München Trip (Legoland for Henry!)

When we told the kids we were going to spend a year in Europe, we told them that they could each pick a trip.  Grace immediately knew, and expressed, that her trip would be to Paris to see the Eifel Tower.  Henry, however, was a little more difficult.  He never quite came out and said exactly what his trip would be, so we had to help him along a bit.  It wasn't a big jump to think that he'd like Legoland (the boy LOVES to build things!).  And because Legoland is closed during the winter, that put his trip off until this spring.

And by now, we know that the kids love to travel by train.  So, Legoland Germany ended up winning out over Legoland Denmark.  We left on the Tuesday of Easter Week (the week before Easter) for a 6-hour train ride to Munich (by the way, all German speakers know Munich as München), where we would make our base camp at a very nice and comfortable hotel (Hotel Andra if you go!  Also, if you go, there is a very nice Italian restaurant with the best grilled veggie pizza a block away!).

The weather, which usually cooperates so well for us on trips (see past trips to Barcelona, France, Slovenia, etc.), kept us guessing on this trip.  We ended up having one nice day of weather Wednesday, the day after we arrived) and it wasn't one of the days that we reserved a rental car (Thursday and Saturday).  But at least we spent that at the huge park in Munich, the Englisher Garten, where the kids happily explored the park, playing "Pooh Sticks" and finding every playground (there are many!).  We even rented a paddle boat and toodled around the lake ("See" in German).  It was a great day to be outside, especially after a day of train travel.

Our children are the two tiny folks by the bridge ... playing "Pooh Sticks"

Playing at one of the many playgrounds ... why don't they have cool playground equipment like this in the US, anyway?

So, Thursday dawns with light rain.  We have the rental car reserved and have two destinations to choose from:  Legoland and the famous Neuschwanstein Castle (think Disney World's castle).  The weather report said rain all day and the next, but clearing on Saturday, so we put off Legoland.  We had to promise Henry we'd find a toy store on the way to the castle so that he could buy some Legos, just to keep him from being totally dejected (and the fact that we found a toy store in a little town off the highway goes to show you how well we've acclimated :-)

Visiting the Neuschwanstein Castle was one thing that Sue really wanted to do while in Germany.  It is south of Munich (in Bavaria) and one of King Ludwig's castles, with construction started in the mid 1800's.  It is just so quintessential Bavaria that even though we were warned of long lines, we wanted to go.  And you always imagine you'll have a view like this ...

not like this ...

But I'd say that the kids still liked it and were good sports hiking around to the bridge that overlooks the castle.

Friday, as forecasted, was a day of almost continuous rain.  But we had a good list of indoor rainy day items from the BMW museum (vroom, vroom) to an aquarium to a hands on science museum (the first two located at the Olympic Village -- we realized Munich is our third Olympic City this year!).  Of course, we forgot to factor in that this Friday happened to be Good Friday, which meant that the science museum was closed (as was our favorite restaurant!).  But we headed out to the BMW museum.  We instead went to this humongous BMW showroom that's next door first and ended up staying there (it was free, except for the food, which was amusement park prices!).  Henry especially liked the cars, and as you can see, the motorcycles as well.

After lunch we walked over to the aquarium, but it was packed!  So, we had a pretty relaxing afternoon and ventured out in the evening to the city center for food.  My one regret on this trip is that we didn't spend more time in the city center to get a better feel for the city, even if my one impression was that it looked touristy.

Ok, so if you've been following along, you know that the next day is Saturday.  This is D-Day for Legoland as we were booked on a Sunday morning training back to Graz.  So, did we get the sunny weather that was forecasted?  In one word, "not a chance!"  And not only was it raining, it was cold.  We are talking rainy, damp and lower 40's.  Brrrr, especially when you are NOT dressed for it.  But, as you can see for yourself, Henry was not phased by this!  Legoland was just everything Henry dreamed about!  He could just not stop hopping around from one place to the next, pointing out all the neat creations with Legos.

Henry upon arriving -- and before getting too wet!

And one of the things that we told the kids about was "Driving School."  It turns out that Henry wasn't old enough for the 1-hour driving school, so he settled for the shorter version (which means he didn't get an official-looking driver's license with his picture and name on it -- but he still carried it around all day with a smile on his face).

As I mentioned, Grace's class was 15 minutes of picture taking, 15 minutes of instruction (in German and she said she understood all of it!), and 15 minutes of driving on a really elaborate course (I should have taken a picture of it -- it even had a car wash you could drive through in addition to traffic lights and a roundabout!).  Both kids did very well and said it was one of their highlights (Dad's highlight was sneaking away for a few rides on the more physically challenging rides).

We rode some rides, saw Legos being made, visiting many Lego creations, and constantly negotiated how many Legos they could buy.  When you combine that with finding a nice tapas restaurant on the way back to Munich, it was a great day (and a long one, both kids didn't go to sleep until after 10p!).

Sunday was Easter morning and I think I may have blew our cover when I was more shocked in the morning that it had snowed overnight than upon hearing the news that the Easter Bunny managed to find us in our hotel room in Munich.  That's right, snow in April.  Sue said that she was reminded of being in MN!

Doesn't look like much here, but on the grass it was 1-2 cm of pretty snow!

The rest of the trip was uneventful.  The train ride home was enjoyable, with lots of room to ourselves (we used two cabins ... one for rest/reading and one for games/movies -- probably not good train etiquette!).  We came home, scrounged for dinner as the stores were all closed for the holiday, got the kids the baths that we didn't quite manage to make happen while away, and relaxed for the evening.  We're only home for four days and then it's off to Vienna on Friday!