Garmish

We finished up our stay in Salzburg with a nice hefty 4-hr van tour for Sound of Music. During our first day we saw many of the sights/landmarks in the city that were featured in the movie, but this tour took us to a lot of the scenes outside the city. It was fun for the first...2hrs but then it got long. Gaige was such a trooper and only fussed when we had to take him in and out of the carseat when he was napping - weird! By the end we were all hungry and tired and ready to get out of town. We headed west to Garmish and arrived early evening to this skiing/hiking town. I guess the Austrians and Germans often come to this area of the Alps for their vacations staying for 1-2weeks at a time.

We have had the most amazing accommodations on this trip. Charlie did all the planning and found us great apartments in prime locations in each city. This one did not disappoint, we have a two bed one and a half bath apartment in a bravarian style house complete with a kitchen, living room and back patio/yard. Each place we've stayed has also looked like it's been recently renovated within the past couple years - very comfortable. Though our new place is lacking the espresso machine we got every attached to.

The scenery here in this area is amazing. You have lush green meadows dotted with little log barns and cattle and sheep with little rivers that evolve into thick trees that are just starting to change color and big rocky mountain peaks at the top. It looks a lot like the Cascades except the peaks here are a little more dramatic.

Today we walked around town. I have to say Leavenworth did a fantastic job in recreating the feel of a bravarian town, it looks so similar. Only difference is everyone's houses in addition to the businesses are built in that German style.  There was a great farmers market going on while we walked through with anything you could want - it all looked so good. There is an Army base here so we stocked up on groceries at the commissary for pretty cheap so sadly we didn't indulge. From there we went on a hike up in the hills for the afternoon, passing the venue for some of the winter Olympic events that took place in '36 & '40. While out we saw someone's herd of sheep and there we're a couple of brand new lambs and who knew but they wiggle their tails (which were long, like a dogs tail) like crazy when they are feeding from mom. It was the funniest thing - it was almost as if they were saying to themselves - yummy, yummy, yummy, YUMMY! After our 5mile trek Chelsie, Gaige and I had a little happy hour in our little back yard to unwind while the boys headed in town to learn more about the hike they're doing tomorrow. They'll leave from town and hike up 10miles to the tallest point in Germany. Chelsie and I are going to go shopping and then take the train up to meet them in the afternoon. Apparently in the past it was an official border crossing between Germany and Austria, but they opened their borders a while back so no luck of getting an extra passport stamp. Though if you went up on the Austrian side it's about $10euros cheaper! After that we plan to take a day trip to tour the big castle and then sadly we'll be parting ways and heading back stateside. We had another beautiful sunny day and have really enjoyed just hanging out with the Gritzes just like old times.