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!