Deutschland

GERMANY from Lindsay Reynolds on Vimeo.

Our quick 4-day trip to Germany and Austria was so amazing and all thanks to Peter's parents for treating us!! I won't ever be able to thank them enough.

Day 1 we were up at 3:00am that Friday and out by 3:30 headed to Gatwick. I have no idea why, but for some reason, I was the only one to stay awake in the car or on the plane. It was a short, easy hour and a half flight into Munich. When we got to the airport, I watched everyone marvel at the beast of the SUV Peter's dad hired (haha - they joked about me being used to big cars, which is so true!) and went into the center of Munich for breakfast. After breakfast, we decided to do a kind of unplanned "beer garden crawl," stopping first at the Hofbraehaus. Of course if you know anything about German beer or their beer gardens, then you probably know that they come in liters instead of pints, they are huge! We strolled through the Englischer garten and at the next beer garden, tried a (my very first) massive German pretzel! We then headed back to the hotel to properly check in and take a quick nap before heading to...the next beer garden for dinner! I will say, although the food is meaty, stodgy, and filling, it's delicious and just the right amount!
A very obvious observation: Germany is impeccably clean (toilets, streets, the underground station), on time, and the people are incredibly efficient. A perfect home for type-A personalities :-)

Day 2, we left Munich and were en route to Neuschwanstein! As we approached and saw the view from behind, we weren't sure whether or not we were seeing the castle because unfortunaetly, there was scaffolding all around the back. It didn't bother me though because, here I was seeing it in person nonetheless and I couldn't have been happier about that. Much to our delight, we skipped the huge line of people waiting to buy tickets, grabbed our pre-ordered tickets and walked up the hill to find that you couldn't actually see any scaffolding from the front! Yay. We had a guided tour of the 15 semi-to completely finished bedrooms (of about 75) and then took a short hike to get a view from the Marienbrücke (Mary's Bridge) suspension bridge. After our lovely time at the castle, we didn't travel too far to get to the dry toboggan run where we had a yummy bratwurst and enjoyed the ride after. Next was the drive to Gamish. We got to Mercure, our cozy hotel, rested a bit (I took a seriously relaxing bath), then went out for drinks, watched a parade go by, and headed to the cutest and coziest tavern for dinner. It had the best atmosphere with singers yodeling, traditional dancing, and mouthwatering food.

Day 3 was our drive to Austria with a stop in a town called Innsbruck, where we had breakfast in a posh cafe, wandered the streets, then made our way to a cable car near Alpach-our next stop. Once we got to the top of the mountain, it would have been rude not to try their apple streudel, especially as I hadn't tried any yet! Delicious. After that, we headed to our hotel in Aplach, easily my favorite hotel ever, checked in and after quickly admiring our room and the view from our patio, headed straight out to the pool with Cat and mum. The hotel is tucked away nicely at the bottom of the Austrain Alps; surrounded by trees and mountains; it was the most serene and relaxing place I have easily ever been to. We lounged by the pool for hours (It's felt like years since I'd been able to comfortably lay outside in a bikini with the lack of summer here in the UK). This was followed, of course, by drinks and a four course dinner, no less. My whole experience at Alpach was above any of my expectations and now I understand why it holds such high standards in Peter's parent's books. I look forward to the day we re-visit this gorgeous paradise.

The next day, our last day, Peter, Cat and I hired bikes and did a 45 minute climb just before breakfast. After that we packed up and tucked into our self-serve breakfast buffet of freshly squeezed juices, fresh fruit, cereals, bread, and anything you can possibly think of when you imagine the best breakfast ever. We hit the road again, this time to Dachau. After recently watching Schindler's list and The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, Peter and I had been really interested to visit a concentration camp, so we all decided to go since we'd be in the area anyway. Honestly, experiencing a concentration camp for the first time deserves an entire post in itself. It's unreal. I won't go in to detail, but if you'd like to read about it more from a similar perspective, then read Heather's blog . She explains the whole experience beautifully and in a way that I cannot.

Germany and Austria were both so beautiful and I am so lucky to say I have experienced and touched foot in both countries, even for just a few days. I will definitely go back and am so thankful to Peter's family for taking us and showing us the best time. Auf Wiedersehen!