In the Bavarian Alps!

We are spending the week in the Bavarian Alps in a little village called Oberammergau. The Linguist is here for some special training and the kids and I are along to soak up the flavor! The view every direction we look is breathtaking. Our hotel is in the middle of town, very near a beautiful church that has bells. Deep Thinker was less than pleased with the bells his first morning, as he arrived at the breakfast table looking sleepy. “Why don’t they turn OFF the bells at night?” he wanted to know. I confess they are waking me fairly regularly, too.

The view from our balcony

Another view of Oberammergau

We had the opportunity to attend church in Munich on Sunday. The drive up was beautiful and the people in the English-speaking ward there were warm and welcoming. Rosa made friends with a German woman who sat next to us during Sacrament Meeting. They colored together and shared candy. The woman was quite taken with how friendly she was and thought it was funny that she had colored the entire back of her left hand royal blue during the first talk. I wasn't quite as pleased with the marker hand that was smearing all over everything...and Rosa didn't appreciate it when we told her we'd be calling her Avatar in the future.

Today we walked down the road to, of all things, a Reptile House! We spent several hours there looking at turtles, pythons, boa constrictors, tarantulas, iguanas and various other snakes and lizards. The kids were entranced. We learned that turtles really like red peppers and even watched one turn from his back to his front by pushing himself up against a tree.

We spent the afternoon lounging around the recreation area at the training base – air hockey for the older kids, a toy room for Claire and the grand finale was snow on the playground. We followed this up with a trip to restaurant called Zauberstub'n for dinner. It was delicious food! I had a schnitzel with a creamy mushroom sauce and homemade eggs noodles. I also sampled Songbird’s cordon bleu made with pork. Yum! And her salad had a dressing with dill in it. So good! For dessert, it was ice cream with warm raspberry sauce, apple strudel and a couple of other ice creams. It may have been our best restaurant experience EVER as the owner waits tables AND entertains with magic tricks in between his other duties. The kids loved it and just couldn’t get enough. We were also impressed that he speaks 9 languages (said it was a must as a magician…have to be able to speak to people in their native language to do the tricks).

After a 20 minute walk in the cold, the kids arrived anxious to eat 

Happy customers eating yummy food

Pianogurl and Rosa chowing down