Vacation 2015 - Day 4.

We spent the night at Camping Bannwaldsee. Unfortunately, during weekends they have their Biergarten open with loud music far into the night, so we did not get the full benefits from a night's sleep.

Instead of taking the shortest road to the Innsbruck/Brenner freeway, we visited Oberammergau (not far from Garmisch-Partenkirchen where the famous new year's day worls cup ski jumping contest is held), as the town is famous for its many wall paintings.

It was another hot day with temperatures about 35 degrees Celsius, so we did not stay very long, but below is some pictures taken during our visit.

Probably because of the lack of sleep, my wife forgot to load the iron stool we used to have as a step in front of the door to the caravan. We did not notice until pausing for lunch on the Innnsbruck/Brenner freeway, so going back for it was not an option. I was a bit upset, as the stool had been a part of my camping experiences as long as I can remember.

While we were crossing the Austrian Alps, the temperature rose even further, as can be seen from this rather blurred photo:

Below are a few more photos taken while driving through the mountains.

Snow!!!

Vacation 2015 - Day 3, Part 2.

After resting (and the kids swimming in the lake) we made our way to the small nearby town of Hohenschwangau to withdraw some cash before taking the trip to the two famous castles of the area.

The next pictures are taken from the parking lot on the edge of the town.

For some reason, Anna did not wish to be on any of the pictures taken from here, but, well..

After parking in the official tourist parking lot and standing in line for tickets most of an hour, we decided to climb the stairs up the rock to Schloß Hohenschwangau.

View towards Alpsee halfways up the stairs

There was some waiting time before the guided tour of the castle, so we mutated into Japanese tourists for a while.

No pics from inside the castle, as the Wittelsbacher family hold the copyright of everything inside.

On the way down, we took the horse wagon, and the girls got to sit in the drivers seat.

We also took a wagon up to Schloß Neuschwanstein, whicjh is said to be the inspiration for the Disney castle of the Sleeping Beauty.

If you look very closely, you can see a cableway.

My wife and I walked down, as the last wagon had just barely room for the kids.

A small creek fell down from the rock...

...went under the road and disappeared down through the woods.

The last view of a fairy tale castle.

Vacation 2015 - Day 3, Part 1.

It appears that camping sites in the southern half of  Germany close at 19.00 or 20.00, which took us somewhart by surprise on the evening of day 2.

A view from the camping

Consequently, we failed to find a site to spend the night - and as we had already suffered substantial delays due to roadworks (especially around Braunschweig), we decided to drive through the night to reach Oberschwangau near Füssen (in Bavaria) before morning.

Lea is getting ready for the lake!

We arrived at Camping Bannwaldsee (http://www.camping-bannwaldsee.de/de/campingplatz-allgaeu-schwangau-bayern.html) at 4.00 in the morning on July 3rd, and put the kids to bed in the caravan, while my wife and I tried to get some sleep in the car.

We checked in at 8.00 and got a nice spot (lot #380) to stay.

The kids went for a swim in the lake (the camping has its own beaches along the lake).

As soon as we felt up to it after resting a bit more, we set sails for the first BIG adventure of this our first journey into the continent with the family:

Castles Hohenschwangau and Neuschwanstein!

More about this in the next episode of: Vacation 2015!

A closer look at the mountains from the camping

I want an awning like this for our caravan!

Vacation 2015 - Day 2.

Anna took a lot of pictures while we were driving down through the Harz and northern Bavaria.

Here are some of them: