Christmas is fast approaching and planning for where to go during the holiday season is in full swing. As the Yolek household is planning this year’s Christmas trip, we thought we’d share the story of our favourite Christmas so far.

Background: We grew up in a tropical country with hot summers & warm winters. Our idea of what Christmas should look like came from books & movies. The happy climax of the perfect fictional Christmas day was often in snowfall, a hot chocolate in hand & a touch of Christmas magic. Even when we lived in the US, we did not experience a “white Christmas”.

So when we started planning our first Christmas in Europe, we decided to take matters into our own mitten-clad hands. We booked a trip spanning Zurich – Munich – Salzburg, all the cities with famous Christmas markets with Munich being our base for Christmas Eve & Christmas day. However, as luck would have it, this is what Christmas Eve in Munich looked like.

Some panicky internet searches later, we found out that Germans love to go skiing on Christmas day, so we decided to follow suit by going to Zugspitze (the highest point in Germany). Woke up super-early on Christmas morning to catch the train to Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Still no snowfall to be seen, even when we reached the picturesque Garmisch station.

A post shared by Beyond Our Horizons (@beyondourhorizons) on Oct 8, 2016 at 1:03am PDT

Then we transferred to the Zugspitze Bahn & finally to the fast cable car taking us close to the summit. As soon as the cable car doors opened, we got what we had wished for (maybe a bit too much). It looked like a mild blizzard with visibility of maybe 10m. All the summit panorama pictures in the information centre looked nothing like the panorama of white haze that lay ahead of us. WE LOVED IT!! Took a load of very white pics before oxygen deprivation (we started yawning) and frostbite set in.

Cue Phase II of the perfect Christmas, hot beverages by a fireplace. The visibility had increased by this point to about 50 metres. There was a church-like building next to the cafe & out of nowhere, the sound of ringing bells was heard. It was exactly like this scene from the PlayStation game “The Last of Us”, one of our favourite games of all time.

After having our fill of warm drinks, food & photo-ops, we headed back the way we came all the way to Munich. Here’s a few random pics taken on the way back.

Sometimes things don’t go according to plan but even unplanned trips make beautiful memories. Hope you have a fabulous Christmas this year, wherever it may be 🙂 🙂

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