More from Garmisch-Partenkirchen

So I've finally made some time to put together some of my photos from our recent trip to Garmisch. As many of you know, we don't really "plan" our vacations. We go to places where we have ideas of what we want to see and do, and then get there and change up where we go based on a variety of factors.

Well, Garmisch was no different. The only thing I really wanted to see was the Partenachklamm. Apparently "klamm" is "gorge", so we went to the Partenach Gorge. It is a 20-30 minute walk from the parking area to the entrance, and a mostly pretty walk, but nothing amazing. The gorge itself is pretty cool - I just love that shade of green water. Ice cold at this time of year, and probably just as cold in the summer, but I'm guessing much more refreshing.

Anyways, at the far end of the gorge the trail divides. We took the wrong turn (blame me, my German is nicht sehr guht). Funny thing is, after a long climb from the valley floor, this is where we came out:

Not bad for a wrong turn! I don't think that "village" even has a name. There were hotels there and a nice restaurant with this amazing view.

The shot below here is from inside the Partenachklamm. It is a very narrow gorge, and the water isn't all that deep, but it does move pretty quickly. There are all these overhangs and tunnels that have been cut into the rock, and from one end to the other is only about 1/2 mile.

This is at the "top" end, where we exited. The sun was finally able to make it to the bottom of the gorge, and really helped to warm things up.

And at the very end people had made these rock cairns in a bizarre sort of zen-garden kind of thing. Ian and Leah had a great time deconstructing one of them while I was occupied trying to get a nice photo. There were plenty to choose from, so no real harm was done.

And a parting shot from some of the fields just behind the Edelweiss hotel, where we stayed. I'm not entirely sure what all those buildings were for, but some were packed to the gills with wood, others hay. But this is generally what we were waking up to every morning outside the hotel.

Have a wonderful day everybody!

Edelweiss - in the German Alps

This past week we've (me, Catherine, and the the kids) have been in Edelweiss, a hotel in Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps. I have been here for work, continuing education really. Pretty awesome place for continuing education, but too bad they fill our days - literally - with programming. We got here Sunday and we've been go, go, go until this afternoon.

Thankfully the weather has cooperated and given us crappy weather while I've been in conference, with good weather the past couple of days. Today we headed into the foothills and made our way to Riesersee (Lake Rieser) where I discovered this little gem while on a run a day or two earlier.

The water is crystal clear, it is too easy to watch some of the fish swimming. I didn't dip a toe into the water, as there is snow higher up and I'm sure this water is part snow-melt. It used to feed the bobsled run that was used in the Munich Winter Olympics (pretty cool to see the old school grass, wood, dirt embankments for the turns).

Catherine found the kids some Bavarian-type clothes prior to our Oktoberfest trip, but we didn't have any luck finding ourselves dirndl's or lederhosen. So we saved the outfits for this trip and broke them out today.

This shot above was technically difficult, technically the least pleasing shot of the group. But I just love those Alps!

Finally, on the way out we saw this little chapel that I hadn't noticed before on the two previous trips past. This gave me a good chance to play around with the flash. All in all, this has been a nice little get away. We have a couple more days here, with no definite plans. Typical Skinner vacation . . .