Featured Movie of the Week - Schliersee
Well, the Noreaster definitely hit us! It was later than they predicted, but it definitely hit. Last night, at midnight, it was only about four inches deep, but this morning, it was easily ten inches–big, fluffy white stuff. Perfect for sledding. We cleared the driveway, and now I'm pooped! So, to warm you up on this cold wintery day, here's a video from last summer.
In July, we took a trip to Schliersee, Germany–tucked in the Bavarian Alps. We had a great time, and it was a bit of a homecoming for me and my family. I hadn't been back to Germany (excluding airport visits) since 1981, when I lived there as a child.
The video is long, and thus, captured into four separate movies. If you click on the picture at left, it will play them all as a single movie.
Here's the summary of content from the four movies:
Part 1:
- Our arrival in Munich - without our luggage.
- Swimming at the hotel in Schliersee - It was a great pool, the cleanest I've ever been in, and I've been in a lot!
- Touring around Schliersee - A beautiful small German town–touristy, but not to Americans and Japanese. Most of the tourists were German, which I thought was great. Made me feel more like a local.
- Birthday party celebrations (Eddie and me) - Early birthday for me, late for Eddie. We celebrated with Darth Vader masks and an assortment of German pastries.
- Berchtesgaden and the Salt Mines - An excellent tour that I repeated since I was a kid. The boys really enjoyed the slide! The flooding was incredible, and I've captured it well here.
- Salzburg - We were soaking wet from being caught in a downpour, and had dinner in an Italian restaurant.
- Train ride to Munich - The next day, we took the bahn into Munich.
- Marienplatz in Munich - We walked through Marienplatz to the Hoffbräuhaus.
- Hoffbräuhaus in Munich - A tourist must-see. Kitschy, but required viewing. A great lunchtime stop.
- Horsewagon ride around Schliersee - I remembered the hard way that I am visciously allergic to horses. I patted a horse on the nose, and then proceeded to have my eyes swell nearly shut, my throat just about close up, and my sneezing start up uncontrollably. Somehow, I still managed to take the video, but I was dying for a Benadryl.
- Schliersbergalm - A mountaintop resort and "playground" reached via cable car.
- Neuschwannstein - We spent a long day getting to and enjoying Schloss Neuschwannstein. The boys got walking sticks and enjoyed the hike up the mountain. The castle was cool too. Afterwards, Nana, who doesn't like beer, got brave and decided to try a real German beer. Afterwards, though you can't hear it on the video, the waiter remarked to her, "Madam, it's a beer, not poison!" We laughed so hard!
- Car ride through Austria - Just for the heck of it. It was a beautiful day for a car ride.
- Zugspitz - We saw (but did not climb) the largest mountain in Germany.
- Garmisch - We stopped here for some walking and shopping. Saw some beautiful gardens.
- Herrenchiemsee - In addition to Neuschwannstein, we saw Ludwig's Schloss Herrenchiemsee. I had seen it as a kid, and remembered enjoying the walks through the paths around the wooded island. Though I didn't seen the multi-colored slugs this time, we did enjoy the palace (an exact duplicate of Versailles) and the boat ride to the island.
- Freising - On our last evening, we went to Freising to be closer to the airport. Luke proceeded to fall from the monkey bars from a height of about 12 feet, landing square on this chest and face. It scared us to death. I was able to get an arm on him as he fell, and that probably broke some of his fall–at least we didn't have to go to the hospital on our last night there. He had some nasty scrapes on his face for a few weeks after that!
- Credits - I spent a lot of time on these credits. I hope it shows.
- Toilet trailer - There's nothing like a clean toilet, and leave it to German cleanliness and engineering to come up with (in my mind) the perfect toilet.
