Bavarian Alps Adventure!

After the month-long rotation in October, Soldier got a few four day weekends in early November.  Over Veteran's Day we decided to "carpe" while we had the "diem" and skip town for a German Adventure.  We headed to Garmish-Partenkirchen.  There's a large military resort there, Edelweiss, but the rooms were rather expensive. We opted to stay in a town just outside of Garmish-Partenkirchen and were able to get a three room "apartment" for about the same amount.  It was great to have the two bedrooms, a sitting area and a kitchenette.  The owners were also wonderful and laid out an awesome breakfast of cold cuts, cheese, fresh fruit, bread, pastries and abundant coffee! Fun fact: Garmish-Partenkirchen has a ridiculously long name because it's actually two towns on opposite sides of the river that were ordered to merge by Hilter during his bid for the 1936 Olympic games.  Despite merging, the towns still feel, at least to a girl wandering the streets, very much separate and distinct.
It's about a three hour drive, so we left in the morning and arrived in time for lunch.  We didn't really know our way around yet, so we took a few wrong turns in town. We learned that taking the MommyVan down a Pedestrian Priority Zone is ALWAYS a mistake. Yes, cars are allowed but seriously, if it's bigger than a golf cart you're going to have new grey hairs by the time you make it out.  I ended up just closing my eyes and thinking that it's just money and whatever we hit can be fixed.   We made it out unscathed and stumbled into the first place we saw for lunch that we thought the kids would go for: PIZZA.  Yeah, I know. We're in Germany and looking for a pizza place?  Well, the kids are not quite on board with German food yet and sometimes it's just not worth the fight.  After a three hour car ride is not the time for that fight.  As it turned out, we stumbled into one of the most popular places in town...a fantastic Italian restaurant.  The owners are Italian and much to my relief, were more than happy I spoke English since they didn't speak much German!   They were so kind to the children; we were seriously frazzled when we walked in.  The food was A-MA-ZING.  I thought I had died and gone to heaven when I ate the torellini in cream sauce I had ordered to share with Ava.

Our next stop was the train station to ride to the top of the Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany.  Unfortunately, it was closed for repairs!  They offered us a ride in the cable cars, but after seeing them, I just couldn't bring myself to stuff my children in there. I kept having visions of that show, "When Vacations Attack" where they show crazy/horrifying vacation video footage.  No, thank you.

 The next day, we hit the road early and headed out to visit two of the most popular castles in Germany.  King Ludvig II, called the Mad King, had a thing for castles.  He built, remodeled and expanded quite a few during his lifetime. Incidentally, he lived pretty recently: 1845-1886. Civil War Era to put it into a context more familiar to us Armericas! Not exactly what I would think of as "Castle" era, but that was part of his "charm."  Anyway,  he inherited one castle from his parents and made a few changes to it.  He remodeled two other castles that he purchased and commissioned another one to be built.  We visited the Castle his parents had lived in, Hohenschwangau Castle, and the crazy, fairytale castle he built in the hillside nearby, Neuschwanstein Castle.  Neuschwanstein Castle will look familiar to you because it's said to have inspired Disney's Cinderella Castle.

Personally, I preferred Hohenschwangau Castle because it had actually been lived in by a family and used as the King's residence, as opposed to a castle built to fulfill some weird dude's fantasy! The kids were real troopers because it was a lot of walking.  The only way to view the inside of the castles was on a guided tour. Thankfully, the tours were blessedly brief and ended right when I was getting desperate trying to entertain kids and protect priceless artifacts from their antics.  We did have one incident in the Grand Hall of Neuschwanstein Castle. Just after the tour guide finished pointing out the intricate, precious mosaic tiled floor and the efforts they take to preserve it, Bunny Girl slipped under the velvet rope and out onto the mosaic floor. I turned around just in time to watch her lift her arms and twiiiiiiiirl across it.  I scolded her and yanked her back, but honestly, I could hardly blame her.  The castles had piqued my imagination as well and I would have loved to twirl across that room.  She spent the rest of the tour peeking out of windows trying to find the best balcony for waving to her Royal Subjects.

The third day was supposed to have been a hike around the Partnach Gorge.  Unfortunately, it was a downpour.   We took a little drive around town, hoping it would clear up.  We checked out the Olympic Ski Jump Stadium from the dry car, then drove around to see if there were any views of the gorge.  We ended up on a small "road" going up the hillside toward the gorge.  I used quotation marks because there is still some debate in our family regarding whether or not it was a "road" or a "hiking trail."  You may fill in the details with your imaginations on that marital discussion in the car that morning!  We ended up hanging out at the Edelweiss lodge and letting the kids run around the arcade.  Not the most exciting vacation story, but the kids loved it. 

The rain stopped by late afternoon and we returned to the Italian restaurant for dinner. We had a blasst again, ate a ton of delicious food and brought home desert. The owners remembered us and offered us shots of some liquor as we were leaving. 

One thing I neglected to mention is how amazing and breathtakingly beautiful the scenery is here.  Really, the three hour drive was filled with awesome sites.  I love the mountains, the green rolling hills, the tiny villages tucked into the country side.  There's no way my photos will ever do it justice.