Unbeknownst to us, Monday, Jan 6th was the Bavarian holiday of Epiphany. This meant that once again, grocery stores and shops were closed for the day. This didn’t throw too big a wrench into our plans—we ate breakfast at the hotel and snuck some sandwiches to eat for lunch later. We called them our pocket sandwiches. The weren’t great by the time lunch rolled around, but they got the job done.

The drive to Neuschwanstein is breathtaking. The snow dusted alps just looming before us as we drove down the small, windy roads. We walked up to the castle and then took the road to Mary’s Bridge. Blake and I had a nice slow walk up where he complained that all I ever make him do is walk to see stupid stuff. I finally had to hand him off to Rusty and he saved the day. He told Blake he could have all the change in his pocket if he beat him to the top. They had a great time and Blake won 22 cents at the top. He was very put out.I loved being with Halle at Neuschwanstein! She can appreciate the beauty and the magic of a place. We walked all around, took a bunch of pictures and then everyone else went down. We hung back and went through to the courtyard and then just took our time coming down the mountain. We stopped at the gift shop so she could pick out a beautifully fierce dragon statuette.And this is quite possibly the best picture of the trip: After lunch in the car we drove back into Austria to Highline 179. This place is AWESOME. It’s the world’s longest rope hanging bridge and it sits 374 feet off the ground. Blake and Leo were going rounds in the parking lot and refused to apologize to each other so I took Blake back to cool off in the car. I was so sad that I might miss it. He had an 11th hour change of heart and we barely caught everyone before they started up the hill. 2 very steep hills in one day! Our legs were feeling it, but the kids were so excited to play in the Ehrenburg Castle ruins that they didn’t mind the walk. And the ruins were stunning! Rusty ran ahead to hide from the boys and they had an epic game of hide and seek. It took them forever to find Rusty. Josh loved scrambling around and checking out all the nooks and crannies. The sun was out and it was a glorious blue sky day over the alps. Here is Tara and the Pink backpack pic of the trip: Blake doesn’t really like heights be he decided to give the bridge a try. Well, after about 40 feet  he decided it was too much for him so he went back to wait for us. A few min later Michael came through and tried to bribe him to come. After a few attempts he thought there was no way Blake would accept any bribe, so he said, “what about 10 Euro?” Blake shot off like a rocket and never looked back. I guess everyone has their price. Josh loved laying down in the middle of the bridge and also weaving side to side to make the bridge rock and sway. I chickened out of trying a handstand—it was too unsteady—but I did manage a pretty good headstand.

We all survived and the view from the other side was worth the angst of the crossing. It was majestic. 1,000,000 pictures later we were in our way to Garmish-Partenkirchen. We got to see Zugspitze at dusk and drove into town just as the sun was setting. Everything was closed for Epiphany, so we couldn’t wander too much. We are dinner at the yummy restaurant Rusty and I remembered from our last trip, but it didn’t really live up to the hype. Bummer.

Back to Munich we went.