We just got back last night from our first overnight trip "away from home" while in Germany (as a family). We were able to go on a family retreat to Garmisch, Germany at the Edelweiss lodge ( a military R & R site). It is right in the alps, and absolutely breathtaking. It's also right by the Austrian border. We unfortunately, did not cross the border this time, but will definitely in the future. :-)
We DID however get to go visit some amazing sites. We arrived on Friday, and swam in the great hotel pool, then had a class to go to (as part of the retreat). While Paul and I had a class, the kids had their own and had a blast. (jumping houses, crafts, games, etc.).
On Saturday morning, we went to see the Neuschwanstein Castle AND the Hohenschwangau castle. (Have fun saying THOSE names). The Neuschwanstein Castle was the model for the Cinderella castle at Disney. It is absolutely beautiful! There were no cameras allowed inside, so my pictures are from the outside, but seriously, it was amazing. Every room was painted with murals throughout. Every inch of wall AND ceiling was painted intricately, showing scenes from favorite stories of the king (Ludwig Dunkel). The throne room had over two million tiles on the floor creating a mosaic masterpiece. And the VIEW from the castle was amazing too. It was a decent hike to get up to it, but SO worth it. Kind of funny that the hike (and tons of stairs in the castle) did not even phase Paul or the kids, JUST ME :-) I was the only one breathing heavy (good practice for when this baby comes, right?? :-) ha ha). They all did great. Paul has been chuckling at my hobble of a walk the last two days though (evidently LYD is not used to so many stairs. ha ha)
About a 1/2 mile away on a different mountain side, was the Hohenschwangau castle, which was the childhood castle of the king. It was way fun as well, AND lucky for me, had MORE stairs. :-) I have pictures posted on my facebook page for whoever is interested. That night, we went swimming again, and to our second round of classes.
On Sunday, yesterday, the kids were THRILLED that the Easter Bunny had gotten the email I sent about our location change for the holiday (wink wink), and brought goodies to the hotel. ALTHOUGH, the homemade easter baskets we made out of lunch bags got left at home (oops by mom). We found out that plastic bowls work JUST as well (That's twice this easter that I improvised Easter baskets).
The Hotel hosted an easter egg hunt for the kids and they enjoyed it. (though, I sometimes laugh at the differences of cultures. Many of the eggs were filled with candies, with NO wrappers. Americans are ALL about individually wrapped candies, and evidently, the germans are okay with whatever.)
Also in the morning, Paul and I got to enjoy the spa facilities at the hotel (He got a massage, I got a facial: So cool and relaxing).
THEN, we loaded up and headed to Dachau Concentration Camp (by Munich). It was packed, with literally THOUSANDS of people and SOOO many different languages and cultures. It was interesting to feel the solemn mood there though. There was a quiet respect that emanated from everyone. The displays were so interesting and heartwrenching. The older three kids especially found it fascinating. They wanted to stop to read everything and wanted to talk about it and tell us what they just learned. Unfortunately, our two hours there was just not enough time. It would take many many hours to see all the displays and read all the information they had.
It was a neat experience to be there. It's hard to describe how it truly felt though. I found myself near tears many many times.
We are so thrilled that we are getting to see and experience some of these historical sites.
A little funny side note: While coming out of one of the buildings, a teenage boy stopped to hold the door open for Paul (who was pushing the stroller with Tim). When Paul said "thank you" He said "You're welcome. No problem." with very good english, and so Paul said "Where you from?" The boy said "Idaho" and Paul said "No kidding. What part?" It turns out, he's on a school trip from Boise. Paul got a good laugh out of that and told him he was from Meridian. It's such a small world sometimes.
To sum up our weekend, we saw some amazing stuff, and got home safely. I was reminded how very much I like having a second parent along for these trips. (It's been QUITE awhile since Paul got to take an overnight trip with us)
Oh, and on Thursday night, we had our FIRST campfire in Germany (in our backyard), complete with messy messy smores (I really hate those things: But the kids LOVE em).
And THAT sums up our last week! Have a great week!
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