My husband and I took an almost 3 week trip last spring leaving on April 29. While some may think we visited too many locations, we found our vacation to be perfect for us!
We started our trip with 2 nights in London. London wasn't in our original plans, but a great deal on business class tickets demanded we adjust our plans. We took a daytime flight leaving St Louis at 5 am and connecting through Chicago and landing at Heathrow at 10:30 pm. We were through passport control, had our luggage, grabbed the bus and were at our hotel 30 minutes after landing. Amazing how fast we were through the lines!
Day One was spent with some St Louis friends who transferred to London for work. We explored Hampton Court Palace for part of the day. It was a good move because we were tired and it was nice to walk around and talk with our friends. We eventually went to their house to visit their kids before we went to dinner and calling it an early night.
Day Two - We flew to Munich where we rented a car for our week in Germany. We drove to Dachau concentration camp before heading South. Since it was 2 days after the liberation anniversary, we were honored to observe a ceremony marking the liberation. After a few hours, we drove south to Garmisch Partenkirchen where we would be based for 4 nights at the Gasthof Fraundorfer. The weather on our drive South and the next few days was cloudy and rainy. We could see ZERO mountains! We ended our day with dinner at the hotel and a short nighttime walk.
Day Three - Our first full day in GaP included a hike through the Partnach Gorge and exploring the Olympic Ski Lift. After lunch we took a drive. Our intention was to go to Linderhof, but the road was being repaved and we were unsure we were allowed to drive on it. So, we explored Oberammergau and enjoyed an afternoon coffee and pastry. We drove back to GaP via the Ettal Monastery where my husband picked up some beer to enjoy on the deck at our hotel room. Again, today was rainy and cloudy ALL DAY.
Day Four - The next day we woke to slightly clearer skies. But it was short lived and the weather turned rainy and cloudy again. We had been in GaP and had yet to really see any mountains because of the weather. We spent the morning exploring Linderhof since crews completed the road work. Since the weather was still crappy, we dropped off our laundry and headed to a cafe for an afternoon coffee and pastries. We probably didn't need to quite do laundry yet, but with all the rain everything was damp and we weren't planning on laundry for another week so we took advantage of the super cheap and friendly person at the laundry. We ate dinner this night at an Italian restaurant and quite possibly had the best Gnocchi ever.
Day Five - We FINALLY saw a little bit of clearing the next morning and decided to drive into Austria and explore Ehrenberg Castle and the suspension bridge that links ruins at two different sites. After a few hours, we found ourselves at a loss for what to do seeing that the weather was still not ideal for going up Zugspitze. At this point, I was pretty sure we would never see Zugspitze or be able to go to the top! My husband suggested we take a drive into Fussen. We previously visited Fussen in 2013 and did the castles with our children so we didn't feel the need to tour those again. We stopped and had a small lunch downtown Fussen before driving out by Neuschwanstein. We decided to check out the cable car at Tegelberg Mountain. We went to the top and watched paragliders and hanggliders take off from the top. We also enjoyed a beer while sitting outside by fresh snow. We drank our beer and enjoyed the view before heading back to GaP where we enjoyed one last dinner at our hotel.
More later!