Switzerland

After visiting the Castle from my previous post and enjoying a delicious meal at a local restaurant and grabbing some gelatos on our way out of Fussen, we began our drive to Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland.

Once again, we were misinformed regarding the time it took to get to our hotel.  After stopping for gas and learning that they only took Euros and not credit cards, we left Brooks' passport with the clerk, drove back to Fussen (we were 20 minutes outside of town), found an ATM, retrieved money, drove back to the gas station, paid for our gas.  It started raining.  It rained hard.  I started getting car sick.  So I slept.  Brooks woke me up around 10pm.  He drove and drove and drove.  We talked. We laughed.  We talked and laughed some more.  We did everything we could to keep one another awake so we could make it to our hotel that night.  Believe me we considered several times stopping at a hotel and just finishing our drive the next day. Around 2am we made it to Lauterbrunnen.  The town was empty.  We were THE ONLY CAR driving on the roads.  Every place had their lights off.  Nothing was opened.  I started to panic when we couldn't find our hotel, but quickly located the phone number to call.  Thank goodness someone answered the phone and came out to the main road to greet us and show us where to turn off to reach our hotel (literally, the hotel lobby's weren't even open).  We unloaded our car, the kids, got into our room and settled, and had everyone asleep by 3am.  We were exhausted.

We woke up, ate breakfast, then headed to our first stop in Switzerland, Jungfraujoch, The Top of Europe.   The only way to get to the top was to take two train rides that took about 2 hours.  The boys were BEYOND excited to ride on a train and get their tickets stamped.  Gavin asked if we were on The Polar Express.  Everyone did great traveling on the trains and enjoyed the scenery.  Well, actually, on this day it was cold, rainy, and cloudy.  We were hopeful it wouldn't be like that all day.  We were wrong.  We made a stop in the middle of our journey to see some summits, but couldn't see past 10 feet out of the viewing windows.  That was a glimpse of what was to come.  We continued on the train ride and made it to the top of the mountain. There is an observatory and platform for you to gain the entire view over looking Junfraujoch.  Let's just say all we saw were the poles and fence that outlined the observatory platform.  The Top of Europe offers sledding and tubing, both which were not available.  There were some indoor activities we got to enjoy while being at The Top, including a restaurant, which had some of our favorite meals!!  Even though we weren't able to enjoy all the views of being at The Top of Europe, we still had some fun and played in the snow, even if it was a blizzard!  Some day, we'll be able to remind our kids they were there and stood on that mountain and made snowballs with their daddy!  Once we made it back down the mountain and to our little town, we let everyone take naps- we were extremely tired from the day and traveling the day before.  We ended up eating dinner at our hotels restaurant and were in for a special treat!  They catered to the kids, which allowed for Brooks and I to enjoy our meal, we ordered cheese fondue, and ate some delicious fish, and yummy desserts!  The kids got fun ice creams and colored in coloring books!  It was a fun filled day!

 

Train Ride

Brooklyn and I stayed inside the building while the boys played in the blizzard.  

He was cold!

Check out the snow falling off the mountain behind Gavin.

They had so much fun playing in the snow... although it only lasted about 10 minutes!

Out on the observatory deck

Gavin found some animals to ride

Our second full day in Switzerland we prayed for better weather and got it!  It was THE PERFECT DAY to take a trip up to Piz Gloria which is located on the summit of Schilthorn.  You may have heard of it from the 007 movie, "On Her Majesty's Secret Service".  We planned to do breakfast in the revolving restaurant and take pictures of the surrounding mountains, and just take in the amazing sights!  It was such a fun day for us.  We took a gondola ride up to the train station, then took a train up to a local town that is operated by trains alone (no cars are allowed up there), then we took another gondola ride up to the summit, where we spent a majority of our time.  The weather was cold, but it wasn't rainy so that was a HUGE plus for us.  The kids never complained about the weather and just played with the snow!  One of the funnest parts of our day was watching Miles realize that the restaurant was essentially spinning.  It took him a while to figure out what was going on, but it was too cute!  The views on Schilthorn were breathtaking!! We were so grateful to not be battling rain and snow.  The boys played their little hearts out making more snow balls and trying to hit Brooks with them. Brooklyn got to soak up the sun and was all smiles throughout the morning!

Like I said, the views were breath taking and absolutely amazing!  We could have stayed at the top of that summit for hours.








Since it was our last full day in Switzerland, we wanted to take full advantage of all the time we had left and decided to let the little ones take naps in the stroller instead of going back to our hotel room like we did the day before.  We spent some time in a small town called Murren and walked around some but most of the stores and places were closed.  We did get to see lots of mountains and fresh springs throughout the area.   We took our last train ride and gondola ride back down to the town we were staying in and went sight seeing in the town.  We found a cute little shop and bought some souvenirs to remember our time in Switzerland.  We now own a cuckoo clock, which is a HUGE hit in our house, and several swiss army knives that Brooks will give to our kids when they are old enough.  After doing some shopping, we walked down to the local water fall and learned that you can hike up to an area under neath it.  Brooks and I were up for the challenge and off we went.  Don't let me fool you... there were man made stairs that we followed up that had railings on one side, then a tunnel to go through before walking up more stairs until we got to the waterfall.  It was a neat experience and the kids did great.  There were so many stairs we put Miles down and let him walk up it himself.  He was so proud!  At the bottom of the waterfall were a group of sheep and Miles was enthralled with them.  He tried so hard to feed them some grass and he kept calling them out yelling, "sheep".  It was precious and a fun thing for him.  It started raining on our walk back from the waterfall so we decided to head back to our hotel and do dinner there again.  We loved the food that much and we loved that we didn't have to drive anywhere for dinner.  We knew the kids would be taken care of, plus we had a lot of packing to do that night since we were leaving for the airport the next morning.  We ordered more fondue, this time their meat and potatoes special and it was really, really good!  Our evening was relaxing and the perfect way to end our trip!

                                                                    

Every where we went, Gavin kept finding animal statues

                                             

The next day, we left our hotel early.. so early the front desk wasn't even open yet, it was dark outside, and once again, we were the only car on the road in that small town.  We had an extremely eventful trip to the airport, with me getting sick, but I'll spare you all the details. The best news was that the kids did awesome traveling and flying back to Saudi.  Once you fly 16 hours with 3 young kids, no flight under 10 hours is a big deal at all.   

We had an awesome vacation and enjoyed every minute of it.  Going to Europe and visiting the different countries is one of the things we looked forward to getting to do while living on this side of the world!  It was a great experience to finally get the opportunity to spend some time together as a family and experiencing new things.  Now that we know we can travel with 3 little kids, make things work, and have fun visiting new places we have several more trips in the works and we're so looking forward to them!

Neuschwanstein Castle

We checked out of our hotel in Austria and began our drive back to Germany.  We planned to stop in Fussen, Germany and visit the famous Neuschwanstein Castle before we headed to Switzerland.  We were mis-informed on how long it takes when driving from point A to point B and our trip took a LOT longer then we expected.  We also battled rain the entire drive, which caused more traffic and slower driving time.  Eventually, we decided to stop at a McDonalds to grab some food for the kids, since we still didn't know how long it would take until we reached the castle and I'm so glad we did that.  After everyone ate lunch, went to the bathroom, stretched their legs, we were on a mission to get to Fussen and we only had 2 hours until the ticket office at the Castle was going to close.  I'll spare you all the details about the panic Brooks and I felt (since this was our only opportunity to visit the castle) or how we rushed to find a parking spot, didn't have cash, had to find an ATM, then pay for parking, get dropped off, and run into the ticket office literally 3 minutes before they closed.    Thank goodness!  We got our tickets, went back to our car, got everyone into their rain gear, the little ones into the carriers and started our hike.  Generally, there is a 30 minute walk up to the castles, but we found a bus and hitched a ride.  It dropped us off in an area and then we had a 10 minute walk up to the Castle.  Of course, it was raining off and on so we were toting around the kids, umbrellas, our bags, etc.  What a fun walk we had (enter sarcasm here).  

We made it up to this bridge that was built across the way where you can walk on it and get a view of the castle.  The castle is beautiful and it's even more beautiful seeing it with all the scenery, too.  We went on the bridge and attempted to take a family picture.  Between the rain, the crowded bridge, being HIGH above a valley, we made our trip on the bridge quick.. You can tell how thrilled we were to be on it in one of the pics below.  In all seriousness, it was an amazing place to visit and I'm so glad it worked out for us to tour the castle.  It was built by King Ludwig II starting in 1869 and built over 60 years, however it was never completely finished.  King Ludwig II was only able to live in the castle for 172 days before his mysterious death. This is the castle that Walt Disney used to design the Cinderella Castle.  I promise, it's beautiful!  We were not allowed to take pictures inside the castle, but enjoyed the informative tour filled with lots of information.   

After our tour, the only way to our car was to hike down the mountain.  We took the opportunity to relax on the walk and just soak up the huge trees and scenery.  Until it started raining.  It rained the entire walk down.  We entertained the kids by singing songs and attempting to skip some, but after a while, we were all just done.  We were exhausted.  Brooks and I were hurting from carrying Miles and Brooklyn the whole time.  We were hungry and we were wet.  This day was by far our most draining day.

King Ludwig's father also had a castle nearby.  We didn't tour it, but got a pic of it.

Salzburg, Austria

After our time in Germany, we woke up one morning, ate breakfast, finished packing, checked out of our hotel, got in our rental car and started the drive to Austria.  Within an hour of the drive all 3 kids were sleeping.  Score for mommy and daddy!  Alone time on vacation without anyone interrupting our conversations!  YES!  Brooks and I were excited about the scenery and of course it was raining, cloudy, and a dreary day.  Oh well.  

Before we crossed the border we had to stop and get tags for our car and Brooks was told he had to drive in Austria with a bright, orange vest on.  Hmmm...  He started out wearing it and we made a deal if the next 10 drivers that passed us on the highway weren't wearing a vest then he couldn't wear it.  2 minutes later, the vest was off.  Such a strange concept.

We finally arrived in Salzburg and after checking into our hotel we started our visit on the hunt for food.  Once again, we were using a Ric Steve's book for recommendations.  The day continued to be cold, rainy, and dreary, but thankfully while we were walking it never became a down pour.  After searching for 2 restaurants and checking out their menus outside, we picked one, went back to it and they were closed until dinner.  Bummer.  We found a cafe nearby that had a table in the back corner so the kids could be contained without bothering the other people there.  As soon as we walked out of the restaurant it started raining.  I mean pouring down rain!  We quickly ran into a covered area while Brooks went and found us some large umbrellas.  We only had two days in Salzburg so there was no way we could afford to go to the hotel and sit while it was raining.  The boys got to run around in the "tunnel" while I got Brooklyn readjusted and in some warmer clothes.  Brooks was so sweet and got the boys some wooden swords as a gift when he picked up the umbrellas and those things entertained them the entire trip!  Perfect idea daddy!

We toured Salzburg's Old Town and saw tons of gorgeous buildings, Cathedrals, fountains, statues, and more.  One of the beautiful places was the Domplatz (Cathedral Square).  It rained on us the entire time, but that didn't stop us from enjoying the architecture and ornate, detailed places.  

Brooklyn was stuck in the carrier throughout the entire day and was so relieved to be free once we got to our hotel.  She was excited!!

The next day we spent the morning on a Sound of Music Tour.  The movie is very popular in our house and was somewhat of a dream to go see the sights and locations from the movie so while we were in Salzburg we couldn't pass up the chance.  Thankfully, we were the only people on our tour so we didn't have to share our car with anyone else.  Our tour guide was a history fanatic and eagerly shared a multitude of information that had NOTHING to do with The Sound of Music, but was extremely interesting to learn about the city and what all was around.

For starters, we saw the child hood home of Mozart.  We also saw the building where the doctor who invented ultrasounds lived.

Our first stop on the tour was the Palace that was used as the back of the Van Trapp family house in SOM.  This was also the lake where the kids fell into the water.  Miles and Brooklyn were asleep in the car so we left the van door open while walking along the water.

The Salzburg Castle

Our next stop on the tour was the home used as the front of the VanTrapp family home.  Since our tour guide had a taxi license he was willing to drive us right up to the house and circled around the premises.  This building is now a Music School.  Next, we visited the Gazebo where the song "I am 16 Going on 17" was filmed.  The Gazebo was donated to the city and moved from its original location and now sits in local park.  You can't go inside it, but it was still neat to see.  

Outside the park and alongside the road from the Yellow House is the lane where Maria sang "I Have Confidence".

Our next part of the tour was to drive up to The Lake District.  It was a very scenic drive and we got to see unique places, including Red Bull Headquarters.  Behind us is the mountain where Hitler did something (can't remember what it was for the life of me).

During the tour, we stopped at a restaurant and ate some lunch.  The view was breathtaking and behind us you'll see one of the lakes that was used in the movie.  Along our drive we saw the mountains where Maria sang "The Hills are Alive" and where the kids met for "song lessons" and play time.  It was all just beautiful!

Here's the church where they filmed the Van Trapps getting married.  The actual church was somewhere else in the city along our tour that we passed in the van.

After visiting the church, our tour became extremely interesting.  Our guide told us he had another tour  group to pick up at 2pm.  It was now 1:20pm.  We still had a 25 minute drive back to the city and also had one more stop on our tour-- the Mirabell Gardens, the scene where Maria and the kids run through the hedge tunnel as well as the steps where they sing "Do Re Me".  Our tour guide ended up taking the highway back to the city versus the scenic route, which was actually fine by me since I tend to get car sick.  After almost getting in a wreck he drove us up to the entrance of the Gardens, literally threw us, our kids, 2 strollers, 2 car seats, and all our bags from the day (including jackets, umbrellas, baby carriers, diaper bags) out of the car.  It was now 2:00pm.  Brooks and I were just in shock.  He preceded to tell us we'd have to get back to our hotel on our own.  HAHA. Brooks and I just laughed at each other.  We knew there was no point in getting upset about it, we couldn't control it and at this point our driver had already driven off.  Thankfully, our hotel was 2 blocks away.  We made the most out of the rest of our tour after organizing and regrouping all our stuff into the least amount possible, we dumped Miles car seat at the entrance of the Gardens and prayed and hoped that no one would take it.  We attached Brooklyns carrier to the handles of our umbrella stroller (thank goodness I saw that done on the Duggars a long time ago) and off we went.  The Mirabell Gardens were beautiful.  It was clean and pretty, with gorgeous flowers and interesting statues all over.  The view of the Salzburg Castle through the fountains and buildings was BREATHTAKING.

After making several trips to the hotel to get all of our stuff back, we decided to let the kids all nap in the strollers while Brooks and I continued touring the city.  We wanted to make the most of our time in Salzburg since we were leaving the next morning.  Since it wasn't raining this day, we decided to go back to the Old Town and Domplatz and finish seeing all the sights we missed the day before.  We were so glad we did.  We didn't realize how much we had missed out on.  The views were gorgeous around town and we were really able to take in the whole city.  We visited St. Peter's Abbey right before they closed and spent some time in the square outside of it and let the kids run around.  It was almost 6:00pm, the sun was going down, it was getting cooler, the kids were running around playing, s Brooks and I took some time to enjoy uninterrupted time just the two of us to take everything in.

Our 3 troopers.  They didn't let the cold weather bother them!  They were as happy as could be!

After having dinner at a fun restaurant and checking out a few other sights in the city during the evening, we headed back to our hotel, packed our bags, went to bed really late and prepared for our next trip to Fussen, Germany.  Salzburg was a fun place to visit and we so wish we would have had more time in the city and maybe even the surrounding areas.

**On a side note: the week we got back from our trip we watched The Sound of Music again to look for all the sights we visited.  It was pretty cool to say, "hey, we've been there!"