Salzburg, Austria

While we were in Munich, we took a side trip to Salzburg, Austria.

It was cold and rainy, but still very beautiful.  We wished we could have spent more time here.  That's the hard part about vacations - the choices.  More time in one place, means less time in another.  And sadly I feel Austria got the short end of the stick.

Our first stop was Hellbrunn Castle.  (excuse the crooked picture.  After taking both a photography class, and a photoshop class, it appears I learned nothing, and can not only not take a straight picture, I can't figure out how to "straighten it out")

I'd been told it is super fun, and the gardens even boast "trick fountains" that the guides like to soak tourists with.  But it was already a little cold and drizzly out, so we just headed out to the regular (free) gardens. 

I wanted to see the famous gazebo.
 

The very same gazebo used in the movie.

However, sadly it's locked up tight.  Rumor has it some old lady broke a leg or hip or something trying to leap from bench to bench.   ♫♪ "I am sixteen, going on seventeen..."♪♫

But we did find a fantastic park that the kids still talk about.
 

Apparently they aren't so worried about little kids hurting themselves.  I can't tell you how many times I heard "Why can't we have parks like these?!?!"  and "Stinkin' lawyers!! Ruining every body's fun!"

They had a fun zip line the kids played on for quite awhile

And other things that spun too fast and made you sick.

And giant swings which made Maddie sick (probably still not fully recovered from all the spinning).

And when they all had their fill of playground equipment which would invite lawsuits here in America, we headed over to Salzburg.

We said "hi" to Mozart.

Made a pilgrimage to his house,

Found some fantastic food,

saw a pretty fountain,

Wandered down the famous shopping street- Getreidegasse,

Explored a really cool graveyard,

But didn't make it up to the fortress.  The funnicular would be closing almost as soon as we would have made it to the top. 

But at least we gave our kids a reason to come back.  Always want to leave a place wanting more, right?  Which if anything we totally did.  Especially Maddie.  That girl definitely left her heart in the Alps. 

Munich and Dachau

I'm going to deviate just a little here from the method I've been following.  I've been trying to do a post a day, and then changing the date back to the date we were actually doing that thing, (it's actually January now, so I'm like 6 months behind)  But there are like three days that I don't have much material for (for various reasons like bad weather, exhaustion, church, and traveling) and they all take place in and around Munich, so I'm gonna lump them all together and call it June 29.

First up, Dachau.  I'll be honest. Dachau sucks.



"Work Makes You Free"

If you're in the area, and you've never been, you gotta go.  But it still sucks.
 

It sucks to stand there and think of the many people who suffered and died in the spot you are standing at the hands of some very evil people.

It sucks to think on the fact that human beings are capable of such atrocities.

It sucks to think of the hopelessness, and pain, and misery, and the incredible suffering of so many, many, many people.

So yeah, it sucks.

On to cheerier subjects.

Like church.

We finally made it to church in Munich.  We tried to go in Paris, but we slept in.  Besides the fact that I want to teach my kids that being on vacation isn't really an excuse to not go to church, we thought it would be a really cool experience. 

Funny story- On facebook the day before, I got a message from an old high school friend.  He had been following my adventures with my kids around Europe and wanted to pick my brain about doing the same thing the next summer when he took his family to visit his brother in Munich.  So, as I'm sitting there in church, this guy comes up to us and introduces himself  "Hi, I'm Nate, I'll be your interpreter today" and hands us the little ear pieces he will be translating the talks into so we can understand what's going on.  And although he didn't tell me his last name, or really resemble his brother, I just looked at him and knew and asked "Are you a Winder?"  Needless to say he seemed a little shocked.

We stayed for the whole three hours.  I think they were confused that we did.  Apparently there are quite a few Mormon tourists who go to this church, and for the most part, the stay for Sacrament meeting, and then leave.  But it was a really rainy day, and we thought it would be good for the kids.

And of course while we were in the area, we had to head to the Marienplatz, Munich's old town square.

The buildings are cool,

the kids wanted to do some last minute shopping before we caught the train to Prague,

John wanted to take the kids to the Hofbrauhaus It's a famous beer hall- are we the hippest parents are what?  Actually I think the polka band is pretty cool.  And we made a point of showing them the vomitorium in the restroom as a life lesson.

And don't forget ice-cream.  We always need to get ice-cream.  (Christopher probably could win an ice-cream eating contest.  That kid is fast.)

One last "as big as your head" pretzel before we said Auf Wiedersehen to Germany

The Alps and a couple of castles

I think if there is one place on this planet I will never tire of visiting it is the Alps.  They are my very favorite mountain range. So naturally, it was a definite "must see" place on our itinerary.  And I was really looking forward to it.  So many towns and cities.  It was definitely way past time we got in some fresh mountain air.

And when you can throw in a couple real-life Fairy Tale Castles, it's all the better.

Tip- you want to reserve your tickets in advance, and get the very first available for the day.  It will be a zoo by lunch, and good luck even getting tickets in the afternoon.  So that's what we did.

Once upon a time there was a Prince.  A very spoiled Prince.  He wasn't much interested in ruling his kingdom, that was too much work.  But what he liked very best was spending money.  And not just on anything, but on building beautiful homes.  Well, castles really.  And who could blame him?  But sadly, people weren't too thrilled that he was bankrupting his small country of Bavaria and so before he could finish his current pet project (or sadly, start the next project Falkenstein which looked even cooler than Neuschwanstein,)  they saw him unfit to rule, and shortly thereafter he was found dead in a lake.  The End.

It would be an utterly tragic story, except now tourists come from all over the world and pay good money to see two of those castles.  So now it's kind of win-win.  Except for Ludwig of course.

You always start the tour with Hohenschwangau.  It's the yellow, smaller one.  Merely a hunting lodge actually.
 

After you tour that, and see how poor Ludwig spent his years growing up, (no photography inside, sorry)

you make your way back down to the valley,

past the most beautiful turquoise lake with swans and everything, and then hitch a ride up to the big castle Neuschwanstein.

Sadly only a couple floors inside are finished, but they are spectacular.  (Once again, no interior photography.)

After you finish touring the castle, you can make your way up to Marien Brucke.  (Mary's Bridge)

It offers another splendid view of the castle, and is pretty much the best photo op. 

After we bid good bye to the castles, and the hordes of people that were arriving, we headed on over to Tegelburg.  (It's a mountain)  At the bottom of Tegelburg, they have an actual Alpine Slide.  It's actually pretty tame, but we had fun.  I think this was Christopher's favorite part of the day.

There's also a gondola that takes you to the top of the mountain, and some pretty fantastic views.

You can even paraglide off the top. (I think that's what it's called)  I watched this woman do it tandem, she looked pretty nervous.  Some day I will make it back there and do that.  I'm feeling pretty brave sitting here in my home halfway around the world, with no real plans to get back there, but if I do, I'm totally gonna jump off that mountain.  Who's with me?

And of course, we had to get pancake soup.  It's more of an onion soup with cooked up strips of crepes in it, or something similar, but we had to try and get some.  And guess what? They were out, but totally made up a batch just for us.

So all-in-all a pretty fantastic day.
 

I think I could live there.  Except I hear it snows. Maybe I'll just buy a place for the summer and rent it out to skiers in the winter and become a professional paraglider and people can pay me to do tandem jumps with them.  That would be awesome.