Haus Felsenfest Wallgau

Again it was snowing when we woke up but again it wasn't sticking although it was still on the trees at the Alpine Zoo which we went to in the morning. This was Tara’s choice as usual. Greg's favourite was the brown bear which was lying with its head on its paws on a log, probably contemplating whether it was time to hibernate. My favourite was the lynx which was high up in a tree. By the ...

Woke up to Greg saying that it was snowing- what I thought was rain on the forecast had eventuated as snow- to Tara's disappointment, it wasn’t sticking so she couldn’t play in it. After breakfast in the hotel we walked across the bridge to the old city to what is the biggest attraction in Innsbruck, the Golden Roof and the Golden Roof Museum. This building was built by Frederick IV in 1420 as the residence of the Tyrolean sovereigns ...

Walked to the train station and did an expedition to the supermarket to spend our last Swiss Francs as we are back to Euros in Austria. Had a stopover in Zurich for a while and then caught the train to Innsbruck. Again this was a scenic trip over the mountains and it started snowing and was very deep as we got higher- just beautiful scenery. Innsbruck is surrounded by mountains, all of which had snow on them.

We checked into our hotel where we ...

We stopped on the way to the castles to climb to the top of the castle above our campsite, which gave us a nice view of the green lake below. We reached the castles in Germany after lunch but due to the fact that they both closed at 5pm, we decided to choose one to do a tour. My favorite by far was the Neuschwanstein, which I had seen in photos and heard that the Disneyland castle was inspired by. We learned a lot about Ludwig II ...

... up the mountain to get a better look at the ski jump. The GPS took us to a viewpoint instead of to the actual jump, which is why I got a good picture of it. We then followed the signs to the ski jump, but the parking lot was swarming with people going to and from their tour buses and we decided we weren't in the mood for that kind of sightseeing.

We got on the highway and headed to a suburb of Innsbruck called Wattens where the Swarovski Crystal Worlds museum is located.

... purchases.

The museum was pretty cool and certainly a unique experience. The weather was really nice today too so once we completed the museum and the shopping, we went to the park behind the giant's head. Here they have a hedge maze shaped like the giant's hand which looked pretty cool but we didn't venture in. Instead we soaked up a little sun before moving on to the next destination.

This was a lovely little place we stopped at on the bus tour to the castles. Unfortunately, being Sunday, most everything was shut (except for the souvenir shops that is). They have a woodcarving school there that I plan to stop at for a weeklong course on the next trip. But of course it was shut that ...

... Linderhof was the only castle completed and where Ludwig actually lived for any length of time during his short, 41 years. We had a beautiful driving tour on the "Romantic Road" and spent a couple of hours in Oberammergau. Now we're catching up with our blog and email in Fussen while Mom and Dad chill at Hotel Christine. We'll be relocating to Munich tomorrow and should be able to offer more updates tomorrow. We hope all is well with everyone. Love from Bavaria.

Another work conference for my parents brought us to Oberammergau for a week. We stayed in the cutest little wooden cottage - like the whole thing ceiling to floor and including flowering window boxes was made out of wood! Totally picturesque like you've read about in Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Aromatic town bakery. Absolutely enchanting.

Sadly, I dont remember much about Austria. Too bad because I have read so much about it lately as the music and art centre of Europe in the 1700s, I'd love to check that out.
I asked my dad recently if we had been there before. He said, 'oh yes, many times, we loved it'. Hmm, what a pity. I suppose it still counts because the images of scenery must be in my mind somewhere... curse this short memory of mine!