I had excess annual leave at the end of this year so it resulted in another multi-destination ski trip. The first stop was Garmisch Partenkirchen aka Ga-Pa. When Garmisch was awarded the games in 1931, Germany was still a democratic country, however by the time the games were held 5 years later, Germany’s political climate had dramatically changed for the worst to say the least. The Nazi’s abhorrent ideology certainly put a cloud over the games. Democratic nations petitioned the IOC to have the games removed from Germany. And the Nazis didn’t really want them either. “At first it was uncertain whether Germany would agree to host the Winter Olympics, which Hitler dismissed as "an invention of Jews and freemasons" and vowed that a Nazi government would never stage them.” (CBC 2009 Garmisch http://www.cbc.ca/olympics/history/story/2009/11/25/sp-1936-garmisch.html) but they then thought it would be good to the games have for propaganda. It didn’t work. Norway ended up doubling Germany’s medal tally. Also “the Canadians, like athletes from most other countries, had grown tired of ubiquitous Nazi propaganda. In front of a crowd that included Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and Hermann Goering and 10,000 German fans, Canada treated the opposition to what the Toronto Globe euphemistically termed ‘a lesson in the art of body-checking,’ and cheerfully proceeded to thump the German team nearly senseless.” (CBC 2009)
Go Canada!
In a major upset, the British Ice Hockey team, which was mainly made up of British born Canadians with British Passports (I can’t relate at all), ended up winning the gold medal.
75 years later much has changed and the Americans have a large presence in the area.
Garmisch-Partinkirchen is quite large for a resort town. Historically it was two separate towns that were forced to merge for the Olympics by Hitler. Partinkerchen, where we stayed was the smaller and quieter of the two. Garmisch has a pedestrian mall with lots of indepedendant stores selling various wares. The actual resort, called Zugspitze (also the name of the mountain – Germany’s highest) has two ski areas, Garmisch Zugspitze and Garmisch Classic that are linked to the Garmisch town centre by the Zugpitzebahn, a 15km cog railway. I still have yet to come across a logical reason why a railway was built in such difficult terrain, but it makes for a very scenic rail journey and culminates with a 4.5km tunnel straight up to the top of the mountain. The journey to the summit takes approximately 70 minutes and is a unique skiing experience. The Zugpitze also has a very long cable car to the top of from Eibse, it has an elevation gain of 1950m, and among the highest such gains in the world
We drove straight from Munich Airport to Garmisch in 90 minutes and stayed at the Atlas Sport Hotel, which features typical German functional design and clean lines. Here we missed the excellent ski conditions by a couple of weeks and on the first day it was raining. We went to the Zugpistebahn train station and after a leisurely train ride we were skiing in white out conditions on a glacier.
Ski Jump Stadium then and now.
The Olympic Ski Stadium is still as it was in 1936 by and large but the actual jump is new and looks very modern, the Olympic Arena is still standing but looks like it has been modified 40-50 years ago.
Garmisch Town Centre
Walking around the town, there are many typical wooden alpine buildings, it is difficult to say how old they are I think there were some signs saying some were at least 300 years old. Garmisch-Partenkirchen also has its share of German non-descript modern buildings. I wouldn’t say the town is spectacularly quaint or scenic. We couldn’t see the surrounding scenery due to the low cloud cover during the two days we were there.
Skiing: Bronze
The marginal weather we experienced over the two days may have impacted my rating for this area. There is some great skiing to be had here for sure. The highlight of Zugpistzplatz was getting there on the mountain train, the skiing itself, which is on a glacier at 2600m elevation is marginal. It didn’t help we experienced whiteout conditions; I am sure the view here would have been spectacular. Most skiers tended to ski only on the two runs near the only chairlift so it got bumpy quite fast. I went to the areas served by numerous t-bars and the runs were great, but my legs got tired quickly, carving in powder then going up monster long t-bars. This ski area only held my attention for 4 hours. Mike had two white hot dogs in salty water for the bargain price of 7 Euros/$10(USD) while I covertly/smugly ate my $3 sandwich bought at the train station.
Garmisch Classic is where most of the skiing occurs and is more entertaining. The 1936 Olympic Downhill run is a highlight, great run. The black rated FIS course is good too. There seemed to be no moguls here. Mike and I spent a long time skiing Bernadien Downhill, behind the main runs, which had spectacular scenery. Garmisch is difficult to get around, sometimes requiring rope tows and ski skating and there are only 4 main runs to the bottom. When I skied the trails closest to the town were in rough shape due to the recent weather. There are a couple of black runs, but is by and large this is a ski area for intermediate skiers. I don’t think there are enough runs to hold my attention for much longer than a couple more days.
Apres Ski: Silver
Mike samples the local Beirlikor
Gapa, is larger and older than a typical ski resort town. There are two restarauant areas really, the Partenkirchen main street and Garmisch’s downtown and pedestrian street. Parenkirchen was essentially, dead the two nights we were there bar for two brau-hause. One, Gasthof Fraundorfer made the nights interesting; here there was good traditional food, live traditional Bavarian music and folk dancing. Here we also sampled some Bierlikor, warm shots that look like mini-beers. The place was busy even on a Sunday and Monday night. We never made it to Garmisch for apres-ski, but I think it was largely restaurant based with a handful of brau-haus oh and a small casino.
The Olympic Arena
Overall: Bronze
Marc Says: “The skiing terrain on the Zugpiste lift ticket is not as large as most modern resorts and our visit was hampered by marginal weather. The après ski was good fun, but there were not that many lively places around town. I could keep going back to the Fraundorfer Brau Haus, and I discovered a new favourite beer Pauliner. Garmisch seemed to be both functional and touristy at the same time. Also, if you are challenged to drink wurst-vasa (the water the boiled sausages come in) don’t, it is very salty. “
Mike says: ”It was alright, it was worth the trip.”
No comments:
Post a Comment