I had an incredible opportunity to visit Germany and a husband who insisted I go "because he's got this." Serious, props to him for making this happen (and of course my neighbor Liz who helped anyway she could).
I don't have the good photos yet, Carrie has those on her camera, but I wanted to document before I forgot, so for right now you are stuck with my phone photos.
We went the first week of May, it was rainy but beautiful.
We started and ended in Munich. From Munich we traveled to Salzburg, Austria.
From there we spent the day in Berchtesgaden.
*Austria and Berchtesgaden have to be the most beautiful places my eyes have every seen*
From Berchtesgaden we stayed in a little town called Eibsee.
From there we headed to Fussen to see the Neuschwanstein Castle and it's neighbor castle (I can't ever remember the name of it and I don't feel like googling it).
It was Fussen to Lindau and Lindau to Rothenburg - which was the coolest town I have ever been in.
And then it was back to Munich to come home.
Here I am at the Marienplatz, in Munich. This is the famous clock tower with the figures that spin around on the hour. (However, it's not every hour). The figures were buried deep in the ground during WWII so they would not be ruined.
One of the open markets, in Munich. Loved it.
While in Salzburg we did the Sound of Music Tour.
I would recommend it to everyone and anyone. Unfortunately, most of the places in the Sound of Music are privately owned so you can't get close, like the above picture. That is the back of the Van Trapp Mansion where Maria and the kids fell out of the canoe. However, the tour takes you through a lot of Austria and it was breathtaking, so I say do it!
The famous gazebo. You can no longer go in it because too many people were jumping around the benches in it, imagine that?
Beautiful Austria.
And beautiful Carrie.
Berchtesgaden, is in the Bavarian Alps.
There are no words to describe the alps. I thought our mountains were beautiful (I still do).
But the Alps are majestic. Not only are they huge but they are green.
It's like my two homes combined ;)
We took a gondola in a ski resort. It just kept going and going. It took about 40 minutes just to get to the top. Also the birds sing. They sing here too, but nothing like in the Alps, I have never heard anything like it.
And my pictures are out of order. Here we are back at Salzburg. The above picture is a typical shopping strip.
And do you recognize this church? It's wear Maria walked down the aisle.
Getting festive.
We took a boat ride in a Lake in the alps.
Our inability to drive manual actually paid off, the Range Rover was our free upgrade because it was the only car they had that wasn't manual. Ha!Ha!
Oh, you know just a castle we passed on the highway.
And the gold castle next to Neuschwanstein. A lot of buildings and castles are gold in Germany it was a big royal color back in the day.
The Neuschwanstein.
This castle was the first thing I ever put on my "bucket list". It wasn't an actual bucket list, but when I was kid and I first saw this castle in a magazine I thought, "I have to go there one day." And I finally did. It was magical. The bridge is over a waterfall, so while looking at this beautiful structure you hear the birds and the waterfall and it's a "pinch me" moment.
Rothenburg, is a medieval city, best known for being the Christmas village in Germany.
It still has the city wall that was built around the 16th century.
One of the houses still has the original foundation from 988.
These are Schneeballen, that we saw all over Rothenburg. Not my favorite, but glad I tried it. It is scraps of pastry dough deep fried into a ball and then covered with either, powder sugar, chocolate, nutella, or cinnamon and sugar.
This hot dog, was the best hot dog ever.
One of the streets in Rothenburg. The original wall.
A garden area.
The wall.
A play ground just outside the wall.
While in Rothenburg, we took the Night Watchman Tour, hands down one of the best tours I have ever been on. This man dresses up as the Night Watchman and takes us on a walking tour of the city and tells us the stories and the history of the town.
And here we are back in Munich.
The food.
This is the famous German dish, WeiBwurst (that B is actually a german letter that looks like a B but actually sounds like an s - I don't know how to type it in the blog). And it is only served until lunch.
White asparagus everything. I loved the soup.
This mustard on everything.
When I asked the server for it she said, "But that is only for white sausage."
And looked at me as if I was crazy.
A chocolaterie, cutest bag I kept.
The English Garden in Munich.
But you didn't know they had surfers in Munich? On our first day we saw a kid in a wet suit with a surf board and we thought, "What the heck?". Well, we figured out where he came from.
And I brought home these dresses for the girls. They had them everywhere, and I saw them all week, and on the final day I finally bought them.
Great trip.
I missed my little family like crazy though, so their hugs when I got home made me cry.
