Sam Seplow's Visit

Sam Seplow came to visit March 8th to 18th. While this is not Sam’s first visit to Deutschland or even Heidelberg, his first visit was so long ago that he does not remember much. When traveling from the US to Germany you fly overnight and arrive early in the morning. If you are a good traveler, you can sleep on the plane and then the first day here is not a problem.
Pam and I both drove to the Frankfurt airport and met Sam there. After arriving in at our home, we walked into Heidelberg and walked down the Hauptsrasse. We stopped for lunch along the way and then walked back to the house. Sam took a short nap (you do not want to nap for too long) and then for the next couple of days we hung out around Heidelberg showing Sam the sites.
Tuesday morning I drove Sam into Mannheim where he took the train to München (Munich). Sam wanted to visit Dachau Concentration camp. The pictures from Sam’s trip are included in the Garmisch pictures. Sam also took the time to visit the Marienplatz where the Glockenspiel is located. The glockenspiel is nothing more than a very large and elaborate coo coo clock.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Pam and I left Heidelberg and drove to Garmisch where we would meet Sam who was taking the train from München. The weather was terrible. It was rainy and cold the whole way there. The mountains alongside the highway were hardly visible through the overcast and rain. Although even that provided a few dramatic views as the clouds thinned now and again. For most of the way, Pam was on conference calls. It was dark and rainy (did I mention that it was rainy?) when Pam and I got to Garmisch and Sam had arrived a couple hours before us. We were all hungry so we walked out into the rainy evening looking for someplace to eat. We walked about a kilometer before finding a place that looked promising and in fact was quite tasty (we have pix of the food).
Thursday morning dawned cloudy and windy, but not raining and not so cold. As with most European hotels, breakfast is included. So we headed downstairs for breakfast. Breakfasts at European Hotels are kind of like a movie. Each day you go down and you see the same people. Some people leave, new ones arrive, but you see the same basic people while you are there. The breakfast here was fairly typical for Germany, lunchmeats – salami, prosciutto, ham and other meats of indeterminate variety, bread and jams, hard boiled eggs, fruit and yogurt. .
After breakfast, Sam and I were going skiing. From the train station you could get to 4 mountains, Hausberg, Kreuzeck, Alpspitze and Zugspitze. Having looked at the map, I decided that we should try the Alpspitze. We took the train, purchased lift tickets and I rented equipment at which point we realized that the ski area was not going to open, it was too windy. In fact it looked like they were taking the cars off the Alpspitze gondola. So we took the train back to Hausberg and skied there for a few hours. Hausberg is considerably lower than the other areas and the available skiing is much less. So we skied a few hours and then headed back to the hotel.
As Pam is not a skier, she had stayed behind at the hotel, done some work and explored town. Sam and I took short naps and then we all headed out to explore and find something to eat. This evening, we headed the other direction, to an area Sam had walked before. We wound up at an Italian place off a Platz, where the food was exceptional. I ordered bruschetta and it was arguably the best Bruschetta I have ever eaten.
Friday morning dawned, rainy, overcast, cold and nasty! Sam and I agreed that it was not good skiing weather and since the Zugspitze was closed, we decided that we would get in the car and explore. We could head either north or east-ish. To the north was Ettal, where there was a monastery that brewed beer and also some Lord’s hunting lodge and in the other direction we could go to a town where there is a world famous violin making family. Sam and Pam were both a bit non-committal – beer won! The drive up to Ettal took you into the mountains and was amazing. It would have been nicer had the weather been nicer. After we arrived in Ettal, we parked and walked around the Monastery. The buildings are beautiful but it is not a large Monastery. We had an excellent lunch and yummy beer at a small restaurant next to Monastery and then found a store selling Ettaler beer from the monastery. I purchased a couple of six packs and Sam purchased Papish Beer. I have not done any research, but I think perhaps the current Pope is from an area not far from there. We then drove further into the mountains to the Hunting lodge. The grounds were amazing, but then again, out there everything looks amazing. We drove back to Garmisch, hung out in town and had dinner.
Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny with clear blue skies interrupted only by small wisps of high clouds. After breakfast, all three of us headed for the train to go to the top of the Zugspitze. It takes over an hour to get to the top. About 2/3 of the trip is in tunnels carved through the mountain. The trip is kind of amazing when you are not being bored looking out the window and blackness. The train was packed with people and we stopped twice on the way up as trains coming down the mountain went past. We exited the train and walked out to an amazing view (again, see pix). This far up a mountain, you are skiing on glaciers but the previous two days rain down below had brought plenty of snow to the top the Zugspitze. After snapping some pictures, Pam headed back down and Sam and I headed out for skiing. Here, there were vast areas you could ski and at the same time, there were areas the size of Rhode Island that was not open. We wound up skiing for about 5 hours and then took the train back down to town. So…for me, I have been skiing three times in Europe for a total of 10 days. Of those 10 days, I have had one day of good skiing, not a good average. I will attempt to better that number next season!
For dinner this evening, we headed out in a different direction, passing several restaurants and finally stopping at an Italian restaurant, which had one open table for 5. There were two women also waiting for a table and the host asked if we would share the table….we all agreed. It was very interesting. The women were sisters who grew up in München and the elder sister was living and working in Garmisch and the sister was in for a weekend visit. We had good conversation with them as they spoke very good English. Dinner was very good.
On the whole, Garmisch is a very nice town, but not a resort town such as Jackson, WY or Lake Tahoe (places I have been). I would call it more a working town that has skiing. Were I to visit again, I would rather earlier in the ski season when the weather would be better for skiing.
We drove back home to Heidelberg on Sunday morning and this time you could see the mountains…..much nicer on the way back. Sam stayed until Tuesday. Pam took Sam to Strasbourg one day. Strasbourg is in France and an old town and also claims ownership of Gutenberg and his press and is also home to many EU offices. On Tuesday morning, Sam took the shuttle back to Frankfurt as I was picking up Mom and Sam later in the day for their visit.