26 December 2014-
Hey, everyone:
Wave good bye to Opa!!!
First stop? We need to get another vignette for our car (it's a sticker you place on your car that shows you've paid your tolls and it allows you to drive in Austria). We just need it for today. Yep…seems crazy but our time limit is up (I think the one we have is good for ten days and this is the eleventh day). While we could perhaps get away with not buying one I *really* don't want to take a chance on our last few hours in Austria.
Last look at the factory Opa used to work at. I *always* wanted to go inside and check it out but for reasons unknown to me we never did. Bummer.
AAAAAAAAAAck! Nothing is open today!!!! I was hoping to buy some last minute chocolates, candies, and Manner schnitten but all the shops ARE CLOSED. OH NO! We had to drive a bit before we found a place selling vignettes. Whew. At least a gas station was open!
And it appears we've driven out of the snow:Want to know what driving in Austria is like? It's a lot of this:
TUNNELS!!!!!
(do you think the Dwarves dwell there? I'm referring the Dwarves from "The Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" trilogy.)
Check out the name of a town on this sign:
The town is called Rottenmann. I CAN. NOT. STOP. GIGGLING! Every time I see or hear that name I think "rotten man" and I hear (inside my loopy head)…Billy Joel's "Piano Man" but with the words rotten man replacing piano man. Yep. Every. Single. Time. (and we passed by this sign many, many times on this trip to Austria!)
[ETA: Oh. My. Goodness. I'm totally laughing at myself. Mark just told me that the song I'm thinking of is actually "Rocket Man" by Elton John….not "Piano Man" by Billy Joel. Moral of this story, don't count on any help from me in regards to music trivia. I'm a lost cause!]
And here we've got some blue skies. That's the beauty of living in the mountains….you never know what the next valley will be like:
WHOA! Have some snow!!!
And back to clear-ish blue skies:
We've made it Munich. The drive in Germany was easy peasy. Roads were clear and there was only a hint of snow on the ground. I'm so glad we weren't driving TO Austria on that particular day as that direction was backed up for MILES and MILES and MILES (ahem…I mean to say kilometers!!). Tonight we're staying at a hotel located RIGHT AT the airport. We don't want to mess around with getting to the terminal early in the morning. We're so grateful that the hotel really is *right* at the airport. (we've noticed over and over again that sometimes airport hotels claim to be at the airport are actually quite far from the airports….that isn't the case with this one.)
Mark dropped us off at the hotel while he returns the gigantic van back to the rental car place. Woo hoo! Check in at the hotel was easy and Mark is back from dropping the car off. And….we just looked outside our hotel room window to see a Christmas market. Let's go have a look at what is likely to be our last Christmas market!
Smokey Joe BBQ??? mmmmmmm…..
How about some crepes? Yes, please!
Which crepe do you want?
Anything made with Nutella MUST be GOOD:
Nutella crepes= Happy girls:
And Mark and I got some other tasty crepe (which may or may not have had loads of honey in it):
Group of singers from the USA…gospel music, I think? It was fun and LOUD (too loud) to listen to:
Just inside the airport there are lots of shops and restaurants….what's for dinner for us? SUSHI?? Why yes! After two weeks of eating heavy meals it's time for Japanese food. See that Edeka behind the girls? That's a German grocery store…and where I managed to buy a few of the chocolates and Manner schnitten.
Back out to the Christmas market for one last look around. Aren't these penguins cuuuuuute????
Check out this darling display of Christmas ornaments:
The girls, using the Euros their Opa, Oma and Tante Kirstin gave them, bought lavender pillows. I absolutely love the smell of these pillows!!!! Lavender! Such a lovely smell.
Back in the hotel…here's the ENORMOUS Christmas tree in the hotel's foyer. Big enough for you? It's several at least one…maybe two stories tall!
Good night everyone! It's so hard and painfully sad to realize that our European Vacation has come to an end. Tomorrow morning we're flying to Amsterdam and then back to Beijing for us!