Sunset at Eibsee

Eibsee is a German lake and is arguably one of the best lakes in Bavaria. It sits at the foot of the Zugspitze (Germany's tallest mountain) and lies just a short 5 1/2 miles southwest of Garmisch. There's a trail that wraps around the entire lake (it's about 5 miles long) and takes about two hours to walk around. There's breathtaking views, pebble beaches and the water is crystal-clear -- it varies from deep blue to turquoise. 

My favorite thing to do is ride my bike all the way around and after I'm all hot and sweaty, I take a dip in the cold water to cool down. Then I lay out in the sun to dry off and get my tan on! There's a little island in the middle of the lake and you can rent a paddle boat or a canoe -- which I have yet to do, but definitely plan on doing sometime soon. There's also a cafe and even a hotel.

These pictures are actually from my very first visit to Garmisch and Eibsee, back in July 2011. I never blogged about it, so I figured this post was long over due! 

Eibsee is absolutely stunning when the sun is setting. I'd love to go in the morning and see it at sunrise. 

Happy Sunday, friends.

I linked up with Dateless in Dallas, Life of Meg, Join the Gossip,  Oak & Oats, Fitness Blondie, B Loved Boston, & Treasure Tromp.

Weekend Recap: Swimming in Bavarian Mountain Spring Water

This 4th of July weekend, my mom and I went to a swimming pool we had never been to before. Garmisch and Grainau have some pretty awesome public swimming pools with spectacular views of the Bavarian Alps, but we decided to change up the scenery a bit and make the trip out to the WellenBerg Schwimmbad in the Alpine town of Oberammergau. 
Our jaws hit the floor when we saw it.

There are three outdoor pools, which include a lap pool, a spring-fed pool (mountain water), and a hot warm pool with jets. There's also a diving tower, a wade pool for the kiddos, and 2 professionally designed sand volleyball courts.

The aqueduct that carries fresh mountain spring water to the natural swimming pool.

This water was freeeeeeeeeeeeezing!! I've swam in some pretty cold water before, but this was beyond chilly! I froze my butt off! It felt so amazing though.

Indoors, there's suspended lounge chairs, a sauna, another lap pool, children's pool, hot warm pool, and two water slides.

This is the outdoor "hot" pool which stays at a warm 93 degrees. It has underwater LED lights and reclining bubble beds! The reclining bubble beds are out of this world! I never even knew such a thing existed.

 I could lay there all day long.

All that was missing was a frozen margarita and some good music.

Reclining bubble beds. Holy mother!

This picture is a little misleading -- the bubble bed looks flat, but it's actually in the shape of a recliner. You can see pictures of what it looks like here, without water.

After our super relaxing day at the pool, we headed back to Garmisch and freshened up for dinner. We were originally supposed to go to a free BBQ on the military base, but we were a couple hours late, so all the food was gone! We decided to go to our favorite pizza place that makes real Italian pizza in a brick oven.

Absolutely delicious.

And of course, since it was 4th of July, I had to represent and wear my cowboy boots.
Howdy y'all. :)

During the summer months, it doesn't get dark in Germany until about 10pm so that's when the military base was going to be doing the fireworks. While we were at dinner, we sat outside under the covered patio. The wind began to pick up and it started drizzling. We were kinda bummed we might not get to see the fireworks, but after stuffing our faces with pizza, we were almost glad it was raining... we were so stuffed and so worn out from swimming all day.

Fireworks or no fireworks, we had a happy 4th. :)