The kids had their fall break last week so we headed on our first big road trip. It was the first actual road trip we had ever taken as a family, and it didn't disappoint. We were able to visit, Austria, Germany, Luxemburg, Switzerland, and Italy in just three days. Its hard to believe coming from the US when everything is so far apart. We drove for about 16 hours total stopping every couple of hours. Thankfully for iPads and an amazing view, the kids did great!
Our first stop was in Innsbruck, Austria. We didn't have much planned here other than to walk around and have lunch. The kids were craving some American food, so it was Hard Rock Café to the rescue. A nice step up from McDonald's! After that we wandered around for a little while and happened to come across a little festival. It was so cute. There were lots of tents set up with different types of bikes to ride, in another there was acrobatics and balancing ropes. In another, bubbles and face paint. We found out it was "Savings Day" in Innsbruck and the event was put on by the bank. The bank encourages kids to bring in their money to open a savings account and they have a celebration to reward them. Our kids were thrilled!
Innsbruck is a beautiful and colorful city. It's clean and maybe we were lucky but it wasn't crowded at all. We saw the old Olympic stadium from 1976, enjoyed wandering around the streets, and if the clouds parted just right we saw the beautiful snow covered mountains. A wonderful place to visit. We bought lots of fun souvenirs and were on our way to stop number 2, Ambras castle. We did a quick walk around and enjoyed all the peacocks there were to see and the beautiful setting.
Next, we were on the way to the much anticipated Neuschwanstein Castle in Germany. Just a short hour and a half away from Innsbruck.
We arrived at our hotel around 5 and thought we would walk around to find a place to eat. We found this funny little restaurant with armor and swords all around. The menu said you had to use your hands to eat and you HAD to wear a bib. Sounds perfect with three kids! The lady helping us was so funny, she had a little giggle that reminds me of someone out of the movie Frozen. She went to put on mine and Lilly's bibs and as she set down the others, she set them right in the candle. They started on FIRE!!! She put it out right away, we all had a good laugh, but it was a memorable start to the meal! The kids also thought it was great that there was a cat just lounging at one of the tables. Not to be bothered by any customers. Dinner came and went without much excitement. Thankfully! Our tummies were full, but never too full for gelato. So it was a quick stop then back to the hotel.
In the morning we had a quick breakfast before heading to the Castles. We were there for Neuschwanstein Castle but we also took a tour of the other castle in town. We had taken the same tour about 8 years ago, but were happy the kids got to experience it as well! The boys loved the castles and were very into the audio guides and wanted to be the first one in each room. They ran wild when they could and were nice and calm when they needed to be. Phew! The castles are nothing short of amazing, and I'm happy to say nothing majorly exciting happened here. Everyone loved it and Lilly was happy when she got to take a horsey ride.
Then we were on the road again. The nice thing about road trips is you can change the plan if you want. So last minute we decided to go to Seewis, Switzerland. This is the small village the Fausch family came from. We looked it up and there are still Fauschs living there today. We even found an address of one. It was so last minute we didn't contact anyone, but it was great to see where the Fausch Family came from.
We had a couple more hours of driving to do before we arrived at our hotel at Lake Como. The gps on my phone and the gps on the car were showing two different routes. The car was about 45 minutes faster so we followed that route. I'm not going to say it was a mistake, but it left Josh and I praying we made it to our destination! We exited the highway thinking we would be heading to another highway. We were wrong. It was taking us on a shortcut, right up and over the top of the mountain. It's known as the Splugen pass. When we started it was about 50 degrees and kind of cloudy, as we went the temperature kept dropping, it got dark and foggy, eventually it started to snow. We were doing switch backs constantly and could barely see the road ahead of us. Eventually we came across a couple of cops which we thought was strange. But we later imagined that they were there to stop people and check for snow tires or at least chains for the tires. Neither of which we had. The roads were crazy were couldn't see a thing, the kids even got super quiet. We must have needed a little comic relief because we got to a tunnel and it was filled with GOATS. We put on the breaks and had no clue what to do. Luckily a local came up behind us and just plowed on through. We followed closely behind, laughing all the way. We learned later the road is one of the most dangerous in Europe, also the most beautiful and they shut it down during snow storms. We made it out on the other side and it saved us only about 15 minutes time in the end. I don't think we would do it again. Here's a couple pictures of what it looks like. I didn't take any, it was dark!
After about five and a half hours in the car with no stops we made it to our villa. We were all so ready to get out of the car. We stayed the night next to Lake Como and had a nice breakfast by the lake in the morning. The kids were ready to get home and the weather wasn't great so we obliged. But on the way decided to make a detour to the Alfa Romeo museum. It wasn't too far away anyways. It was great, even for the girls. So much to look at the the 4D film was a huge hit. The the boys loved it and it was a nice end to the trip!
Next up in just a few weeks is a short 3 day trip to Copenhagen. We can't wait and are so thankful to be so close to all these amazing places!
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