Hello!!! I have a little Wintery adventure story to share with you :)
We got back on Wednesday from a wee trip down to the very very south of Germany- almost Austria! The ski-town is called Garmisch-Partenkirchen (say that 10 times!) and we were a party of four: Me, Steve and two of our Australian friends Rachael and Nick, who are also living in Germany!
The town was so cute, so Bavarian. All of the buildings had elaborately decorated wooden balconys, cute window shutters, and lots of them had big murals or decorative paintings framing the windows. The Eidelweiss flower symbol was everywhere and Rachael sang us some beeeautiful renditions of the song from The Sound of Music! We ate Apple Strudel and Bratwurst (not together!) and drank mulled wine and hoppy beer (also not together....) We wore hideous warm layers we wouldn't be caught dead in elsewhere (black turtlenecks make anyone less than model-like look like creeps! Especially me) zip-up polarfleece "Dad jackets", "Dad-walking-shoes", polarfleece tube scarves and woollen headbands. Amaaazing. Totally wanted to make dresses out of curtains and frolic through the mountains. Maybe in Spring- unless the curtains are thermal lined....
Our lovely German friends AK and Michael loaned us their ski gear- snowboards, bindings, goggles, pants, jacket!! (cool ones- not included in the hideous clothes pile :) Aren't they so lovely???
Arriving- obviously pre crippled muscles!
I NEED one of these tacky-cute cuckoo clocks!
It was the second time in my life that I'd tried snowboarding (still haven't tried skiiing) and I had to be re-taught on the first day by my ever-patient friends who were dyyyyyyiiing to hoon down some slopes! I fell on my butt 50 times, my wrists 60 times, and my face about 10 times....good times! I eventually got the hang of it and took it slow (eg. inching down the slope while the others did it twice over, and leaving them to it while I have a 'time-out' session in the cafe drinking mulled wine :p)
Nick suggested hot sauna/cold shower sessions afterwards to scare away the dead-muscles-cripple-walk the next day.....never in my life did I think I'd actually do it.....but I did! It was hell....I did hot shower/freezing shower x 3!! AND hot sauna/freezing shower x 2........Yes I am nuts. But it totally worked and I wasn't as crippled as I thought I'd be the next day.
Next day on the mountain was 100 times better- I was so much faster and having less falls but still a bit freaked out of certain slopes and getting on/off the chairlift! Haha... buuuut there was also really really thick fog (like people disappeared after about 30metres and I kept expecting the Abominable Snowman to charge out of the mist!) We had to take it pretty carefully, and after lunch we decided we'd all go down a 'Red Run' (intermediate level slope) that the boys had gone down the day before (girls took the ski-lift :p)
Off we went, quarter of the way down Rachael and I told the boys to go on ahead, we were slowing them down and we wanted them to have a good run down. Off they went, telling us to "Just go straight ahead the whole way down." They would do get the lift back up and meet us down the bottom after another run.
Then came the fork in the slope- we went "straight ahead" aaaand into The Steep, White, Frozen Descent of Doom with Minimal Visibility and Towards Certain Death. I'm talking at least a 45 degree angle of frozen ground stretching down into who-knows-where-because-we-can't-see-5-metres-in-front-of-us. After a butt-induced stop-turn-10metre-slide-to-my-almost-death we stopped for a cry breather. The boys called us: "Um, which way did you guys turn at that fork....?" "Straight ahead- like you told us...." "Oh yeah....um..you were sposed to go right..." "Are we on the Black Run?" (code for Difficult Level (code for Early-Death-Inducing Level)) "Umm...yep...stay there we'll come meet you. K Bye!"
Let's just remember I am the amateurish of amateuer snowboarders- the extent of my snow sports before this trip was snowman building and a day in Happy Valley (kids ski-field)
But we didn't die, there were no broken bones, and no tears (I was joking before..) so we were kinda proud of ourselves :)
That's me! About to slide into Broken Bone Valley
That's Steve showing some extreme angles
Instagram collection borrowed from the boy :)
I let down the team on the third day- too exhausted/dehydrated/sick feeling to go up the mountain so I stayed behind to sleep. Rachael handed in her ski pass at about 11am saying in dodgy German "I am finished." with a blank, exhausted look on her face. "What, you're ski pass isn't scanning?" "Nein....I am tired. I.am.FINISHED" All in German to the slightly confused lady. Haha soooo funny- love it. So she came back to the hotel and we went for a photo-taking stroll and souvenir shop visit, with some Cherry Streusel sharing and tea along the way :p
Such a fun, Wintery, German adventure! Hope you had a fun weekend too! I'll leave you with this photo of a freaky little critter called a Wolpertinger, which apparently live in the alpine forests of Bavaria!! It's supposed to be like a rabbit or a squirrel with horns and wings. Riiiiiiiggghht...... :p
xo 
Saturday 28 May 2011 
Crumbly building revealing old painted signage
A net above the footpath to catch the old buildings falling rocks
Windblown doesn't suit me, but the pear cider was delicious!
Swan boat!
There were a few scary puppet stores....
My trusty sandals that trekked over many a cobblestone and not a blister to be found!
