Wordless Wednesday

Steaks and Cakes

Leaving the Brenner Pass…please note…it is a long way down and there is no guard rail for the train…

The view of Innsbruck from the Stadtturm

The Hofburg

The Goldenes Dachl

Schloss Neuschwanstein

On the day after Christmas, we traveled about an hour away to Schloss Neuschwanstein. This is the beautiful castle that Walt Disney patterned his famous castle after. Ludwig the II had this castle built and it was never finished. The tour inside the castle is about 20 minutes. Once you park and walk to the ticket center, you will be in line for awhile. The tickets are 9 Euros and children under 18 are free. There are three ways to get up to the castle. The first is to hoof it. It takes anywhere from 20m to an hour depending on how athletic you are and how many kids you are traveling with! The second way is by bus and the third is by squeezing into a horse drawn carriage with the other tourists.

After standing in line for about twenty minutes, we got up to the ticket desk and saw a sign that the buses where not running. It was -6C out on this day and we were freezing. My husband was even cold and he never complains about the weather! We decided the weather was too much for the kids. We snapped a few great pictures, wandered through the tourist stores and put Neuschwanstein back on our list of places to visit this summer when we come back. I won’t mind walking up to the castle in the summertime…I kind of like to feel my toes!

Photo Friday! Viennese cakes…yum!

One of my favorite parts about this trip so far is the plethora of bakeries! There is one on every corner and sometimes there are two or three right next to each other. In Vienna, we stopped at the world famous Cafe Demel to try the Sachertorte. We have tried four different cakes so far and my favorite is Esterhazytorte. They are not just cakes…they are works of art!

Mozartorte

Esterhazytorte

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Merry Christmas!

We are spending Christmas in Germany! What a fantastic place to spend Christmas! It is everywhere you look! One of the best parts about Europe at Christmas is the amazing Christmas markets. I think that we have been to seven of them now! You can find just about anything at these Christmas markets. My favorite one so far has been in Salzburg, Austria. It was absolutely humongous!

The drink of choice is Gluhwein (pronounce Glue-vine). This is an extremely strong alcoholic drink…kind of like mulled wine, only stronger. I could only try a sip! Pretzels, cookies, candies, and bratwurst can be found on every corner. Handcrafted ornaments, smokers, nutcrackers, nativities, and soaps are everywhere. Even if you are feeling like a Grinch, the Christmas markets can put you in a great mood.

The kids got a little crazy at the markets because there is so much to do and look at. Be prepared to purchase some treats because staring at them in the case is just too torturous! When one of the kids started acting up, we just pulled them to the side to calm down until they were ready to keep walking.

The Christmas markets are most beautiful at night when they are all lit up. This is also when it is the most crowded. If you are on your own, I recommend attending the market at night. Most of the larger markets open at 9 or 10am. If you are going to the market with your children, this is the best time to drop by. The crowds are light so you don’t feel like you are constantly running around looking for your children!

I hope that everyone has a wonderful holiday season!

Wordless Wednesday

Vienna in Pictures

Because my laptop battery was about to die, I wasn’t able to post pictures with my blog post the other day. Here are some of the places and things that I described!

The Hundertwasser House

The Lipazzaner Horses on their way to their morning exercise…they were beautiful!

Yumm! Huge pretzels EVERYWHERE!

The family in the Hofburg Palace

The Hofburg Palace–the palace of the Austrian and Hungarian emperors

Stephansdom

The nativity in Stephansdom

Looking up at Stephansdom

The view from the Schloss Shonnbrun Tiergarten (the zoo!)

Watching the performing polar bear

Days 3 and 4–Vienna

On Sunday morning, we got up and hit the road towards Vienna. A lot of the traveling is on backroads through beautiful little towns. The drive was about 4.5 hours. The kids slept well. We stopped twice for bathroom trips. I am constantly surprised at how clean the restrooms are here. I have yet to encounter one that I refuse to go into! When we arrived in Vienna, we went straight to the Schloss Shonbrunn. The castle has a zoo that is considered the oldest in the world. The castle was built in 1569. The kids really enjoyed the zoo. It was a nice way to relax. We have tried to create an itinerary with items that the kids will enjoy. After the zoo, we checked into our hotel and got ready to go back out. We ate at a great little pub/restaurant that had all of 7 tables in it. I tried Goulash for the first time…it was very tasty! Sera loved it and left all of her own dinner behind! After dinner, we walked around a little Christmas Market.

Today, when we woke up, we caught the UBahn to Stephansdom. We wandered around the inside of it for a few minutes and then walked down the Graben. The original foundations of Stephansdom dates back to 1147. This was fascinating to me because I recently finished reading Pillars of the Earth and it reminded me of that book. I could just imagine everyone milling around and building this church up.

We walked down the Graben and checked out some great little stores and cafes. I found the famous Demel Cafe, known for their amazing tortes. I bought each of the kids a chocolate bar and then we sampled three of the famous cakes: Senegaltorte, Esterhazytorte (almond sponge layered with cream, and Sachertorte (chocolate cake covered with apricot jam and chocolate). YUM!

We saw the Hofburg Palace next. This was a great place for the kids to run around in. They had a large square that people were running around and shouting in. The kids were able to expel some energy before it was time to head out. We hit another Christmas market, where we found these fantastic delicious pretzels. We are now back in the hotel taking a little rest before dinner tonight!

The laptop battery is about to die, so I will post pictures later!

Day Two–Garmisch, Germany

We got to break in all of our new snow jackets and mittens and such…it is FREEZING here! Quite different from the 78 degree weather we left at home! Sera is not a fan of the snow jacket, but she loves the mittens and pink hat. Seth hates his jacket but wore it when we forced him to. We walked around downtown Garmisch for a bit today. We were so surprised at how many people were out on this dreary, slushy day. If it looked like this at home, the only place you find someone would be in the mall or Target!

Kind of reminds me of “A Christmas Story”

We took a walk through a very small Christmas market where the kids rode a little merry-go-round. I was amazed to see so many buildings painted with beautiful murals. Some were absolutely huge.

The kids found this statue of a boar in front of a bank and had to take their picture with it.You know I take too many pictures when my kids actually ask for a pic!

A view of one of the streets on the fussgangerzone

Tomorrow we head to Vienna, Austria!

We have arrived! Photo Friday!

Greetings from Garmisch, Germany! Our day started off on the WRONG foot. We arrived at the airport on time but it was too “froggy”, as my son would say, outside for the planes to land. The plane that we were supposed to take hadn’t even landed yet! Fortunately, when we bought the cheap plane tickets on Delta.com, we saved several hundred dollars by giving ourselves a 5.5 hour layover in Atlanta. Luckily that meant that we did not have to worry about our connection flights like the rest of the airport. We had an uneventful 45 minute flight to Atlanta. The kids were great and we didn’t even have to break out any of the exciting toys yet!

Here is my husband and son playing Nintendo DS while we waited…and waited…and waited…