We woke up to snowfall outside. The best thing to see on Christmas morning!I was still feeling ill and weak even after a late sleep in and tasty breakfast so we decided to fore-go the snowboarding and simply head up the mountain for the views and snow.
The Zugspitze cogwheel train goes all the way up to the top of the Zugspitze mountain, Germany's highest. It was built in the 1930s and includes 4km of track staight through the mountain. It was quite impressive really. And it goes directly up to the ski fields at the top, you get out of the train and you're at the top of the ski lifts! 
We came out of the ski building and found ourselves surrounded by snow. And not just any snow, beautiful soft powder snow! I'd never felt snow this soft before! The first thing we did was go and jump in it. We found a hill off track and walked up it, feet sinking into the powder up to our calves! Nick rolled down the hill a few times, we had massive snowball fights, basically we played in the snow like kids for ages!
After a little while we took the cable car up to the peak. A very short trip up to a weather station building perched on the peak with a balcony to admire the scenery. At the top we enjoyed the spectacular views of the mountain range. We were far above the cloud line and it was one of the most beautiful views I've ever seen. But it was freezing! About -14deg cel! And that doesn't count the wind chill. The wind blown icicles on the railings were awesome and we spotted the gold cross which marks the highest point in Germany.
Unfortunately somehow Nick had managed to lose his day pass which includes access to the mountain and the railway transport home. We were in trouble, another one was going to cost close to £40 (thats over $100nz) so we were a little frantic. We managed to convince the guy to let us back down on the cable car so we could at least look for it before we had to buy another one but we knew our chances were slim. So back at the ski area we headed for the snow hill in search of his card. We thought we'd never find it, it could have easily been buried in a foot of snow, but by some freakish stroke of luck I spotted it poking up out of the snow after about 15mins of searching. Nick pretty much rugby tackled me when I shouted to him that I'd found it hehe. 
We spent the rest of the afternoon just playing, making a snowman, having snow fights, climbing up snow hills, rolling down snow hills, building snow huts, watching the tabagonors, skiiers and snowboarders and just generally having a fantastic time. We took the last train home at 4:30, it was getting dark and very cold by then and it was a very slow trip home. 
After making use of the swimming pool again we sat down for dinner with the same German couple who were at our table the night before. This time though we tried to make conversation, a little tricky since their English was minimal, our german non-existant, so communication became a fun game.
We did manage to find out they were retired and he used to drive a train and she did something with insurance (the cherades played out by the guy showing cars crashing was quite fun) and that they visit Garmisch every couple of years. They learnt we were from NZ, living in London and that I worked with computers and there was no way we could communicate what Nick did. I think in the end they thought he was an electrician of sorts. We also found out she'd been out shooting that day (a common pastime it seems) and had won a bottle of bubbly which they happily shared with us. Germans are very friendly.It was the most unique Christmas day I've ever had and my first White Christmas. I had a fantastic time!
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