Friday Oct. 3 in Garmisch, then on to Munich on Saturday

Friday morning, I spent a couple of hours doing my classes and had a great breakfast - Hotel Garmischer Hof has an excellent breakfast buffet.  The biggest problem is trying to limit how much I take because it all smells, looks and tastes great. After breakfast, I read for while and then headed for the Zugspitzbahn station.  There are two train stations in Garmisch and they are side by side.  The main station is for all the trains that go north and south and connect with Germany and Austria, and beyond to the rest of Europe.

The Zugspitzbahn is a tourist train that takes people to a half dozen small towns en route to the cog railway and cable cars that ascend to the summit of the Zugspitze.  I only took the train to Eibsee, a mountain lake that is at the base of the Zugspitze.

View from the Zugsptizbahn station in Garmisch - yes, those are roses that are still in bloom

View of the station as we left Garmisch

View of the adjacent main train station as we left Garmisch

 As we traveled east, I tried to take pictures to show how beautiful the area is.

Because of the updrafts from the mountains, we saw lots of this parasails in the air

The trail around Eibsee lake is about eight kilometers.  Because Oct. 3 is the national holiday for German Unity Day (celebrating the reunification of East and West Germany), most businesses were closed.  That meant there were many people at the lake.  When we visited here in 2006, the trail was relatively quiet.  Because of the holiday visitors, all along the trail in both directions people were walking, jogging, biking and picnicking - there were even people in wheelchairs.  The weather cooperated and made for a nice day.

During the summer season, the hotel has many watercraft for rent

The water is crystal clear and has an amazing blue green quality

The trails were not paved, but had what appeared to be crushed stone in clay

This was one of the few benches not occupied

It is hard to tell from the photo but this was the last 100 feet or so of this small waterfall

After my trek, I stopped at the Beer Tent for a nice, cold wiessbier, bratwurst and kartoffelsalat.  I enjoyed the fresh air and read for a bit before returning to the Eibsee train station and the ride back to Garmisch.

Since I had not slept well Thursday night, I took a nap when I got back.  I was not hungry enough to want to eat a full meal at the hotel restaurant, so I went for a walk around town.  Very few places were open, but I finally found a place open that sold pizza and ice cream.  I had a large slice of Hawaiian pizza and a diet coke, then called it a day.

Saturday morning, it was again a nice sunny day.  I did some work, then had breakfast.  I got my stuff together and departed the room so that it could be made up for the next guest.  I stayed at the hotel and sat in the sun on the back patio.  There is some construction work going on at the hotel, but the view of the mountains in the distance was fantastic.

Since the wifi at the hotel was not working well, I left the hotel earlier than originally planned, a little before noon.  At the train station, I confirmed my route and took the 12:07 train for Munich.  I am glad I did.  The number of people going to the last weekend of Oktoberfest was immense.  The train was nearly full.  At the second stop, a younger gentleman (in his late 20s) in Arab garb got on the train with an infant in a stroller and a woman dressed in total black from head to toes - the only thing visible were her eyes, and the slits for her eyes were minimal.

He is from the Arab Emirates and the child is his daughter.  The woman was his grandmother.  He apparently comes from a fairly wealthy and large family in the UAE.  His beautiful young daughter has some medical issues - what appears to be a club foot and one eye that did not track correctly.  He spoke less German than I do, but did speak some English.  He was very glad to sit with an American who helped make room for his grandmother, baby stroller and him - he did not think the Germans were very friendly to Arabs or Muslims.  In one year, "Inshallah" when he finishes studies at University in Riyadh, he hopes to take the recommendation of his UAE doctor and take his daughter to the USA for surgery to correct the foot and eye problems.  He has relatives in the USA and hopes to study there.  He was very interesting and showed me many family photos and videos, including what appeared to be his large, modern house, as well as his family's camels and date palm trees.  He asked if I knew about date palm trees and whether I liked dates.  I said yes and he unexpectedly gave me this beautiful package of dates.

Both he and his grandmother seemed very pleased to have someone willing to talk with and to answer their questions about America, about the train and to help them.

After arrival at the main train station, I grabbed a snack for my lunch, then made the switch to the SBahn station to get the local train closest to my hotel.  Everything went as planned and I walked the two blocks from the station to the Hotel Carmen.  In addition to better internet, I also have a larger room.  The accommodations are quite adequate and I am comfortable for my one night stay here before heading off to a week of speaking English with Englischhausen.