Poor Jess was feeling a little better (but exhausted), so she decided to opt out of today's adventure. Russ was finally done with work, so we headed out to spend the day in Austria. We traveled through the Bavarian Alps and into Northern
Triol, Austria. This was our first view of Innsbruck as we cleared the mountains. Wow!
The first stop on today's tour was at
Swarovski Crystal World in
Wattens, Austria. This is the factory where they manufacture all of those lovely figurines that Grandma collects. Yep. I think she has personally funded the entire right side of the building. I'm just saying...
You can't tour the actual plant, but they do have a museum open for tourists. The entrance is hidden behind this giant head made of hedges. His eyes were huge crystals, and they changed colors. The frozen fountain coming out of his mouth made it look like he must have caught the same virus Jess seems to have. This should have given me a hint as to what we would find inside...
When you first enter the museum, there is a huge wall of
Plexiglas that's filled entirely with S
warovski crystals. The guide told us that each crystal is perfectly formed. No chips or cracks here.
Here's a close up of the wall. Very impressive!
The crystal saddle set for the horse was pretty interesting, too.
A crystal Christmas tree. Absolutely stunning.
Closeup of a branch. The amount of crystals that went into making this tree were unbelievable.
We really enjoyed the glass dome, too. It was like walking around in a giant crystal. Plus, when you stood in the middle and whispered, it was like talking into a microphone. You voice was reflected back at you so much louder. It was lots of fun to play around with. Other things in the museum were much stranger....
Disembodied legs tap danced around to some strange music, while two men holding hands across a round table (with no chairs) spun around quickly in a circle. A naked female
mannequin walked around a naked male
mannequin who was up on a
pedestal. Um...what?
I know that this is art, but I just don't get it.
This is the
Swarovski Crystal Museum, right?
OK, I definitely took a wrong turn somewhere. Is that lemon I keep smelling?
Wait a minute, it's lime scented now. Ugh! Where are all the darn crystals? And what's with this weird music that changes with each room? I think the
Swarovski people have been sniffing the crystal dust.
Whew! I finally made it to the gift shop at the end. Then it
occurred to me that I haven't seen the Russ and Brandon since somewhere near the third room of the museum. After searching around the gift shop, I found all of the men on the tour hiding in the cafe, sipping on cups of coffee. Apparently they didn't "get it" either.
The gift shop was very pretty, though, and I enjoyed walking around a little and checking everything out. This round bench is covered entirely with crystals, and costs thousands of euros. They encourage you to sit on it and try it out. I sat down for a second, and then carefully removed myself. (I don't know if they have the "you break it, you bought it" policy on the bench, but I wasn't taking any chances!) After a rejuvenating cup of
cappuccino, we were off to the next stage of the tour.
Innsbruck is the Hapsburg capital of Tirol, and the home of the 1964 and 1976 Winter Olympics. You get a glimpse of the ski jumps while driving around the city. The newer part of the city is huge, but we were heading to the old part. This is the
Kaiserliche Hofburg. It's the castle that marks the entrance to the Old City.
On the left end of the castle is the entrance arch. The Old City is surrounded by tall walls that protected the city. The old building were very detailed and
beautiful.
The building on the left is a Best Western Hotel. It was beautiful. Go figure!
This view is back toward the arch through with we entered the Old City.
From here, you can see the Old City Watchtower on the top right, the famous Golden Roof in the center, and the Alps in the background. You can also see the American Embassy on the right. (See the golden arches that mark the entrance?)
This is one of the oldest Inns in Austria.
When you go out another gate from the Old City, this is the view you get of the Alps. I could wake up to that every morning! After a delicious pizza lunch in the Old City, we got back on the bus and went to see the
Wilten Basilica.
The
Wilten Basilica is beautiful church that was originally built in the 13
th century, but was rebuilt in the Rococo style in the 1750's. It had fallen into disrepair. There is a small
cemetery to the right of the church. You can purchase a coffin sized plot for your family. Quite a few caskets are buried (stacked on top of one another) on each plot. The more you pay for the plot, the longer you get to be buried there. When the money runs out, they dig you up and rebury you in the city
cemetery, then resale the plot to another family.
The church is stunning inside. It's said to be one of the most beautiful churches in Northern Tirol.
Our Lady Under the Four Columns.
Murals on the ceiling.
If you find the church a little chilly, there is a little building just outside that will happily sell you a hot cup of
Gluhwein (hot mulled wine) to warm up with, as well as literature on the church. Innsbruck was a great place to spend the last day of our vacation.
Well, maybe I'm jumping the gun a little bit on that one, but it's definitely warmer. The snow has melted, the temps have gone back into the 40's, and I'm one happy camper. Ahhhhh. (You have no idea how slippery cobblestones are when they are covered with ice and snow!) Besides, it's so much more tempting to hide indoors, sitting at the computer with a hot cup of coffee, when it's snowing outside. I'm ready for Spring. In the meantime, my friends and I decided to celebrate the warmer temps with a little day trip to Aachen, German. What does one do in Aachen, you ask? 
Well, go for a sushi lunch, of course. Isn't that what everyone goes to Germany for? Actually, I'm told that the BEST place around here for sushi is in Eindhoven, but they weren't open for lunch, so...off to Aachen. It was a great day, full of lots of laughs. 
Aachen is one of those cities that you just love to walk around and admire. This is the Cathedral. One of these days, when it's a little warmer, I'm going to take the family here and we are going to check out the inside of this beauty. This is the time of year when I start making out my list of things that I REALLY want to see. I told the family to enjoy these lazy winter weekends, because when Spring arrives, we are on the road again. I can't wait. I've already started marking things down. Let's see...there's Paris, London, Brugges (this time it will be warm enough to really check it out!), Bastogne, Cochem Castle in Germany...the list goes on and on. This is going to be a great Spring and Summer. I can just feel it!
Um, apparently the high altitude through the mountains lends itself to heavy snow storms. Again, we are in the middle of nowhere, can't pull off, and can't turn around. Thomas is learning a few new words to add to his vocabulary. If we weren't desperate, I would have tossed him out the window at this point. 
After QUITE a long time, driving at very slow speeds, we finally found ourselves on a main roadway. Whew. Relief. As you can see, the skies have cleared and the sun is shining. It's smooth sailing home from here. At least it will be once we get back into Germany. 
Mother nature would love the 
YEA, we have reached Belgium. I don't have a clue where we are, because none of these roads Tom's taking us down are familiar, but at least it's the right country. I just want to get home. It's been a long day. Love the windmill. 
Are you kidding me???? It's a ONE LANE/TWO WAY ROAD!!!!! Ugh!!!!!!! If we weren't minutes from home... 
Day 4 ended pretty badly for Jess. She either ate something that didn't agree with her, or was violently attacked by a vicious flu bug. Either way, she was down for the count. Poor Jess. Luckily, we had already planned on Day 5 to be a day of rest, so we ended up hanging out at the hotel. Jess stayed in bed, and Brandon and I took care of her and meandered around the hotel, just checking things out. This is the front of Edelweiss Lodge. 
Even the lodge had the tromp 
This painting was to the right of the entrance. There is another one just around the corner to the right. I suppose that the locals are bidding you "good journey" on your way home. Either that, or they are excited that the Glockenspiel is about to chime. No, wait. That's just us tourists. 
This is the view of the 
Here is the view from our balcony. I know. We had it pretty rough. Poor Jess did, at least. But if you have to be sick, it's nice to do it with a fantastic view. 
Wednesday. Another beautiful, snowy day in Bavaria. Once again, Russ is off to work, so the kids and I chose to check out 
On the walk from the parking lot up to the castle, you pass by this pretty little pond. I thought there were some statutes on it. On closer inspection...
I noticed that they were alive. The swans were patiently waiting for Spring. Poor swans. I'm not entirely sure that their rears weren't frozen to the surface. 
Once again, King Ludwig had great taste in locations for his castles. The views were spectacular. 
He had lots of gardens on the hillside behind the castle. These arches are entirely covered with leaves in the summer, making a nice cave-like walking path through the woods.
I admit I was a bit bummed that the fountains were all covered up for the winter. I would have loved to have seen the gilded statute of Neptune in the center of the pool. 
The castle was beautiful. It's the only one of Ludwig's castles that was actually completed. It's the smallest of all of them, too. Inside, there were wonderful things such as a hall of mirrors (Brandon's favorite room) as well as a huge bedroom with a beautiful blue canopied bed. Literally King-sized! Jess chose that one as her favorite. There were a pair of huge peacock statutes in the castle that the servants moved to each side of the entry when King Ludwig was in residence. The King was impressed with them, because he thought that showed how much his servants loved him when they moved them into the entry just for his arrival. In reality, it was a signal to the rest of the household to be careful and watch their behavior. If the swans were in the entry, then the King was around, so no joking around. If the peacocks weren't by the front doors, they could relax and have a good time, with no worries of the King catching them. 
These are the front doors to the castle. There are actually two sets of doors. The outer set if the black iron with gold accents, and the inner doors were solid wood. 
Another view of 
This is a tiny private chapel beside the castle. 
I loved these statute at the entry of the castle. The details were very realistic. The muscles and material were so perfectly carved. My favorite thing about them is how hard they are straining, trying to hold up the rest of the castle. Check out Guys #1 and #2. They are giving it their all. 
Guy #3 is straining to hold it all up, but he's starting to have his doubts. Guy #4, on the other hand, seems to be taking a coffee break. You can practically hear him thinking, "Man, I've really got to get a better job. This stinks! What on earth am I doing here?"
My question is this...what good is a helmet going to do if he's wearing a dress??? Nice legs, though.
After touring 
The back of the theater is open to the heavens. After all, He does get the best seat in the house. It's His play. 
The town of 
Some paintings are religious, 
Tuesday morning, Russ had to go off and take care of business, so it was just Jess, Brandon and me. We decided to spend the day in Munich, Germany, the capital of Bavaria. It was cold and snowing, but we still had a super time. 
There was a big statute of King Maximilian in the center of the square. The 
This is one of the Crown Jewels. There were quite a lot of these pieces in the 
This is one of the kings portable alters. The details on it were very impressive.
There were quite a few pieces like this one, carved out of crystal. It was extremely hard to carve these pieces, so only the very rich collected them. They called it the ice that never melts. 
This is a lady's traveling case, and it contained everything a royal would need on her trips. It had everything from her makeup and nail clippers, to a pop out drawer on the side that concealed eating utensils.
I had to take a picture of this fish, because it reminded me of an awesome piece of jewelry that my friend Valency made in one of her art classes. 
After touring the 
Here is another view of the Town Hall. Notice all of the tourists standing around, looking up, and waiting for the Glockenspiel to start it's performance?
On the top of the Town Hall is the Glockenspiel (play clock). During the war, it was covered with concrete, to protect it from 
This is a close up of the clock. When it chimes, it plays a series of songs, and the 32 life sized characters on the clock spin and rotate. The clock only does this at 11 am and noon during the winter, and an additional performance at 5 pm during the summer months. The top level shows a knights tournament with jousting, and the bottom has dancers. 
After enjoying the Glockenspiel's performance, we walked over to warm up at the 
We beat the lunch crowd, so we had a chance to really check the place out. 
They had a live band there, performing traditional German music while we ate out lunch. I thought of you while we listened, Grandpa. This was definitely your kind of place! They even had a pretzel girl in traditional dress walking around, selling her pretzels and gingerbread cookies. 
Brandon was really digging into his pretzels when his soup arrived. We ordered him beef soup with a liver dumpling. It was very cold outside, so he wanted to warm up with some hot soup. We figured we'd just dig out the little dumplings and he could eat the broth. Check out the size of this dumpling. It's solid, ground up liver. Yes. You read that correctly. A huge ball of liver. In case you were wondering, Brandon wouldn't touch the thing, but the rest of us at our table had a blast tasting it and being really silly. It tasted pretty much like it looked. No disrespect to those liver lovers out there...but 
After checking out the city a little more and warming up with coffee and caramel hot chocolate at the local Starbucks (How American is that??), we headed back to the square to get back on the bus. 
Thanks for letting us spend the day in your wonderful city, Max. Good-bye. (Wave good-bye to Max. You wouldn't want to hurt his feelings.)
It's a beautiful day in Bavaria, and we decided to take advantage of it! We headed out to see a few of the local sights. 
This is the 
Next, we paid a visit to 
Don't let the simple exterior fool you. It's absolutely stunning inside. It's in the Rococo style. I have included a link to the church's website, so there really isn't much more I can add. I'll just let you enjoy the pictures. They don't do it justice. It was beautiful. 
The Rococo style of architecture includes a shell or ocean motif. You can find those details everywhere throughout the church. The pews has seashells carved into them. 
Under the pews, there were gaps in the floor boards. You can see the earth through these gaps. This was intentional. The gaps were left there to let the earth's moisture into the church, therefore keeping the paintings from drying out. Brilliant, once you think about it. Of course, in the middle of winter, it's a tad chilly, too. 
This door in the ceiling seemed to follow you around the room. Wherever you stood, it seemed to be facing you directly. Also, the roof was flat in the center, but the painting technique made it seem domed. 
Right beside the church is a little restaurant. 
After you visit the church, stop by there and enjoy a nice cup of hot chocolate and a fresh donut. The donuts are covered with cinnamon sugar. Yes, they were delicious. 
Our next stop on the tour was 
The castle was built for King Ludwig II, between 1869 and 1886. Mad King Ludwig only spent about six months here before dying under "mysterious circumstances". There are lots of theories as to the cause of his death, everything from suicide to murder. Personally, I think his wife had him knocked off. He was a bit of a player. I'm just saying...
On the other side of the town from 
After bidding adieu to our lovely horse escort (you knew I didn't walk up that entire mountain), we walked up the final few hundred feet to the castle. It was worth it. Wow! 
This is the view of the valley from the castle. 
This is 
This is the view from inside the castle's courtyard. I tried to get lots of photos on the outside, because they don't allow any pictures to be taken inside the castle. The flash ruins the paintings. Due to the many tourists who "
This is the view from one of the balconies 
After a final look back at the castle, we opted for the hike back down the mountain to the village below. It's much easier when gravity is on your side! 
There are several restaurants located in the town below. This one was the only one open in winter, so it was the easy choice for lunch. 
Back to the resort we went. It was a fabulous day. You could even say it was something out of a fairy tale!