Two Weeks In Alpine Europe Part I: Bavaria

Google Map of our recent vacation

This post is Part 1 of four (or five) that I want to write to jot down the highlights of our recent vacation. After recording just the top level details, I hope to post my impressions on and off separately. Click on the map above to check out the google map of the spots we explored in this trip.

DAY 1: Arrive in Franfurt, pick up the fully computerized BMW with a GPS navigation system (more on the car in a later post), drive to Darmstadt and relax at aunt's home. Have dinner, and head out to downtown Darmstadt to get some supplies for the road trip.

DAY 2: Head out south towards Blackforest region, Bavaria. Pass through Gunzburg to visit Legoland (which was unfortunately closed, even though their website claimed it is open).

Stopped at around Augsburg to let baby out for some fresh air and to stretch our legs. Continued on to Dasing. Stopped at Dasing, got some coffee, some food. Baby met some boisterous goats and some sweet and shy bunnies near the Baumarkt. Had a lot of fun.

Drove along further to Herrsching am Ammersee. Took the ferry ride on Lake Ammersee. Baby had her own little steering wheel to "drive" the boat and made a friend on the boat. After a relaxing boat ride, stopped to have wonderful ice cream with interesting fruit liqueurs; Baby had a mickey mouse ice cream with no sugar added - it was on the kids menu.



Drove further on to Seefeld, Bavaria to visit with The Schneiders family, stay the night and enjoy their hospitality.

Vacation Part I: Bavaria

DAY 3: Being Father's Day and a public holiday, The Schneiders' family were gracious enough to have Ana home while D and I took the S-bahn to Munich.

It was a rainy day. We headed straight to the Deutsches Museum. Spent about 4 hours at the Museum seeing various sections, but, I particularly enjoyed the musical instruments section. Just outside the museum was the Space Walk thing - a giant round cage on a long arm-of-sorts - you climb in and walk and keep walking - the cage rotates and you go up and around - hard to describe - but I wisely stayed back and let D try it :-)

Then, we walked over to the Ratskeller at Marienplatz for some Bavarian lunch. D tried the 7 Schnapps Wursts and I tried the Schweiz Rösti. He had the fairly strong MaiBock and I had the "ladies size" Wheat beer. I really liked the MaiBock though...

A visit to Munich is not complete for D without stopping at the Hofbrauhaus... he wanted to be in Munich for the Oktoberfest, but, maybe next year...

Now, I really wanted to get a dirndl for baby and me, but, they were so darn expensive I just had to take a deep breath and walk away... but, we did end up getting a doll wearing a traditional-looking drindl. We named her Olga (i know... how original?! ) and she became baby's new friend, along with a lederhosen-clad yodelling teddy bear we christened Martin. Baby loved undressing Olga and have me dress her back again :-)




Then, we waved good-bye to The Schneiders, and proceeded from Seefeld, Bavaria to Seefeld, Tyrol, Austria, destination: Mösern
(To be continued...)