Garmisch

So the trip to Italy is a LONG drive, so we decided to make a pit stop in Garmsich as a half way point.  We started out on June 13th, two days after school ended.  But before we got there we decided to check out the longest Tibet-style footbridge in the world.  IT is in the Guinness book of World Records.  It is 1, 318.9 feet long.

You can see the bridge up and behind them.  There are people up there, you can see how far it is up.

We tried to leave the boys in the cage, but they found a way out of it.  ;-)

This is a key shaped loophole.  It was used in the middle 1400s, you put the barrel of the gun through the round hole and targeted through the slit.

When we walked through the gate, the boys saw the park they ran straight for it!!!

It was a pretty neat park, there was an obstacle course and everything!

Of course Michael just wanted to climb!!!  You can see the bridge above his left shoulder.

They found another boy that spoke English and were playing with him for awhile.

The Schnurfler is a legend about a gnome who had been living in the fortress before the castle was built.  He felt disturbed by the people and fought them by throwing rocks and causing rock falls.

This was the beautiful path up the hill!!!  Though the boys were complaining by the time we got to the top.  It was hot, I will give it to them.

This is the outer gate to the historic Fort Claudia.  They put it up about 200 years after the Fort was built in 1482.

A HUGE snail we came across on our path!!

A view of the fort from the start of the bridge.

The boys getting ready to go across the bridge.  AJ was a little nervous when he looked at the bridge, but was still willing to tackle it!!

The boys half way across, the bridge was really swaying with the wind blowing.

You can see the side of the fort and how much it has broken down over time.

We made it across, this is looking back at the bridge and the fort.

Michael always climbing - my little monkey!!

The boys and I heading back to the other side.

Here you can get a little bit of an idea of how far up we were.

I love their poses and it was such a gorgeous day!!

This was the kitchen drain in the fort.

A picture of the town from the fort - beautiful!!!

Michael wanted me to stay at the fort while he ran down to the field.  You can kind of see the dot of him in the middle of the grass.  ;-)

Michael pulling the sword out of the stone!!

David, Michael and AJ in front of the front gate of the fort.

The boys started walking down the hill and both of them grabbed my hand which I LOVE!!  And no I didn't make them do it!!!  LOL  After our brief stop we headed the rest of the way to Garmisch.

We found our hotel and what a view!!!

You can see the Olympic ski jump on the left in the background, absolutely beautiful!!!

We headed down into town for some dinner and to our enjoyment we had a little bit of entertainment!!!

And of course we played some cards while at dinner!!!

Later in the evening we had more entertainment with a couple of young kids dancing.  After a nice, relaxing dinner we headed back to the hotel for some sleep before we headed into Italy.