There and Back Again: Day 13 - Garmish and Innsbruck

Bethany:

Today we awoke to snow on the Alps! We had low hanging clouds so the top of the Zugspitze looks like it is suspended in air above the town. It is a beautiful sight. I didn't get a picture of it but here is one of the snow on the mountains.

View from our street

I was exhausted today so James and Camille took the boys out and let me nap. Ah, sweet sleep! Since I wasn’t around, I’ll let James tell you about today…

James:

The day started off disappointingly when we failed to find a solution for our internet problem. We have no internet in our apartment and we really needed to access our flight information as well as the confirmation for our next hotel. I can’t believe how much I rely on the internet until I don’t have it anymore.

Then I went out with my mother and the boys to give Bethany a break. We started out shopping for toys with Will and Jon. Toy stores in Germany are large and this one had play areas with Playmobile, Legos and Brio trains. The boys loved it but it is hard to leave a toy store without buying something. They couldn’t decide on an appropriate toy so we ended up leaving the store empty handed to a chorus of screams. Always fun.

Daddy and sons in Garmish

Playing in a toy store

The next stop was to a formal cafe which was a family tradition because of their extensive cake selection and their beautiful chandeliers. But needless to say I was a bit nervous about taking two small, previously screaming children into a cafe frequented by elderly grouchy Germans. But to my surprise the restaurant was full of young families as well as the disapproving, older Germans so at least my children would not be the only source of crying.

Eating in the Kroner

The Kroner

Apparently I had nothing to worry about, the boys were great during lunch. Then we got to get up and chose our cakes. and we all chose well, the cake was great. After lunch we shopped a bit more than headed home for a little break.

Enjoying their cake

Bethany:

My wonderful nap gave me enough energy to join the rest of the family for dinner tonight. We traveled to Innsbruck, a lovely little town across the border in Austria. We were late getting in so our first priority, naturally, was to get some ice cream before the shop closed. The place we choose had excellent ice cream (although Europe has nothing that can compare to real New England Ice Cream) and served it to us in the shape of a rose.

Cuddling Jon in Innsbruck

Jon in Innsbruck

Camille, Jon, James and Will in Innsbruck

Flower cone

Messy face!

We couldn’t go to dinner until we had finished our ice cream so to pass the time we window shopped at the closing souvenir stores. Will found a little scented bouquet of flowers that he had to buy. He went in the store all by himself to purchase it and he came out so proud and happy. The rest of the night his nose was buried in his little flowers. And he couldn’t stop talking about it! Here are some examples:

Will: If God held this under my nose all the time, I would always smell it!

Will: When we get to our real house, our blue house, our house that used to be a

farm, I’ll hang this up by my bed.

Will holding his flower

Shopping

We had dinner at a little Italian restaurant where we had a charming waiter but the food, alas, was not as good as the meal we had in Mittenwald. I think we’ve been a bit spoiled with our food so maybe our standards were too high.