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A Week in Little Lenggries

When deciding what to do after our Italian tour, we remembered that our friend from Colorado moved to Lenggries, Germany (about an hour south of Munich) with his family. They generously offered their home to us, so we decided to have ourselves a small town, German experience. Here’s a glimpse of our week there!
Day 1 – German Sport Class. On average, 12 kiddos and their parents attend what we think of as PE on steroids, once a week. After a casual warm-up of running sprints, we played a very interesting form of dodgeball mixed with basketball. You try to throw a stability ball into a box to score a point while the other team tries to throw medicine balls at the stability ball to keep it from getting in the box. Now, one might think this sounds fun, but Lindsay’s eyes were wide the whole time waiting for an injury – her background is in recreation and this is nothing like the games that are allowed in the US. It was organized chaos at it’s finest.
Day 2 – We took a walk around the town. Our friend pointed out some great shops, bakeries, and restaurants and even taught us how to order a few things in German since no one really speaks English in Lenggries. From there, we headed to the kids school where we helped teach English. We told the story of the Christmas tree and had the students answer questions in English. When the kids got home from school, they proceeded to make us puzzles out of paper and they put on a play for us as well! So fun!
Day 3 – We drove up to the Bad Tölz Christmas market, a German tradition! We loved seeing a smaller, less touristy version of the Christmas markets. So charming and fun!
Day 4 – Our friends left Germany to go back to Colorado for Christmas. We borrowed their bikes and rode around town until we found a snow covered bike path the on Isar river. Not easy to maneuver without snow tires. We made the best of it and found a beautiful spot by the river and set up our Madera hammock for some R&R.
Day 5 – We spent Christmas day inside cooking, relaxing, and working. In the evening, Lenggries had a fire pit and Glühwein for the town, so we decided to check it out. It’s not a German Christmas without the Glühwein!
Day 6 – We took the train up to Munich for the day to explore. We found the big Munich Christmas market, which is definitely a site to see! After the market, we hopped over to the ice skating rink and had a delicious bratwurst and bier! After that, the rain came, so we decided to see the new Star Wars movie at Mathäser, which luckily had the English version! *Note – the Munich train station has inexpensive luggage lockers, so you don’t have to lug bags around in between trains.
*A final note – the train to Lenggries from Munich splits into two separate trains. Make sure you get on the right one, otherwise you’ll be headed to several other small towns that don’t speak English. If you speak German, you’ll be fine. We, however, do not speak German, so this gave us slight anxiety on our way. Thankfully, we picked the right train car!
Germany is magical this time of year and full of yummy food! We hope you get to visit one day! We can’t wait to go back and see more! Prost!
Enjoy the ride,
Justin and Lindsay
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Climbing a 14er

If you’re in Colorado, chances are you heard someone say “I’m going to climb a 14er today” or “How many 14ers have you climbed?” A 14er is a mountain peak with an elevation of at least 14,000 feet. In Colorado, we have 53 total 14ers. While the end goal is always to climb all 53, few have accomplished this task. In September 2016, Lindsay climbed her first 14er and it was Justin’s 2nd.

  • Side Note: Driving to the top of Mount Evans is not climbing a 14er, but it is a really cool drive if you’re in the area. The highest paved road in the USA! 

Mount Democrat sits on the Mosquito Range of the Rocky Mountains and is 14,148 ft. above sea level at the summit. Mount Democrat is a Class 2 out of 4 on the difficulty meter. It is the 29th highest peak in Colorado.

The trail begins with a slow ascent through fields of grass, wildflowers, and streams. A lovely beginning to a difficult end. Once you hit the base of the mountain things will change.  The trail narrows, some places are not marked, and you better believe you’ll be climbing over rocks to get to the top. Oh and oxygen is hard to come by once you pass 13,000 ft. We felt like we were breathing through a straw. Don’t let the false summit fool you. The real summit is a couple hundred yards farther and a couple hundred feet higher.

  • Side Note: It is possible to hit 4 peaks in one hike in this area (Democrat, Cameron, Lincoln, and Bross), but you better leave yourself enough time before the afternoon weather rolls through – high winds, lightning, and possible rain can make a descent all the more challenging, plus you can’t outrun a storm at 14,000 ft. with boulders in your way.

Now, we understand that describing the experience sounds miserable in a way, but you can’t even begin to describe the sense of accomplishment and beauty that await you once you summit. It’s very surreal. You can see for miles and miles – a view that few see and many take for granted. It’s truly astonishing. All 14ers have a sign at the top that you can hold and take photos with – a must do!

We are now addicted and can’t wait to cross a few more summits off the list! If we can, you can too! Let us know if you want to join us on our next climb, we would love to have you!

Enjoy the Ride,

Justin and Lindsay

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