for Amy

I never had the chance to blog about our adventures with Amy & Paul, and she won't let me live it down until it's on the good ol' interwebs. Thank you for the weekly reminders, Ames. I did want it here for when I print this blog into a book to keep forever.

Ever since we were preadolescent teeny boppers we've dreamed about the cul-de-sac that we'd live on, intertwining our lives with each other as our kids run around causing mayhem and growing up as 'siblings.' There's certainly still time for that, but for now, we're enjoying the joys of 'adulthood' that include growing up and traveling together, especially when it includes our spouses. Pretty soon, Kelly and Jesse will be joining the realm of holy matrimony-- just think of what shenanigans we'll get into on future travels!

So, back to our trip. 

It was lovely to go through these pictures again, pulling out my favorites and reminiscing on what an amazing trip it was. Amy's the best at taking tons of pictures and making sure that people are in them, which I totally am not; I'm thankful for her insistence even if at the time I was not :) 

She also did most of the planning, which was nice for a change not to be in charge! 

We started in Munich, still my favorite city in Germany and one that I'm happy to return to again and again. Well, before that, we borrowed our friends' dirndl and lederhosen to hit up the Frankfurt spring fest in style, and so they could see just how much more fun you can have when you're in costume. 

My husband is one good-looking' German, no?

Lederhosen gives you super powers

I'd never been to Munich in the spring; it wasn't full of tourists like usual, and we had the chance to see different things. If you're ever there, I recommend renting a bike and cruising the entire city. We saw a lot of the Englischer gardens that I hadn't seen before, and of course, stopped in our favorite Chinese biergarten. 

Favs from Munich:

This picture cracks me up every time... Paul being ridiculous in front of the Michael Jackson memorial while Amy looks on tearfully (except she wasn't really crying, she 'had something in her eye.') 

BMW museum is pretty cool (and free!) plus adjacent to the Olympic park.

We also checked out Schloss Nymphenburg, which was pretty and had lovely gardens to explore.

photobombed 

A trip to Munich is not complete without time spent at the Hofbrau. And Schneider-Weiss, in my humble opinion. 

Back to Frankfurt for a couple nights, with of course the obligatory Rhine excursion to drink as much wine as possible and hike the vineyards. We missed the cool castle in St. Goar by 5 minutes, but the wine tasting in Bacharach made up for it. 

Thursday (Thursday? I can't remember) we were off to Bruges, another one of our favorites! Boat tour, a little bit of walking, delicious beer and ribs. Done and done.

Fidel is the coolest dog ever. 

2be-- Our favorite spot to people-watch in Bruges with a giant Troubador Trippel. Amy and Paul went off to explore, and we sat for hours. My kind of holiday. 

Can you spot the monkey?

Mike and I got up early to check out Ghent, which is 20 minutes away from Bruges. If you're reading this and considering doing the same, we highly recommend doing so. It's a really cool small town with a different feel than Bruges. And less American tourists, which is a win for everyone. 

This might be my favorite picture of all time?

From Bruges we took the train to Amsterdam where they were celebrating King's Day! Holy cow, you need to make it a point to visit on this holiday at some point in your life. It was a massive daytime celebration, where everyone sells their items in the streets, children set up booths to try to make some money, such gooooooood street food, and the boats fill up every inch of the canals with people of all ages partying. We sat and watched for hours!

My favorite- picnics in the park! This guy snuggled with me (or he wanted my sandwich.)

 Sunday we went to Keukenhof Gardens with the most beautiful flowers EVER. Amy wanted to take a picture of everyone, Paul had fun doing 'flyovers' with his camera.

I was a bit cranky until I had ice cream. 

I forgot to mention that Amy's wonderful friend Mirela came from Florence to visit Amy. She was the nicest person ever, and I hope to see her again one day!

Mike was just as excited as I was to be taking so many pictures

And finally, Monday we squeezed in a Mike's Bike Tour, a company I highly recommend! Take the countryside tour. You see windmills and cheese factories and lots of green. 

 Seriously a joy to spend time with my bestie on an epic adventure. So many memories and funny stories-- can't wait for more travels together, especially with our third musketeer!

Adventures with Annie: The Munich & Garmisch-Partenkirchen Edition

Annie arrived on a Friday afternoon in a daze from traveling on a nonstop flight from Seattle. I allowed her to take a nap before setting out and exploring our city, starting off with the Apfelwein festival-- how perfect that she was here for that! (Apfelwein is Frankfurt's claim to fame-- kind of like cider but more sour and not that great, in my opinion.) The weather was perfect-- it had cooled off just for her, and the sunset over the river was the most brilliant that I'd seen thus far.

Blurry, but you get the idea. 

mmmmm... apfelwein is delicious... not 

Having one of your own visit your new space is surreal-- the places and people you've been talking about for months come to life and are no longer made-up, and you see your own city through new eyes.  I showed it off as best I could, this environment so completely different than home. We laughed at how she lives in a "German town" in Washington, plus one in Chile, and she was a server at a German hotel in Vail. Weird, huh? She kept saying, "This looks like Leavenworth." Well, duh. You're in the motherland.



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Our adventure of epic proportions  began in Munich-- I thought it appropriate to start there, since it's pretty much the epitome of stereotypical Germany.

Men truly strut around in their leiderhosen like it's no big deal, pounding liters of beer and robustly singing German drinking songs while violently clanging their glasses together. 

It's simple fantastic-- and while not like the rest of Germany (just like the south is different than the rest of the States) it's the Bavarian culture that lured Mike and I to this country in the first place. 

It's crude, I know. But hilarious. Just your typical bachelor party. 

 We ate pretzels every hour, we drank liters of beer. And took a bike tour, because bike tours are the best way to get an overview of a city. Sunday we spent the day in the Englischer Garten with the rest of Munich, watching the German oompah-band at the Chinese beirgarten, the 'surfers' on the river, an the naked people laying out in the park. Well, not watching them, per se, but they were there.

 Sometimes I need to rest my fat head on something, too. 

Annie and Mike were even adventurous enough to jump in this freezing cold, swiftly flowing river because everyone else was doing it.  Did I mention it was freezing cold? Good thing someone had to stay behind with the stuff (and take pictures...)

I've been dreaming of this pretzel with chive cream cheese since we last visited Munich 3 years ago. Not as delicious as I remembered, but still good enough to eat twice a day. 

Paddle boating-- Mike didn't have to do any work, just sat in the back like a creeper

Sadly, Mike had to leave us at the weekend's end (work is so borrrrrrring.) Have I mentioned how much I love my hubs for supporting us on our adventures?  He's the bomb diggity. Yep, I just said 'bomb diggity,' and it felt so right.  

Annie and I traveled 2 hours south of Munich to Garmisch-Partenkirchen, where the Bavarian Apls separate Germany from Austria. The highest peak on the German side is here,  the Zugspitze (zoog-spitz-uh-- took me forever to get it right!) We used this town as a hub for hiking -- it was quaintly Bavarian, and I couldn't get over the awesomeness of the alpine cows!

I didn't even mind being woken up at 6am by clanging cowbells. They drank from this fountain, then continued on their rambling way up to greener pastures. Some of the cows are taken up to the top of the mountains for the summer (more pictures of them to come later!) and then brought back down in September, with lovely festivals to commemorate the events. The cows wear flowers on their heads.

 I'm dying to go to one.

Time to go home, boys and girls. 

That first day, we found a lovely trail. And a slackline.

And that's the end of part one. More to come later, detailing our uphill hike up to the top of the mountains, more cows, and being chased by the sheep mafia.