i lived in garmisch-partenkirchen for nearly three years after i graduated from uni...a beautiful town in the south of germany...in the german state of bayern, gap (the town designation on german license plates) is only 11km or so from the border with austria...the town is located in the middle of a valley in the alps...mountains everywhere you look...
my flight landed on time, and i took the sbahn to the hauptbahnhof in munich...from there i bought a ticket for the next train to garmisch, i only had to wait 15 minutes...(trains to garmisch from munich run every hour, so i wouldn't have had to wait much longer, even if i just missed a train)...yippee:)
as i was sitting on the train, i listened to the conversations around me...in english i heard someone say i would have to get off the train at murnau, then take a bus the rest of the way to gap...the ticket didn't say this, i figured i would see what happened...it turned out there is work being done on the tracks, so the train stops at murnau, and everyone gets off...there are buses lined up to take everyone where they need to go...the bus ride went smoothly, and dropped me off at the train station in garmisch...
the walk to where i was staying was easy, my memory didn't let me down...well, sortof...i took a couple wrong turns, but realized it quickly and was able to get going back on the right street straightaway...it's been a bunch of years since i've walked that walk...
when i got to where i was staying, i put my bag away, and just relaxed...i stayed with a friend who has a daughter, she came home first...the last time i saw her she was not yet in primary school, so she seemed huge to me...i felt like such an old lady saying "i remember when you were thiiiiiis big"...not surprisingly, she didnt remember me from all those years ago...
i made dinner plans for that night before arriving in town, as i wanted to make sure to see several people...plus, even though i haven't eaten there often, the fiaker is now one of my favourite restaurants in a town full of restaurants...3 hours later i came home, fat and happy:)
i was awake until 0200 that night, and didn't really wake up until 1100 the next morning...so much for getting up early, heading to a bakery for breakfast, then going for a long hike...ooops...
instead i wandered around partenkirchen for a while...when i lived in gap, i technically lived in garmisch, my work was located in garmisch, the gym was in garmisch, and the commissary was located in garmisch...so guess where i spent most of my time...of course i'd been to partenkirchen (i always thought the partenkirchen fest is better than the garmischer fest) but not a whole lot...
after treating myself to gelato (twice) i went home and we headed to the commissary...since i live abroad, there are a bunch of american foods i crave (mostly because they aren't available to me, not because i actually think they are good) and a trip to an american grocery store is a huge treat...afterward, we went to dinner at another of my favourite restaurants, bei marcus...it's in a different place now, and i'm not sure i love it as much as i did, but the food was good, as was the conversation...
the next morning i did get up at a reasonable hour, and finally did the hike i've thought about doing for 12 years...i hiked the kramer...for many people who lived in garmisch, hiking the kramer happened simply because of proximity...it's literally in our backyard...the mountain/hill is directly behind the building in which i lived for nearly three years...yet somehow i never hiked it...i was determined to change that fact during this visit, and i did...woo hoo!! a 5.5 hour return trip hike...the first half is quite easy, the trail is wide, the views are great...the second half is a lot steaper, the trail more narrow (but still very well defined) and the views still awesome...as i got up to the top i was swallowed in fog, (booooo) but I DID IT!!!
by the time i got back down my legs felt like jelly, and my host kidded me about being an old woman...hee hee...it was a struggle to get in the shower, my legs didn't like stairs (especially going down) at that point...
dinner that night was at a classic gap restaurant...well, classic in that every afrc employee has probably eaten there numerous times...zirbel
the next morning i hauled myself out of bed at the completely unreasonable hour of 0700, to meet a couple friends for breakfast at a bakery...one of the friends had a day tour planned, the other was in town visiting and was going to take his pregnant wife around later, so morning was the only option for our meeting...
hobis bakery is awesome, and i always eat too many pastries...good food (heaps of sugar,) and more good conversation...i always wonder why i left garmisch after get togethers with old garmisch friends...
on the way 'home' i wandered around the older sections of town, taking photos...with the amazing weather i knew i'd get good photos of the lovely buildings, and the ridiculous explosion of flowers everywhere...picturesque is usually one of the words used to describe garmisch, and for good reason...classic bavarian architecture, gorgeous flowers, etc...
after a quick change of clothing i went hiking again...this time i followed signs up to the pflegersee, and the old ruins up in that area...not a challenging hike, but it felt good to move again; it helped loosen up my legs from the day before...since garmisch-partenkirchen is located in a valley in the alps, there are great hiking trails all around...a lot of trails i somehow didn't hike when i lived there, argh...
we made another trip to the commissary, and then went to dinner at a classic touristy place, the werdenfelserhof...dinner was with my host, the daughter, and a friend of my host...good fun...adolescent boys did a traditional dance, all the diners give them coins as tips...
the next morning, on the way to the aiport, we stopped at hobis so i could stock up on a few pastries...i miss garmisch!!
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