Finishing Germany

Finishing Germany

So you are all probably tired of the the trip to Germany so for those today is it.  We had such a good time and made lots of new memories, but new topics need to be written about.

This is Hubby and A1 and A2 sledding on a glacier in Germany.

Hubby, Me and the little girls at the "Top Of Germany"

It was very interesting to be sledding in the middle of July.  It was not a s cold as I thought it would be, but if you go bring sunscreen.  We did not and we got burned.

Our next to last stop before leaving Germany, was Berlin.  We visited the Berlin Wall (well the last whole piece), Check Point Charlie, and the Holocaust Memorial.  That will be one of the only pictures you will see of T.  She loves to take pictures, but not be in them.  She is sitting the memorial.

The last place we stopped before Denmark and the ferry ride back to Norway was Wittenburg.  This is the place where Martin Luther nailed his theses to the church door.  It was a great town to visit.  They are getting ready for the 500 year anniversary of the posting of the theses.  They have a park dedicated to this celebration and people and churches from all over the world have donated trees fro the park.  It is a great way to see history, especially the history of your faith.

I hope that you all had a great Thanksgiving and that you have a great holiday.  May God give you grace and peace during the holiday season.

Melanie

Alpine Zoo and Innsbruck

The Alpine Zoo

This was a very interesting zoo.  They only had animals that you could fine the Alps.  Now you have to realize that the alps covers many countries.  This bear just walked right out on this log and laid down.  It was great to see.  We were there right as they opened so the animals were just coming out.
To get to the zoo you can drive up the mountain or take a train up.  We took the train up to the zoo.  The zoo climbs up the mountain.  They built the habitats right into the mountain.

This is the petting zoo.  The girls really like to get up close to the animals.

When we left the zoo, we got back on the train and continued up the mountain.  The train only goes about halfway up, then you get on a sky car to get to the top.

Once you get to the top you guessed it more hiking, but the view is breathtaking.

You can see those paths in this picture so yes some people do walk up or down.  There are some crazy people who bike down.  It is insane.  They ride bikes that have no brakes, because they won't help you.  You can go to the website and see videos of people biking down.  And yes we are high enough up that there is still snow on the ground.

This is a picture of a biker going down.  It was fascinating to watch and a little scary.

Along with the biking down the mountain, some people decide to jump off the mountain.  They were fun to watch.  there are times when i think that looks like fun, but then I decide no I think I will pass.

 A1 and A2 in the snow.

 Me and the girls at the top.

 Hubby and A1 climbed across the snow to a different peak.

That is them at the top, but you see what they had to climb.

Everywhere there are these beer gardens and this is throne at the top.

 The city of Innsbruck.  It is very pretty.

This the the ski jump in Innsbruck.  It was amazing to see one up close.  You see them on the olympics and what I saw here looked nothing like what you see on TV.  Maybe it need some snow.

We had a wonderful day in Innsbruck.  We went there to drop the two oldest off to go to a youth camp in Switzerland.  They had a great time at the camp.  Maybe I will share some of T's pictures from camp.

Have a great day.

Melanie

Hiking In Oberammergau

Hiking In Oberammergau

Yes just like in Norway hiking is one of the hobbies that people in Germany have.  We hiked not to the top which you will see later in the post, but we did hike quite a ways up.  Later on during our stay the kids and I took the tram up to the top.

N and Me 

 A1 striking a pose

 This is the top.  Do you see the cross?  There were crosses everywhere.

 Dad and the kids

Do we look german?  Maybe except for the Jeff Gordan t-shirt.

 This is A1.  She is our athletic one and I had to get the picture of the fall.

 The view from about halfway up.  Oberammergau is a beautiful city.  You can see the ski slopes for the winter tourist season.

 A2 striking a pose by the stream that went through town.

Again she just can't help herself.  The stream was perfectly clear.  Just wonderful to be there during the summer.  We fell in love with Germany when we lived there about 20 years ago.  It was wonderful to be there again.

As you can see the oldest opted not to go.  You will see that she is not in a lot of pictures.  She like to take pictures, but not to be in them.  I can't wait to post the picture of her that we do have.  Keep coming back to see what else we did while were in Germany.

See you soon,

Melanie

Munich Part 3

Part 3 of Munich is pretty simple.  AY, AN and I went to the zoo.

It was a fun time.  The zoo is very pretty and has lots of animals.  Some of the animals were not there and since out German is not that good i could not understand all of the reason why.

One of the highlights was seeing the polar bears.

The polar bear was looking at AN in this picture.

Being the mom that I am I had to have a picture with her and the polar bear since he had been interacting with her.

They had a petting area and the girls loved feeding the goats and petting them.

This is peacock with its babies.

It was a great day.  Just a relaxing day and we love to visit zoos in all the cities we live and visit.  I think it may be one of the nicest zoos we have been to.  There is lots of trees and it is an easy place to walk around.  The girls had lots of fun and it was great to ride the train in again.

Have a great day.

Melanie

Munich Part 2

Nymphenburg Palace

Side Building

Closer View of Palace

This is truly a palace.  The place is so big it would take days to see it all.  This was the Bavarian Rulers favorite summer residence.  The palace took years, to be exact centuries to build.  It was started in the 1600 and continued through the 19th century.  King Ludwig II was born in the palace.  We were there for hours and probably did not see half of the palace.  We walked around the grounds and were amazed at the beauty that we saw.  They really loved the greek gods.  There are statues of the gods in the garden and a beautiful fresco in the main hall of the gods.

T loves taking pictures and while we were waiting on her to look and take pictures, the rest of us sat on some benches in the main hall to look at the ceiling.  I was trying to understand the painting, but my son had it figured out.  He amazed an american who was there and also trying to figure out the painting.  N could tell him about the gods and what they were the god of.  The man said we were the first smart people he had met in Germany.  I don't really believe that, but N is smart and knows his mythology.

The palace was a great place to visit.  I wish we had more time there, but as things go we had to make a train to get back to Oberammergau.  If you make it to Munich one day visit the palace and the glockenspiel.  You do not want to miss either one of those places.

Come back next week for Munich Part 3.  Yes we went back another day, but just me and AY and AN. The other children we busy at church camp in Switzerland.

Have a wonderful day.  

Melanie

Munich Part 1

This day we started by taking the train from Oberammergau to Munich.  It was a nice trip on the train.  When we arrived at the main train station in Munich we then had to walk to the main square with the glockenspiel.  It was quite a walk.  Munich has changed in twenty years and there was lots of construction.  We made it there and got some lunch and secured our spot to watch the clock.

Glockenspeil

This is the glockenspiel in Munich, Germany.  It only chimes three tomes a day.  It is a large cuckoo clock.  The knights go around jousting and then one wins.  The court jesters dance around.  It is truly a things to see.

It is amazing the number of Germans that have never been to Munich or have seen the glockenspiel.  It is fun to see, but I think the kids did not find it as interesting as the castles that we saw.

When the show was over, it takes about 11 minutes for the clock to do everything, we boarded the underground train and headed for the Palace Nymphenburg.

I will post about this palace next week.  It will be longer than i want for this one.  So please come back next week to see pictures and our adventure in the Palace Nymphenburg.

Melanie

Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau

Hohenschwangau

This castle has been here in some form since the 12th century.  The Knights of Schwangau originally built this castle.  The Schwangau Knights died out in the 16th century and the castle fell into ruins.  It was purchased in in the 1800 by Prince Maximilian who later became king and was the father of King Ludwig II.  It was restored from 1832-36.  King Ludwig II spent lots of time here and had visits here from Richard Wagner. 

This castle was very interesting.  There were secret passage ways for getting to different rooms and the staff could even keep the fires going in the furnaces without bothering the people in the rooms.  We found this to be a favorite for us because it had so much history.  

The castle is right next door, so to speak, from Neuschwanstein.  You can look out the window and see Neuschwanstein.  

If you visit one you should visit the other.  You can get a ticket to cover both.  We had the 14 day pass that covered Neuschanstein, so we only paid for Hohenschwangau since it is still privately owned.

Neuschwanstein is probably the most famous castle in Germany.  It is the one that Walt Disney based Cinderella's castle on for the parks and the movie.  It is truly a very romantic castle.  The castle is huge, but only a few rooms were finished before the king died.  In June of 1886 the king was found drowned under mysterious circumstances.  He had, just days before, been removed from office.  It is said that he was spending too much money.
This castle had many painted scenes dedicated to the works of Richard Wagner.  It is an amazing place to visit, but we decided that there were others that we liked better.  This is a castle to visit, but I think that it's fame is due to the size, the location (which is unbelievable) and of course Disney.
It is fun to imagine what it would have been had Ludwig II been able to finish it.  You can also see that it would be very expensive to finish.  Many of the rooms are in use for other things like offices, gift shops and exhibits of artifacts.
I think it is worth a visit, but I really loved some of the other castles for their beauty and architecture.

Come back next week for a look at the royal palace in Munich.

Guten Dag,

Melanie

Linderhof Palace

When we moved to Norway taking the kids to Germany was on our bucket list.  This summer we spent two weeks in Germany.  I have already posted about the Hohenzollern castle, so the next few weeks are gong to be about the other castles that we visited.  All of the castles that we visited were ones that i had not visited when we lived there many years ago.  There are many castles in Germany to visit.  We bought a 14 day pass that would get us into many of the castles.  It as 40 euro and well worth it.  We visited 5 castles total and only three were included, but entry into one castle would have been 40 euro.
One of the castles on the list was the Linderhoff.  This was built by King Ludwig II.  This was his favorite residence.  He built 4 castles during his time as king.  This castle is small in comparison to other  castles.  He never married or had children so there was only on bed chamber.  The castle is very interesting because it moves in a square.  There were no hallways and one room led into another room. The dining room had a table that could be lowered to the kitchen for the servants to put the food on and the raised back up to the dining room.  Ludwig was a very private man and did not want the interaction with others.

He had a cave on the back of the property.  The cave is man made.  It is amazing.  He had this boat made and would ride around in the cave in the boat.  He loved the composer Richard Wagner and this was suppose to be a place to hold concerts.  No one knows if that ever happened.  The cave is very fascinating, like a dream world.  There is a beautiful painting on the wall.  This place is definitely something to go see.

Fountain in Front of the Palace

The trip to this palace was just me and the younger girls.  As you can see they had a good time.  Next time you see them ask them about it.  I thought that this was going to be something that I would only enjoy, but they listened and can tell you all about the palace and King Ludwig II.  

So if you visit Germany someday, and are in bavaria visit this castle.  It is so worth the trip.  

So as they say in Germany,
Guten Tag
Melanie