The Bultmans and Gunninks (Part 7)

Friday was the last full day that our visitors were here, so we had to get some hiking in.  It was a beautiful day, so we headed over to Pfaender to climb the mountain.  This is a mountain that Brian and I have climbed several times and it's quite close to where we live, so it's easy to get to and climb in a day.  We started right away in the morning so that we could go out for dinner for our last night together and work on some laundry before everyone left.

The hike up the mountain was quite nice.  We took our time and it wasn't too cold until we got to the top where there was still a bit of snow.  It was also quite windy at the top, so we tried to stay in the sun, but out of the wind.  We walked around to look at the animals a bit and the boys went all the way to the top of the mountain instead of just to where the top of the cable car is.

Here's some pictures from the top.

Beth, Katie, Justin, Shawnna

Katie decided that she wanted to take the cable car down the mountain, so I said that I would go with her (then I didn't have to hike down the mountain either!).  The other three decided that they were going to jog down the mountain.  Katie and I took the cable car and then were able to sit in the car to eat lunch while we waited for the others.  We actually didn't wait too long because they came down the hill quite quickly.  Their knees hurt a bit by the end, but they enjoyed their run down.

Once we got home, we had a few hours to shower and for them to work on packing and laundry before we had reservations down the road to eat dinner.  We had a really good dinner and were able to get all the laundry done before we went to sleep.

On Saturday early morning, I drove the 4 of them to Memmingen where they got on a plane to Malaga, Spain where they spent the next week before the Gunninks went on a cruise and the Bultmans headed back home to their dogs.  We had a great time with them while they were here and were happy to share our life here with them!

Hohentwiel Fortress

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The Bultmans and Gunninks (Part 6)

Sorry about the delay in the midst of these posts.  I had run out of space to upload pictures, so I had to get rid of a few so that I could add in some new ones.  There will be a new post soon about ways that you can see more of our pictures since I'm running out of space here and too cheap to pay for more space!

Thursday started slow for us since we had gotten back so late from Munich.  It was nice to sleep in and take things easy in the morning.  In the afternoon, we started our day to Switzerland.  Our first stop wasn't actually in Switzerland, but it was very close and on the way to our other destinations.

Our first stop was the Hohentwiel Fortress.  I had not been here before, so it was fun to do something new.  We had heard about this from friends of ours here, so I thought we should check it out.  It is an old fortress that is now in ruins.  I think it was from the 1500s, but I don't know for sure.  The signs were all in German, so we didn't learn a whole lot about the place, but we had a great time exploring!

When we bought the tickets, the lady told us that we had to hurry and something about 3:00.  Since my German isn't always the greatest, I thought she meant that the fortress closed at 3:00 and it was already 2:30.  We went very fast up the very steep road to the fortress and tried to see as much as possible in that half hour.  We started to wonder about my understanding of the German when there were still people in the fortress after 3:00 and we weren't being kicked out.  I managed to ask someone (in German!) how long the fortress was open, and found out that it was actually open until 4:00, so we didn't need to rush.

Here's a bunch of pictures of the fortress.  I can't wait to go back and explore it some more!

After spending our time at the Hohentwiel Fortress (and getting tons of pictures!), we headed back to the car to head to the Rhine Falls.  We walked around the falls and took pictures.  Since I already blogged about the Rhine Falls when Brian and I went there, I decided I didn't need to add in more pictures of it.

After leaving Rhine Falls, we headed to the small town of Stein am Rhein.  This is a very cute Swiss town that lies right on the Rhine River.  I had never been here before either.  We didn't get there until after all the stores in town were closed, but we still got to get some Swiss chocolate at a grocery store and got to see the outsides of the buildings which were quite cute.  Justin and Shawnna will be staying with a friend's parents in this town later in their trip, so they will get to see more of the town during the day.

On our way back to the car, we got to see a beautiful sunset over the river.  I love sunsets!

After a full afternoon in Switzerland, we headed back home for dinner with Brian.

The Bultmans and Gunninks (Part 5)

Tuesday was a rather slow day for us.  We took it easy and didn't do a whole lot because some of our guests needed to catch up on some work and we didn't have a whole lot planned.  In the afternoon, I took the girls to the grocery store to get some snacks and other things for the rest of the week.  We also went to the best cake shop in town to pick out some cake for Katie's birthday since we hadn't had any yet.  Justin got his wish of carrot cake even though I had never actually seen it here before.

Wednesday was quite a busy day for us, but we were well rested from Tuesday.  We left on time in the morning and drove the the concentration camp at Dachau.  I had been there before, but it was interesting to go through it again with people who had never seen anything like it.  We spent several hours of the morning going through the whole thing and reading the signs that they have posted all over.

Once we were done, we ate a bit of lunch in the parking lot and then headed over to a parking lot by the train station where we could park our car for free and then take the train into the heart of Munich.  I was not too excited about driving into Munich, so it was nice to be able to take the train.  We had an interesting experience when we were buying our ticket because there was a man who really wanted to sell us his ticket (I wasn't going for that!) and then he was yelling at us (for everyone else to hear!) that we were on the wrong track to get into Munich.  Thankfully, we decided to get some food at McDonald's before we got on the train and by the time we were done, the man was gone.

Once we got into Munich, we wandered around and looked at different buildings and things.  It was a beautiful day and a nice one to just kind of wander around.  We stayed in the center of Munich for a while and then headed to the island in the river that runs through Munich.  The boys had a lot of fun taking some pictures there.

Kyle got this funny picture of Katie and I just before we found a store that sold dirndl and lederhosen which I told them about.

We discovered this strange bull statue with a flat back, so of course we had to take a picture!

The McDonald's in the center of Munich was pretty cool with the different languages on its sign.

I like this statue on the peak of one of the roofs...a boat!

We ran into a farmer's market type thing and I had to take a picture of this stand for our niece, Erika.

We met a friend of Justin's sister, Jenna, for dinner.  His name is Sebastian and he lives in Munich and met Jenna when they were both studying in Australia together.  He took us out to eat which was quite nice because his German is obviously much better than mine!  It was interesting to order in a different part of Germany because the food was quite different from where we live even though it is only about 2 hours away.  I didn't know what most of the things were because they weren't familiar!  Katie needed a picture with a beer (actually a Radler - half beer, half lemonade) since she hadn't taken one yet.

After dinner, we headed back to our car via the train and the made the 2 hour drive back home.  We played a trivia game in the car because I needed someone to keep talking in order to keep me awake to make the drive home.  My passengers did a great job of talking the whole way home!

The Bultmans and Gunninks (Part 4)

Sunday was a pretty slow day for us since we hadn't gotten home until 11 pm the night before after a long and tiring day, so we decided to sleep in.  We had "German breakfast" for brunch (weisswurst, brezel, und bier) and then lazed around into the afternoon.  In the afternoon, I took our guests to Lindau to see the parade that the "friends" we had made on the train the night before were in.  It was a parade for Fasnacht with lots of different costumes.  They enjoyed seeing it, but it was quite cold to be sitting at a parade.  In the evening, we went to Ueberlingen for our normal church service.  We had quite the crowd since we had brought 4 extra people and the Van Wyks had 2 extras.  It was probably the biggest our little church has ever been!  I made Rice Krispie treats for a snack which was pretty exciting because it was the first time I had found Rice Krispies here!

Monday was a beautiful day to see some castles!  After dropping off the snowshoes we had rented, we headed to Neuschwanstein which is the castle that the Disney castle was modeled after.  This was definitely one of the more touristy things we did with our guests, but it was a beautiful day to do it!  Brian and I had visited Neuschwanstein the first time we were in Germany and were quite disappointed because it was very foggy.  The day I took our guests there was absolutely beautiful and I was finally able to realize how close the castle is to the town and the bridge.

We had some beautiful views of the Alps on our drive out there.

Once we got there, we decided to tour Neuschwanstein, but not Hohenschwangau (a smaller and less famous castle there).  I chose not to do the tour since I had already done it once before.  We got some great pictures of the castles from the town.

We then made our way up the big hill to Neuschwanstein to get some pictures before the tour.  The castle was beautiful, but so were the surrounding mountains!

And, of course, some pictures of us by the castle!

After the tour, we made our way to the Marienbruecke which is an iron bridge over a very scary valley from which you can see Neuschwanstein.  I am not a big fan of heights, but made myself walk about 5 feet onto the bridge, take 2 pictures of the castle, and then get off right away.  When Brian and I had been there before, you couldn't even see the castle or the bottom of the valley because it was so foggy, so I wanted to be sure that I got some pictures to show Brian how close it was.  The boys loved the bridge and wanted to explore the trails on the other side of it, but the girls and I were not too keen on that idea.

A view of the castle from the bridge.

Some views of the bridge from the castle.

Looking straight down from the bridge...eeek!

After we had taken lots of pictures and checked out everything we wanted to in the city, we headed back home to meet Brian for dinner.  We decided to go to an Italian place that Brian and I know in town.  We had some excellent food and the boys finally got to try some dark beers!