Christmas Day dawned. The snow was so heavy during breakfast that the mountains had vanished and even the church on the opposite side of the road from the hotel wasn't that clear.

In Germany, breakfast - or frustuck - is an 'all you can eat' experience. After muesli, extra raisins, pine nuts and yoghurt, I had a croissant. Then came half a dozen rashers of crispy streaky bacon and 4 chipolatas in 2 petit-pains and a pain-rustique. Tea, orange juice and a cinnamon Danish filled me nicely.

The snow eased. We still couldn't see the mountains but the church was now clear. We decided to walk the 2 kilometres into Garmisch and have a gluhwein at the Christmas Market. We were surprised at how many shops had opened. At least 15% of shops were open. The cafes were also mostly open. We stopped off at Zum Wildschutz on Bankgasse for a beer. We liked the atmosphere so reserved a spot for dinner.

We wandered back to Partenkirchen via the Christmas Market for a bratwurst. Fraulein Maier had opened her pancake kiosk on Ludwigstrasse so we stopped for pancakes and gluhwein.

It started to get very cold and snow was still falling so we crossed the road back to the hotel for thawing out, baths & hair washes. We read and drunk tea until 6pm when we started walking back into Garmisch for dinner.

Zum Wildschutz is a very atmospheric restaurant. It isn't big so you share tables if your party isn't large enough. We were on a table with 2 Canadians (who spoke German fluently) and 3 Germans who spoke some English.

We had live music. A male accordianist and female guitarist played a selection of local tunes. We joined in the mass of foot-tapping. Was the music made more enjoyable by the superb Hacker-Pschorr beer? Probably.

I ate the mixed grill of game (more venison, wild boar and ibex) with a juniper, cranberry and mushroom sauce and Swabian noodles. I enjoyed this immensely and was disappointed to see my plate empty at the end. When I tried to stand up, the sheer quantity of the meal became apparent.

I still managed dessert but our new Canadian friends ordered something extraordinary. The waitress warned that it took 30 minutes to cook...

 ...when it arrived, it was so big the Canadians were trying to get everyone at our table - and some on the next table - to help them eat it.

We waddled, slightly tiddly and very full, the 2 kilometres back to our hotel in Partenkirchen. As we walked down Hindenburgstrasse, Denise's eye was taken by a charming church. She took a snap then realised the flash wouldn't reach 30 metres. Thank goodness for photo editing software which at least made it visible. However, the snow was now really heavy and shows up on the photo.