Thursday, August 2, 2012

Message from München

We're on the trip of a lifetime, showing our favorite places to one of our favorite families. Our son Josh, his wife Christie and their three kids McKay (14) Chase (almost 13) and Hannah (10) met us in Switzerland. (I put a bunch of photos of Lucerne on Instagram, and wrote on Facebook about our stay in Salzburg, Austria.)

Now we're in Germany, and the WIFI in our hotel is $25 a day! Luckily there's a computer in the lobby so I can keep this trip journal going. On a daytrip from Munich Stie, Hannah and I toured the original Sleeping Beauty castle (Neuschwanstein) and Linderhof, another of Mad King Louis' fairytale castles.The weather was perfect and the crowds were non-existant! We stopped and shopped in Oberammergau, a tiny town famous for its painted buildings, wood carvings and Passion Play.

The guys spent three hours looking at historic BMW motorcycles and watching BMW cars being made. Chase and McKay are now planning to build themselves a car. They searched online all evening for ideas. The only thing that could pull them away from car websites was a huge selection of Bavarian pastries. The food so far has been a major attraction! Tomorrow we fly to England where the restaurants aren't so tempting.

It's amazing how well this family gets along. No arguing, complaining, pouting, tension. Even when it's hot and there's a wait, or a long-ish tour with a strange-ish tour guide, nobody whines. There is constant laughter and good-natured teasing. I'm not exaggerating. We're into our second week together and I haven't heard a cross word.

Travel, especially foreign travel is stressful--close quarters, constant togetherness, no privacy, unfamiliar conditions and different kinds of people. These guys are all great sports, patient, looking for fun, ignoring irritations. Every night a different kid shares our room and it's a party. We split a coke and a cookie from the minibar, and try to be the last one awake.

5 comments:

  1. Sounds WONDERFUL! Have a great time.
    Blessings,
    a little bird

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  2. I love the idea of the rotating roomie! We have traveled a lot with our family with only minor frustrations and irritations. You have to genuinely love travel and family, which we do.

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  3. I'm so glad you are all enjoying yourselves! It sounds like a great bunch to travel with! I'll be moving to China soon to teach for a year and I hope I deal with the stresses of traveling as well as you all seem to!

    Your last paragraph especially makes me smile :)

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  4. You are too kind. I'm sure we were all kinds of irritating. It was such a fun trip. You guys are the best tour guides ever. We can't stop talking about it!

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