The week in the Bavarian Alps with Mike, Sheila, and Claire went great. We did a lot of hanging out and talking, eating, and spent a few days on the mountain, along with a few other side trips.
The area we were in, Garmisch, was beautiful, especially once in the mountains. We were fortunate enough to get a couple of sunny days and had a great view of Zugspitze, the tallest mountain in Germany, from our cabin. The day trip through the Austrian Alps wasn't bad, either.
(Mike and Claire skiing on the Zugspitze. The sound is nothing but wind. I spent over an hour trying to fix this, but free video editing software off the internet is not kind to me. Just imagine this video set to Wilco's "Impossible Germany" and/or "Sky Blue Sky," both off of the "Sky Blue Sky" album.)
Despite mid-February supposedly having the ideal conditions, it turned out that the snow conditions for skiing and snowboarding weren't that great. In fact, on the lower part of the mountain there was hardly any natural snow left. According to one of the guys I was talking to, who said he has been skiing in Garmisch for 29 years, he has never seen worse conditions this time of year.
When all was said and done, Mike and I were just happy to get some time in skiing and snowboarding. I think the conditions also helped to keep people off the hills, which was also good for us. The World Alpine Ski Championships were going on while we were there and there were a ton of people in town. With that said, there were no lines for lifts and at times it seemed we were the only ones on the mountain. Having peace and quiet in the mountains can be expected for a camping trip, but it's a huge bonus on a skiing/snowboarding trip.
This trip marked my first time snowboarding on a real mountain and that came with a few falls. Overall, I took it pretty slow (I will blame the snow conditions rather than my lack of skills). One thing I noticed is that I kept stopping to take the same picture over and over. I also caught myself not paying enough attention to what I was doing a couple of times. Especially when the sun is out and sky is blue, it's easy to be snowboarding along and find oneself staring at the rocky, snow covered cliffs in the distance while ignoring the ones immediately in front of you.
(My pictures of the castle didn't turn out so well; this is a picture of place mat from the gift shop.)
We didn't ski and snowboard every day. On one of the days we made a visit to Neuschwenstein Castle. It was the castle that Ludwig II commissioned in the 1870's to bring back the glory of the castles of the Middle Ages. The irony is that there was a castle from the Middle Ages on the building site, but he had that torn down because it was built like a real castle... with thick walls, cannons, and minimal windows. King Ludwig was, by most accounts, insane. Neuschwenstein Castle can be cited as evidence of that insanity, I think. It did look like a fairy tale castle (supposedly the Disney castle is modeled after it), but it had nothing to do with real castles. It was all based on fairy tales. All fine and well if you have the money to make your fantasies come true, but when personal dreams come at the expense of bankrupting the country you are ruling and over burdening the people with taxes, something is bound to give. Ludwig ended up drowning under mysterious conditions one day after leaders from his government had him declared insane and committed. He should have seen it coming.
Besides that, there was a good deal of relaxing, talking, and eating. It was a great trip, despite our tendency to miss trains and the last running of ski lifts by two minutes or less on a regular basis. I'm hoping to get the same crowd, along with Tomollie, out to the UK this summer for some travels around England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales.
Speaking of traveling in the UK, I have been really tempted to buy an old Land Rover to use as a travel vehicle. The debate is between having something that can seat up to 12 (great for herding large groups to events and road trips) or getting something that seats only two, but has the back converted into a camper. I'm having trouble deciding which is a better plan. Every time I see something I think I might want to buy, I balk until it is too late.
Probably all for the best. I know that they are expensive to maintain and upkeep and that 99% of what I want a Land Rover for can be done reasonably well (or even better, in most cases) in my car, but man would it be cool to have an expedition worthy vehicle. Sadly, "wouldn't it be cool if...," sometimes carries a lot of water with me.
