Friday and Flying

March 25-26, 2005

A day for laundry, last minute errands, and packing
up. But first, one more day on the slopes!!! This
time I was off to the Zugspitze, the mother of all
mountains (in the area). I had seen it once, maybe in
a dream, because most days in Garmisch, there was a
ceiling of clouds and you weren‘t sure if it was even
there.

You can ride the tram or the train. The train goes up
through a tunnel in the middle of the mountain, but I
saved that for last and opted for the ride with a
view. What I saw was fog, fog, fog, and then WHOA!!!
Ooohs and Aaahs filled the car, apparently the same
expression in all languages. As you can see by the
pictures, what can you say more? Wow. I felt like
Julie Andrews in the sound of music, but I refrained
from singing and hopped on my snowboard instead.

A great finish to a great trip. I missed a few trains
and made it back to Frankfurt an hour before midnight
for one more stay at Josef’s. But he was not in bed,
I met him at his sister’s place where we helped her
pack for a move Saturday morning. Slept a few hours
and back to Sara’s to help move. I was there for
about an hour when the Elder’s Quorum showed up….in
force, very cool. And so leaving them all in good
hands I took the train to the airport. Only, I picked
the wrong train again and had to get a taxi back. Oh
well!

Got the snow part right. Life is about priorities, as
you know.

And caught my flight to Dubai. But that’s another
email.

Pic 1. At the tram base, looking up at the usual
cloud cover. The first time I hit the slopes to do
some shredding, it was up in that cloud bank

Pic 2 Results of the tram ride. It was an incredible
view from the top. You can see the clouds that were
down below.

Pic 3 Looking down at the Garmisch valley. Below
those clouds are several towns and sprawling rail- and
roadways. I spent most of the week down there, cloudy
everyday.

Pic 4 There is a platform at the top where you can
see pretty much 360 degrees. There is a golden cross
at the highest point, and this is a view on the
opposite side of the ascent where I would make my
first run. Those are the Alps of Austria in the
distance.

Can you say POWDER? Can you saw BIG SMILE? I could
only say over and over, WOW.