Berchtesgaden, Germany

After leaving Hallstatt, we headed towards Salzburg.  On the way, we passed beautiful mountains topped with snow.

We decided to make a detour from Salzburg and head to Bechtesgaden because the weather was the best we'd had all week, and the forecast for the next few days wasn't looking so great.

This is the road we had to take to climb the mountain....

No, that's not a sidewalk.  That's the road, and one of the better parts.  There were a few areas that were dirt paths, one lane, on the side of a mountain.  It was a little scary.

This is what we were heading towards....

Hitler's Eagles Nest.  Unfortunately, the road to get up the rest of the way is closed until mid-May each year.  So we had to settle for a tour of what remains of the underground bunkers still intact after the war.

I don't have many pictures, but it is kind of mind blowing how much work went into creating this underground city.  I thought a bunker was an underground shelter, like a one room place.  This place was massive.

This picture shows a map:

Here are a few shots from inside (we were not supposed to take pictures):

It was interesting.  Really highlighted the insanity behind the Third Reich.

Once we were outside, we enjoyed some much needed sunshine and practiced our best Julie Andrews' moves as we prepared to head to Salzburg.

Stay tuned as we head into Salzburg.....

Spring Break 2014 - Exploring Austria

This year for spring break, we took a road trip to Austria!

We started off our adventures in Vienna, where we spent three COLD days before heading for an overnight and day in Hallstatt.  We then detoured into Germany to visit Bechtesgaden, before finishing off our adventure with three days in Salzburg, where we kick started our stay with a Sound of Music bike tour.

Check back often for updates .....  I took about 500 pictures, so I will be weeding through them as quickly as I can!!

I leave you with a picture of magnificent alpine beauty:

Monschau, Germany

It is a holiday weekend (again) in Belgium, so we decided to take a quick overnight to Germany to do some shopping and visit a new town.

We've heard from many that Monschau is THE picturesque town that always comes to mind when you think of storybook Germany.

It did not disappoint, and the weather was nice enough to cooperate, too.  And it's only about an hour and a half away.

It really is pretty.

Here's an album of all our pics from Monschau:  Monschau Day Trip

Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - The Last Installment

On Tuesday we finished off our visit with a walk around quaint little Beilstein, and a climb up to Burg Metternich.  Like I mentioned, Beilstein only has about 180 residents.  And apparently all 180 run the 30 hotels and eateries located there. Our hotel was fabulous.  Not only was our room perfect, but the restaurant was also really good.  And the wine was good, too. 

The castle above Beilstein is known as Burg Metternich.  It is just a ruin today.  But  the views are wonderful.

Climbing up...

Above the castle is an old Jewish cemetery.  For 700 years leading up 1942, Beilstein had a Jewish community.  Today, however, there are no longer any Jews living in Beilstein.

 

Looking back towards the castle....

On our way back down, we stopped off at the church, and ran into some Georgia Bulldog fans from Marietta.  They snapped this picture of us.  They were riding the equivalent of 180 miles on bike along the Mosel River.

Lots of pictures of our entire trip in this album:  Mosel & Rhine 2012
It was a great trip!  If we cross off all our other places to see, we would love to go back!

Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - Part Three

On Monday, we went to Burg Eltz.  It is Rick Steves most favorite castle in all of Europe, so of course it topped our 'Must See' list.

Burg Eltz has been left in tact for over 700 years, and is furnished as it was 500 years ago.  Eltz means stream in German, so it means Castle on the Stream.

So this castle we got to walk down to....  it is hidden deep in a forest.  A mostly pleasant walk down hill.  Especially since I was attempting my first time with Audrey on my back in the Ergo carrier.  But as you can imagine......quite the workout on the way back up, and she made sure I knew exactly how she felt about it!

My other hiking companions......

Unfortunately, you can't take any pictures inside.  But if you watch the Rick Steves Rhine and Mosel episode, it looks exactly the same!!  It was well worth the visit.  They have an English language tour every 30 minutes or so, so we waited patiently for that.  I had to keep passing crackers back to my little koala, and bouncing around to keep her from screeching too much, but it really was worth the visit.  The castle itself is compromised of 3 separate buildings.  We were able to tour 2 of them.  The third is still inhabited by the Eltz family!  Could you imagine?!  There was a modern day family photograph on display with children.  "So where do you live?"  "Oh, just that castle down on the stream over there...." 

Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - Part 2 1/2

A little Oom pah pah dancing to end the night!

Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - Part Two

Sunday morning we went down to breakfast in the dining room, where we learned our little mini-Audrey is a huge lover of German breakfast cold cuts.  Girlfriend must have downed several pieces of some kind of wurst!  She may actually pack some pounds on now......ha!  She doesn't sit still long enough!

This picture is from the website of the hotel, but I wanted to show how neat the room was.  I think it was once a Knight's Hall.

After breakfast, we headed over to St. Goar, Germany, which is along the Rhine River.  It was a perfect hour drive for Audrey to sleep off her cold cuts as we winded through the mountains that separate the rivers. 

We parked at Rheinfels Castle with the intention of ending up back here in time to do a tour before it closed for the day.  According to Rick Steves, it is one of the best castles in the Rhineland.  So we headed down hill (on foot, mind you!!!) to St. Goar.

That descent (and future ascent on the way back up) should have been our first clue that we would not be touring Rheinfels Castle. 

We decided to do a river cruise.  Rick Steves describes the hour long stretch between St. Goar and Bacharach, Germany as the best for castle viewing.  So that's what we did. We traveled on the Goethe.  It was a paddle wheel boat (pic below stolen from the company's website).  And we thought would be a perfect way to see the sights....

Not so perfect.  It's almost fully enclosed.  There are a few small viewing decks.  But from inside, it's really hard to see anything......  so on one of the first stops when people got off, we made a quick beeline towards the deck on the back so we could have a better view.  It ended up working out pretty well.  There were a bunch of friendly Americans out there that let us weasel our way in and get some good shots.

Pfalz Castle is shown in Rick Steves show on the Rhine and Mosel areas (can you tell yet that we are big fans?), and is described as a ship shaped castle built by a "Robber Baron" to levy taxes on ships as they made passage up and down the river.


We bid farewell to our paddle boat in Bacharach, Germany....about an hour away (by boat) from where we started, and we were greeted with this site:

Isn't that almost what you envision when you think of Germany?  Timbered buildings and castles on the hill?  If there had been a guy walking by in liederhosen carrying a beer stein, it would be almost quintessential!  


Bacharach was a cute town.  We wandered around for a bit, and decided that maybe we wanted to wander a bit more, and maybe not see Rheinfels castle back in St. Goar after all.  It probably wouldn't have been any fun for the girls anyway.....  and that climb!!  So we ordered our first scoop of Riesling ice cream, and it was surprisingly very good!!


Once we were done wandering in Bacharach we caught the 10 minute train back to St. Goar, and found a place for dinner.  Matt ordered Pork Knuckle!!  It sounds scarier then it was.  It was pretty much ham.  So you know he was happy!  He worked it off retrieving the car while the girls and I wandered on flat ground along the river.  He's so good!


We made our way back to the hotel, put the girls to bed, and retired to our beautiful terrace.  Sunday night's entertainment was brought to us by our nesting Mama swan.  

Someones dog got off the leash and made a mad dash at Mama swan and she went ballistic!  She proved to me why I am really paranoid about the girls around swans!!

Castles & Wine, Mosel & Rhine - Part One

We took a long weekend trip to the Mosel and Rhine River Valleys in Germany.  It's only about a 3 hour drive from Brussels to the Mosel Valley.  So we set off after breakfast Saturday morning and headed towards Cochem, Germany and was greeted with this sight:

The Mosel is described as the sleepy little sister of the Rhine river, and Cochem is considered to be the tourist hub of the Mosel.  It has a really nice river promenade and a busy shopping area, with lots of stores selling wine, wine and more wine.  The area is known for its Riesling and it comes in so many different varieties - who knew!  I always thought it was too sweet, but I have a new found appreciation!! 

The castle at the top of the hill is actually a 19th century reproduction.

We walked around for a bit, grabbed some ice cream, and then hit the road again....


From Cochem, we headed to our hotel in Beilstein, Germany.  Beilstein is a tiny, little town.  Only about 180 people live there. 

Our hotel was directly across from the river, and we were thrilled when we went to our room to see that it had THIS view: 

 

Which was thoroughly enjoyed by this little girl (as well as her baby sister):

But mostly enjoyed by Matt and I.  The weather was so cooperative.  Once we put the girls down for the night, we sat outside and watched the world go by.......soooooo very nice!

Saturday night's entertainment was brought to us by the surrounding area's fire department as they spent an inordinate amount of time bringing two boats in from the river.

Day Trip to Aachen - Part 2

After our little adventure with the Nuns, we headed back over to the square where the Market was.


It's such a cute town!

 

We ate dinner right on the square....the same place we ate lunch last time.... a 'Brat' place that makes me think it's the Moe's of Brats.  They were ubber friendly to us.  Awesome service.  Loved on our girls to death!! It was a great end to a nice, productive and surprising day in Germany!

Here are some other pictures from Aachen:  Aachen Square

Day Trip to Aachen - Part 1

Saturday we took a day trip to Aachen.  Remember Aachen from our Christmas Market experience?  Here's that post....  Aachen Christmas Market.

We wandered over because they have a Toys R Us.  And somebody has a BIG birthday coming up.....  but things in general are a lot cheaper in Germany, so we also found a great shoe store and bought the girls some shoes, and diapers!!!  The Costco supply only got us through 8ish months!!

After our shopping adventure, we decided to head back to the main square area where the market was because the Mother House of Sister Marilyn's (Matt's Aunt) order was near by.  We literally drove by it TWICE going to the market!!  We couldn't believe we had been so close....

As we were standing outside the door debating about whether or not we should introduce ourselves, the door opened and a Nun greeted us.  With his 30ish words of German, Matt was able to convey that his Aunt was a sister in the US, and that we were just visiting.  They invited us in and gave us the royal treatment!  They took us upstairs and made us coffee and set out a plate of cookies.  Grace had about 5!  Between their 10 words of English and Matt's 30 words of German, we spent almost an hour.  They loved our girls!

 I am having NUN of this!

This is NUN-SENSE!

They gave us a tour of the grounds. 

The inner courtyard area

Francis Schervier's Room

The Chapel (and her remains)

 

It really was quite a beautiful, and updated/modern place!

For more on Francis Schervier, here is the Wikipedia entry:  Mary Frances Schervier

For more pictures from the Mother House:  Mother House Pictures

We're so glad we sought this place out.  I think we made the Nun's day with our little girls!  And we are happy to have visited a very special place to Aunt Marilyn.  I hope she was smiling down on us during our adventure!