Pharmacy Conference in Garmisch

 Ben had a Pharmacy conference in Garmisch, Germany and the kids and I tagged along. We left Friday after Ben came home from work and drove to this really nice hotel we stayed at. Then Saturday Ben got up and went to the conference. The kids and I drove to a gorge called Partnachklamm. We walked about 1 mile up to the gorge and then it said that we had to leave the stroller. So I positioned Nyah on my hip and thought it wouldn't be too bad. When Ty saw the beginning part of the gorge he started freaking out. Like wailing and crying. But lately he has a tendency to not want to do anything and then afterwards realize that it was actually pretty fun. So, mean mom that I am, I dragged through the gorge. At parts it was REALLY dark and a little scary. I gave Ty the tiny flashlight that I have on my keys in hopes it would make him less scared. I made sure he realized that if were to drop my keys we would be in serious trouble. Ü Through some of the tunnels I sang to Ty hoping it would calm him down a little. They were both plugging their ears......not because of my beautiful singing (I try to convince myself) but because of the sound of the water. Laney later told me that she was plugging her ears and singing to herself. 3/4 of the way through Nyah fell asleep. When we got out on the other side I expected a little trail back to the beginning but we were left with the choice of going back through the gorge or picking one of the many trails that were leading all over the German Alps. By this time, Nyah had gained at least 30 lbs and my arms had gained 30 inches. We found a trail that was leading up a mountain that I seemed to remember having a tram coming down from it.....and the sign promised that it would only take 20 minutes. Ty took one look at the trail and decided that he actually was quite fond of the gorge and would rather walk back that way than up the many stairs that were leading up the mountain. He was outvoted. We hiked, the kids ran ahead, my arms grew longer and longer, sweat was trickling down my back (I was thinking about all the millions of pounds I was sure to be loosing), my legs could barely move, the kids would tell me how far they thought we had left.

 We finally made it to the top......and it was gorgeous!!!

 This was the view the other direction.

 Then we found this little tram. It was not maned, you just had to open the door and walk in and when you closed the door it would start going.

 The kids loved it. When we got back down we bought an ice cream and went back to the car. As we were walking back Ben called and I told him all that we had seen. Laney said the background, "It was totally worth it!" ....and that made it totally worth it to me. When we got to the car and reached in my purse to get my keys. I pulled them out and thought they looked a bit smaller, skinnier than usual. Then I realized my car key was missing! I think my heart seriously skipped a beat. I thought about my poor car key at the bottom of the gorge. But then I looked in the bottom of my purse and saw my key that had fallen off my bundle of keys. Phew! (Oh I should mention that Ty had a wonderful time and know looks back on this experience as a good one.....not a traumatic one.)

 After our adventures at the gorge we still had half the day left so we found the walking street in Garmisch and walked down it. It was cool how so many of the buildings and houses had paintings on them. This one was a store that sold lederhosen and dirndlen.

This is my favorite mountain in Garmisch. Doesn't it look cool and rugged and a little scary?!

 Up on the mountain you can see a whitish building....that was our hotel. It was a spa hotel so there was a pool and the kids were überexcited to go swimming. So after our many adventures that day and after Ben came back from his conference we took the kids to the pool. They loved it. We had to drag them back out. Everybody had so much fun...even Nyah, even though she got worried every time Ben dived under the water.

 The next morning Ben had another conference so the kids and I headed up to Eibsee. It was gorgeous.

 We walked around the lake for a while, just enjoying the beautiful scenery, throwing rocks in the lake, and trying to make the clouds part so we could get a good peak at Zugspitze (the highest point in Germany).

 Eibsee

 Ben was done by lunchtime on Sunday so we drove him up Eibsee so he could see it too, but on the way there it started raining. He jumped out to catch a quick peak while we drove around and then picked him back up. Since we had plenty of time to get home we decided to go exploring when we saw a sign that said "Linderhof Castle - 16 km". After a couple of kilometers we drove through Ettal and saw this beautiful cathedral. We jumped out, looked around for a while and continued on to the castle.

 We finally made it to LInderhof castle which turned out to be one of King Ludwig's castle (He also had Neuschwanstein castle built) and I must say that he sure knew how to build castle.

Linderhof castle from the back.

 Ben and the kids in front of the fountain where Ty was very intrigued by the fact that water was coming out of the horses mouths and noses. We decided that it probably was less than comfortable for the poor horses.

 We wandered around for a long time and saw the beautiful castle, the gardens, waterfall, fountains and so on. We were so glad that we made that detour.

Ben controlling the monkeys. There was also a 'grotto' where you had to buy tickets to get in. We didn't buy tickets since we weren't quite sure what it was but as we wandered around and saw the 'grotto' we realized that it was a stalactite cave. Ty immediately freaked out and backed away with a horrid look on his face and kept saying, "we not going in there." (to refresh your memory of why Ty would be scared....look here.) 
We had a wonderful time in Garmisch and would love to go back and explore the area further. Ü