After Seven LONG Years...

We finally arrived! You read it right. My husband and I have not been on a REAL vacation in over seven years. We have never actually taken one. So when family came over to Germany this summer to visit, we figured it was time.

I found a resort down south that was a military resort. They give discounted rates (depending on rank), and they have a lot to do. They run a travel company right out of the bookstore so you can go on day trips (by bus) to different locations. You can also go in and get the information on the places they are going, the address, etc so you can go on the trips by car if you wish too. I really enjoyed it, and I am guessing we will be back before we leave Germany.

We spent a week down in Garmisch and the surrounding areas. The first full day there we went on a tour as a family. Here we all are on the bus getting ready to go. We were headed to a cheese factory and Ettal Monastery. They were both a lot of fun, and our tour guide was taken aback when Genevieve yelled out, "Where's the cheese?" She was so ready to get there and eat cheese. After she tried some of it, she didn't really want any. Samuel did decide he loved the yogurt though.

The next day we decided to go it alone and try our luck at finding our own fun. When looking at the cost of the Zoo tour, it was going to cost us almost $200 to ride the bus up there and do things on their schedule. So we got a map to the Zoo in Munich, and took off that direction. They had a few issues with the parking (there was construction right in front of the parking garage), but we finally found a place on the side of the road to park. It was probably about a mile away, but no big deal. It was free :p

We spent the day with the kids looking at all the animals, admiring the differences in American and German zoos, and having fun together. Mom and Dad joined us on this trip, and they had a good time watching the kids get excited about the animals they found and saw. Genevieve had just spen the week before in school learning about zebras, and she was very excited to see them. She also loved looking at the elephants. When we got to a genuie pig exibit, she looked in there and said, "Look Mom! It's Snickerdooodle's Momma!" (Snickerdoodle is a genuie pig in her classroom.)

On Thursday, we road the bus again. This was a trip we didn't want to make on our own. We headed with Sarah and Sergei to Neuschwanstein Castle. We had a great time here too. Samuel was very tired for the tour so I didn't get to hear much of it due to keeping him behind because of crying. What I saw was amazing though. It sits up on a hill. It is about 1 1/2 miles to hike up the hill. We had about 1 1/2 hours before our tour started, so we just walked the hill. It was a hard walk, but we made it just fine. We had tons of time to spare too. After the formal tour, we had to walk down the hill again. Going down was much easier than up. On our trip down Sarah and Sergei joined us (they took the bus up). The whole group met at a cafe to eat, and then we headed home.

Friday Mom, Dad, Sarah, and Sergei all went on the Three Country tour. When looking at the times, it was over 12 hours long. I figured most of that would be on the bus, so we opted out of that one. We instead took the day to just lounge around and have fun. We woke up and hit the breakfast buffet. After that we walked over to the PX. The kids and I shopped while my husband went for a hair cut. We then headed back to the room to let the kids nap. After the nap we went to the pool for an hour or so. The kids loved the pool. It was only 2.5 feet deep on the one end, so both of them could stand up and be above the water. It was a lot of fun for them.

We headed home on Saturday after meeting up for breakfast. The trip home was not complete without the "I gotta go potty!" cry from a child, and someone getting car sick. Both this time just happen to be from Genevieve. She was fine after it all though, and didn't seem to even care except saying "I spit out my cookies" a lot.

Needless to say we had a great time. We realized we shouldn't let seven more years pass before we do it again. If you have Facebook, you can see a few more pictures I posted there of the trip.