What a trip this was! We made our way as a family to Germany. We flew into Munich, rented a car, and drove to Garmisch, Germany to stay at the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort. It's located on an army base there. We left sunny Sigonella and made our way to Bavaria and the Bavarian Alps.
Here's a picture of us before even leaving our driveway. The adventure begins!
The views at the resort were breathtaking! Lucy and I kept the "jumping for pictures" theme going for a lot of this trip, too.
On one of the days there, we drove over to the Olympic Ski Stadium that is located in the valley. It was built for the 1936 Olympics that were held there. Benny was thrilled to be taking pictures again.
Jason and the older kids hiked up near the top of the ski jump.
Here's a picture from one of our breakfasts at the hotel. It was a little pricey, but we looked forward to it every day. The hotel really was awesome. There was an indoor pool in the basement and a door that walked out to a big and beautiful outdoor hot tub. Every evening we came back to the hotel, got our suits on and rode the elevator down to the pool. We sat in the hot tub and watched as snowflakes would come down and melt.
The hotel has restaurants and gift shops, too. We started a movie for the kids in our room and had a little date night at the restaurant. It was great!
Garmisch is the small town that the Lodge is located in. We were told about this awesome restaurant called Werdenfelser Hof that serves great food and has traditional entertainment. We were able to see a few different dancers come out and perform a dance that is a traditional Bavarian slap dance. It was pretty cool!
Sullivan spent a couple of the days we were there at the Child Development Center (army base child care center). They had a great hourly rate and allowed active duty tourists to use the facility. It made it so we could do more of the outdoor trips. By the late afternoon, we'd go pick him up and decide on dinner. He was a big fan of the dancing!
One of the main reasons we traveled there during December was so we could experience the German Christmas markets. The one in Garmisch was small, but still fun. We LOVED the one in Munich best. It was really big and very festive.
More pics from the Olympic Ski Stadium
I love this shot of Sully. He was cold and, as you can see, not thrilled to be hanging with Mom while the other kids and Dad hiked.
My attempt at cheering him up with a selfie photo shoot.
I'm a little irritated that we didn't get more photos of our morning at Neuschwanstein Castle. The battery on our nice camera had died and our phones were in use. You see, this was the beginning of Sullivan's Frozen addiction. To get to the castle, you have to park in the cute village of Steingaden and make the 45 minute hike up the paved road to the castle. Sully was not a happy camper. We had the stroller, but he continued to fuss. So.....Frozen became his soothing balm. We didn't have the movie downloaded, yet, but we had the soundtrack. He LOVED the opening song....the one that doesn't say any real words, it just says "Nah, nah, nah, hey, nah, nah" over and over in a choir. It's not a long song, so we put it on repeat and he listened to it over and over and over and over again until the phone died. The baby and I road on a horse drawn carriage on the way back down the road. We had to go warm up a bit.
The castle is pretty incredible. It was built for King Ludwig II in 1880's. The shy king built it to withdraw from public life. It is the castle that Walt Disney patterned the one in Cinderella after.
Here's a better picture that I found on the internet.
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