This past week was exciting for us because we got to see family for the first time in months. My amazing sister Katharine and her wonderful husband Kilian flew in from Toronto to host us for a week in the Bavaria area of Germany (where Kilian is from originally). We are so lucky to have such kind and generous family 🙂 It was also so nice for Steve and I to have some adult company too, because it’s been a while!

Munich

We arrived in Munich right in the middle of Germany playing in their quarter final match in the EuroCup, and it was entertaining to see everyone in the airport heads down watching their screens intently. Even our bus driver from the airport stopped a few times along the journey to check the score with passengers. By the time we reached the city, they had unfortunately lost the game, and everyone looked so sad 😦

We spent a couple of days in Munich seeing the sights – it’s a really pretty city and very walkable. Kilian was an amazing tour guide and walked us by all of the key landmarks. We ate and drank the requisite pretzels, sausages and weiss beer and enjoyed the atmosphere which seemed to have bounced back after the loss and many people were back watching the next quarter final game the next day. We visited the Deutches Museum and BMW museum – both full of impressive German engineering and tech. We stayed in a great airBnB near the huge English Garden, which I highly recommend.

Kühbach and Augsburg

We spent two nights near Kühbach in the Augburg area staying at the beautiful hotel owned by the Freifrau von Beck-Peccoz family, friends of Katharine and Kilian: Naturhotel. These same friends, also generously hosted us for dinner at the their family estate. They have a brewery next door, originally built as a monastery in 1011 where beer was brewed by the monks – read the history here.

We also toured around Augsburg where Kilian grew up. Like Munich, much of the city has been rebuilt since WWII when it was severely bombed, but it’s been so well reconstructed in the old style. We toured the Fuggerei complex which is the oldest public housing complex in the world. It was founded in 1516, and is still funded by the founding family’s trust so that it has continued to operate since then – they charge only 88 euro cents a year in rent for residents in need.

Garmisch

I think the highlight of our Bavaria tour was our 5 day stay in Garmisch. Garmisch is an incredibly picturesque town in the German Alps nestled in a valley between huge peaks. It has a great pedestrian area in town with a preserved Bavarian architecture and lots of German pubs. Kilian’s sister kindly loaned us her apartment so we really felt at home. Such a treat! It’s a festive town and we were lucky to catch a Bavarian music concert in the park one evening.

The hiking was a highlight – these peaks are big and the views are incredible!! Our first day there, we did a 7 hour round trip hike up to Kramerspitz. In classic German civility there’s a nice restaurant about 2/3 of the way up, perfect spot for a break. Another day was a trip through Höllental Gorge and another long walk around Eibsee Lake, so nice. We saved the biggest peak, Zugspitz at 2962m, for the last day when we when thought it would be clear, and it turned out to be the only day with whiteout conditions. We did get to see a couple of Germany’s last remaining glaciers there, and unfortunately they aren’t predicted to last much longer. We took the old cog wheel train most of the way up the mountain (the same train line my grandmother used for skiing in the 1930’s!) and then a gondola to the top, so being cheated of the views didn’t hurt as much as it would have had we hiked up.

The area is also famous for its castles. We visited two castles of “Mad Ludwig”, the very eccentric King of Bavaria from 1864 to 1886. Linderhof Palace was a private residence but decorated beyond ornately (unfortunately no photos allowed from inside, or I would have shared a few crazy pics on the place). Neuschwanstein Castle is believed to have inspired the Disney castle and it’s really striking perched on a cliff above an expansive valley.

We also tried out a ropes course up on one of the mountains at “Kletterwald” and the two younger kids also went to a climbing gym. The area is also great for running so we got out for a couple of runs as well – one run we went right by the old bobsled course from the 1936 Olympics. And of course there was lots of soccer – a number of games in fact – but the sad news of the week is that the soccer ball we have been travelling with since February has officially died. Apparently Lucas has too strong of a kick 🙂

Up Next

We have one more week in Germany and have just started a bike trip around Lake Konstanz for 6 days. I may be too exhausted at the end of this week to write a blog…. wish us luck!