Holidays

So Austria for a week was magical!
The south of Germany is also very pretty (maybe it was the nice blue skies we had) as I saw it on our road trip to Nesselwängle. We made a few stops including at a lookout towards the alps which was absolutely gorgeous, another stop at Basilika Birnau which is a church situated on the bank of the Bodensee (lake constance) and also a stop at Friedrichshafen where we caught an amazing sunset. The further into the alps we got the more snow there was! However it was dark so we couldn't see a lot. We had a pizza for dinner in Nesselwängle, there was so much snow around and even icicles hanging off my window!
On Our first day on the slopes I decided to give snowboarding a go! I think it's so hard, balancing and having both feet strapped to one board! Ahh! I improved over the next few days but managed to hurt my ankle several times along the way. Being out in the snow is quite exhausting I think even if we weren't doing a lot. At the end of the day we adventured back thought the snowy fields to our hotel, it was great fun! The next day I yet again tried snowboarding, still finding it pretty hard! We also took the chair lift to the Krinnenalpe which is 1530m above sea level. That is probably the highest I've been on land? I think? The view was wicked and enhanced by the blue sky. We had a hot choc with cream at the top before heading down the mountain. Hot choc is the best with a squirt of whipped cream on top! Tobogganing down the mountain was definitely one of my highlights! I got a bit of speed and didn't even fall off even though the conditions were a bit difficult for me, someone who had never seriously toboggan'd before. After I think two rounds of tobogganing down this long course we decided to call it a day. Kathi and I walked back to the hotel again! At night we went and watched a ski demonstration which was quite cool but hard to describe.
The next day we went cross country skiing because I really want to give it a go and boy is it hard work! Hahaha we also walked to Alpengasthof Adlerhorst at an altitude of 1350m (the valley lies at about 1000m) here we ate Kaiserschmarrn ( a pancake cut up and served with apfel mus and jam) and soup! The view was also wicked. All this walking made me totally knackered haha! It was snowing!
The next day it was snowing even more and we made a trip to Schloss Linderhof, a castle of King Ludwig II (same king who built Neuschwanstein). The interior of this palace was incredibly ornate and its structure is similar to that of Versailles which the king admired. It even has its own hall of mirrors. (I could be a tour guide I think) I really liked the ornate porcelain that was used for some of the candle holders. After we nearly froze in the palace (still had its lack of heating from the 1800s) we headed on to Garmisch Partenkirche! This is a big alpine village which held the winter Olympics in 1936 and a few ski championships since then. We went and looked at the ski jump! Which was totally mint. The fact that people have the nerve to hurtle down the slope then jump off is pretty crazy! There is a ski jump comp on there today (1st jan) We then drove back to Nesselwängle, we went out for dinner and I had beef schnitzel and chips, nom nom! And also Almdudler which is the Austrian soft drink, but I'm not sure what it tastes like!
The next day (Saturday) we headed home which was new years eve! I'll write another update for that in another post, because I need some photos. .
Char xx