Side trip to Germany and Austria

During our Belgium stay, the kids went to camp for a week. R and I decided to take advantage of this ‘babysitting’ and went on a little side trip to Bavaria and Austria.

After dropping off the kids at the camp bus, we drove into Germany and stopped in a little town off the highway for lunch which happened to have a small castle.

We then drove on much further south and spent the night in a town near Hohenzollern castle.

Hohenzollern Castle

This castle was built on top of 2 previous castles which were destroyed (and a prior Roman fort). This castle was built for the all-important Hohenzollern family which ruled over the German Empire, Prussia and Romania.

After visiting the castle, we drove further south and along Lake Constance (Konstanz) and stopped for a bit in the town of Lindau.

Lake Constance and Lindau

From there, we drove on into Austria to stay the night with family in a mountain village near Bregenz.

Austria and Arlberg Pass

The next day we spent doing a beautiful drive through Austria and up and down the Arlberg pass. It was really nice weather and the mountains were spectacular!

Salzburg

We stayed 3 nights in Salzburg and 1.5 days exploring the city. We bought the Salzburg pass and definitely got our money’s worth – once you purchase the pass, you get free transportation (our accommodation was 20 min outside the city center) and entry into every museum and tourist site.

Hallstatt

On our second day in Salzburg, we explored the city in the morning and then in the afternoon we decided to drive out to the town of Hallstatt and check it out since we’d heard it was nice.

Although this town was really picturesque, it was ruined for us by 1. No parking near town – we had to park 6 km out of town and walk halfway around the lake to get to the town! 2. There were just waaaay too many tourists! Bus after bus and it was just teeming with them…

Eagle’s Nest

After Salzburg, we drove back into Germany to visit Hitler’s Eagle’s Next (Kehlsteinhaus). We wanted to visit this on the way to Salzburg, but when we got there that day (3pm) the tickets were all sold out for the day. So we bought tickets online and made a reservation for 8:30 am after we left Salzburg. It was sort of nice being there in the morning because the clouds were still in the valley, but I guess on a clear afternoon, your view might be better. After parking your car halfway down the mountain, you take a bus up to the top. The views from the bus (and the top) were amazing. Once the bus drops you off, you enter a long (1km) tunnel that leads to a golden elevator which then takes you up to the house.

Hitler’s house was in a town near the car park, but they completely bombed it in the early 50s. The Eagle’s Nest (up the mountain) is where the elite of the Nazi party went to relax and soak up the view.

Munich

After visiting the Eagle’s Nest, we drove into Munich and spent the whole afternoon exploring the old town.

Luckily we were there at 5 pm when the glockenspiel went off. And, there was a band playing in the Hofbrauhaus. You can play the videos below if you want to hear them.

Nurnberg

We spent a day exploring Nuremberg.

The next day, we visited two really cute medieval towns – these were some of the highlights of the trip.

Rothenberg ob der Tauber

This is where the Disney movie Pinnochio was filmed. The town is completely surrounded by its original wall and gates and you can walk along it the whole way. Every street was so picturesque – I think we took about a million photos (I won’t share them all😊).

Dinkelsbuhl

This was the other cute town that’s also surrounded by its original wall. They were setting up for a medieval children’s festival that was starting that night. By the way the townsfolk were drinking beer, I’m not sure if they were going to make it to the evening festivities!

Heidelberg

The next day we drove to Heidelberg and spent the day exploring this university town. Unfortunately, it was Sunday and many of the shops and restaurants were closed.

The Last Supper

For the final night of our trip, we decided to splash out and enjoy a delicious dinner at a castle in a town near where we were staying – Kastellaun. The food was absolutely delicious and the view was great too!

Burg Eltz

Before driving back to Belgium, we decided to spend the morning exploring this castle that has been in the Eltz family for the past 900 years! Our tour guide made the visit – he sounded like he just stepped out of a Monty Python movie. By the end of the visit, nearly the whole group was laughing at him.

Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photos inside the castle.