Oberjoch | German Alps | Schifahren

     As a birthday present, I was invited to go skiing with the family in the German Alps of South Bavaria.  Lena had a trip planned with her friends; we tagged along and stayed in  a hotel on the main run!

Google Shows Ski Runs!

 The mountain was comparable to Santa Fe in size and terrain- the scenery was incomparable in beauty and vastness.

First step was renting skis:

And then taking in the view from the hotel:

Freshies: noun, pl. When one makes fresh tracks in powder snow. synonyms: Pow-town, Goods.

We were very lucky- it snowed the whole week before and the nights we were there.  There was 10 cm of powder both days.

Pictures from the group:

From the mountain:

I spent some time trying to get "the shot" of Fabi

 The hotel was perfect after a hard day of skiing.  It had an awesome Sauna and great beds.  We also ate our dinners and breakfasts there.

For our second dinner, we had musical entertainment: Hanz und Franz

Franz is hiding

 They played folk music and Yodeled- a life long dream was fulfilled in this moment. Eating:

Mountains are very pretty:

Never miss the chance to Photobomb:


The second night all of the girls (Lena's friends) and chaperons came over after dinner for a drink (well, not the kids).  I ended up convincing everyone to play 'Celebrity' AKA 'Fishbowl'. The Rules (and my comments):

1. Everyone writes down three 'known' characters (e.g. Obama, Donald Duck, Merkel, Thomas Mueller, etc.).
2. All of the pieces of paper go into a 'fishbowl' for the game. People divide into two teams.
3. Teams take turns with a representative taking a name out and explaining the character to their group to help them guess who is written down. Once it is guessed, the representative grabs another name. Try to help your team guess as many names in 30 seconds. Teams alternate every 30 seconds until all names are gone.
4. There are 3 rounds, which each use the same fishbowl of names:
 A. Round 1: You can say anything other than 'the name rhymes with' or the name itself
 B. Round 2: You can only say 1 word (Round 1 rules apply)
 C. Round 3: Only Charades. 

It worked surprisingly well! Rules are always hard to explain- and it always takes a little experience to know which names will be fun to play with and which ones are not fun (Obscure politicians, difficult history).

The best part was the second round, which doesn't work so well in German, because nouns combine to form new words. Example: Fussballnationalmannschaftskapitaen (National Soccer Team's Captain). Technically, no rule was broken. I had to remake the rules, and it proved difficult for everyone to remember to use just one 'root' noun.

Mountains are pretty: