superhero night at local pizza place

Was a pretty big hit for B and his neighborhood buddy, not to mention A.

Salt Mine!

 Brian and I travel well together.  Its one of the (many) ways I knew we would be good partners for life.  We may not travel the same as other people, but we are compatible.  We don't like to see/do too many things in any one day.  We like to have a skeleton (hotels and maybe a list of things that might be fun) of our trip, but not a detail plan.  We've always been like this, even before kids.  You never know what the weather will be like, or how we will be feeling any given day or what locals may mention as being worthy of doing.  This, however, comes with a cost sometimes (in Iceland we weren't able to get tickets to the Blue Lagoon on the day we wanted).  On our general agenda for Salzburg was to go to a salt mine.  We woke up and decided that the first day there was the right day, but when we got to the mine, we quickly realized that most people had already scheduled their entrance time and we were left with a tour many hours (3, 4? can't remember) later.  It wasn't ideal timing and the kids were pretty cranky and hungry before long.  But the tour was well worth the wait and it comes up as a top attraction when the kids are asked what their favorite part of the trip was.

 Everyone has to wear a protective suit to enter the mine on an open train.  We honestly had no idea what this tour would be like, but we figured out soon that there was minimal information given.  After boarding the train, it begins a long journey into the mine through a narrow tunnel.  About 5 minutes into the ride, the train stopped, in the dark, for what felt like a long time (maybe 5 minutes in reality).  No one knew if this was normal, or if the train was broken (B was nervous, but he actually handled it really well).  Eventually the train stops in a huge open space and the tour begins.  You slowly make your way through a museum, though its deep deep inside a mountain.  Some of the rooms are connect by long slides and at one point you get on a boat that takes you across a lake 300 meters underground.

 The tour was well over an hour (all in the dark inside the mountain) and when we exited, there was a huge rain storm, plus B had fallen asleep on the train ride out.

A long drive on a rainy day, a sick kid and lots of palaces

 After a few days, we left Switzerland for a long day's drive to Austria (its actually only 2 hours, but we took the long way to visit the Neuschwanstein Castle and the Linderhof Palace.  It was a pretty overcast and somewhat wet day, which was nice for the drive, but made for an interesting visit to the palaces.

NeuschwansteinNeuschwanstein

 The Neuschwanstein is famous because Disney castles are based off it.  We weren't the only ones interested in seeing this famous palace, nor were we aware of all it entailed.  To go into the castle, you need to book tickets well in advance and to get up to the castle is quite a hike (maybe 2 miles uphill?)  LT wasn't feeling good.  He had a pretty bad cold despite getting antibiotics for what we thought was just strep (I am still not convinced he even had strep...)  B insisted on being carried most of the way up, so Brian got a good workout.

 We had great intentions of taking a different route down for a better view, but the kids were tired and hungry and we knew there were places to stop on the route down that we had taken up. Despite all our effort, we didn't really get a very good view of the castle.

 The whole place was a bit reminiscent of Disneyland itself.  Lots and lots of crowds, many opportunities to buy overpriced merchandise and food (you even had to pay to use the bathroom) and and a lot of long lines.

 We got back in the car to drive to the Linderhof Palace (which was my favorite as a child because of the grotto that King Ludwig had.)  

 While the rain had mostly cleared out for this visit, it wasn't without challenges as well.  Our timed ticket for a guided tour of the palace was for 2 hours after our arrival.  We wandered around the grounds, but quickly realized that the grotto had been closed since 2014 and wasn't scheduled to open until 2021.  This was a huge disappointment for me because I have magical memories of only this palace.  

 These two had a great time running around the gardens, so it wasn't a huge waste.  And I think they learned a bit about the extreme loneliness King Ludwig created for himself from the tour.  I can't say it was the best day on our trip, but I am glad that they saw a little history while we were there.

First time for Fondue