Trip to Garmisch

There are a lot of pictures from our trip to Garmisch & surrounding areas...I tried to limit them, but there are still quite a few. We had a blast last wkend and are definitely looking forward to this wkend. Garmisch has breath taking views and everyone is so nice. A place I would definitely visit again.


This is our adorable hotel. I'd stay there again too! The owners were so beyond nice to us and it was a great location...the view was incredible (those are the Alps right outside our hotel). They spoke great English which was a major bonus for us! That little room down there...yep, that's our hotel room. I left the booking up to Matt, which I later became very nervous about, and he reserved us a single bedroom. Literally meant for ONE person. Thankfully they brought up a mattress to set on the floor for Gavin. Once that was in there you couldn't really walk in our room. It was hilarious! I just laughed and did a little roll of the eyes, but I truly enjoyed that hotel. It was perfect. Very old and German feeling which is just what I was hoping for. The second night they had a double available so they "upgraded" us. That room was great as well. We had a balcony off that one. The key to our rooms was one of my favorite things. That awesome old key is the one that actually opened our room door!! I have no clue what that other key was for...i so loved that fact! It was a great experience!

This is at the hotel to. That's the hotel dog that Gavin fell in love with. There they are playing fetch with the dog. Yes, even Matt (not at all a dog lover) was playing with the puppy. I had to take a picture to mark this rare occasion. Then there is Matt & Gavin relaxing on our balcony after we switched rooms. Gavin loved that balcony too. Which for some reason the doors and windows here are pretty neat. Hard to explain, but they are all big and neat. :)

We decided that we really wanted to go up and explore a portion of the Alps while we were there. So we took a train up to Zugspitze, the highest point in Germany. It comes to 2962 m (9700 ft, something close to that). It was gorgeous! The pictures don't do this view justice at all! But it was amazing to see. We wanted to snowboard & snowshoe all over that place so badly! One of these days we are going to come back & do that. Gavin's favorite part was of course the trucks that were up there. Go figure.

Again the view was incredible. Matt & I really enjoyed ourselves up there. Gavin on the other hand, well he was tired and it was so sunny up there he could barely keep his eyes open. Poor guy. He honestly looks miserable in every picture...then he finally fell asleep. Matt got some snow blindness going on to, but he still was way excited to be up there. It was funny trying to get pictures of him. We had to count to 3 and snap a shot right as he opened his eyes. So most pictures his eyes are shot or he looks like he's on something. It was hilarious.

After Zugspitze Matt humored me and took me to one of the pedestrain zones near by so that I could get some fun stuff. I like those places here. You can find some of the neatest things. I hate the euro though...so expensive! But I love my souvenirs, I've always been that kind of person that wants a bunch of great souvenirs. And this time all the cute kid stores are calling my name. They have some fun stuff in those stores!

After a little bit of shopping behind us we drove to Fussen to go see two famous castles. They were incredible sites to see! We saw the Hohenschwangau castle & the Neuschwanstein castle. The Neuschwanstein castle is the infamous castle that Disney got his insperation from for his famous Sleeping Beauty castle. We didn't tour the inside of them because we really didn't think Gavin (really any of us) could handle it. They were guided and hours long and we saw pictures of the inside so we called it good with just be amazed by the outsides and grounds of them. Quite the site!

The top left picture is of us & the awesome owner (well, the wife) She was great! One night we ate dinner at the hotel and of course Gavin, as always, finished first. She walked in and took him for a walk so that we could finish our meals!!! I was shocked & so thrilled! Gavin really liked her, although for some reason when we were trying to get pictures he didn't want anything to do with her. Ugh. Oh yeah, these pictures are all from Easter Sunday. We went to church in Munich. We weren't expecting and english speaking ward, but we happened to show up for one which was pretty nice. And I ended up seeing someone from Los Alamos who is now living there. What a small world it is.

Of course, I must talk about the autobahn. How could I not with a husband who has a serious need for speed and thrills. That sign with the slashes thru the 100 means that the speed limit has ended, oh and you can bet that Matt took full advantage of those times. For some reason we were having a difficult time breaking 129 mph & cars would be passing us!...but of course Matt did not quit trying. We rented a mercedes, because everyone out here drives one (VW & BMW too) and surprisingly they are kind of gutless. So we hit 141 mph finally and called it good. It was pretty exciting, but I must admit I was sweating.

And then...wah, wah, wah...all the fun came to an abrupt end. Matt can't even escape Germany without coming home with his very own, very expensive souvenir. The lovely police got him. Thankgoodness it wasn't when we were maxing out, but he was speeding when there was an actual speed limit. Yeah for tickets! We've lost count of how many tickets he's had. Seriously. So they pull us over, which in itself was an odd experience. They pulled in front of us and a digital sign scrolled across their back window saying "please follow, stop police" it was in German of course. So they pull us over and tell Matt that it's going to be 140 euro, where is your money? what? ummm...we don't have that amount on us at the moment...so they told us to follow them and they took us to an atm and we paid for the ticket right then and there. CRAZY! I thought for sure they were lying. But apparently that is the way they do it out here. They gave us a receipt and showed an actual video to Matt of him speeding and we were on our way. All I could do was laugh. I myself managed to get my very own ticket. A ridiculous parking ticket! but it was only 5 euro, so it doesn't even come close to Matt's awesome souvenir. nice. Germany is taking all of our money!!!

We had a great wkend though, and the ticket just topped it off. :) I'm sure we'll have another fabulous wkend this time too! I'm anxious for it!

Weinheim

Right now we're are staying at the Weinheim house...which is very charming. Matt & I really like it. The view out every window is gorgeous & there is a little park just down the street that Gavin & I have ventured to a couple of times now.

Matt works during the days, so it's just me and Gavin. We've done some walking/hiking, had some fun at the park and we took a drive into town in effort to find the pedestrian walk for some fun stores and what not...didn't find that, but we did find an extremely cute kids toy store!!! I am a sucker for cute, unique kids stuff. I think Gavin enjoyed himself there to. Next week hopefully we can make it to some more exciting places. We've taken some time to adjust to everything and Gavin is recovering from this horrid cold. His voice sounds so cute right now though. It's all raspy and squeeky.

Today, since Matt has weekends off, we are driving down to a town in Bavaria called Garmisch-Partenkirchen. It's right by the Alps and real close to Austria. It's suppose to be beautiful down there. We'll probably make a stop in Fussen & maybe Munich...we don't really know though, we're just kind of going. It should be fun though. We're excited! That will be next times post I'm sure. :)

These gorgeous trees are everywhere, they have them in yellow and pink to! This is right outside our living/dining room balcony. I can just sit there and stare at the views here, they're really peaceful. Although cameras don't do them justice, they look kind of blah in a photo...but they are not.

A walk Gavin & I took. Again, it was much more beautiful in person. Those trees could be a little creepy though. And that hill, it may not look like much, but it was a serious beast!

Back at the Woinemer Hausbrauerei for dinner. Some of the people Matt is working with right now wanting to celebrate something so they invited us to dinner. I think I'm good with the food there though. Time to try something new. My steak came out looking like it was fresh off the cow, needless to say Matt had to eat it.

Gavin made a little friend at the park by our house. His name is Flo, well that's his nickname because I could never pronounce his full name in a million years.

Gavin enjoying the swings...he calls them "Germany swings"

Walking "downtown" before dinner. Gavin is showing off the "tanker truck" that he got at the toy store here. It's a German one which makes it even more fun. He loves that thing.

We've relocated...but only for a month

So, if you weren't able to understand Gavin in this little video...we are in Germany!!!! It was kind of a late notice trip...Matt told me I had a week to get all prepared, but of course there wasn't any complaining on my part because I was getting to go to GERMANY!

We were some what nervous about the flights...Gavin has flown quite a bit, but nothing like this. The first flight was a little bit shy of 4 hours (not bad). Which he did great on! He was just super excited to be on an airplane. He & Matt played just about the entire flight...it's nice to be able to travel with Matt, it takes some stresses away. The second flight was shorter then we had anticipated, but it was about 8 hrs long. Gavin fell asleep before the plain even took off and then woke up probably 3 hours later...5 more to go. He did really well on this flight to. He kept running back to where the flight attendents were and flirting with them, watched little pieces of his movies here and there, ate, colored...we had all sorts of distractions for him & he was just amazing! What a relief!

We arrived in Frankfurt at 7am and more then happy to be getting off the airplane. We kept Gavin up till 1pm in hopes that we could all adjust to the time change more quickly. Oh my goodness I can't even explain how tired we were yesterday. Last night was kind of rough, but hopefully tonight will be better. On all the windows & doors here they have these metal doors that you can have come down for security reasons, plus they don't let in any light. So of course I put them down at night because I'm a scaredy cat, but they kept everything so dark...Gavin & I slept until 3:30pm today!!! WHAT?! Who does that? Oh well, I suppose it was needed.

Matt got home from work & we went to the grocery store...that was interesting. We had to walk down just about every isle and inspect everything closely just so we could figure out exactly what it was. I'm so excited to be spending Easter here! I think Gavin will have a sweet basket this year!

After shopping we went to dinner with one of Matt's co-workers that is out here also. It was pretty good. I asked for roasted turkey & were pretty sure they gave me pork...but the potatoes & veggies were good. At least they were nice to us even though I'm pretty sure they made fun of us every time they walked away. German is a crazy language!

Anyways, so now we are at home hopefully going to go to bed soon. But we will keep you posted on all of our adventures and experiences. Here are a few pictures from our time so far.

Gavin on the airplane watching one of his movies

This means "exit" and this sign is EVERYWHERE. Which of course we think is hilarious. Aren't we so mature?

The restaurant that we ate at tonight...Gavin is asleep (which he's definitely NOT doing right now)

One more ...

For some reason I couldn't get this picture to post with the others...oh well, so here is another collage.