Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten Garmisch-Partenkirchen

... we had finished at the zoo, the sun was trying to come out and the snow had completely melted off the trees.<br><br>We caught the bus into the old city where I was determined that I was going to have some genuine Sacher torte so went to Cafe Sacher which is home of the original Sacher torte (it originated in Vienna). Sacher Torte is actually chocolate cake with a layer of jam in the middle ...

... you couldn&#8217;t be convicted unless you had confessed to the crime, so consequently torture was frequently used. There was a slide show with a description of Maximilian&#8217;s life and achievements. As was the custom of those times, his first marriage was one of political convenience but they also loved each other very much. He was devastated when she died, but again married for convenience, this time to a woman who had a large dowry ...

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 ...

... packed in tightly on either side of the narrow pedestrian street. My mom was sucked right in. I don't know how long it took for us to walk the length of this short street, but it was several minutes too long.<br><br>We never did visit the cathedral. Our stomachs took over and we went for food instead. We found a nice pizza place with good prices so we went in. Everything seemed OK until my boyfriend asked for a new set of cutlery because when we first sat on our table it had ...

... purchases.<br><br>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.

... to Munich Haupbanhof. Throughout the day, we were amazed at how precise and orderly the connections from train to train were organized. The entire European rail network is something we could learn a lot from at home.<br><br>Back in Munich, we took a different route back to Marienplatz, which led us to Augustiner. The recipe for Augustiner beer dated to 1374, though the restaurant has only been around since 1829. Darn new construction. A good ...

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 ...

... called Garmisch..." Turns out we were on the same plane as Aussie Pete (aka Blue), a fellow Australian who lived in Garmisch for about 18 months after we had left. It was a good laugh. Arriving at the airport in Munich, we were met by Simon with an esky full of Augustiner (best German beer for those uninitiated). We couldn't have been happier! After dropping our bags off at his place, we went straight to the Irish ...

... staying with in München and I wanted make it to Füssen in the morning to visit the famous castle Neuschwanstein, so I just resigned myself to the fact that I would have to come back some other time to see what this part of the world was really like. Garmisch and Partenkirchen are actually two towns next to each other which, these days, are almost always referred to together in a hyphenated fashion. Kinda like Minneapolis/St. Paul, but on a slightly different scale. So, I was ...

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.