Where In The World Is Deb?

This is a shot flying over the Alps. It was stunning.

<img src=http://debcodding.com/alpsplane.jpg></a><br>

Public service announcement for those flying to Germany. If you come across a doohickey hanging in the bathroom stall, do not push, as the button says, while you are peeing. It sprays nasty toilet sanitizer all over your legs.

Once at the Munich airport, we decided to take the train rather than rent a car because I wasn't sure how much I would actually need a car in Garmisch. My friends had told me everything was walking distance. Plus, I do not have the best track record driving in snow LOL. We found the train/subway ridiculously easy to use. Until we missed our connection in the middle that is. Tired and hungry we opted for BURGER KING HAHAHAHAHAHA, while waiting for the next train. If Italians smoke a lot, Germans have them beat. We had no choice though because everything else was outdoors in 30 degree cold. So after some good ole comfort food (in 6 feet of haze, giving a whole new meaning to "smoked" meat), we had to PEE! Two agonizing words... Pay Toilets. And yes, you would be correct if you guessed that we did not have a sincle 50 cent Euro coin.

Got to Garmisch after a gorgeous train ride into the Bavarian Alps. Snow everwhere. All Eli and Jake wanted to do was throw snowballs.
View from the hotel (which was about the same any direction I turned)
<img src=http://debcodding.com/hotelview.jpg></a><br>
After they were properly wet, we ate an embarrassing amount of German food and turned in for the night.

TUESDAY

Woke up bright and early to go skiing only to find it pouring rain - went back to sleep. Woke up again, still raining. We decided to walk around the town and were soaked in minutes (imagine that!). I discovered that my FAVORITE, favorite Candies boots have a crack in the bottom that lets my sock get wet. So with the boys' tennis shoes also wet, we started outfitting ourselves with things you can't buy in Siciliy. Snow boots, gloves, hats and umbrellas and suddenly life was gooooooood.

There were frescoes everywhere.
<img src=http://debcodding.com/garmischfresco.jpg></a><br>

We then had THE BEST SOUP
<img src=http://debcodding.com/bestsoup.jpg></a><br>
and THE BEST STRUDEL ever!
<img src=http://debcodding.com/beststreudal.jpg></a><br>
(and yes, Eli was properly horrified that I took those pictures)

After hiking at least five miles we declared ourselves tired and as a reward, the rain changed over to the fattest clumps of snow imaginable. It look like clumps of cotton candy falling.
<img src=http://debcodding.com/snowing.jpg></a><br>

We decided to go ice skating since we could not ski that day and went to the stadium used for the 1936 winter olympics. It was HUGE - four rinks. Two nights a week, they open in the evening for the "Eis Disco", which turned out to be fabulously fun. Apparently there is not really a drinking age here in Germany - there were teens swilling beer everywhere but the music was thumping (98% American pop/hip hop) and the disco lights were swirling. We skated indoors for a while and discovered that they do not stop for anything which includes zambonying (new word?) the ice - it was like skating on a bumpy lake surface. We also skated on the outdoor rink which was hilarious - one giant snowball fight with no international boundaries. It was still snowing and the music out there was the alpine accordian type music hahahahahaha. Jake and Eli are both avid rollerbladers and have also ice skated before so they were off like a flash.
<img src=http://debcodding.com/skating.jpg></a><br>
The white dots are actually snow flakes. Jake's favorite saying was "check this out mom" as he skated backwards, turned and finally did spins.
<img src=http://debcodding.com/lookma.jpg></a><br>
<img src=http://debcodding.com/skating2.jpg></a><br>

Stay tuned for more of our Bavarian adventure tomorrow!