Christmas 2014

Our Christmas gift to each other this year was a fun trip!  I wanted to FINALLY see Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany (been waiting 20 years for this), and Hubby wanted to go snowboarding for the first time in about 17 years.  I also wanted to see some of the fabulous German Christmas markets, which is how this trip ended up being before Christmas instead of later in the year when the were better chances of snow.

We started in Munich, but weren't there for long.  We took the train from the airport to the hotel, luckily Hubby figured it out pretty easily.  

The adventure begins!

I was already so excited before we even left the train station in Munich, it was so lively and festive! I love trying the local food when I travel, I already saw a few places I wanted to hit up later. 

One of the great things about originating in Ireland is that the flight is short, and the time change is only 1 hour, so no jet lag!  Unfortunately, we were both up pretty late the night before, and our flight was early, so we were tired.  We ended up taking a nap anyway!  We still had time to check out 3 different Christmas markets, all of which were so different from each other.  The first was a medieval market, which had some things you might find at a renaissance festival, and had stalls designed to look like an medieval town.

The second one was...weird.  

But Hubby liked it because there was a spot with fun ambiance for him to sit and have a beer while I wandered.

After our nap we went back out and saw the best market of all, on Marienplatz.  I wish we had more time here, it was the largest of all the ones we saw, and had some great crafts.  But it had started to rain and it we were hungry, so we moved on.

We had to go to the famous Hofbräuhaus!  Unfortunately, the portion of the restaurant that had the ompa band and all the singing was closed off for a private party, but we still got to here some music from a smaller band and enjoyed the food and beers.  Even I enjoyed the beer, which is rare.

The next day was castle day!!!!!!!!!!!!  I've been wanting to go here ever since a project I did in 8th grade German class, and now I was finally going!  It was such a gorgeous day for it, I'd like to think it was being gorgeous just for me :)

We took a train there, and although it was 2 hours each way, we hardly noticed.  We could not stop looking out the window and enjoying the scenery, and on the way back we were talking to the new friends we just made.

Every train trip we took had gorgeous views.

We ended up taking the "shortcut" up the mountain, which was shorter but much steeper!  The good news was that now we can say we went hiking in the alps, and Hubby, at the suggestion of the tour guide, filled up our water bottle from a fresh alpine spring!  It was cool and refreshing.

The group took advantage of the break while a few of us filled up our water bottles.  They were all as ready for a break from the climb as we were.

Luckily the bridge was open that day, this is where you get the iconic views of the castle, but it will be closed in bad weather.  It was jam packed, but once you fought your way on and made it about half way through, the crowd thinned out and there was plenty of time for pictures (especially selfies).

You can just barely see the castle behind my head in the one of us together, oh well.  See how crowded the bridge was!

The castle itself was okay, it was strange because it was a newish castle that was just made to look old, it even had electricity.  And a room that was made to look like a cavern...they didn't call him MAD King Ludwig for nothing.  The best part was the views from up there, I would be happy living there just so I could look out at this every day.  I know, I keep going on about views from everywhere, but I love them!

It was worth the trip for sure, even though it did take up most of the day, and now I can finally say I've been to Germany.  The next day we only had enough time to wander around Munich a bit to find breakfast and hit one more market, then it was off to Austria!

We stayed in Kitzbühel, which has been called the Vail of Europe.  We don't really care about expensive shops or rubbing elbows with rich people, but Hubby knew I wasn't going to be hitting the slopes, and this was the town in the area he was looking at which offered the most for me to do while he was snowboarding.  The town was charming, but small.  

They were big on antlers (like over the door in the top picture) and cow hides.  Not carpets that look like cow hides, actual cow hides being used as carpets. There was also one hanging over the bench aside the fireplace in the hotel lobby.  They were everywhere.

The Christmas Market was small, but had some aplacas I could hang out with while I drank my gluhwein and ate a Lebkuchen.

We loved our hotel, and were really impressed with the breakfast and dinners that were included with our stay.  Not just some cheap dinner thrown at you, it definitely was like fine dining every night.

Hubby and the tables both got dressed up for Christmas dinner.

We would wander around some every day, but I spent more time in the amazing spa and just hanging out in the room relaxing, where I picked up a few words (like Santa) by watching Christmas shows I know that were dubbed in German.  When I saw Santa in the hotel lobby handing out gifts to all the kids, I was able to ask, "Weinachsman, haben mir ein photo?"  I said, "Santa, me have a picture?"  Not the best grammar, but it did the trick.  I thought it was funny that Santa in German in Weihnachtsmann.  Weihnachten is how you say Christmas in German (litterally hallowed nights), so for Santa they are saying "Christmas man."

But the spa was by far the best part.  If we go to Austria on a snowboarding holiday again, I want to stay here just so I can spend most of my time at the warm poolside and saunas while Hubby freezes in the snow :)

What a difference a day makes.  Before and after the snowfall.

Unfortunately, he didn't spend too much time in the snow because they were having a freak year where they weren't getting snow.  I guess all the weather luck went into our castle tour day.  They did make some fake snow, but Hubby said it wasn't great, and not many of the runs were open.  It didn't' snow until Christmas day, and didn't accumulate much until the next day, when he tried again. Unfortunately, it was so foggy that day he couldn't see where he was going!  Oh well, we'll go back and try again another time.  I wouldn't mind some more time in the spa ;)