Neuschwanstein Castle

We made it to our first stop in Germany; the Neuschwanstein Castle. The kids were a bit excited to be out in the snow and see a winter wonderland...well some of them.

 It was by far the coldest day we had had since being in Europe. 

We stopped at a brat shop for lunch.  After a hot dog or curry brat we headed toward the castle.

 

We decdied we wouldn't visit this castle, Hohenschwangau Castle and only go to Neuschwanstein Castle. What we didn't realize is that the bus up the hill wasn't running because of the snow and the horse carriage rides were costly and a VERY long line.

 Especially since they were in the midst of switching out horses.

Upward we began.

 There were some pretty water falls on the way. Sadly we weren't so prepared. We had left the water bottles in the car, and snacks.  Our entrance time into the castle was  1 1/2 hours after we purchased them, which we figured we would need.  

 Half way up we stopped for a picture.

 We got to the top and still had about a 45 minute wait.  Chris was freezing! David sacrificed his coat for a few minutes to help warm Chris up.

 He stayed warm by running around and snapping some pictures of the surroundings. 

 

 Or his sisters playing

 Door on the way into Castle. This was also the last picture you could take

 After exiting the castle, we learned King Ludwig had a groto, a thrown room with no thrown, a bed that took 7 years to carve out of wood, he loved swans and had a facet that was a swan, and parts of the castle that were never completed because he died before it was done.

After finishing our tour we headed out to find a grocery store to pick up some food for dinner and breakfast before heading to our next night of lodging. a cute little house/farm in Pinswang Austria.  We were right on the border of Austria and Germany.

Driving to Germany

 Castles, tunnels, cool houses

 and a BIG bag of gummy bears.  The ride was great,

and the kids thought it was perfect that we drove into snow. They finally yelled "it finally feels like Christmas"

Highlights from the Chalet in Innsbruck

 View out the window of our room

 Toilet seat: a work of art

 These mountains reminded us of Utah.

Pretty little church on the way out.

Christmas Market in Innsbruck Austria

After checking into our hotel we made our way down to the center of Innsbruck to the Christmas Market.  The kids were excited to see a merri-go-round.  Chris and Bridget jumped at the chance to take a spin around.  It was magical.  All these cute little shops were lined with pine and lights, filled with Christmas decorations, ornaments, and things to buy.

We were very excited to see one of the food shops sold Raclette! We watched as the cheese melted and browned and was scraped off onto either a pretzel of yummy brown bread.  We had to try both.

David liked it best on the pretzel with bacon....so much that he had to have two!

The streets were lined with lights, people, amazing smells, music ringing from the groups singing or playing. It was magical!

We even came across a Moose! 

I was excited to see fresh pine trees. 

There was a group of musicians playing carols from the balcony of the gold roof building. 

This building was cool.  Each window had a different number so it looked like an advent calendar.

We are off!

Early Monday morning we checked out of our apartment and walked down the street for the final time pulling all our treasures we had accumulated over the past few months.  I couldn't stop looking at the amazing view that had grown to be such a regular sight.  I was going to miss it!

 We made it to the airport boat stop and waited for the boat to come to take us to the airport so we could pick up the rental car. The mini-van was sure mini, so small we had to put a piece of luggage into storage for the 10 days we would be traveling as it wouldn't fit in the car. 

Aaron braved the roads first.  The country side outside of Venice was beautiful. 

Our path took us through the Dolmite mountain range. They were beautiful, full of tunnels and picturesque towns with churches and castles. 

We knew we were close to Austria when the houses started looking more like chalets and were steeper on the mountain side.  At one point Chris said, I sure wouldn't want to live there I would fall off walking to the door.

Snowy Alps in the background.

5 km long tunnel!