Vacation Recap Day 10: Our Last Day in Europe!

I'm kind of sad to be writing my last vacation recap from our European adventure!  If you've stuck with me through all of these, thank you!  It's so fun to be able to share our trip and have these posts as a reminder for myself of everything we did.

We finished up our trip with one final day in Munich.  We go up and wandered back to Marienplatz to watch the Glockenspiel go off.  We grabbed a table and some cappucino and watched the little figurines dance and twirl while music played from the bell tower.  It was really cool and there were TONS of people lined up to watch.

The figurines sort of act out little stories while the music plays.  Here you can see the beginning (left) and end (right) where one of the "knights" is being jousted off his horse.

We headed outside of Marienplatz a few blocks and found this church to look at.

 I know what you're thinking, we looked at A LOT of churches!  They are all so interesting though, how could you possibly not go in?

We spent the next couple hours at the Residenz.  The Munich Residenz is where Bavarian royalty and government figures lived a really long time ago.  Most of it was destroyed when Munich was bombed in WWII, but a lot of it has been restored and now operates as a museum.

The pictures can't do justice, but the two photos above give a glimpse of how intricate the entire place was.  And this place was HUGE, we literally spent a couple of hours walking through room after room decorated like these.

For lunch we headed to the Viktualienmarkt, which is like a huge open farmers market right in the heart of Munich.  There were SO many options, but being our last day in Germany we both had traditional bratwurst.  And it was good.

We did some last minute shopping to use up our Euros and buy some souveneirs, then finished up our trip appropriately at one the worlds most famou beer halls, the Hofbräuhaus. 

Yum!  The beer was delicious, and the glasses were as big (or bigger) than my head!  There was a polka band playing and the place was packed! This cute German lady was walking around with a pretzel cart and other goodies.  Yep, it was definitely a good idea to end things there!

We took an evening stroll through some pretty gardens before grabbing one last dinner and heading back to the hotel to pack up.  We left pretty early the next morning and after 2 flights, we were landing in Minneapolis!

Thanks everyone for coming a long on this journey with us!  We had the BEST time I could imagine!

Vacation Recap Day 9: Munich

After we left Salzburg, we drove to Munich, ditched our car, and took the train into the city.  We got there pretty early in the day so we had plenty of time to get acclimated.  We stayed a short walk from Marienplatz which is a big square where the Glockenspiel is.

Entrance to Marienplatz

We found a restaurant to grab some lunch, but we couldn't quite decipher what was on the menu.  We decided to split the "Bavarian Special Plate" and ended up with a smorgasbord of meats, cheeses, and breads.  Some of it was really good- but some of it could only be described as "meat jello."

Frauenkirche in Muenchen.

We went into a couple cool churches, like the Frauenkirche (the inside is pictured above.  It's the church with the rounded double towers below.)

We then climbed 305 steps to get to the top of St. Peter's Church (Alter Peter) and took these cool shots of Munich.

The inside of the church was also so cool!

We caught another Football (soccer) match at a local bar, and decided to hit the hay early that night.  I have a confession to make though.  We went to McDonald's for dinner that night.  I know, I know...we're in Germany and go to...McDonald's?!  The truth is, I have a weird fascination with McDonald's in foreign countries.  I love seeing the difference in something so familiar to us Americans.  Don't judge.

Vacation Recap Days 7-8: Innsbruck and Salzburg

You guys. Austria was so much more than I had thought it would be.  It totally exceeded all expectations.  It's not that I didn't think it would be great, but Austria was kind of just an add-on to our time in Germany.  We really only decided to go to Salzburg because it's so close to Munich, and Innsbruck happened to be on the way from Garmisch to Salzburg.  I am SO glad we decided to go to both places- so amazing!

Super cute town square in Innsbruck!  Great shopping too, most of these stores were really high end clothing designers.  It felt very Italian, which makes sense since it is only about 30 minutes from Italy.

How cool are those mountains right above the city?

Me infront of St. Anna's Column in Altstadt (Old Town) Innsbruck.

The 1964 Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck, here is the sports complex!

After exploring Innsbruck, we got on the road for a beautiful and scenic drive to Salzburg.  We had a hard time finding our hotel because we didn't know that it was located in an area that you can't drive in (travel agent fail.)  So after some stressful navigating, parking, and walking several blocks to our hotel, we were in desperate need of a treat.

Enter the best Apfelstrudel of my life.  Washed down with a glass of Prosecco.

We enjoyed this amazing dessert with a view of the Mozart statue honoring Salzburg's most famous resident.

 Our hotel overlooked the charming cobblestone streets in Old Town.

The architecture was so cool.  There were all of these beautiful buildings with really old stone churches nestled in between.

The Salzach River flows right through Salzburg.  We spent time on both sides of the river, both equally charming.  In the picture, you can see a procession marching across the bridge, we weren't sure what it was for, but we ran into this group later and it looked like some sort of police ceremony.

One of the bridges over the river is filled up with locks that people attach to it.  The locks all have 2 people's names written on them in the hopes that they will be "locked" in love together forever.

Since we were so close to Italy, both Mark and I felt like going to an Italian restaurant for dinner.  We found a super cute little place, and the pizza looked so good that we both ended up ordering our own pizzas!  They were amazing, best pizza ever!  We both agree that it was one of our best meals of the vacation!

We had a great time in Salzburg, I highly recommend it to anyone who is planning a trip to Europe!

Vacation Recap Day 6: Andechs, Germany!

We had a blast this day!  It might have been my favorite....if I had to pick only one. We started out with a beautiful gondola right up a mountain.  The scenery was unreal!  We could look out over the Alps and see our whole town below us.  There were also some pretty cool hang-gliders out for us to watch!

Mountain Yoga.  Duh.

Ski jump used in the 1936 Winter Olympics held in Garmsich-Partenkirchen

After our mountain expedition, Mark and I drove up to Andechs, which is a little over an hour north of Garmisch.  There is this really cool monastery there, which still functions with monks living on the grounds.  The monks actually brew beer and sell it there!  Real abbey ale from the abbey!  We decided to sample some when we got there, along with the most gigantic pretzel of all time!

The scenery in Andechs was really pretty, especially from the monastery that is set way up on a hill.

We saw A LOT of old churches on this trip, which always fascinate me, but the church at this monastery was my favorite!  It was really incredible, the pictures just don't do it justice at all.  I think it is one of the things I will remember most from our trip.

How pretty is that?  After we got back to Garmisch, we found a super yummy little restaurant (and had amaaaaazing currywurst!) then we finished up the day with a sunset and some time on our balcony.  It really was perfection.