Germany Day 13 (The End)

Hostel Room.

DONE!

Map of our travels.

Today was our last day in Germany, our flight left at 1:30pm. So sad. The hostel was surprisingly nice. I thought it would be noisy like a dorm, but no it was great and for such a small amount of money, compared to the Arthotel, it was totally worth it. I would spend our whole Munich time in the hostel next time and would recommend it to any body wanting to stay in Munich. We left the hostel and took the train to the airport which is about 40 minutes outside the city. The flight was OK just about 20 minutes late and packed with babies. It must have been the more babies you fly with the cheaper the ticket. We were in row 6 and there were 5 babies in front of us. The flight was less than 2 hours, so we handled it. It is nice to be home and Pinky was happy to see us. House was in good condition, Pinky hadn't tore anything apart. VACATION WAS GREAT, BUT IT IS NICE TO BE HOME!

Germany Day 12

St. Augustiner Brewery. New friends

Munich Christmas Market, Marienplatz

Munich Christmas Market

Ice skating in Munich

Leaving Rothenberg was very hard and sad. We really liked the place, the city and the people, but it was getting too touristy with many (what we believed to be) American Military people coming in for the Christmas market. There is a base pretty close by, too bad it is Army and not Navy, we would love to get a duty station right in Germany. Off to Munich again. This time we made our reservation in a hostel, yes a hostel. It was nice, we looked at it when we were there and we reserved a private room with 2 beds. Every place rents the rooms by the number of people and you get twin beds, sometimes they are put together and sometimes they are apart. We found this hostel we we went to Augustiner Brewery restaurant, it is across the street. Munich's Christmas market was in beginning today and we were there for the lighting of the Christmas tree and listening to the politician speaking. He had to be a politician because even though we didn't understand it, he was very long winded. Anyway, the Christmas Market was packed and we were colder that night than ever before, the sky was clear that's why. It was about 29 degrees Fahrenheit maybe a bit less. Remember we are from Southern California and recently from Hawaii. We had a bunch of Gluhwein to keep warm, but it didn't work. We finally gave up and took the train back to the hostel, well maybe not the hostel more like the brewery across the street. We had met 3 young (20s) American girls waiting for the train and they were also heading to Augustiner. We got to the brewery before them because we knew a bit about the trains and how to get there. Anyway after waiting 5 minutes we found a table. Now it is hard to imagine this, but there are tables and on each side of the tables are long benches on 3 sides and a chair at the head of the table. In that then, sometimes people are sitting at the table already and you share the table, so you walk on the bench seats, even with people sitting on them, you walk behind the behinds and get to your seat. We just happened to get the back part of the table and had ordered our Dunkels beer (dark beer), when we saw the girls walk in. There was room at our table and so Randy invited them over. They had never been here, so they weren't sure how to get a seat. Anyway they ended up getting to our table and sitting down with us. It was fun, they were just in Munich staying for the weekend, they were students studying in Spain. We had people to talk to. The guys at the head of the table were egging on their young friend to flirt with the girls. It was so funny to watch, the more he drank, the more courage he got. Anyway it was a good time, Randy talked with the guys and they were aerospace mechanics they worked on "We". Huh? What is a "We" mechanic. After a bit of listening, talking and finally understanding accents, he found they were "Huey" helicopter mechanics. It was a very good night, but Anne didn't eat enough and she had a few too many Dunkels, by the time we left Augustiner and walked across the street, Anne was done and Cameron was very tired too. Randy tucked us in bed and went down to the bar in the hostel were he met a couple from Norway.

Germany Day 10 and 11 (Rothenberg)

View of the City of Rothenburg from the wall.

On the wall, looking into the city.

Our Pension (Boarding house)

We woke up that morning, had breakfast, stopped at the Info Center and "got out of Dodge". I know Augsberg must have many many beautiful sites, but we were done with that city and decided to continue on the Romantic Road and forget our last evening. Traveling by car through Germany is wonderful. Randy was so surprised that snow sticks to places that are not mountain. He had only see snow in mountains and figured that was how it was. Our trip up the Romantic Road proved that one wrong, there was snow all over, but not on the Autobahn (freeway). Our traveling was nice today, at a very comfortable pace. We looked through towns and even walked up a church tower. I don't remember how high that was, but I will say it was REALLY high and very scary because beside walking up the old wooden stairs there was a walk way outside of the top where you could walk 365 degrees around the tower. I think we could even see the Munich Olympic monument, maybe not who knows. Munich was only 70 miles the way the crow flys. It was in the City of Nordlingen. We also found a quaint little Gasthof Zimmer Frei there, so if we didn't find anything we liked further on, we could always go back there. Gosh this trip was beautiful, we stopped in so many little towns, some of which were ones we stopped and really looked around, like Harburg with it's castle or some just were good with a drive thru view. This was a wonderful day and boy did we need it after last night. We ended up in the Medieval city of Rothenberg. This was the town to stay in and again we went to the Info center and they booked us a room, but we decided to walk the town to see if we could get better on our own. Anne likes to have a room half booked just in case it gives her peace of mind. Anyway while walking the town we found Zimmer Frei in the window of the local market. Quaint, cute and nice. The owners, father Eric and son Klause, were great, they showed us 2 rooms, one with a bathroom/shower and another with the bathroom down the hall. For almost 15 euro a night less, we chose the no bathroom. This was fine the first night because we were the only people. Next night we shared the bathroom and these people didn't know much about the sharing thing because they took the key to the bathroom and left their stuff in there. Again all our night stays included breakfast which included lunch meat, thin sliced salami, ham, boiled eggs, juice and coffee and of course kaiser rolls. These breakfasts were good, filling and full of protein. The next day we spent the whole day in Rothenberg, not leaving the Pension until after 11am and we walked the wall that enclosed the entire city. The town was so beautiful and had such a history. We took the walking tour with the NightWatchman and that was very informative and fun. The Christmas market didn't open until Friday night and we were leaving Friday morning, but it was still nice. There were many many stores especially Christmas stores. We loved this town and felt it was the best place we had stayed in and an all around great city. We want to come back in spring to bike the Romantic Road. We had dinner both nights at a small local place which served wonderful food, great beer and reasonable prices, what else could you want.

Germany Day 9 (Driving a lot!)

One side Switzerland, the other Liechtenstein

Am I in Liechtenstein or Switzerland?

Bondensee

On the road.

What a day today was. We left Innsbruck and went driving to find our next destination and went driving and went driving and went driving. Anne really wanted to go through the country of Liechtenstein, just to say we had been there. It was only a 10 kilometer loop out of our way, so we did. Today we went through 4, yes count them 4, countries. We started out in Austria, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and finally Germany. We intended to stay in Switzerland, but they didn't seem all that friendly. We stopped at the first Info Center we saw, which was in Arbon on lake Bondensee and the lady there said there wasn't much to do in the winter and if we wanted the mountains or fun things to do we should go to Zurich or Luzern. That was a bit more south and West of where we wanted to go, so we pushed on. We decided to catch up with the Romantic Road in Germany and when we finally caught up to that we just kept going and going. It was a very long day and I say the hardest we had for the whole trip. We ended up stopping because we were beat, not because we wanted to stop there. We stopped in Augsberg, Germany. It is a big city and well, we didn't like it. All the hotels were booked, it was too late and too big a city to look for Zimmer Frei's, so we finally stopped at the Info center and they found us a place. I will not use the word hotel, so I guess the word motel might fit. It was clean and OK, but I feel we weren't in the best part of town. We were hungry and so we checked into the place and the signs said Christmas Market open, so we went to find it. A couple turn arounds, a red light violation picture and we got there, but it was too late and everything was CLOSED!!!! We were starved because to keep the budget low we had been eating the breakfasts included in our rooms and then not eating until dinner. It was now 8pm and we were starved. We drove around a bit, nothing open we liked, went to the restaurant in our place, it was tacky. There was a McDonalds close, so we hit that and went to bed.

Germany Day 8 (Innsbruck, Austria)

Driving from Garmisch, Germany to Innsbruck.

On the road.

Family Picture.

Innsbruck.

Innsbruck

The way to ice skate, Cameron outside skating, us inside drinking and keeping warm.

Christmas Market, Innsbruck

Today we left Garmisch and the military hotel. I was a little anxious about leaving because Cameron still wasn't totally feeling better, but we figured we would be driving and he could sleep in the car. A little Tylenol and away we went. We drove through the Alps and ended up in Innsbruck. This is a beautiful old city. The home of the 1964 Winter Olympics. We were just planning on stopping here then going on, but Anne loved the city so much we decided to stay. We talked to the people at the Info Center and they gave us some hints, the biggest was if they help book a room it will cost us more because of the fee paid to the Info center. So we decided to walk the city. Anne's friend (Thank you Edith) told us about "Zimmer Frei" which is room for rent. This could be a hotel, motel, Gasthof (motel with restaurant), pension (boarding house), or just a room in someone's house. We walked along the old part of town and inquired about rooms at many places and since Innsbruck's Christmas market was going on in the old part of downtown we decided to spend a couple euro extra and stay right there. Our room looked down right onto the Christmas market. Mozart stayed in our hotel with his father on a trip to Italy. Innsbruck is a fascinating city and I suggest every go there. I wish Cameron was feeling better because we were thinking about him trying to ski. We saw some of the places that were constructed for the Olympics and still in use for training and competition, but didn't go in. We had already been to the top of the the Zugspitz and well the Alps are the Alps haha especially when you are on a budget. We saw the ski jump ramp and that reminded us of going to the top of one when we were in Nagano, Japan. I could go on writing about the architecture of the city, which I loved, and everything else in Innsbruck, but I won't. Best to say it is a beautiful city in the snow, but I am sure it is GREAT in the spring/summer too. The Christmas market was great even though it was VERY cold. We drank "Gluhwein" which is hot, mulled wine and boy it was good especially when you are that cold. It was a wonderful experience.

Germany Day 7 (Zugspitze)

Going up

Lower portion at only 2600 meters

View from Gondola

The Gondola going UUUPPPPPP!

The highest point in Germany.

Looking upon the Alps. FROM ABOVE THEM!

Geocaching in the cold

Wow what an experience today. We went to the top of the highest mountain in Germany. It was so fun, but BITTER cold. It was about -10 degrees Celsius. We had a beautifully sunny day and could see Switzerland, Germany, Austria and even the Italian Alps. Cameron did wake up with a fever, but he sucked it up and went with us. THANK GOD FOR TYLENOL. We tried to do some geocaching, but after a mile hike the snow was too deep to find anything. We came back to the hotel freezing and jumped into the outdoor jacuzzi with snow all around us. Tomorrow we leave for who knows were. Probably the Romantic Road.

This was the way DOWNNNN. Cameron was trying to scare Anne, which wasn't very hard.

Germany Day 6 (Disney Castle)

Compare to yesterday's pictures. Hard to believe.

In front of Edelweiss resort.

Waking up on Day 6 was a wonderful surprise especially to Cameron. SNOW SNOW EVERYWHERE!!!! It must have snowed all night long because there was about a 3 inch coating of snow on the ground. What a beautiful sight. Our room looks onto a courtyard "grassy" area which was covered with a virgin blanket of snow when I got up. When the boys got up, kids had already been playing in it, but it was still beautiful. Our room looks onto the mountain with Auspitz looking down on us, but this morning we couldn't see anything due to the snow storm. As the snow let up, we decided to head off to Neuschwainstein Castle. That is the castle that Walt Disney copied for Disneyland's castles. It was interesting, but we thought that it would be a lot older than it actually was, it is less than 150 years old. I am really having a hard time grasping that Germany is actually a very young country though the areas are very old and rich with history.

Cameron's Snow Angel.

Germany Day 5 (Drive to Garmisch)

View from our Hotel.

The Alps are hidden behind the clouds. (see day 6 pics)

It snowed while we were at dinner.

The City of Garmisch.

Day 5, has us leaving our hotel, ArtHotel, in Munich and renting a car. We decided to pick up a rental car in Munich so we could return there for one more night. We also decided to head on into Garmisch and stay at the military hotel there. It is a nice place and we were very surprised at how comfortable we felt here in the hotel. It is centered nicely for many things we want to do here and it is only a 2 hour drive from Munich. The roads are nice and the driving is very easy. It was starting to rain a bit as we got here. We spent most of the rest of the day in the pool and the outside jacuzzi. Our dinner was out in town at a small German restaurant in the middle of the historic section of Garmisch. Snow started to fall.

Germany Day 4 (Museum)

Augustiner Brewery

River leaving Museum

Arriving to the Museum

Day 4 was the Duetsches Museum of Science. Someone said it would be an hour to go through it, well that wasn't us. It took us all day and we were tired. Cameron had a blast they had everything from beginning to end, things like water and water cycles, transportation from early times to space, flying and airplanes, textiles, paper and so on. It is hard to encompass everything we saw there, but the best part is Cameron REALLY enjoyed it. This was his day. That night we went to dinner again at the Augustiner Brewery Restaurant. It is so fun. We love drinking the dunkels (dark beer).

Germany Day 3 (Munich)

Day 3, we went on a walking tour of Munich. It was very informative listening to the history of Munich, where the Third Reich first started and how Munich was re-build after WWII. We also got to see the Glochenspiel, the church the Pope Benedict XVI used and many other interesting things about Munich. This evening, I found a restaurant listed in the restaurant guide, that I wanted to try. It was only 2 subway stops and a bit of a walk. Well, that wasn't quite so short, after an hour of walking including a stop at Lowenbrau Brewery (which was closed), the place was very small and now quite what I had hoped for. So we hit the subway and went back to the old standby of the Haufbrau House. This time it was a bit more fun.