Dad and Claudia's Visit

Dad and Claudia are visiting! Unfortunately the first several days in Garmisch were, well, typical Garmisch weather... cloudy and rainy. But we still had fun venturing around town. We walked around Garmisch and Partenkirchen and toured Edelweiss.  We walked through the Partnach Gorge and had lunch with the girls at our favorite restaurant.

Then it was off to Vienna for a few days! After trying for a long long time, we finally got the GPS programmed and made our way through Austria.  Dad learned that it's quite a challenge to park in Europe, but we made it. We went to the ballet, Coppelia, at the famous StaatOpera House.  It was great! Then we headed to the Sacher Cafe for a taste of the famous Sacher torte-- an apricot and chocolate cake that originated in Salzburg.

View from our hotel window

StaatOpera

We also walked around the town center, visited Saint Stephen's Cathedral, finally found the Mozart Statue, and toured the Hofburg Palace. 

Mozart

One day we took the ferry over to Bratislava, Slovakia. It is a lot smaller than Vienna, but still lots of tourists! It is a cute town, and we got to see their famous statues placed around the city... and several street performers mimicking them.

One of the many statues

Then we headed back to Garmisch with a quick lunch stop in Salzburg. We saw the Mirabell Gardens... much prettier with all the flowers compared to last time I was there.

Fruhlingsfest (Spring Festival) came to Garmisch, so Dad and Claudia did get to experience a mini Octoberfest.  Finally we had a nice day in Garmisch so we took the train to the top of the Zugspitze and visited the Eibsee lake.

Top of the Zuggy....still very cold!!

One more day trip to Verona, Italy. Morgan joined us too! We saw their famous Roman Amphitheater, the 3rd oldest in the world.  Also walked under the bridge with a whale's rib suspended from it. According to the legend, if you have never told a lie, the rib will fall on you when you walk under it....so far it had never fallen!

View from the top of the Ampitheater

The famouse whale's rib

One of the many tiny car filling the streets of Italy

On their last day in Garmisch, we hiked to the Halfway house in the rain, and then spent some time in town. We had to go back to Zumwildshutz for more potato soup.... Dad's favorite part of the whole trip! Then it was back to the US for them... and I'll be there shortly too!