Garmisch day 3 & 4

On Sunday it was really nice to sleep in a little, church didn't start until 11 am.  I think we all needed a little extra sleep!  Church there was great!!!  The pastor and all the people were so welcoming and hilarious!!!  It was raining pretty good that morning, but that was okay because we were inside.  Then they had lunch for us afterwards.  Then we all headed back to the hotel and decided it was time for the pool!  The kids had been asking for awhile.  I was a little worried that it would be really crowded because it was raining, but it really wasn't too bad.  So we spent over three hours in the pool if not more and had a blast!  We were all pretty tired from there so we rested a little and headed for dinner, which took waaaaaaaaaay too long.  It was pretty bad service, but that didn't ruin our time!  Then it was game night!  I love game nights!!!  They are so much fun!!

 

The kids were watching Gator Boys and playing on their tablets,

 

Gracie was so exhausted she was out like a light and

 

the adults played games!!!  I had never played Mexican Train before and it was really fun!!  I look forward to beating Vic next time we play.  I told him he only beat me because it was my first time!!!  :-)

 

On Monday we packed everything up, had breakfast and said our goodbyes.

 

 

Look at how tired are kids are, we kept them up a little late the night before.  They are troopers though and the first thing we had planned for the day was for them.  So into the vans and off we went to the rollerbans.  For those of you who aren't sure what they are it is like a bobsled on wheels and you can go really, really, really fast!!  Again if you survive childhood in Germany you can survive anything.  ;-)

 

 

David and Michael getting ready to go up on their first run!

 

David, Michael, Porchea and Alex coming down.  Yes, David was trying to hit them, okay so not really--the two boys like a lot of speed and Porchea not up to it as much.  :-)

 

Victor and Gracie joined the group at the bottom!

 

The four of us coming down and just for the record he only caught up with me right there at the orange things.  ;-)

 

One cool thing is there was a park right there so the kids who weren't going up could play.  We only had four adults and five kids so one adult and two kids had to stay down each time.

 

All of us, minus Porchea, in line for another ride!!!

 

I am not sure which one should have been in the back.  LOL  The big boys said they could do this all day long with a day pass, unfortunately they don't have those and you have to pay per person, per time.  But I think we all went at least three times-ish.  When David went down with AJ, he went faster with him then I did and on the way down, AJ said you are going to kill me.  David doesn't use the brakes, it is as fast as he can go!!  Though Gracie said she had the most fun going with Mr. Dave.  I think it is because he could go the fastest!  We were right next the Olympic ski jump, so we walked over to check out the stadium.

 

The boys with their ski jump pose!!!  I am sure with that form both would have had really long jumps!

 

I thought this was interesting.  It is a museum, but we weren't able to go in it.

 

Then on the road again, I wanted to go see Linderhoff Castle when there weren't boxes around all the statues and let me tell you the outside looked like a whole different castle!!  I can see why he used it as his summer castle!

 

This is the fountain behind us, in front of us is the castle.  When we came before there was no water, no flowers and boards up on all the statues and we couldn't even walk where we were.

 

Such neat statues all around the property

 

The kids - still smiling!

 

I loved this lion and couldn't help myself

 

Here the lion is protecting Gracie - too cute!

 

They had these all over the place and almost all of them were very different.

 

This is on top, so if you look at the first picture of us as a family it is way up there, or the picture below is on the same level as this garden

 

This is looking back at his castle - not a huge one, but as you may remember--beautiful inside and it was for one person and only in the summer months.

 

The fountain blows every so often, neat sight!  It blows up 100 feet in the air.

 

All the statues were so different there, from stone, to gold, etc.

 

I really like this one, the boys thought it was cool too because water was coming out of the horses noses!  The water also came from the top of the hill all the way down.

 

A little closer view so you can see the water  :-) 

 

Very different gardens on each side of the castle

 

This one was on the other side.  I am so glad that we went back in the summer so I could see the beautiful statues and the gardens.  It was a truly glorious sight!  Then as we were headed home we came across another wonder of God's world.  The lake was so clear we had to stop for a few photo ops.

 

Porchea and I enjoying the view

 

My hubby and I!!!

 

And we always get girl shots, so we had to get a boys shot!

 

The kids stayed in the car, but the big kids couldn't help but throw rocks in the lake.  I don't think they ever out grow that!  Then we really were down to business heading home.  The only problem was the traffic wasn't going to allow us to get home in a timely manner.  So we were stuck in a two hour stau (traffic jam) and made it home way too late, especially since it was Michael's first day of kindergarten the next day.  We did have a great time but were all worn out when we arrived home.