Garmisch-Parkenkirchen

We drove close to six hours from Hutschenhausen to Garmisch-Parkenkirchen, a town in southern Germany not far from the border with Austria, and we stayed at Edelweiss Lodge & Resort. Our ETA was midnight and as we were driving thru Austria, we were stopped by the police in a checking point (they might have been looking for drunk drivers). Anyway, the policeman starts speaking German and fortunately Matt was able to ask him if he spoke any English; luckily he did. We were there less than a couple of minutes and on our way to the hotel.

Garmicsh is such a cute town. It hosted the 1936 Winter Olympics and they are getting ready to bid on the 2018 Winter Olympics.

Edelweiss Lodge:

After getting a good night sleep and getting up early, we went on a tour bus to Munich (an hour away from Garmish). We drove around the city and were able to see where the famous Oktoberfest takes place, different architectural buildings, the Hall of Fame and Statue of Bavaria, the statue of Maximilian, among other things. One of our destinations was to tour the Treasury in the Munich Residenz, where they display various priceless objects from different periods.

We then walked to the Town Hall; the building is amazing: Gothic Revival architecture and it’s main tower has a huge coo-coo clock called Münchner Kindl. We witnessed the 15 minute performance at noon – this is definitely a tourist attraction!

The Münchner Kindl:

All these little creatures dance around at the sound of the bells:

Statue of Mary and Jesus outside Town Hall:

We walked inside St. Peter’s Church which is the oldest church in Munich – it dates back to the 8th century:

At the end we had lunch at Hofbrauhaus; we enjoyed great German food, great music and all the adults (except me-for obvious reasons) enjoyed good German beer.

The famous 1 liter beers:

I'm just pretending, this was actually Matt's drink:

Heidelberg Castle - Germany

Heidelberg Castle is mostly in ruins but it is among the most important Renaissance structures north of the Alps.

Aaron is wearing his knight shirt that I made for him:

Heidelberg casle is home to the second largest beer keg in the world!

At first we thought this was the largest beer keg:

Then we went to a separate room and found a HUGE beer keg; we had to climb a couple flights of stairs to get to the top:

Second Stop: Luxembourg

American Cemetery and Memorial - WWII

The burial area contains 5,076 of American soldiers, many of them whom lost their lives in the Battle of the Bulge. Here also lies the grave of General George S. Patton Jr. overlooking the burial area.

Our trip to Germany

We just returned from our trip to Germany. We visited Matt, Jenny and the kids at Ramstein AFB. Gramp flew from Ohio and joined us there. We had an amazing time!

Some of the highlights/experiences:

• Rich history
• Lots of castles – Touring Neuschwanstein Castle was a dream come true.
• German food & beer in Hofbrauhaus, Munich: bratwursts & sauerkraut (note: I was the only adult that did not ordered beer with lunch)
• Driving from Luxemburg to Germany and getting lost in France because we followed the GPS
• Trying to buy souvenirs from an old lady in Trier who spoke no English
• Watching Aaron play knights with uncle Cam
• Enjoying Gramp’s visit
• Eating fresh baked bread from the local bakery
• Spending a day in Iceland and shopping for Icelandic wool sweaters (according to Cameron, these sweaters should last about 20 years).

Here are some of the pictures - enjoy!

First stop:Trier

Oldest city in Germany that was founded before 16 BC. Here we are in front of the Porta Nigra:

Finally an Update!

At the end of last month, John and Nancy came for a quick visit and as always we had an amazing time with them. We spent a day in downtown Boston and got to eat in an Italian restaurant in Little Italy by the North End. That part of town is so old that it adds to its charm. We tried to show them all of the historical places and I think we covered great part of them.

Atenas loves being a “spoiled grand-dog”. The first time Nancy walked inside the house, Atenas greeted her with kisses! I guess she remembered her granny! Quite often Nancy walked her around the field (on a leash of course) and John fed her off the table (he couldn’t resist those pitiful eyes). Atenas is a stinker and can get away with these things!

We witnessed beautiful fall colors but now we have to deal with all of the leaves on the ground. We have never raked so many leaves in our lives! We were very grateful that our neighbors helped us out with the front yard. We still have to tackle the backyard but I’m sure we’ll get it done.

Our front yard:

This weekend's project - our backyard: