Herzliche Welkommen!

Friday, January 6th, 2009

You know you have woken up early when you look on the mountain and the snow groomers are just getting a start. WE MADE IT! The flight was awesome, the train ride was easy and getting settled in my family’s house was fun. Although it was late night (9:00 p.m.) when arrived I was able to round up everyone for some REAL ITALIAN Pizza just across the street. A family favorite, Renzo’s is a great place to enjoy great pizza and great service. Our waiter was definitely new to the area as well, as he spoke very little German and/or English. We did well with our attempt to mix what little we know of Spanish and making it sound Italian, I think one of us even threw in a “Merci”… LOL Awww, to be American’s in Europe again. There are so many different cultures living in Germany, and so many different languages that border Germany, it’s inevitable to run into at least 2/3 different languages here a day.
Anyhow, so we got out yummy pizzas and our waiter “Guieseppi” was quite the typical Italian…. charming, flirty, and used many quizzical hand gestures. While we were there, we met a group of middle aged Irish men who were in town skiing, they were fun to talk to and they gave us a name of an instructor who could show us around the mountain. We will probably give him a call today and set up a weekend time with him. We have all opted for an instructor to guide us around so that we learn the mountain terrain and area. We think we are being “Smart Americans” for doing this! J

So after Renzo’s it was on to the Irish Pub… America Heaven… it was full with American Marines and Military men. Yes, MEN, it was what we could call a total sausagefest… and not anything to do with German Sausage. As soon as Hadeel and I walked through the doors we were greeted and hugged by Germans, Irish men, Australians, and American Service men,,, It was tiring. It’s a great place for a good night cap, but today and the next days here forward we are going to dig deep into the old streets of Partenkirchen and find some real Bavarian food and music.

I heard my favorite Bavarian joke already. While standing outside the Irish Pub, we asked a young German man if he knew were the nearest bank was, he showed us and Chris tried a little of his German and said, “Vielen Dank” (Many Thanks). The guy could tell we were tourists so, I said in German, “My husband is trying to learn German.” His response was, “I’m a Bavarian and I’m trying to learn to speak German everyday as well!” I thought that was such a wonderful joke. I explained to Chris that what he said was the equivalent to a Catalan man saying he too is trying to speak Spanish every day. Although, if someone can find a Catalan man to actually say that, it would be like finding gold at the end of a rainbow!

So, I will end this now, we have a big day ahead of us! We are headed to the travel agency to check out some deals on day trips, we are going to wander the streets a bit, and we learned that there are some races going on up on the slopes, we might get up there to watch. I wish you all a wonderful time back in the states and a TGIF!

Love,
Nic

P.s. More pictures later....