The morning after

I woke up sleep-drunk and stumbling around following my first night in the tent, though I slept much better than I expected. Still, I was in a bit of a haze as I walked to the loo, thinking more about bodily functions than time or place, which is my head snapped back in surprise when I finally looked up from my feet and saw this:

Hot damn. Slabs of limestone rising 2000 meters out of the valley floor. I’m awake now.

Today was supposed to be a rest day. For someone who has an exercise compulsion, this doesn‘t mean doing nothing, simply doing less. And not doing anything in a hurry. So, being in Garmisch-Partenkirchen and surrounded by beautiful lakes and mountains, I figured I would be able to find something that fit the bill. My girlfriend, having been there just a few weeks earlier, suggested a few options. (By the way, we haven’t really defined ourselves like this yet, and I know she’s reading these, so this may prompt an interesting conversation haha). I digress.

I chose one, thinking that would be all I had time for. Gondola part of the way up to Germany‘s highest peak, followed by a nice walk down. Sounds appropriate, right? Wrong. The walk down averaged over 12%, though the flat sections make that number misleading. When it went down, it was probably 20%. And slippery. Meaning I spent three hours delicately placing one foot in front of the other, controlling my weight so as not to need to break too much speed and thus risk sliding, which happened anyway.

Now, hiking uphill may feel harder because you use your lungs, but you also use your ass, and like all Steele men, I‘ve got ass for days. But in comparison to my brother and father who have legs like old-growth redwoods, I have legs like birch trees. Thinner and pasty white. Which is just to say, that this exercise in walking downhill crushed my quads and calves, which is not what I wanted on my rest day. Not the first time following a woman‘s advice has led me astray…(cheap joke).

Annnyyywaayyyyy, the scenery was awesome:

The afternoon

Because I left so early, I was also back at camp early. I rode into town, which is quaint and Bavarian and touristy and looks like this:

…to grab lunch, which brings me to one of my favorite quirks of travel, which is the homonym game. Homonyms are those words that are either spelled the same or sound the same but have different meanings. So, see if you can spot the funny homonym here:

(It‘s not just the worst, it‘s the Extra Worst!! I‘m a child, I know.)

Anyway, I had plenty of time left in the day, and as I mentioned earlier, there are lots of beautiful lakes around, so I went to one to swim. Which brings my tally to something like 4 days in a row, which is great. Today‘s lake, the Eibsee, is really something special. Not huge, but clear water and a view of Germany‘s tallest peak (the Zugspitze at 2962 meters).

I swam in my clothes, because that‘s essentially the same as washing them, right? So it‘s fine that I‘ve worn the same thing for four days, because it keeps getting refreshed? Yeah, I think so too…

Dinner was a picknick with a view of the mountains. Zen I tell you.