A Must Visit! Partnach Gorge

One of my favorite things that we did in Germany was hike to Partnach Gorge. We parked at the site of the 1936 Olympic Ski Jump and then walked up to the gorge, checking out the goats grazing by the river along the way. We paid a very small admission fee to walk through the gorge during opening hours but, outside of those hours, you can visit at your own risk. The gorge in the winter is supposed to be covered in icicles and be amazing, if not slightly dangerous. Many people do nighttime tours with flashlights which is supposed to be beautiful. We were impressed by the Springtime views but would love to return back in the Winter...it was definitely added to the short list of my favorite places of all time. Absolutely beautiful! We read several reviews that suggested that the path wasn't safe for kids but the girls did okay holding our hands. There were several beautiful paths you could hike beyond the gorge but we didn't make it very far before turning back to enjoy lunch in a restaurant we had spotted on the walk there. Next time!

Olympic Ski Jump Stadium

Can you spot the goats?

Prost! Cheers to a fun day!

Linderhof Palace & Ettal Abbey

The adventures continued in Germany with a visit to the beautiful Linderhof Palace, built again by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. It was a cloudy day but we still managed to have a nice visit in the gardens and take some pretty pictures by the many fountains. We didn't actually tour the inside of the palace but wandered the gardens and really enjoyed the pretty views.

And, my favorite picture, of my girls with the palace in the background.

Afterwards, we stopped by Ettal Abbey, a Benedictine monastery close-by. About 50 monks live there and run a boarding school, a brewery, a distillery, a bookstore and a hotel. Wayne bought some monk beer to try and we got a few pictures of the inside of the Abbey.

After our busy morning, we found a fun German restaurant to have lunch at...Lyla loved the pickled cabbage...and then it was off to the pool for some swimming and fun!

Italy!

Adventure alert! After finding out that there was a medieval festival going on in Northern Italy, we decided to  venture off on the three hour car trip to check out the Oswald von Wolkenstein Ride. The ride is in a region of the Dolomites of Italy called South Tyrol and includes four tournaments throughout the weekend: a ring piercing contest, a labyrinth, a gallop and gate race. 36 teams take part and the event ends at Presule Castle with traditional music, games and food.

The ride there was absolutely gorgeous with amazing mountain views, grapes growing and tons of castles. We headed up a crazy, crazy mountain with incredibly narrow winding roads towards Presule Castle only to find out we couldn't park there. Nobody (literally nobody) spoke English so we followed the crowds to a nearby town and parked and took a shuttle bus to the event. We thought we were going to the castle but ended up at an earlier spot and got to see some of the events up close and enjoy a yummy lasagne lunch with a beautiful view. Then it was back on the shuttle buses (3 more!) until we reached Presule Castle and the site of the medieval festival.

En route! Entering Italy!

It was 85 degrees and HOT so we tried to keep the kids drinking but learned that all bottled water that was sold was carbonated...oops! We also tried some very strange snacks, including a friend dough like pastry that tasted like black licorice. Yuck! The kids loved watching the horses though and discovered some very strange old-fashioned rides, including a manually operated ferris wheel! There were also medieval games, including a version of roulette where a white mouse is released who chooses the number based on his path. Very strange!

Mouse Roulette?

The mouse man

Don't eat my croc!

Manually operated ferris wheel! Those sandbags help distribute the weight!

The ferris wheel guys' shoes

Translation please?

Presule Castle

The Castle from the shuttle bus ( : How did those lucky people get to park there?

Driving back down. Imagine living in that house on the right...

It was an amazing day with some of the prettiest views I've ever seen, while at the same time being so different from anything I had ever experienced. I found this video on youtube...check out the amazing views and attempt to decipher the language if you can. ( :

Garmisch-Partenkirchen

The. Perfect. Day. The weather looked crummy in the morning so we decided to stick close to home and started the day with a trip to the playground, part of a movie in the hotel lobby and the lunch buffet. The girls were now completely happy and worn out so it was back to the cabin for an early afternoon nap. Wayne and Riley headed back to the pool while Lyla caught up on her sleep and then we all headed down to the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen (where we are staying) to check out the beautiful town and yummy gelato. We also stocked on some fun activities for our time at the cabin, including bubbles, chalk, a jump rope and water guns.  Everyone was so full that we skipped dinner and headed back to the cabin where we met our neighbors, a family from England whose Dad was a doctor stationed in Germany. They have a little girl Ella who is 7 and a boy Charlie who is 5. Riley had fun at the playground with them and playing Frisbee under the mountains. While Riley was off playing with her new friends (who she has requested to be pen pals with), Daddy and Lyla had a water gun fight and Lyla showed off her many talents for Mommy and Daddy. I think she enjoyed having us all to herself! We got to hear Riley’s full-on British accent while she was playing with Ella, which is unusual since she usually reserves it for school. I will have to try to get video because it is adorable how she can switch it on and off! I understood why she switched it on when I overheard Ella telling Riley that her Mom talked funny…hey! Both girls stayed up way late and will hopefully rest up tonight for our adventures tomorrow!

Where's the King?

Guten tag! This morning we awoke to rain and decided to go ahead as planned with our Neuschwanstein Castle adventure! We got up and fed and dressed and, after a few games of Hide and Seek outside (see the cabin was a good choice!), we loaded up the GPS and drove to find Neuswanstein Castle, built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. We were a little scared when we drove up to find it covered in scaffolding (WHAT??) but proceeded on and purchased our tour tickets. Rather than hike up the mountain in the rain, we hitched a ride on a horse and carriage , which Lyla loved while Riley was very concerned for the horses. The driver only spoke German and continually shouted directions at us even though we had no idea what was going on. Hmm…maybe we should’ve downloaded a translator app? Lyla also made friends with some old German men who were our carriage-mates who continued to talk to her in German. I think her smiles were misinterpreted as understanding. We walked the rest of the way to the castle and enjoyed the gorgeous views. 

See the silly face Riley is making?

Like father, like daughter!

The castle itself was magnificent and was the inspiration for Disney's Sleeping Beauty castle. The tour was great and we met two wonderful older women who had been friends since university in Australia years ago. One now lived in Australia and the other in Southern Spain. It was great to see such great old friends on holiday together…made me think of some special people I can’t wait to holiday with when we’re old and gray! It will be like backpacking in college again…only this time with a bigger budget (I hope!)

The highlight of the tour was definitely Lyla loudly questioning the guide, “Where’s the King?” which got a large laugh from the crowd. Riley especially liked the pretend swans throughout the tour (Lyla was trying to feed them) and I loved the amazing mosaic tiled floor in the throne room. Over 2 million tiles! Wayne loved the detail of the carvings above the King’s bed…it took 14 men 4 years to perfect the hand carvings! The tour was awesome but you may notice no pictures from inside the castle...it was forbidden. Boo! I have managed to borrow some I found online though.

The mosaic floor

Lyla got a wooden sword that she LOVES

Right about when Mommy and Daddy realized their mistake. Moments later the sword was confiscated.

Things were going so well that we decided to push it with a short hike to St Mary’s Bridge, a small bridge suspended high in the air between the mountains and above a creek. Riley was afraid but we pressured her into coming across with us! Unfortunately, our camera died right about now but we got a few decent pictures on the iphone. Pretty cool, huh?

View of St Mary's bridge from the castle. Scary!

Neuschwanstein Castle

The view of Hohenschwangau Castle (the King's summer home)

Everyone was starving by now so we took the bus back down the mountain and headed to a German restaurant for an authentic German lunch. Yummy food and delicious beer. Can’t beat it! Then it was back to the cabin for a swim in the hotel pool and dinner in an American restaurant, complete with nachos. Perfect day! Lyla even kept her promise and slept in the loft…I decided to play a different strategy and allow talking and singing as long as everyone stayed on their mattresses and it worked. Hooray!

Trying a Spezi (coke and orange soda)

Prost!

Germany Bound!

Willkommen!  That means “Welcome” in German! We arrived yesterday to Garmisch around 1:00 pm and must have looked a crazy bunch, haggard from travelling. We drove down to Gatwick on Wednesday night and hit lots of traffic and then experienced the drama associated with sharing a single hotel room. Riley said it was the tiniest hotel she’s ever seen (yes, she’s very spoiled. The Marriot is simply not up to her standards. We’re working on that) and Lyla decided that it was party time and was bouncing off the walls…and the beds and the suitcases. She overheard us talking about catching the shuttle at 4 (yes, am) and would not stop screaming, “It’s 4 o’clock!” every time we would get everyone settled down. By the time we sang lullabies, told stories, threatened, promised, screamed, cried and coaxed them to sleep, it was after ten pm. This is unheard of for both girls, who are almost always in bed by 7 and, on a very rare occasion, 8 pm. The alarm went off at 3:45 am and both girls yelled and cried about having to wake up. Somehow we managed to repack everything we had unpacked in the panic of the night before and boarded the shuttle to the airport at 4:23.  What fun! Gatwick Airport had a bunch of walking and waits until 30 minutes before the flight to announce the plane’s gate. It reminded me of Penn Station with everyone staring at giant screens in the airport “lounge” waiting to pounce the moment the gate was announced. We were no different and exhaled deeply when we were finally onboard our EasyJet flight to Munich. The relief was short-lived, however, because Lyla decided that she didn’t like seatbelts or sitting or any members of her family moments after take off. After witnessing her escape the confines of the seatbelt from every which angle, I am calling Cirque du Soleil to see if they need a crazy Houdini toddler for their tour. We had taken the advice of many friends who insisted it was much simpler to check the carseat and have her sit in a big girl seat. Needless to say, we will be trekking that carseat onboard on the way home. We eventually got her to quiet down but rearranged our seats several times until me, Lyla and Wayne were sitting together and Riley was sitting across the aisle with strangers. Luckily she made friends with a young lady traveler and didn’t seem to mind. So we arrived in Munich exhausted and questioning the idea of the trip…and living in Europe…and having children.

But I digress…things actually picked up from here. We rented a car with very little trouble and hauled our boatload of luggage to our rental car for the 2 hour ride to Garmisch. Both girls passed out before we had even left the parking lot, providing some much needed quiet for Wayne to concentrate on driving on the right side of the road. Note to future travelers coming from England: roundabouts going in the other direction are scary. And dangerous. And scary.

We made it to Garmisch and checked in at the nice, lovely hotel with an amazing view to pick up the keys to our cabin. We decided to go with a cabin based on a friend’s recommendation (because her no carseat on the plane recommendation turned out so well) and because it would allow more space for the kids to run around and play outside. We pulled up to the cabin and Wayne announced, “I didn’t realize it was an actual log cabin.” Did you think I was making that up?  Being clever? Pulling your leg? This was looking fabulous. The inside was cute but, as Wayne pointed out, lacked a couch (it’s a cabin Wayne!) and, as Riley pointed out, only had one bathroom (thank you diva!). I tuned them both out but decided we should consider pitching a tent in the woods after realizing that Lyla couldn’t quite navigate the ladder up to the loft (where the kids were supposed to sleep) but thought she could and was going up and down, tripping in her crocs and sticking her head between the railings overlooking the kitchen. I not so subtlety reminded everyone that I was their wife/Mommy and not a travel agent and they all must have sensed the urgency because smiles appeared, giggles escaped and even Lyla promised to stay away from the ladder in her crocs. Victory!

The hideous ladder and loft of death. Can you just picture lyla hanging over the top yelling, "What you eating?" 2 hours after her bedtime. I bet Wayne can!

The view from our cabin

We set off to get lunch and then explored the playground while Daddy napped (in the bed…remember…there is no couch). We discovered just how beautiful Garmisch is with the snow capped mountains in the background. Breathtaking. Then we walked back to the hotel for dinner and, to Riley’s delight, checked out the buffet, where my kids ate their weight in peppers, cucumbers and soft-serve ice cream. We tried to proceed with bedtime as usual but with Lyla sleeping in a big girl mattress on the floor of the loft with Riley. As you may have guessed, bedtime turned into a two-hour ordeal that ended with Lyla in bed with me and Wayne upstairs with Riley (I don’t want anything to do with that ladder, crocs or not!) The best part was us threatening to take away her beloved noo noo (pacifier) only to have Lyla hand it right over and us threatening to make her move downstairs, to which she shouted “Hooray!” and ran to the ladder. When Riley cried that we were making Lyla leave the loft, Lyla yelled “Don’t worry about it Riley!” as she bounded down the ladder. When we threatened to get her a pack and play, she decided she wanted one and cried for 30 minutes. Um…how does one get such different children?  Lyla has promised that tonight she will sleep like a big girl upstairs with Riley, which means no jumping on the mattresses, trying to open the window, singing, dancing, jumping on Riley when she’s half asleep or hitting her with pillows. Only time will tell.