Brunnthaler Garmisch-Partenkirchen

... it. It was pretty scary to think that they do the jumping in summer when they wet the slope and land on fake grass. In winter, there is at least 30 cm of hardened snow. It actually looked scarier from the bottom than the top. The stadium is also used for concerts in summer and the pope has also held a mass there.<br><br>By time we headed home, the rain had started and had set in for the night.

... amazing to see how close the Golden Roof came to being bombed during World War II by the Nazis. The Austrians had bricked it in to save it and some of these bricks were actually destroyed while the Roof and building were saved.<br><br>We then walked up the City Tower which was built in 1440 and had an incredible view over the city and the surrounding mountains. It had stopped snowing by this time and you could see a clear line above ...

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.<br><br>We checked into our hotel where we ...

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

A museum mom and I had been anxious to visit while in Austria, Swarovski Crystal Worlds was our next stop on route. Visitors enter the "museum" under a curtain of water spewing forth from a giant's head. Once inside, there are a series of rooms with low lighting and unique displays, all involving crystals of course. The first room has a beautiful (fake) horse dressed in crystal studded tack ...

July 9, 2009<br><br>Climb Every Mountain<br><br>Today started off with another breakfast of champions. From there it was a visit to the Euraide station to get our Eurail passes validated. The gentleman from yesterday was nowhere to be found, but neither was the personality of the young woman who helped us. Without cracking a smile, she validated our passes and we were off to the Gleis for a train bound to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, the village at the ...

... but he was evicted from N. and it was determined that he was unfit to rule Bavaria. Mysteriously, his body and that of his physician were found drowned in the small lake near his Munich home. Because of the exhausting debt of his building projects, the family opened his homes for viewing to the public only 6 weeks later. Chris and I marveled at the intricate woodwork in Ludwig's apartment, the guilding on every surface and the shear scale of his construction. Ludwig ...

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 ...

We arrived into Garmisch-Partenkirchen and checked into our hotel and then went to the cograilway station to go up the Zugspitze which is the highest point in Germany. What was supposed to be a fantastic view was just clouds as a storm had moved in. The only picture I could get for my $90 vist to a cloud bank was of my terrified wife going up this cable car and not being able to see the ground. Oh well you can't control mother nature.

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.