January 25, 2006

Our vacation in Garmisch has convinced Mike that he wants to spend a year working here. He seems to love the small town atmosphere, the beautiful scenery and the fact that everything is in walking distance. We were talking today about it over lunch and he even said he thought we could get an apartment and bicycles because he didn't really think we needed a car. Imagine him saying that 6 months ago! haha!

Since our last update we've gone snowboarding twice at the nearby resort called the Hausberg Lodge. Since we're on R&R, we get the equipment rental for free and only have to pay for our lift ticket and clothing rental (Mike needed some snowpants). We took snowboarding lessons our first day and practiced on the bunny hill. The next day we tackled the mountain and even made it up to the intermediate hills! No worries - both of us made it out alive ;) It was great having it take close to an hour to get up the mountain in a cable car and back down the mountain. Our first day was spent going up the towrope and down a very short slope. I tried getting Mike to try a chair lift so we could go even further up the mountain but he wasn't feeling brave enough. We plan to get back on the mountain early next week (once the weather starts to warm up again) so maybe then. :) Chair lifts are a lot harder with a snowboard especially when you have 5 other people sharing your lift with you so I understand the hesitation! It was amazing how many people they packed into the cable cars! It was like herding cattle! I felt really sorry for the smaller children that rode in them. There was so little space to move and being short, they didn't have the breathing room!

We went to Neuschwanstein Castle on Monday. We decided to join the Edelweiss tour to go there. I'm glad we did. Not only do we also get a discount (we didn't know about all these discounts when we got here), but we were also informed of all the history, etc. of the villages we passed through, the Romantisch Road, and King Ludwig himself. Mike and I trekked up the hill to get to the Castle (probably a 30 minute walk), joined the tour, then enjoyed lunch at a local restaurant. The Castle was beautiful inside. King Ludwig had the walls painted with scenes from the operas he enjoyed and there were spectacular woodcarvings. It was unfortunate that we were not allowed to take pictures while inside. Mike's first real german meal was at the Klaushaus (?) located below the Neuschwanstein Castle. I had Schnitzel while he had steak with bacon and onions on it. Mike said it was quite possible the best meal he's ever had. He seems to really be enjoying the meals here.

The tour group went to the Church in the Meadow after the Castle. This church was built to house a statue of Jesus that was said to be a miracle. Short version - when the statue was first created it was put away because people were uncomfortable with how lifelike it seemed. A woman found the statue and kept it in her living room until the statue started crying. Because of this miracle, and the number of people who came and still come to see this statue, they decided to build a church to hold it. The church itself was very beautiful and is said to represent paradise on earth. Fortunately, there wasn't a service going on so we were able to take lots of pictures. You'll have to check those out in the photo album....

Our last stop of the day was to a wood carving shop in the area. Our tour guide said it was the largest one in the area. They definitely had some very impressive items. We didn't purchase anything though.

We woke up REALLY early on Tuesday because we were going to go to Munich. We went down to the front desk to get some more coffee and also find out more information on the Munich City tour. The convenience and affordability of the Neuschwanstein Tour made us reconsider going on our own and after getting more information from the front desk, made us decide to join them on Thursday. What we found out later in the day was that the Thursday tour had been cancelled so we'll have to get up early again on another day! We weren't ready to go boarding again because both of us had really sore legs so we decided to tour Garmisch some more. We found out on Monday's tour that we had completely missed the Pedestrian area so we decided to go visit that. We stopped in a Konditionerei (Cafe/Cake store) for coffee and then walked downtown. There were a lot of little shops but not as much as we were expecting. It was a nice relaxing day of exploring though. :) It's just too bad that we scrapped going to Munich only to find out that the tour was cancelled! I think we're going to go there on our own tomorrow. We really want to see the Deutsches Museum. It's in our book of one of a thousand places to visit. :) haha. We did go to a local grocery store and pick up some pickled herring, chocolate, wine, some of those peanut butter puffs that my mom raves about, and some potato string snack. Then we stopped at the Metzgerei for some wieners and brotchen and had a yummy lunch! We ate the whole jar of herring in one sitting :) Mmmm...yummy. This picture is the view from our hotel room!

Finally! - Today. We're experiencing a cold front so we've put off boarding for a few days. It's supposed to be cold today (below freezing) and colder tomorrow, so we're going to wait to board till early next week. We went back to the Konditionerei for coffee and Nusskuchen (nut cake), then went to the PX looking for a gator for Mike ...since they were out we went to a sport shop that we had seen by the grocery store. We stopped at a local German restaurant for Goulash, Schnitzel, and beer and tonight we'll be visiting the Gorge. We're going to try to hop on the Zugspitzbahn (cable car) to get up to the highest point in Germany and tonight we'll go on the tour to the Partnach Gorge. I'm sure we'll have lots of pictures after that. Tomorrow we're going to get up early for Munich again. We'll get there in time to see the Glockenspiel, visit the Rathaus, and the Deutsches Museum. Plus, we'll do lots of shopping to pick up souvenirs and all those little things you can't live without!

I think Friday we'll go to Innsbruck, Austria, Saturday - Dachau Concentration Camp, and possible the Linderhof Castle and Ettal Monestary on Sunday... We haven't decided yet whether we're going to go to Linderhof yet... Early next week has been reserved for boarding again... We may decide to scrap the Linderhof Castle and try to venture out to Bamberg or St. Augustine on our own. We'll see! Vacation is going so quick!

That's the update! Hope everyone enjoys the pictures.