Our Europe Adventure: Part 2 - Zugspitze

We woke up around 8:30am on Saturday morning, feeling much better after some sleep.  We had our first delicious B&B breakfast in Germany - fresh brötchen with homemade jam, meats, cheeses and nutella.  This B&B also had eggs, yogurt, sausage and a few other things.  It was a good way to start the day.  We had our own table that they set for us every morning with a high chair for Leah and little treats for the kids.  We forgot to take a picture of the breakfast room, but it was nice having our own table that the kids knew was "ours."

While we were in the Oberammergau area, we had two main things that we wanted to do: go up Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak, and go to several of King Ludwig II's castles.  Saturday was bright, sunny and clear so we decided to go to Zugspitze because it looked as though we would have a good view.  This was actually Cameron's idea and boy, was it a good one!

A map of Zugspitze and the region around it.  We parked over on the far right side of the map, took the cogwheel train up to the midway station and then continued up on a cable car to the top station.

This was the train station where we waited for the cogwheel train

Looking up at Zugspitze

Cutie with her map - she carried it around in her pocket

The station we picked up the train at, Eibsee.  This was the last station before the ride up the mountain to the midway station.  The train was very full by the time we got on so maybe next time we would get on down in the town rather than driving all the way up.

Here comes our train!

Cam and Leah's perch on the floor of the train for the ride up.

When you walk out of the cogwheel train station, this is what you see.  Amazing!

This is the cogwheel station / cable car station

This church was at the midpoint station.  Cam went running up the hill to check it out.

Mama and Leah taking a little bit longer to make our way up the hill.

Pretty amazing view as we climb up the stairs.  Leah did a great job going up all of the stairs herself.

View from the front of the church looking out over the mountains.  The X shaped thing in the middle bottom of the picture is a cool catwalk that went out over a bit of the mountain.

Cutie on a rock

Here are Cam and Leah on the x-shaped walkway from the previous picture.  Leah did NOT like it and was trying to get off of it in this picture.  I guess maybe it was a little scary because the floor of the walkway was see through.

Family picture!

Near the walkway was a mountain climbing "obstacle course" that had a bunch of different terrain and mountain climbing things to try out.  Here is Cam using a rope to climb down towards the suspension bridge.

Cam, Leah and Daddy on the bridge.  Leah wasn't a big fan, Cameron spent five minutes jumping up and down on it!

At the end of the bridge was a rope that went down a small but fairly steep slope.  You could use the rope to lower yourself down the hill.  Of course, Daddy and Cameron had to try it out!

Leah did NOT want to try going down the rope.  Mama did not want to try and go down the rope while holding Leah.

Climbing down

Cam finishing up on his own - we were so proud of him!

Family picture on the edge of the midpoint station.  What a view behind us!

Cameron and the mountains

There were lots of cool things carved out of wood that the kids played on.  Here is a snowmobile.

Cam on a seat with reins.

Leah on the seat

After looking around a bit more at the midway station, we took a cable car up to the top of Zugspitze.  Cam and Leah got a spot by the window and were in awe as we rode up.

We ate lunch at the top - the sign says "Germany's Highest Beer Garden"

Looking back down at the midpoint station, which is in the bottom left corner of the picture

Looking at Eibsee (where our car is parked) from the top of Zugspitze

We could see sooooo far!  You can't really tell in this picture.

There was a little bit of ice at the top and the kids loved "skating" on it.  They kept asking to go back to the ice patch and were not interested in looking at the view because they just wanted to skate!

Mama and kiddos (and a beautiful view)

More views - wow, wow, wow!

The cross is the official highest point of Zugspitze

This picture was taken by a webcam that was set up - see us right in the middle of the picture?  You stood there, pushed a button and watched the countdown.  Then you went to the website later and looked for your picture.  Pretty cool!

Looking back towards the midpoint station.  This is where you finish the climb if you hike from midway to the top.  You can see a few people down there, just finishing the looong climb.

Tim and Cameron decided to climb down a bit to check out the snow.  There were a lot of stairs and it took them a long time to get down there.

Meanwhile, Leah and I stayed up at the top so that we could take some pictures.

Cam and Daddy playing in the snow!

Tim had the small camera with him so he took pictures back up towards where Leah and I were standing.  Can you see us?

There we are!

More beautiful views

Cameron playing in the snow

Standing near the edge (but not too close!)

Climbing back up the steps.  Can you imagine after climbing all the way up from the midway station, the final push would be walking up these stairs?

Peek-a-boo Leah!

Bayern (Bavaria) sign

A cool goat carving that Cameron and Leah both liked

What a view, what gorgeous skies - it was the perfect day to go to the top of Zugspitze!

We got in line for the cable car and it was a bit of a wait.  Leah conked out on Tim's shoulder.

The cable car ride down was really cool.  It felt like it was straight down and the cable car went really fast.  Cameron LOVED it, especially when it "went super fast" on a few parts.  I think this was his favorite part of the whole day, riding that cable car down.  The views were amazing the entire way down.

Cameron and the cable car on its way back up

Cameron, Leah and Mama in front of the cable car station

Leah and Zugspitze (farthest right mountain over her shoulder)

Cameron and an awesome mountain range

What a great day we had, the views were so amazing!!

Our Europe Adventure: Part 1 - Getting There and First Day

We left for our trip on Thursday, October 4th.  Our flight out of Syracuse didn't leave until 4pm so both kids went to school in the morning and Tim and I went to work.  We came home at lunch time and packed up the last few things, then headed to the airport.  Our first flight was from Syracuse to Philadelphia and not surprisingly (because it was going through Philly), it was delayed.  We were reassured that even with the delay we would still make our second flight and after I called USAir and found out that there were NO other options, we just crossed our fingers.  We landed in Philadelphia in the F-terminal and RAN to the A-terminal.  Ran while pushing two strollers, holding four backpacks, two carseats, all of our jackets and two blankets.  We were a sweaty mess when we got to our gate in A-terminal, only to find that the flight was gone.  Doh!

We went to the service desk and they were able to put us on a flight through Frankfurt that left two hours later than our original flight.  We had time to get dinner and the kids played at the gate for a while before we boarded the plane.  Our flight was a bit late in leaving, taking off around 9pm.  We got the kids into their pajamas before the take off and got them settled with their blankets.

Both kids fell asleep almost immediately, in fact I think Leah was sleeping before the plane even took off.  They both slept almost the entire flight, waking up about 45 minutes before we landed, just in time for breakfast.

We landed in Frankfurt and went through customs and back through security without any issues.  Our flight to Munich was just a quick hop, about an hour.  Leah was in a good mood, after having slept all night on the flight.  Mama was a little bit more sleepy!

We landed in Munich, collected our luggage (all there, woohoo!) and headed to the rental car place.  I had booked a rental car online ahead of time but when we got to the counter they pretty much tried to scam us into buying €250 insurance and then said that they don't take Visa cards.  We told them to shove it and went to a different rental counter and got a car.  We got an automatic car, a Ford Mondeo, with navigation and heated seats.  It was nice and worked out well for us because it had a big hatchback for all of our stuff.

By the time we got all of our stuff loaded into the car, the car seats installed and the kids ready to go, it was late in the afternoon.  We had planned to check out Munich for a little while before driving south, but in the end we decided to just head to our hotel for the night.  We drove down to Oberammergau, where we would be staying for three days.

We checked into our B&B, Hotel Garni.  Our room was nice, with a queen size bed and a queen size fold out couch.  We headed out to get some dinner right away, since it was around 5pm and even though we weren't necessarily hungry we were trying to get our bodies on to Germany time.

When you order "chocolate milk" in Germany, this is what you get - hot chocolate!

Cam and Leah thought that was a great surprise.

Despite Leah's stinkface, she actually loved the schnitzel that they had for dinner.

Cameron loved it too.  This was the first of many schnitzel dinners the kids ordered.

After dinner we walked around town to look around and to help us stay up a bit longer.  It is a very cute little town.

Beautiful sky over a beautiful place

 Window shopping - the kids loved looking at all of the great window displays.

This church was near our B&B.  Whenever we wandered too far and got a bit mixed up about where we were in the town, we would just head toward the church and we could find our way.  It also had church bells that tolled on the hour and half hour that the kids really liked.

We headed back to the B&B and got ready for bed, turning out the lights around 8:30.  Tim and I were ready to drop off to sleep immediately, but Cam and Leah had different ideas.  They had slept for a solid 7 or 8 hours on the plane, so they were not particularly sleepy.  And since it felt like 2:30 in the afternoon to their bodies, they were REALLY not tired.  We pretty much told them too bad and spent the next couple of hours telling them to go to sleep.  Eventually they fell asleep and we all slept like rocks that first night!