Italy: Drive Home & Lake Eibsee

Ah-- Italy, it was nice to know you, but now we've got to go home to our own beds (*nothingbetter*). 

Let's see where the GPS takes us today:

Seriously. And this was after we avoided another sketchy looking turn off. 

It was all laughs at this point (we weren't on the edge of a mountain), and we ultimately made it to a paved road sans hazard or trauma. 

Our fearless chauffeur and one of the dozens of alpine lakes in the background. We took a different route home so that we could pass through Garmisch. 

I knew we were going through the Italian Alps, and all... but I was still surprised to run into snow!

We passed countless abandoned buildings like this. I wanted to go explore so badly, but was also afraid the thing would collapse just from looking at it!

One of the dozens of tunnels we passed through. Andrew was delighted each time. :)

Breathtaking. 

This was annoying...

This tractor? snowplow? sign made me smile. :)

Aren't they incredible? 

Just a random Italian castle... Have I mentioned how I'll miss Europe?

Entering Austria. 

We stopped at one of our favorite spots: Lake Eibsee 

Did thick ice keep the kids (and daddy) from throwing rocks "into" the lake (like we'd promised on our way there)? No way. It was almost all the more fun because you could see everywhere your rock had landed. 

Some poor ducks thought we were throwing bread. 

Faker. Love him!

So happy to be out of a carseat!

Cameron made us laugh so hard with this one. He struggled with it all the way to the water's edge and then:

He got it about 12" from where he was standing. haha!

Nathaniel kept aiming for a hole in the ice that was quite a ways out. See his rock up in the sky? 

Famous castle.. something or other... 

This is the Famous "Cinderella" Castle. In the times we've been down in the area before we never made much effort to go see it, but this time it was only 10 minutes off our path. There! We saw Neuschwanstein!

This KID! He would NOT go to sleep on the drive home.. he kept singing, asking questions, asking for chocolate (monster!), and then a fun game of throwing his blankets off and demanding that Mommy put them back on him. Turkey. I think he finally crashed an hour from home. Our fearless driver got us home in one piece, bless him! It was such a great little trip; probably one of our last as a family before we pack out.. the clock is just running out! 

Italy: Miramare

After the incredible cave, we packed back into the van-- headed to Miramare to see an incredible castle and enjoy the downtown.

The views the GPS guided us towards were beautiful!

...only...

... soon, the GPS sent us down a road...

.... that doesn't seem to be built for minivans (it got worse, with stone walls on either side that we wouldn't have fit through if we didn't pop in our mirrors)...

...or for cars at all really.

(That's an overturned car that they just left there. I'm not surprised, the road could not support a crane to pull it back up!) 

After some legitimate terror that we'd have to attempt to back the van up the entire road (NO room anywhere to make even an 1000 point turn), many pleading prayers, and a scouting mission, by foot, of the road ahead (I spotted tire tracks in mud a hundred yards or so up, so I knew we'd survive if others had), some serious cursing of the GPS, we made it to the bottom of the mountain. 

The view was so beautiful! 

Italian Seagull... looks just like every other seagull around the world. Wonder if they speak different languages?

N flexing for his friend RR. ;) 

The boys were a bit restless, so N encouraged them to race as many times as they could around the fountain. :) There was a lot of enthusiasm at first; William LOVES to run!

Photobombed by Daddy. 

Run, my little guy!

Ah- you learn something new, everywhere you go!

The castle was huge, but not ridiculous. I loved visiting it! Just the girls went inside on a tour (no pictures allowed=lame). It was a good thing we didn't try to bring in the boys as we were constantly avoiding Italian school tour groups. 

Sitting at the castle's own private little dock. Inside the castle there is a painting of this same location commemorating some event. It was very cool to see it then and now.

I can't even tell you how overjoyed we were to not have to wear coats!! 

Visitors have access all around the castle. It was so neat! The views were gorgeous and all of the boys had fun checking out a containership sitting in the water that is much like the playmobile version that William just got for his birthday. :)

By the end of our visit here Nathaniel was pretty sick (probably from the disgusting anchovy pizza in Venice the day before), and the rest of us were a bit spent from all the walking the day before and also from the traumatic drive down the mountain (seriously), so we decided just to head back to the hotel and skip downtown. Elie and Nina played with the boys out on the playground at the hotel for HOURS-- heaven for those kids!