Edelweiss Resort

Edelweiss Resort was amazing!!! The four of us had a blast! The hotel was beautiful and complete with tons of activites to keep the little and even BIG kids busy. I just wanted to share a few pictures. I can't wait for our skiing vaction in December.

The lobby...








I still can't get over the view from our room...

Austria

On Saturday we made the trip to Austria to visit the Swarvoski Crystal Factory. We had been building up to this trip to Swarvoski for weeks only to have it be the biggest disappointment of the weekend. It was so disappointing that I will NEVER buy another piece of Swarvoski again!! However,the drive there wasn't a disappointment. It was an absolute gorgeous drive. Once we do a little more research on Austria we will be making a trip back.



Here are a few pictures of the drive down...




Swarvoski...

At least the view surrounding Swarvoski wasn't a disappointment...





A few pictures from inside the store...



The one and only great thing about Swarvoski was the playground outside.






A final picture of the kids with Innsbruck Austria in the background...

Kloster Ettal

Kloster Ettal was one of the biggest highlights of our weekend this past weekend. Kloster Ettal is a monastery that dates back to the 1300's. The pictures speak for themself. The Bascillia was AMAZING!!! This truly was an amazing piece of work. This monastery is not only known for the Bascillia but for their beer as well. The beer that the monks brew here is known as some of the best beer in Germany.

Here are a few pictures of the outside.





The ceiling is the idea of heaven painted in the dome giving the effect of having no ceiling and is supposed to come about.



More pictures of the inside...




Pew...


The alter...


Organ...

A Few Teaser Pics...

Here are a few teaser pics from our weekend. Check the blog often in the next few days. It is going to take several blogs and all week to wrap up how awesome this weekend was!

Edelweiss Resort our Hotel :)


The view from our room...


Innsbruck Austria...


Austrian Alps


Schloss Linderhof


Kloster Ettal



Inside the Kloster Ettal


Dowtown Garmisch

Gone for the Weekend

We are going away for the weekend to Garmisch Germany. I wanted blog a little something this morning before I headed out to do my long list of errands today. Tonight Zac has a school concert and then we have to drop Banjo off at a co-workers house who will watch him this weekend for us. Please pray he doesn't tear this poor woman's house up.

It has been snowing here all week especially down in Garmisch so we may finally get the chance to do a little skiing after all this winter. I'll be sure to post plenty of pics when we get back :)

Birthday Gift

I have heard for years from friends of mine that Germany is the place to go if you collect antiques. I have heard the raves of how you can find them so cheap. Tongeren, Belgium is suppose to be the mecca for all antique shoppers here. Now that I am finally here and I see what all the fuss was about.

Last week I went shopping with a neighbor and the mother of a neighbor who is a German National. They introduced me to a local little flea market here. When you first walk in it looks like nothing but furniture and other junk. The furniture had some outstanding prices 10 Euros ($12.50) for a desk and 20 Euros ($25) for a bedroom set.

After 10 minutes of looking around I found two gems off in the corner full of dust. They were nothing more than two antique foot pedal machines. I LOVE antique sewing machines. I was even more excited when I saw the price was well below what they go for in states.

So after much mulling and dragging Paul down to the flea market to look at them I settled on this beauty below. It was an early birthday gift to me from Paul.

It is Haid & Neu made is Karlsruhe Germany. It is from the 1940's and has a wooden foot pedal. After doing some research the Haid & Neu machines were famous for wooden foot pedals especially during the 1930's and 1940's. It was their trademark. The machine came complete with all accessories including the strap to turn the wheel on the machine and instruction booklet complete in German. This was a real gem.

Now I can hardly wait to go to Tongeren, Belgium in a few weeks.

Wurzburg

Yesterday our travels took us to Wurzburg. It was a miserable cold, rainy and windy day. We almost called our trip off but decided to tough out the bad weather anyways.

Wurzburg is Germany's loveliest Baroque city. It is rich in history. In 1000 BC the Celtics laid the foundation for the Marienberg Fortress. Although the city was heavily bombed in WWII most structures have been restored. To show you how amazing it is I will post some pics of what the city looked like after WWII and what is looks like now.

Our first stop was The Residenz. This is one of the largest Baroque buildings in Germany. Building began in 1720 to house Prince Bishop of Wurzburg.

After WWII....



Today....







After our tour of the Residenz we wandered the street down to the marketplatz and to see Dom St. Killian's.

St. Killian's is catherdral that was begun to be built in 1045 but wasn't completed until 1700. It is dedicated to St. Killian and Irish missionary to Franconia.






The next stop was the Alte Mainbrucke. This bridge is is the second oldest bridge in Germany this side of the Rhine river. It was originally built in 1473. It has 12 freestanding statues of the city's patrons. In 1945 the Nazi's blew up a portion of the bridge while in retreat.







Our last stop was Festung Marienburg (The Fortress)

This fortress was built between the 13th and 17th centuries.






The oldest church in Germany east of the Rhine is within the walls of the fortress. It was built in 706 AD.






The most amazing thing about the fortress is the view of the city below...







A few more misc pictures from our trip to Wurzburg....