By Anni and Danica
From Anni
Monday was filled with MANY emotions. We began the day with saying our goodbyes to our host family, and, speaking for all of us, I can say that was very hard! We made sure to express our gratitude to our host siblings and families, take many pictures and gave LOTS of hugs. Some of us are already planning to see each other again! From there we hopped on one of our three trains, the first one was around 30 minutes, the second was about 2 hours and the last one was around 30 minutes as well. Riding the trains was so much fun, some of us took time to catch up on sleep while others could not stop reminiscing about all of the fun we have had in the past week and talking about the adventures that are to come! We finally hopped off the last train and all of our jaws dropped as we saw the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen which is within the ginormous and astonishing Alps. Everywhere we looked there were mountains reaching up into the clouds so that we couldn’t even see the tops! We made our short walk to our beautiful hotel and began to get ready for our upcoming hike! Something remarkable that I saw during this trip was the mountains! I had seen many mountain ranges in Montana and Wyoming or Tennessee, but the mountains here were just incomparable. The height of them was just amazing and I couldn’t believe my eyes.
After the gorge hike, we all ventured off to our own things. I went to the hotel’s pool and sauna with some friends while others went for some dinner or shopping. After the pool we went to our rooms and settled down. Before bed, we hung out and talked about how excited we were for our future explorations (while tasting some of the german snacks and candies which our host students provided to us). We made sure to get to bed at a reasonable hour to prepare for the next day, which Frau Bauerlein calls Zugspitztag (Zugspitze Day, which is her favorite).
From Danica
After we checked into the hotel, we took a beautiful hike to Partnachklamm! Partnachklamm is a beautiful gorge carved into the mountains by a river for thousands of years and we get to walk right through the middle. It was so impressive to see where the river carved out the rocks so long ago. The walkway took us through twists and turns and tunnels to see caves and waterfalls and rushing rapids. I thought that the rain added to the effect of the gorge because we could see it falling and dripping off the rocks. I was especially stunned by the clarity and blue color of the water that allowed us to see far down to the bottom. When we got to the end and after plenty of Instagram photos were taken, we split in to smaller groups for free time before we had to be back at the hotel. I went with a group and continued hiking up the mountain. We loved the cool rock formations and thick trees even though it was still pretty rainy and slippery. I am so happy we didn’t turn around, even though it was very steep, because after a while we reached a beautiful, huge open meadow filled with wildflowers, cute little houses, and a beautiful view of the mountains! There was also a farm where we saw goats, sheep, cows, chickens, and swans! Since we were running out of time before curfew, we ran down the mountain on the steepest road made for cars I have ever seen in my life. We then took a quick pit stop at the site of the Olympic ski jump. Once curfew got extended and our quads were burning, we were hungry for dinner and stopped for a quick bite at Burger King. I have never been, but my friends spotted a few Germany exclusive menu items and differences between the flavors and quality of meat between here and back home, saying that it tasted much more fresh and flavorful. I think it is still worthwhile to try restaurants that are familiar to you in other countries to see the differences!
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