Last week we went to Germany to a military resort for Thanksgiving. It was so much fun! We loved Germany, it was beautiful, the people were nice, they spoke English, I didn't have to sort my garbage (its funny how your standards change quickly!). We left on Wednesday afternoon and drove the scenic route with our friends the Tolman's. We like to carpool when we go on trips with them and we use walkie talkies and I think its so much fun. Plus they are awesome and always have lots of food to share with us! The kids love each other and that makes it fun too. The views on our drive were beautiful. All I got was this quick photo out my window but trust me, it was so pretty! We drove through Austria for a minute so we had to stop and buy our vignette. The travel here is always interesting with having to learn the different requirements for each country.
We stopped at the most random rest stop when we crossed into Austria that had some very small coffee cups and a huge open area with TV screens showing water running on them. It was a large open area and the kids loved burning off some energy. The drive was only about 5 hours and the kids did great.
Traveling with 3 kids is challenging and I am still working on my packing skills. We had to park in the garage and then get all of our stuff into our room. However, once we got into the hotel the parking garage elevator was broke so we had to walk all of this crap up a flight of stairs, load another cart and then take the elevator to our room. Of course during the middle of all of this Quinn "had to go to the bathroom right now!" so I had to run with her and leave Dave with 2 screaming kids to find a bathroom. Never a dull moment that is for sure.
I love that these kids get to travel together. They have so much fun together. Quinn is a riot!
Finley and her mullet loved this little bus down in the game area. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.
On Thanksgiving we took a Bavarian tour which took us to a Monastery, then a cheese factory and finally a woodshop. Finley did awful on the bus ride over so that was fun. Other than a few meltdowns on the bus it was super fun. Dave got some beer, we ate some delicious cheese and got to see how it was made and picked up a few souvenirs. Our tour guide was very nice and gave us some recommendations on where to eat in town during our stay in Garmish.
The cheese factory was good and we ate a nice lunch including cheese cake and monk beer. The kids loved watching them make the cheese. During the tour Quinn was more interested in drawing in her book than paying attention to what we were doing.
When we got back to the hotel we took a horse and carriage ride around the town and got to do some sight seeing. The kids thought it was fun and enjoyed looking out at the Christmas lights. Quinn said the houses in Germany were "clean and the houses in Italy were dirty." Our dinner at the hotel was delicious. It was a great Thanksgiving buffet and I didn't have to cook it or clean it up. Plus our kids are all still free so it was pretty cheap too!
On Friday, we ate the breakfast buffet at the hotel which was full of American food and it was amazing! Then we hit the road and headed to Munich for the Christmas Markets. On the way we stopped for gas and saw this hilarious sign about not peeing at the gas station.
Once we found the parking garage that would fit our car and then paid to use the bathroom (that is still something I am getting used to is having to pay to go to the bathroom places) we were on our way to the market. It wasn't too cold and the kids were in pretty decent moods so we had a good time. I love the atmosphere at the markets and walking around and smelling all the good food. We ate a lot and looked at some booths with Christmas decorations. Dave got the kids the world's largest pretzel and they loved it. Dave and I got mulled wine and it was so so good!
Our cute kiddo and our cute Kindermarket mugs.
We went up into the tower of this building (I don't know what it was) and had some great views of the city. Quinn wasn't interested because it was pretty windy and cold up top but we forced her to get a family picture to document we were there!
We had a great time at the market and I am glad we went. I'm going to be honest that I was a little hesitant to go with all of the terrorist warnings that are out there but Dave forced me to go and I am glad we did. It was a very memorable day!
On the way home we picked up some Indian food and chowed down in the hotel room, it was amazing!
Staying in a hotel with 3 kids is a bit stressful. They are loud and don't understand that "be quiet!" really means BE FREAKING QUIET. Plus Finley likes to scream at bedtime so I am sure our neighbors loved us. However, Quinn and Leo actually stayed in their beds for most of the trip so that was nice to not have to share ours with them. Every morning when we woke up they were always sleeping in the craziest positions.
On Saturday we went on a tour to the Neuschwanstein Castle (the Disney castle). The kids were so excited, Quinn because she said it was Cinderella's castle and Leo because he loves knights and shields right now. Finley wasn't excited about the trip so much and spent most of the bus ride screaming. During one of her fits I knocked over my coffee while trying to pick her tantruming, limp body off the floor of the bus and it spilled all over, that was great fun!
Other than the bus ride, it was a fun day. Some of our friends were also on the tour with us so that is always nice. Quinn loved having some of her little friends around to check out Cinderella's castle. We stopped at a church which has a statue of Jesus in it which was been deemed a miracle in the Catholic Church. A very long time ago the statue was said to have tears running down his face. There was mass when we stopped so we only got to peak in for a quick second.
We arrived at the castle and the bus road was under construction which meant we got to hike up to the castle. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be and with only a little bit of whining (unfortunately not wine-ing) and a stop at the snack shop on the way up, we made it! The views from the top were incredible and I can see why you would want to build a castle there. The story behind the castle is very neat and it was nice to get to learn about it and then see the beautiful rooms that were completed. Leo only stepped under the roped off area two times, so we can't complain abut that.
This castle is King Ludwig's (the king who built the "Disney"castle) parents residence. It was at the bottom of the hill under his castle. And since getting a good picture is pretty hard, we just took a picture of a picture. :)
Instead of walking back down, we opted for a horse and carriage ride down.
We had a delicious lunch after the tour and then the kids (not Finley) passed out on the drive home.
Saturday night the Buckeyes were playing Michigan so our plans to head to the local Christmas market in Garmish was canceled and hung out in the room to watch the game. We pretty much let the kids do whatever they wanted so we could watch the game and they ended up watching lots of movies on the computer and eating random food for dinner, to include a bag of Munchies. Finley loves the Cheetos so we just kept yelling for the big kids to give her more Cheetos so she would stop screaming!
Finley is a ham and absolutely loves getting her picture taken. She always yells "cheese."
Everybody was happy when the Buckeyes pulled it off and won!
On Sunday we ate the buffet again because I needed to get as much American food as I could and then we went to check out another one of King Ludwig's palaces. This one was much smaller but still very interesting to hear about his life and see how he lived. The drive there was beautiful. I really loved Bavaria. It seemed much more westernized than Italy and the views were great.
We made it home without having to stop one time, I swear our kids are absolute champs in the car. The drive home was great and I loved seeing all the random castles on the sides of the mountains.
Our trip to Germany was filled with such great memories. I loved Germany and I know we will be visiting again.
I just added some pictures that were on my phone since I am actually blogging tonight and that hasn't been happening much lately.
I love how sleepy Finley looked that morning. She is also not a fan of bows and pulls them out as soon as I put them in. I need to figure out how to get her to keep them in.
Quinn is modeling with our Chatbooks. We love looking at them all the time.
Our new travel wall is ready for more adventures. I want to get frames and add pictures of where we have traveled to the wall as well.
Putting up the tree was fun this year. The kids were very very excited and Finley just wanted to pull everything off the tree. They were very helpful and Quinn had the most fun of all. I love this age and watching her experience the Christmas season.
Leo wasn't feeling it at this point.
Finley got really spoiled at the hotel and snuck her way into our bed for the couple of nights after our trip. I am glad we have a large bed because with 3 kids and a dog in there, it is tight.
Leo loves trains and I gave in and we bought a train to go around the tree. They love it.
One night this week our radiators stopped working and we didn't know why. Dave went out back to check them, with this giant stick. He has to stick it into the tank and then read on the stick where it comes up to in order to see how much gas we have. Turns out, we have two tanks and the one had run out and in order to use the other tank, we needed to reset it. We didn't know how to do that and therefore had no heat that night. It happened to be the coldest night we have had in forever. We piled all the kids into our room and used the one little space heater we have. It wasn't awful but I am glad we got it working first thing in the morning!
Trips are good, Thanksgiving is good, Life is good.
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