Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Bavaria) - Winter Olympics Site by Ruth Paget

Visiting the Winter Olympics Game Town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (Bavaria, Germany) with Savvy Mom Ruth Paget

Garmisch-Partenkirchen, located south of Munich and straddling the Austrian border, was the site of the 1936 Winter Olympics and the World Alpine Ski Championships in 1978 according to the Michelin Touring Guide for Germany

It remains a ski resort in winter and a hikers’ paradise in summer.  Germany’s highest peak, the Zugspitze, towers above the Wetterstein Chain of the Alps here.

Brown, wooden German chalets decorated with murals on their white, outer walls are nestled in a valley below the snow-covered mountains.  The murals make the town buildings look cheerful and inviting.  People stroll and buy baked goods and Swiss watches.

You have to be a road warrior to get to all of this tranquility though.  As of June 2015, the road through Munich requires a turn at the Allianz Soccer Stadium, driving through tunnels under central Munich, and surviving snail’s pace traffic jams; plan your exit early to snake your way there by Olympic Park.

 Once you are on the outer roads leading towards Garmisch Partenkirchen there is construction with no updates to the GPS network it seems.  Once headed south, you go through one-lane roads with slow traffic and lots of tunnels under mountains.  Munich dwellers interested in skiing appear to take the ski bus and leave the driving to other people.

We usually stay at the Hotel Mercure in Garmisch Partenkirchen.  This hotel has rooms decorated in light wood with old-time skiing photographs.  Their restaurant is open all day.  The hotel is modern, but the rooms remind me of little chalet hotel rooms.

The hotel restaurant offers Bavarian specialties.  I like eating what was described to me as a Bavarian Sunday lunch favorite: pork roast with gravy, braised red cabbage that tastes sweet, and dumplings with croutons in the center.  The dumpling tasted as if it had been steamed over chicken broth.  I drink Pils beer with hearty lunches like this.

A walk is in order after a Bavarian Sunday lunch.  Bakers, restaurants, and luxurious accessory shops provide window shopping interest galore.  The stores are polished and new; very spiffy.

Garmisch Partenkirchen is a town for people whose only worries appear to be getting the day’s bread.

By Ruth Paget, Author of Eating Soup with Chopsticks and Marrying France

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Laurent Paget Photography

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