Trip to Austria and Germany

We had a great trip last week to Munich and Salzburg! It started out a little stressful at the airport, but once we finally arrived, we were so happy to be on vacation. I was flying out with all three kids by myself, and Burke was meeting us in Munich a few days later. So on Sunday (Oct 26th) we got to the airport and started to check in. Living in Russia requires a few documents to be carried around with us at all times, these include our US passport, Russian visa, migration card, and a registration form. The registration form needs to be turned in (to the government is where I suppose it goes) whenever we leave the country. We get new ones each time we re-enter. The migration cards are what we fill out on the airplane, there are two identical forms and each are to be filled out upon entry. The immigration people keep one, and we keep the other until we leave again. When preparing to leave the country, I gave Burke the migration cards to turn into the office for us for us to leave. WELL...I was supposed to give him the registration forms, not the migration cards, and he didn't notice when turning them in that they were the wrong forms. We noticed this right as we were checking into our flight. I immediately thought that we would not be able to leave the country on my much anticipated vacation. The person at the Lufthansa desk (surprisingly she was very helpful) called the passport control people, and since our visa's were all in order, we were able to leave the country.

WHEW!!! Coast is clear...

Not so fast. So we get through passport control and get to our gate ready to leave. After a 3o minute delay (not too bad) we pre-board the airplane since we are traveling with small children. We each have a carry on bag, and I have a stroller to check at the gate and a car seat to take onto the plane for Merrick to sit in. I start carrying the car seat on to the plane and I am told that it cannot come on the plane!!??? WHAT!!! I argue nicely with them for a bit, and tell them that it is in the best interest of everyone on the plane that my son be restrained. He doesn't exactly like to sit still. They do not care! NO CARSEAT ALLOWED! So they take my carseat from me and put it down with the baggage. I am thinking, "crap, now we really aren't going to Germany." We get back to our seats and I attempt to put Merrick in his seat like a big boy with a seatbelt. He screams his head off and wants to sit in my lap. I ask if he can just sit in my lap for takeoff, and since they already knew that he was over 2 (they asked me as I was entering the plane) they said no, he had to be in his own seat!!! After a bit of bribing with candy and a paci, and the promise to see Grandma when we were off the plane, he sat like a big boy in his seat and even fell asleep soon after. We had a very successful plane ride without a car seat, and I am so excited to never have to drag the thing through an airport again!

All that happened before we even took off...

So we arrived in Germany on time, after taking off 40 minutes late, we flew fast and there was bad fog on the ground in Munich. For anyone that doesn't know, I hate flying. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, I need a glass of wine to calm myself down enough to not have a panic attack each time I fly. It is getting better each time I fly, but I am still not a big fan of flying.

Burke's mom (Nancy) met us in Munich and we were off to our hotel. Our first night there we had a great German dinner at a beer hall near by and fell asleep by 8pm.

Monday, October 27th: Today we planned on going to Neuschwanstein Castle, about an hour and a half by train outside of Munich. We hadn't had a tour booked, so we just started walking towards the train station to see if it was possible to go on our own or if we could find a tour. Luckily we found a tour 30 minutes before it was leaving and we went along with them. The castle was pretty neat, but I have vowed to not take Merrick into another castle for a few years. I ended up carrying him through the castle, up and down stairs, because he tried to run all around. Of course the stroller was not allowed because of all the stairs. We almost lost Nancy at one point, and had a really rude tour guide. Only 16 of the hundreds of rooms in the castle were ever finished, so the tour was really quick, only 30 minutes.

A view of another castle in the area:

The other side of the castle was being cleaned:

On the way back from the castle after getting off the train in Munich, walking back to the hotel, just a block from the hotel, my new (smaller) stroller I bought in Moscow BROKE! One of the wheels just rolled right off, and could not be fixed. Thank goodness this happened down the street from the hotel and not on our way up to the castle. We had to walk quite a ways to get up there!

Tuesday, October 28th: Number one priority: buy a new stroller! After we found that, we spent the day in central Munich walking around to shops, museums, and had lunch. We saw the Glockenspeil, went to the Residence where royalty used to live in the city, and went to Hofbrauhaus, the largest and most historic beer hall in Munich.

Everyone being silly in the beer hall:

Wednesday, October 29th: Today Burke arrived in Munich in the morning, and we packed up and went to the train station to go to Salzburg, Austria. Between the 6 of us, we had 7 bags plus a stroller and car seat. We pretty much made a fool of ourselves trying to get luggage out of the cab into the train station and onto the train. People were pushing past us to get on the train and we literally had about 2 minutes to get all of our bags and us onto the train. It was a mess, but we all made it and finally found places to put all of our bags for the trip.

We arrived in Salzburg in the afternoon and immediately fell in love with it. Our hotel was on a very quaint and famous pedestrian street just down from Mozart's birthplace. We had dinner that night and settled into our hotel. We stayed at the Goldener Hirsch, and it was an excellent hotel! I would recommend anyone going to Salzburg to stay there.
Thursday, October 30th:
Today we walked around and discovered Salzburg, ate some good Austrian food, and shopped! Even though things are still pretty expensive compared to America, they were much cheaper than in Moscow, so we finally bought some more winter clothes! We started the day off with a bus tour of the city. We saw all sorts of sites and afterwards walked around the city. We walked around the Mirabell gardens (gardens from the Sound of Music) and around the river and back to our hotel. In the afternoon, Merrick finally took his first nap of the trip and Nancy and the kids stayed at the hotel. Burke and I walked around the city, saw some old churches, and found a really neat old graveyard that was also shown in the Sound of Music. I loved the Sound of Music as a kid and felt like singing Do Rae Mi throughout the city! I'm a dork, I know!




Friday, October 31st:
Today we made our way up to the fortress. There were really great views of the Alps! After we finished our shopping. It was very strange not being in the states for Halloween. It was the first Halloween that I haven't "celebrated." There was a Halloween party at the school before break, but I still missed it. At night, Burke and I went back up to the fortress for dinner and a concert (a quartet). We ended up leaving half way through because we were so tired, but had a good time!




Saturday, November 1st:
Today we spent the morning in Salzburg walking around again, eating lunch and made our way to the train station. This time we weren't such a spectacle! We paid someone to take all our bags and load them on the train, and we were able to board an hour early. Merrick actually took a nap on the train, so we had a relaxing train ride back to Munich. We were so excited to get off the train at the end that we accidentally got off one stop too soon. I knew something was wrong as a soon as all our luggage was off! We were definitely not in the Munich train station. Luckily it was still in the city of Munich, so we just grabbed a cab to our hotel by the airport and went to bed for our early flight on Sunday.

We had a really great trip. There were only a few things I would not do again. We were in too many hotels and on too many trains with too much luggage. It was a bit stressful with all of us, aka Merrick! He was a trooper though, and was really quite good throughout the trip. Taylor's favorite part was seeing real castles where real kings and queens lived. My favorite part was Salzburg. I can't wait to go back someday in the summertime so we can go into the mountains. I need to learn how to pack better for all of us, lighter and less! I'll keep you updated if that EVER happens! We haven't had an overweight bag yet and I consider that light enough :)