Monday morning, or at least that was the original plan, we left for a trip to Austria. Since Chris' mom is from there, and she was here for the baptism, we thought it would be fun to tour the "homeland" with our very own native guide. We had a fantastic trip and saw many spectacular things, which the children are hopefully old enough to remember. I will do one entry for each day, as there is simply too much to cover in one post.
So, our schedule for Monday had us leaving at around 10 am, getting to Neuschwanstein castle around 2 pm, going on a tour, then heading over to Garmisch to our hotel for that night. Yeah, we didn't get on the road until 1:30, which was fine in the sense that no one was super antsy or anything. We just took our time getting ready so we wouldn't forget anything and no one would be stressed. (Chris and I have a horrible history of getting in a huge fight right before every family vacation because I am trying to hurry him, and he wants to stay his thorough self. But I have been working on it, and he has been trying to go faster, so the fact that we were all friends and happy is a true victory, regardless of when we left the house.
This did put a slight wrinkle in our Neuschwanstein plans, however, as the place closed at 6, the ticket office closed at 5, and it takes a good 4 hours to get there. Chris and Angie (who was driving her own rental car) tried their best, and really pushed the pedal to the metal, but we still got there 40 minutes too late. :( The above photo was taken on our only stop on the way, where we quickly fueled up the cars for the last time before leaving Switzerland, and grabbed a bite to eat. But we did see both castles from the outside, and we promised to bring the kids back during one of their many vacations this school year. (That way Amelia can see it, too.) The scenery was just gorgeous the entire way, and again no one bothered watching any movies, they just wanted to look out the windows. Sarah and Amelia saw the most memorable sight of all, a man skinny dipping in the river as we drove over it on the bridge! Sarah very excitedly told us that she even saw his (you know what) and that it was really funny looking. Lovely.
One of the things that kept us from leaving on time that morning, was Chris picking up a couple new toys to keep everyone happy on the trip. One was a walkie-talkie set. We had one in each car, and as along as we stayed within 2 kilometers of each other, we could talk back and forth to our hearts content. The kids loved making sure we saw all the same sights they did, and it helped us not lose each other on the freeway. Plus, if we needed to make a potty stop that was easily communicated as well. Very handy for a two-car excursion. The other toy was another portable DVD player, but this one came with two screens, that could each be mounted with Velcro on to the back of the front seat headrests. We put this in Oma's car, and had our other two DVD players in our car. So there was plenty to entertain the kids, which was excellent, as the bulk of the trip was driving to our next destination every day.
When we finally got to our hotel in Garmisch, we wished we had been able to spend even more time there. It is a resort town, so included in the price of the hotel rooms were vouchers to be used at the local spa. Unfortunately, we had no time to enjoy them. We had time to grab some dinner for everyone, while Oma took them on a walk through town, and then it was bedtime, so we could get up early and head off to Salzburg the next morning. On their walk, the kids peeked through the windows of a local bar/restaurant and watched some kids doing the "Schuhplattler" complete with full Lederhosen outfits. That finally stopped all talk of the naked bather, as the dancers were much, much cooler. 🙂
I am ashamed to say that dinner was purchased at McDonalds, but it was the only time we ate there on the whole trip. The kids were pretty hopped up and excited at bedtime, since the girls got to sleep in a room with Oma, and the boys and Baby camped out with us in the adjoining room. The hotel was nestled right up next to a gorgeous, tree-covered mountain, and there were glowing white mountains right next to it. They were some sort of stone, as it was too late in the season for the white to be snow, but they literally shone in the night, so amazing. Nick and I hung out the window gazing at the view for quite a while, it was just so pretty. Come to find out, the girls were doing the same thing next door. We definitely want to go back and stay long enough to go on some hikes up into those hills. Unfortunately, I was so mesmerized by the view I didn't get any photos of it.
We got to bed around 10 or so that night, and thus began the never ending cycle of going to bed late, and sleeping in the next morning, causing us to get a late start the next day, thus making us go to be
d late the next night since we were trying to cram everything in that we had planned for that day. Shakes head. Next trip we have got to keep on schedule better. Makes the whole thing more manageable.