Beer Gardens

Munich... the city where we fell in love with beer gardens.

Since we were visiting in September, it was almost Oktoberfest and the beer was exceptional. One of my favorite types of beer is a Radler, which is made of 1/2 lemonade and 1/2 light beer. However, since it's only half alcohol, my default was usually a Dunkel, the dark beer.

Beer gardens are great for the beer, the atmosphere and music, and the food! The boys loved the pork knuckles, which look like huge drumsticks. However, my favorite was the Weisswurst - the white sausages. They come boiled and are usually in a bowl of broth. You take them out of the broth, skin them, and dip them in the amazing sweet mustard sauce.

I think the beer garden in Munich was exceptionally memorable because we were starving after touring the Residenz (former palace) and the royal jewels.

Pretzels and Muchen

I've decided I'm not into the pretzels in Germany. They are beautiful and oh-so-cute, but they are crispy! They are baked pretty solid and have a thick crust around the outside. I might have appreciated it more if I could dip them into a liter of beer (which I saw several other people doing).

As I munched on my pretzel, our tour guide explained that in the old days, the May Pole was replaced each year and it showed the artisans and specialty goods that were available in the town.

Our dinner was unique - I think these shaved radishes are really popular beer food. I never knew Germans were so into their cheese and meat plates until I had this for dinner.

Pure luck!

The morning before we left Murren, the sky cleared up and it was amazing!!!  For most of our visit in Switzerland, these peaks were covered, but that morning the clouds parted! This is a picture from my hotel room balcony - Jungfrau, Monch, and Eiger.

We were so lucky and we managed to sneak in a trip to the Schilthorn before we left. After another  (scary) gondola ride up even higher to an altitude of 9,744' and this is what we saw. We were freezing, but it was totally worth it.

Beautiful Scenery

The only reason I would go back to Switzerland is to hike. The scenery is BEAUTIFUL!!! (and the cows are so cute!) The cows wear these beautiful bells that help their owners (and their dogs) distinguish which cows are theirs by the sound of the bell. It's magical.

We picked a trail based on the weather. We were told it might be too dangerous (fear of snowstorm) above a certain altitude. I felt like we were chasing the clouds away. I took way too many pictures bebecause the view kept getting better. I'm glad Paul and I made it to the end because we reached an area with part of a glacier!

Two things we loved about Switzerland that we discovered at the end of our hike: cheese and gnomes!!! (not together, of course).

Bad weather

Unfortunately, while we were in Switzerland, the weather didn't seem to be on our side. We did our best to stay warm and dry, but the rain was persistent.

We visited Trummelbach falls, which is where waterfalls have been created by powerful streams running through the Swiss Alps. Apparently, this is a popular location for Bollywood films. It was cold and wet, but we made the best of it.

After visiting the falls, the rain wouldn't let up, so we headed into town to check out some shops (moslty specializing in swiss army knives and more cuckoo clocks). We mostly loitered in the stores in effort to stay as dry as possible and kill time before our visit to the chocolate demonstration.

YUMM, swiss chocolate is the best. Pastry chefs that specialize in chocolate spend years learning the basics. We got to do some chocolate fondue tasting, so in the end, we were happy campers!

...And with rain, comes snow.When we came back Murren, the city was covered in a light layer of fluff.

The Alps

We were definitely in for a rude awakening when our bus arrived at our destination. We had to take the gondola to our hotel in Murren! We packed our bags into metal carts and then hopped into another gondola to enjoy the view. The ride was fun, but I'm not going to lie, I was pretty nervous!

After we settled in, we had our first fondue dinner. It turns out my brother loves fondue!! The cheese in Switzerland is top notch. My dad also attempted to play an alphorn. He has the hat on for good luck. He needs to practice, but I'm not sure if we'll find one of those in the US. (Thank god!)

Black Forest (Cake)

On our way to Switzerland, we stopped at an open-air museum in the Black Forest. The Black Forest is most well-known for its cuckoo clocks and fairy tales, but there was no time for shopping!

We toured a few historic houses that had been preserved and relocated to this open area. Our tour guide described a few of the superstitious antics of these German farmers. We found a secret compartment with a horseshoe in the living room. There was also a sacrificed bull-head in the chimney of the house - preserved from all the smoke that had ever left the house.

We also finally got to try Black Forest cake with some apple schnapps. I'm not into sweets and this was a little sweet for me, but it was a very nice surprise from our tour guide, Fabian. Apparently, you're supposed to pour some of the schnapps on your cake before you drink it too!