Garmisch City Walk

We walked through the city with a guide. There is a lot of history in the area. We learned especially about how important the paintings on the buildings are. They apparently are permanent. The city has to approve a new building's painting and if the property is sold, the new owner cannot change a single thing - yikes! Also, the painiting is guaranteed for 500 years! Wow, that's some pretty impressive paint! The paintings relay the history of the building or family, some significant event that took place there. Also we learned about the May Pole - why each town has them and their significance. It was pretty neat and there was a lot of shopping.

Our Date

Will and I even had the opportunity to ditch the kids for a few hours. Since we were staying at an Army facility, they have the same facilities that we do. We put the kids in hourly care for a little bit and went up the ski lift to half way up the mountian. The views were beautiful and Will is planning to hike back down next time. There is a little cafe up on the top, we were just too early for lunch, but next time!

Munich Zoo

The Munich Zoo was an interesting experience. The zoo allows for a "closer" encounter with the animals, unlike the US. There were plenty of exibits that we noticed there was not much of a barrier between the animal and us. A perfect example would be the brown bear. We did not use the zoom to get those pictues. We are literally standing at the edge, and so is the bear, there is a water barrier and that is it.

The kids had a great time petting the animals. I was surprised to see baby deer. The goats were serious about getting fed too. Will was busy taking pictures and had set our back pack down, a goat smelled the popcorn inside the back pack and helpd himself. Besides that, they would jump up on you to get food, thankfully they didn't jump on the kids.

Farchant Nature Walk

We went for a hike in Farchant, right next door to Garmisch. This is apparently where Shrek is from. . . It was a beautiful hike, we learned a lot. The water is for drinking and to display how the cows are taken care of when released to pasture in the mountians all summer long. That water was the best water we probably ever tasted, and cold too! The Germans in this part of the country at least, are very serious about their wood for heating and for crafting.

There was an extra steep hike up to see the waterfall, so the kids and I waited by the water in an area designed to be a foot soak. The water is FREEZING cold, it comes down from a glacier, it it was so nice to sit in the peaceful area.

Linderhof Palace

King Ludwig of the late 1800's lived at Linderhof Palace. It was interesting to see this property and how he lived. He designed many palaces and castles - most recognized is the castle that Disney was inspired by - Neuchwanstein Castle, which we are going to visit another trip.

We did a lot of walking on this trip, so the kids got tired and rested often. They did great though.

Another interesting fact - especially for Dad, Siemens apparently got a start with King Ludwig. He designed a Grotto - a theater for opera and plays. He had a cave made, and it look very real. The only thing that was original to the site was the waterfall - none of the pictures really turned out though. The start for Siemens was in the lighting King Ludwing ordered for the grotto. The lights were multi colored, new technology in that day.

Austria

Austria is by far our favorite country - so far - these are pictures from the gas station. We had to travel through a part of Austria to get to Garmisch.

So pretty. It was pretty windy too, it was funny to see Randy's ears flapping in the wind