The Trip Part 3: Germany

On our last morning in Vienna, we woke up and get a taxi to the Hilton where we picked up our rental car. The first thing we had to do was change the GPS to English! That took a nice call to the friendly car rental dude to help and then we were on our way!

We got ourselves out of the city and into the Austrian countryside. We took a side ride that took us next to the river and through the cute little villages. One of them we stopped in and had lunch. Eventually, we made our way to a little mountain village in the Austrian Alps called Gosau. That place so beautiful I couldn't stop taking pictures. It was amazing. We had a little bed and breakfast hotel place and we just hung out and enjoyed.

The next day we drove to the nearby lakes and ate lunch and took pictures. Then we made our way to Salzburg, where we had one night at another Airbnb. On the way we stopped at the site of the where they filmed the scenes at the VonTrapp mansion for Sound of Music. Later we went to Mirabelle Gardens and the funky Red Bull museum. It started raining here and our perfect weather was over for the next few days, though I didn't at all mind the rain!

The next day we slept in and then drove across the border to Germany to another mountain in the Alps where Hitler made his home during the war. We joined a tour and they drove us up up up to the top of the mountain where Hitler had a "hideout" called The Eagle's Nest. The views up there were incredible. We ate on of our best lunches up there and then came back and made our way to our next place of abode.

This was in a town called Brannenburg in southern Germany, right between Salzburg and Munich. It was the same place we'd stayed at two years before when we where here. It was like coming home! We love this place!

The next day we had a sort of down day and just hung out at our place, did laundry, drove around in the area, found a quaint place for lunch, and then went to the same place for dinner that we'd found last time... they do a barbecue every Wednesday night and so we joined that party again. We shared our table with some people vacationing from Hanover and it was fun talking to them.

The next day we drove to Neuschwanstein but only looked at from the outside. We'd heard from the people the night before that they really liked a different castle called Schloss Linderhoff so that's the one we took the time to go inside. It was nice.. but quite small for a palace/castle. :)  We found another quaint restaurant in our tiny little village for dinner that night, where they hardly knew English and the menu was totally in German. That makes things quite fun!

We had to leave the next day for our next city... on the way we stopped in Dachau, which is so sobering, no matter how many times you visit. I got a little teary at the mass grave sites, which somehow we missed last time we were here. We made a jaunt to Munich too and walked around that main town square for awhile before heading to the next spot.

This airbnb was in a tiny German town called Kallmunz. And we loved it. We had a three level apartment set in the mountain side. The bottom was like a cave and the top like an attic loft. We spent the weekend here... Saturday we went to Regensburg and walked around.. then came back and hiked to the castle ruins right at our own place.. and joined a massive race celebration happening in our own backyard.

Sunday we drove to Nuremberg where we had local guy give us a tour of all the WWII and Nazi places. It was very eye opening and informative and sobering. We spent the afternoon there walking through their old town and getting lunch.

Monday we moved again to a place along the Rhine River called Bacharach. It was a little hotel this time, not especially nice, but did the trick. The next day we drove to yet another castle which was one of my favorites of the bunch. Very medieval-y this one! And we drove along the river and saw all the amazingness it provides! The next day we drove to Heidelberg and saw it's famous place and ate lunch. Nice city that is!

Then it was time to move again. A train to Paris!

The back view of our hotel in Gosau. A former hunting lodge back in the day.

The view from our window of that hotel.

A tiny little church on the hill.

Another view from that village.

The nearby mountain lake.

The other nearby mountain lake.

Another view.. Lake Hallstatt.

The hotel that was used as the outside scenes of the mansion in Sound of Music.

Mirabelle Gardens, also in Sound of Music.

Our tour bus for the Eagle's Nest.

The Eagle's Nest on the top of the mountain.

The lunch we had at the top. 

Another view from the top/

Selfie at Mirabelle Gardens.

The hotel where we had dinner one night.

Our quick view of  Neuschwanstein

Linderhoff

Dinner at another very out of the way non touristy place.

Mass grave at Dachau.

View from our window in Kallmunz.

Our airbnb house in Kallmunz.

The party we crashed!

View from the hike to the top of the hill behind our place.

At the ruins at the top.

German families partying hard!

 I think this is Nuremberg. Or Regensburg. Not sure! Pretty though, eh?

One of the places Hitler gave speeches from.

One of my favorite lunches... cheesy spatzel.

The fairy tale place we stopped at on our drive.

Our hotel in Bacharach.

The Rhine River.

Heidelberg.