Day One: Once we returned home from our Easter trip to Garmisch, we had 4 days at home and then we threw the bags back in the car for our 9-day-long Spring Break trip. Our first stop was back at the Edelweiss Armed Forces Resort Center in Garmisch, sort of because it is a halfway stop between our house in Italy and our old home at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, our second stop on the trip. We also had promised the kids a trip to the “Disney Castle,” known outside our family as Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria. It was built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the late 1880s and is pretty impressive built on cliffs overlooking an alpine meadow. Below is a picture of the castle on a clear day when we visited it in 2005. The day we were there on this recent trip was foggy and slightly rainy and you couldn’t see any of the castle from the valley below. But we walked up with the kids anyways and they got to see it up close. I think this means we’ll have to make another trip. So that was a bummer, but the rest of the day was great. On the way back to the resort, we stopped in a charming little bavarian town, Oberammergau. We had a delicious meal and just wondered through the streets, window shopping for the traditional wood carvings the town is known for. We stopped for gelato and also found an adorable little candy store stuffed to the ceiling with candy. We wandered into a traditional bavarian clothing store (think lederhosen and dirndls) and while we were in there, met another F-16 family, currently stationed at Spangdahlem AB. The guys realized they knew each other from Luke and we ended up having dinner with them at a charming restaurant back in Garmisch. The restaurant served amazing traditional German food (and I don’t even like German food, but it was good!) and had an oompa band and Bavarian slap dancers. Dinner was wonderful and so was the company, our kids had a blast with their 4 children.
Above: a random German cigarette machine, just stuck in someone’s front yard! Hey teenagers! Come get addicted to nicotine, quick, no one’s looking!!! I remember thinking these were weird back in the day when we were stationed at Spang, can’t believe they are still around!
Day Two: Steve and Brian headed back up to the Zugspitze, this time to ski the glaciers. It was a nasty, cloudy, rainy day down below, but just gorgeous when they got up to the top to ski. They hit the slopes for a few hours and then stopped for a snack and then came back down as Brian was getting tired. Emily and I spent some time shopping in town and then hit the hotel pool. Then we all met back up for an American dinner (complete with push pops for the kids) and face painting. Then we got in bed nice and early to get rested for an early start the next day.
The Germans love their gummies! This was a display inside a gas station. I purchased a bag of what are supposed to be gummies shaped like pacifiers. But don’t they look more like……no? Just me then?
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