The Honeymooners Return

Hi everyone! We had a wonderful honeymoon in the German Alps the last week in February. We stayed at the beautiful Edelweiss resort in Garmish-Partenkirchen, right on the German-Austrian border. Here are some pictures of the resort and the little cabin we rented for the week.


The weather was not at all what we expected, around 50 and sunny most of the week, but it was welcome weather for sightseeing. We spent some time exploring the town, which was brimming with Bavarian charm and tasty local cuisine....brotchen, bratwurst, and spatzle! Jason couldn't resist Pizza Hut for lunch one day...not surprisingly, it tastes exactly the same as in the US. Here are some pictures of Garmish.

The downtown area is full of Bavarian buildings that are several hundred years old.






Its tradition to paint the sides of stucco buildings with beautiful pictures, mostly depicting religious scenes. The standard greeting in this part of Germany is "Gruss Gott" or "with the greeting of God"

This is the "new" church in Garmish, the old one is on the other side of the river that runs through the town. By "new" they mean only 300 years old.


And this is our rental car! Its called a smartcar and yes, its as tiny as it looks. Its basically a pair of front seats with a frame around it. It drives like a golf cart, but it was actually really fun to drive around town in. I don't think I would take it out on the autobahn, though!

We also took a little day trip to Neuschwanstein, which is the beautiful castle that Disney based Cinderella's castle on. It was built in the mid-1800s by the "crazy" King Ludwig II, the last real King of Bavaria. It was actually never finished because he died under "mysterious" circumstances before the castle was complete. The parts that are finished are incredibly beautiful, though. They won't let you take pictures inside the castle, but here are some of the outside and the village below the castle.


And then, we took a little side trip to this amazing church where apparently a statue of Jesus cried in the early 1800s and people come from all over the world for its healing powers. The church was built in the baroque architecture, which seemed to be popular in this part of Germany.



So that was pretty much it for the honeymoon, although we did come away with one fantastic souvenir! We went to a woodcarver's shop as part of the day trip to Neuschwanstein and although there were lots of lovely cuckoo clocks, there was one clock that was so different we immediately fell in love with it. Of course, it turns out the clock we loved wasn't actually for sale because it belonged to the owner, not to mention that it wasn't working - but everything has a price and with a phone call to the owner we were able to purchase our beautiful broken clock and have it shipped home. Fortunately for us, it just needed a battery and some TLC and now it keeps time perfectly in our kitchen; forever a reminder of our wonderful honeymoon!

In non-honeymoon news, Kristine finally has her driver's license for the UK and is free to drive on the left side of the road and attempt to tackle roundabouts. Fear of getting a scratch on Jason's precious SUV is keeping her lead foot in check. Jason, meanwhile, is busily studying for the test he will be taking at the end of March to get the next rank up (Tech Sergeant). Its pretty heavy physics theory, but its what he lives for. Everyone cross your fingers for him!! We hope you are all doing well and send our love!!