Bloggapalooza

In other words, this blog is going to be loaded with tons of stuff and go on for a long time. So, as you all know, we came home from the states and I celebrated my Potterphilia at the Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince world premiere. Then, two days later, Brandon's parents came to visit. We visited a few of the local sights like Ely and Cambridge before embarking on the first leg of our adventure, a week long trip to Garmisch in the Bavarian Alps, a trip I fondly refer to as Brandon Hitler's march across southern Germany. Really, it wasn't that bad. But, we did very little relaxing, unless you count the contortionist naps I took in the back seat of our rental car. Which brings me to our first photo, and we'll go from there.
Germany: Day 1Trying to fit all of the luggage in the rental car made for some good entertainment upon arriving in Munich. When the people at the European rental desk tell you the car is big enough for eight passengers that's true but, it will not be big enough for eight passengers and all their luggage. I got to sit in the front seat, but only because it was the only seat with a foot well big enough to hold a suitcase and because I was the only one who could sit with my legs crossed on top of said suitcase. Comfy. Off to Munich's city center. We ate lunch at the Hofbrauhaus. I'll need to figure out how to do umlauts as well as tildes now. We feasted on tasty sausage and pretzels. We wandered down to the Marienplatz and on to the Frauenkirche, above. The following two photos are of the Altes Rathaus, or old town hall.

After exploring Munich, and witnessing the "diversity" parade, we folded ourselves back into the rental for the hour long drive to the resort in Garmisch.
We got there in the evening and decided to stroll around the town and sight see just a bit. All of the buildings were painted like this. Some just had scenes and others were painted to look like they had intricate mill work around the windows and doors.
And, how picture perfect is this little setting. This was just along the main stroll through town.

Germany: Day 2
We drove to Innsbruck, Austria. This was the view when the TomTom took us the wrong way to the Swarovski crystal place. Worth the little side trip in my opinion.
This is the garden/park at Swarovski. The ticket booth (yes, you needed tickets) touted this place as an amusement park. I don't know, a zip line and a spider web jungle gym don't scream hours of amusement, but hey, I'm not five or seven.
Heading into the store was this hall of mirrors. A great opportunity for a really cool picture of my boys.
This is how they keep kids from getting their greasy paws all over the crystal, video games inside the "Kinder Bubble," complete with German Sony PSPs.
This was a first for us, our children as subjects of the photography of strangers. What is it that they find so amazing? And did they ask if it was okay? Of course not. Oh well, I can't deny that they are adorable.
I think we will have to install one of these. The boys would have stayed here all day. Luckily Grandma Williams had lots to pick out in the shop. You will note that there are no pictures of my crystal treasures, because I didn't get any.
I must have taken about fifteen pictures of each kid on the zip line. Gotta love that Sports mode setting.
The main tourist street. As you can see, the weather was not the greatest. Above is the Stadtturm, next to the old town hall.
The Golden Dachl is the symbol of Innsbruck. The Golden roof is made up of 2,657 gilded copper roof tiles.
These were in the window of a Christmas shop. Trying to get rid of all the Easter stock, I guess. But the store was filled with eggshell ornaments for every occasion, including Halloween and Christmas.
Above and below are interior shots of the Dom St. Jakob. Yet another lovely European cathedral.
Germany: Day 3
Paragliders over the Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany.
Linderhof, the "small" mountain retreat of King Ludwig II, complete with mechanised dining table designed to raise directly from the kitchen so that Ludwig would not have to interact with any of his staff. In Kyle's words, "kind of cool, but also weird."



This is the main house. The estate is huge, with several other buildings, gardens and even a grotto for putting on Ludwig's favorite Wagner operas, a cave made completely out of rebar and concrete. This guy must have been a real piece of work. I have my opinions.
Oberammergau is most famous for the Passion play put on there every ten years. We did not go for that. But we did wander around the town and see more ornately painted buildings.

I thought this building pretty much summed up the Bavarian style.
There were two big Christmas stores in town. Love Christmas stores. Wish I had enough room to store all I would need to make my house look like one at Christmas.
Ettal abbey was another stop before heading home. And, finally, the alpine slide. We figured the kids would love this after being dragged around all day, but when we first walked up, we couldn't talk Jake into riding it. Needless to say, after seeing Kyle come down with Grandpa, he decided to try it. Then he didn't want to leave. Every day of the trip after this would begin with the boys asking if we could ride another giant slide.

But the story of those days will have to wait for another day. This is officially the longest post I have ever done. Thanks to those of you who made it to the end. Come on back for Bloggapalooza 2.0.