Dinkelsbühl

We made a day trip to Dinkelsbühl on a Sunday. Typically on Sundays most of Germany is closed however, tourist places usually still have some stuff open and restaurants are open too. This is fine with us since we are more into looking and wondering around, the kids seem to enjoy that more too. This also keep the cost down for us.

Dinkelsbühl is a walled city that people compare to Rothenburg but less touristy. I thought it was smaller then Rothenburg and definitely had less shops there for tourist things. We enjoyed just walking around taking in the sights. I love the look of the German building and houses. I was never really into architecture until we moved here and I find the building in Germany fascinating.  They had several of towers around the edges of the town along the wall and also had water around the outside with fish and ducks which the kids enjoyed watching. We stopped at a little bakery for a snack. They kids enjoyed donuts and Colby and I got Schneballs for the first time. They were covered in chocolate and one had coconut on it also. They were pretty good but not something I would want all the time. I like more chewy and soft things then the crunchy pastries. 

                     

In order to get my postcards we stopped in a grocery store. They had a very extensive beer and wine section so of course we had to check it out. Colby picked up a little wooden box of 3 different beers which actually ended up being horrible, according to Colby. As we wondered some more we happened upon the tourist information by chance. Right there was an interesting underground exhibit. We aren't 100% sure what it was since the signs were all in German but Colby thought it was a dungeon type of thing. One side had signs and an actually museum type thing but the other side was just rooms. The one room was definitely a dungeon with shackles still there. The kids of course had to put there feet in it. It was too heavy for them to have around their wrists.

We had a lovely Sunday morning and afternoon exploring a small city close to us. The drive from Ansbach was beautiful too since we stayed off the autobahn in order to enjoy a lovely sunday drive around the countryside.

3 Country Adventure: Austria and Lichtenstein

Our next stop on our adventure was Lichtenstein. In order to get there from Germany we had to drive through Austria. The drive through Austria was beautiful driving through the mountains. It was a very nice scenic drive. We ended up on the Autobahn for a little bit and there were several tunnels. One tunnel we went through was close to 10 miles I believe. We ended up getting off the autobahn and taking more back roads through the small towns to get to Lichtenstein.

Lichtenstein is the 6th smallest country in the world and you can tell. Our first stop was in Vaduz the capital. For being the the capital it still isn't very large. We first stopped at the visitor center which was open even with it being Sunday. We got our passports stamped there and picked up a map. 

We just wondered around the downtown area and found the city train and bought tickets for the next train. The train took us all around the city to see the sight which included the castle, which is still occupied, the famous red house, and some vineyards. 

Lichtenstein is know for their postage stamps. They even have a postage stamp museum and can buy stamps at the visitor center. The downtown sidewalks are lined with painting of different stamps they have had. It was very interesting to see without having to go in the museum which is free I believe. 

After leaving Vaduz we headed to Schellenburg to check out the castle ruins. Even though on the map Vaduz is in the lower half and Schellenburg is in the very top of the country it only took us 15 minutes to go from one to the other. We also ended up crossing into Switzerland for a little bit. We crossed a bridge drove a mile and crossed another bridge back into Lichtenstein so I guess technically we were in 4 different countries in 3 days. 

The castle ruins were kind of hard to find and we almost gave up hope but ended up finding them by luck. They were just cleaning up from a little festival type thing I think at the ruins when we got there. We were still able to just wonder around and check it out. We have really gotten into checking out castle ruins since we have been here. 

We will definitely be going back to Austria as it is beautiful and we didn't really do much other then drive through. Lichtenstein was a nice visit for a day trip. Its not a place you would need to spend all weekend in. It is kind of cool to say we were there as most people don't even know about the country. It is pretty expensive there just like Switzerland since Lichtenstein does a lot of the same stuff as Switzerland. It is a good stop on a trip to somewhere else. 

3 Country Adventure: Southern Germany

This was an adventure for us. We were on our way to Budapest and Vienna when we decided to ditch those plans due to some personal problems. We didn't really want to waste the weekend so we decided to head down to Garmish. We got to town about 9pm and just stopped at a gasthaus that was open and luckily they had an open room. It was more then I would of liked to paid but for the same night it would be hard to get a good deal. We were all pretty drained so we went right to bed.

The next morning during our breakfast at the inn the owner talked to us and gave us several maps and directions to different attractions. We decided to first head to see Neuschwanstein castle. It is the most famous castle in Germany because Disney mirrored Sleeping Beauty's castle after it.

We decided not to do the tour of the inside since are kids aren't really into that. I have heard mixed reviews of the tour. Some say its a must do but others think if you tour on castle in Germany you are good. We may go back and tour the inside before we leave. We decided to walk up to the castle. It is all straight up hill put totally do able. I had the ergo and the kids took turns riding. We walked right up the the castle and looked around the outside and then headed off to the bridge that gave us this amazing view of the castle. The bridge is near where the bus lets people off. We then hiked back down on the gravel path through the forrest. The second castle right there is the Hohenschwangau. We didn't even walk up to it but you could get a pretty good view from the start of the trail to Neuschwanstein. 

We headed back to Garmisch after and planned to do the gorge but it was raining and since we hadn't planned this destination the kids were in need of jackets. We went downtown to do a little shopping, eating and sight seeing. As all German towns there is plenty to look at in ways of architecture. They had some of these cool benches around downtown and a very nice garden we strolled through while enjoying some ice cream. 

The next day it was a little nicer and not raining so we decided to head to the Partnach gorge and the olympic ski jump. The ski jump isn't really much to look at. It's impressive how big it is but thats about it. You park right there to hike to the gorge so thats why we saw it. The gorge is very impressive. The walk ways can be pretty narrow and wet with some dark tunnels too but nothing really bad. Passing people can be tricky but the views are totally worth it. The kids didn't have any problem walking as the took turns riding again. I just made sure to hold hands the whole time and keep them closer to the mountain then the water. 

Even though it wasn't planned we still managed to have a pretty good time in the Garmish area. The weather could of been better and it would of been nice if I was more prepared for that. I'm guessing we will be visiting the area again.