Dinkelsbuhl, Germany and Reykjavik, Iceland

Our last stop in Germany was Dinkelsbuhl. This is a small town surrounded by old medieval walls and towers. The day we visited Dinkelsbuhl was the first day they had set up their Christmas markets and there was a celebration with the arrival of St. Nick.

With Gramp at the front entrance:

The architecture is so cute, it almost feels like you are back in time:

Cameron and I shared a pizza looking dish for lunch:

The kids had fun riding the carrousel:

Arrival of St. Nick:

Iceland

We flew to Iceland and spent a day in Reykjavik. It was snowing when we first got there but it was not cold. Iceland has its own language, Icelandic, but almost everyone speaks fluent English. Cameron made the hotel reservation at the Hilton and we were able to upgrade to the executive suite!

We found this when we walked in to our room:

We woke up the following morning and headed down for breakfast. It was still dark outside and it was not that early, so we asked the waitress what time the sun came out. The sun starts coming out around 10-ish and it is out by noon!! Due to the lack of sun light and time, we decided not to go to the Blue Lagoon but to go shopping instead. We walked to the nearby mall, which is one of the largest in Reykjavik, and to our surprise it was very empty. We wanted to buy the traditional Icelandic wool sweaters. The sales associate where we bought our sweaters told us that people usually wake up around noon on Saturdays when the sun is out!

We love our sweaters! They are made out of Icelandic wool. They are water-resistant and extremely warm. I’m glad we got them and Cameron suggests they will last at least 20 years! Hopefully we made a good investment.

Views from our room:

We really enjoyed our trip, not only because we visited many sights but because we got to share this wonderful experience with our family.

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.