In Weekend getaways from Stuttgart

Sledding down the German Alps

Hi guys! Nadi, my best friend since kindergarten, who moved to Sydney, Australia, ten years ago, was home for Christmas this year. Hurray! 🙂 Obviously, we were looking forward to some fun in the German Winter Wonderland. However, nature let us down. There was no snow at all around Christmas and it was one of the warmest Christmas days ever. But hey, if the mountain won’t come to Muhammad… We decided to search for the Winter Wonderland and guess where we found it? In Garmisch-Partenkirchen, close to the border to Austria, in the German Alps.

It takes you around three hours on the autobahn to drive from Stuttgart to Garmisch at the food of the German Alps. We were lucky and had the road nearly to ourselves and got through quite fine. As we haven’t had breakfast before we left, we were quite hungry and decided to eat something first, before we head for the snow.

We went to Café Krönner, which I knew from another visit to Garmisch with my friend and blogging idol Anne from fannetastic food. (I met her in Garmisch in January 2011. Because of this visit, I knew that this place is the real German Winter Wonderland and planned for my friend Nadi and me to come here if winter let us down in Stuttgart).

Outside Café Krönner in Garmisch

Café Krönner is a lovely place that reminds me on old-fashioned coffee houses in Vienna or Prague.

Inside Café Krönner in Garmisch

We both ordered something for breakfast. Nadi went for Weisswürste (German white sausages) with sweet mustard and a Brezel,

White saussages in a pot

and a hot chocolate that you create by yourself by dropping three Pralinen (chocolate truffles) into hot milk:

A praline and hot milk

Pralines in hot milk make fantastic hot chocolate

I myself ordered just a regular breakfast, nothing special…

Regular breakfast at Café Krönner

😀 Isn’t that an awesome breakfast for one?!! And it was delicious!

They also have a shop where you find the most mouth-watering cakes and chocolate truffles in the area:

Café Krönner cakes

Café Krönner pralines and chocolate truffles

Before we got in danger of buying the whole display, we decided to go out into the snow!

From the center of Garmisch it took us five minutes by car to go to the Hausberg, a mountain right next to the town. We rented to sleds called Zipfelbob,  bought two tickets for the gondola and up we went into the German Alps.

View from the Hausberg

We practised to look as cool as the Snowboarders we saw…

Two super cool girls in a gondola

… but who are we fooling? In the end we are only two little girls with sleds…

To girls with sleds in the Alps

🙂 Our sledding adventure was about to begin! On the Hausberg, there is a special piste for sledding. It is 3.5 kilometers long (sorry, you have to calculate the miles for yourselves… 😉 ) and some parts are a bit rough and steep.

It was tricky to find the piste at the beginning. From the station you have to turn right and then left and left again. Ok, to be honest, we missed it the first time and ended up in between skiers. But hey, we’re still alive 🙂

On the first meters you have to drag your sled sometimes, but then, the fun begins…

Dragging the sleds on the first meters

On the piste

The sign saying “Rodelbahn” explains that we finally found the piste for sledding 🙂

After ten years in hot, snowless Australia, Nadi had a blast sledding:

Nadi sledding # 1

Nadi sledding # 2

Nadi enjoying the snow

This is the perspective you have on the sled:

Perspective from the sled

Wrong way!

See Nadi in the red circle? Well, where she’s going is wrong. When you reach this blockhouse, you have to turn sharp right… Well, I reckon everybody finds out after they’ve gone straight the first time… What awaits you behind the house, you ask? The end of the piste in form of a truck, so better be not too fast…

Dangerqous parts of the piste

Sometimes, the piste is close to a steep edge. Here, they have put up this red net for the safety of the sledders… Have I already mentioned that this piste is not really suited for small children?? I mean it!

After we had fallen off several times from our sleds, we decided to take a break and enjoy the view.

Enjoying the view from Hausberg

Man, was I happy that we’ve survived the first part of the piste.

Happy survivor

So, that’s what lies behind us:

Piste behind us

And that’s what’s still to come:

Piste in front of us

Let’s do this!

Sleding down the Alps

The last few hundred meters, we had to share the piste with skiers. But there were not many around plus this part of the piste was very wide and well maintained.

Sledding down the German Alps!

Nadi arriving in the valley

What a ride! After this, we truly deserved our Glühwein (mulled wine) from this little ski hut.

Ski hut at the Hausberg

Sitting in front of the ski hut

Enjoying mulled wine

Sledding down the German Alps is a blast. And Garmisch-Partenkirchen is a really nice village for a getaway. There is even an US army base and a hotel that was built as an Armed Forces Recreation Center 60 years ago, so a lot of Americans and English-speaking people are around.

More information about:

Café Krönner (only in German)

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

Edelweiss Lodge and Resort

fannetastic food

Mellivinginstuttgart

Hello and welcome to "living in Stuttgart". I am Mel and I love this beautiful city. There are so many things to explore, I can't wait sharing them with you. So come along and let me show you Stuttgart the way I see it.

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1 Comment

  1. Ten things I'm looking forward to this winter - Living in Stuttgart
    7 years ago

    […] of, anyway?? Moritz and I have planned to be more active this winter. So next to sledding (as I did last year already – it was a blast!! ) we want to try cross-country skiing. There a a lot of tracks around […]

    Reply

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