fun fact - butter is not served with bread automatically like it is here.  In fact, they charge you extra for it.  While a lot of the bread I had there was good without the butter (which, I guess that's how you know you have good bread?) I'm sorry....I still like it with butter.  Which reminds me of the butter pretzels that I loved...they were SO GOOD and ironically I did not take a single photo of one.  I was too busy eating it!

After a nice day walking around, it was getting to be dinner time so we said goodbye to the little shopping area to go back to the hotel.  A horsedrawn buggy went by and I at least got the rear view of it.  Pretty neat!

.....and so we said goodbye to downtown Garmisch! 

Next on the agenda was our brewery tour that evening which was great fun and I'm glad we did it!  I will be making that the start of the 3rd (and final) installment of my photos from Germany.  What a wonderful experience to have gone and seen all of this.  I hope you are enjoying the recap through my photos!