Catching up from the Globetrotting Grannies trip! 23 Oct - ALL CAUGHT UP!!

Today's update 23 October 2024 - below!

This is only the first couple days and it is a work in progress!

 The 4 Globetrotting Grannies - 2 from Duluth, 1 from WA state and me from Bloomington MN - arrived back home 16 October after 13 days of adventure in Germany and Netherlands.  Lots of stories and lots of pictures so will be filling in the stories later.

My friend Fran from WA arrived a couple days early and we got together with another friend also met in 1968 or so - long history of best friends.

Nice little wooden special gift from Fran - suits me well!

And the 4 Grannies wearing the crocheted pouch daughter Jenny made for us with a cork tag that says "Globetrotting Grannies" - what could be better.

And Beth, me and Fran having a little lunch date at our house before we head out as Beth was not on the trip with us.

5 October 2024 - flew from Minneapolis to Detroit to Munich.  Always a new travel adventure as the shuttle pickup arranged to take us from Munich airport to the Edelweiss Lodge and Resort about 75 miles away could not be found and not answering phones!  And the $$$ was prepaid.  So.....we got to take the public Flixbus to downtown Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria then a taxi for the 6 minutes ride to the resort.

The resort is an AF military training center and retreat for current military, retired and widows so Kathy was eligible.  It was beautiful with lots of space and things to do and we did have to fill out forms, get our photo taken and get a permanent pass which we had to show every time we returned and it was checked very carefully at the gate.

First night after a long trip - what do we do but eat at one of the restaurants Zuggy's Base Camp in the lodge and say a little "cheers" for all of us.  Our ages are 72, 76, 77 and 80 so I would say "doing pretty darn good"!!!

Of course in Germany there is a lot of beer and I don't drink beer but they do have wine and cider....and what else but a lot of schnitzel - pork and chicken - and delicious.  One of our guides said the favorite foods of Germans are meat, potatoes and cheers - and beer of course!

This is the beautifully lit entrance to the front entrance of the lodge.

6 October 2024 - Sunday  

We had tours booked for all but one day of our 7 nights at the lodge.  So this one of Partnach Gorge (in German Partnachklamm) required us to get up at 7am to leave at 8am  First stop the Olympic stadium where the 1936 Olympics were held then on to the gorge with spectacular views of the rushing water and beautifully carved stone.  Dark wet tunnels and we got 11,404 steps by 2pm and since the waterfalls are all over and drip through the ceilings of the gorge and it is very dark a lot of people stepped in puddles including me! The tunnels got really dark and it was long and the couple ahead of me thank goodness had a phone flashlight for part of it. Several million years ago, meltwater and debris hollowed out the hard rock. What remained was a narrow gorge - the Partnachklamm in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

However, the gorge, which was declared a natural monument in 1912, was not always so tame and approachable.

We made it all the way through and back again!

Dessert - ice cream, apple strudel and a little whipped cream! After a lunch stop on the tour for a big German pretzel we decided to walk into town and ate at a Bavarian restaurant called Gasthaus Braeuwastl and it was really good.

Pork schnitzel and potato salad!

2nd night here - a little wine and beer and cheers with dinner.

This was on the site of the 1936 Olympic stadium area. Hitler bit for the 1936 Winter Olympics and won.

Just behind us is the ski jump used in 1936.

And back to the gorge - when we got to the first stop we had to go through a circle thing and show our tickets once again.

And of course - we could always find ice cream.

This was one form of transportation to get from up the hill down to the restaurant and Fran and I decided it would be fun and a new adventure and it was!

Beautiful views all over the place of the Alps and snow even in the clouds.

Germany 7 October 2024 - catching up!

Up early for a full day to visit Neuschwanstein Castle/Tour.

Lots of history of Bavaria going back to the 1st century!  Conquered by Tiberius, "celtic" were the first migrants from Africa, Indo-Europeans.  Salt and tin traders in the Bronze age (bronze is tin + copper), then Julius Caesar conquered.

We are very near Italy aka Gaul.  In 802 Garmisch was a farming settlement; it's "sister city" is Aspen, Colorado - lots of skiing as here in the Alps.  The term Marienplatz is the name of the center of any Bavarian city.  Rathaus is the name for the City Hall in Bavarian towns - kind of made us giggle when you think of rats vs politicians!

Edelweiss Lodge was built in 2004 and prior to that was a medical hub in 1945 for Nazis until liberation in 1945.  In the small town there is a bar pub called "Peaches" where the Nazis met.

Octoberfest this year ended October 6 the day after we arrived and I did listen to a travel podcast prior to trip and it said to watch where you step in the evenings as there is a lot of vomit and sauerkraut vomit - ugh!

In 1586-1596 witch trials were held at Werdenfels Castle in Garmisch and the stones were later turned into St. Martin's Church which was built in 1750.  Lots of dairy farms and hoischatle (haysheds) and 90% of all dairy here.

Visited the town of Murnau - where Ross and I stayed on a trip in 2010 to see the every 10 year Oberammergau Passion Play; visited Weiskirche town and the Church of the Scourged Savior.

Fran and I did another horse and carriage ride from uphill to down then had a little ice cream bar on a bench before heading back to the resort.  Dinner at the lodge and by 9pm had 8281 steps on the pedometer.

8 October 2024 - Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria

Today's tours - Linderhof Palace (one place that King Ludwig II actually finished. Then on to Oberammergau for a little walking and shopping and it is famous for the woodcarving shops and the art was beautiful.  King Ludwig's father was Maximilian, mother Maria, brother Otto.  Ludwig was born in 1845 and Linderhof was his permanent residence until he died at age 46 in 1886 when he and his doctor were found dead and still not sure if it was suicide or what.  He became isolated with very little contact for years and was declared insane.  

We saw a lot of deer stands for hunting and here they are called "deer blinds".

I saw a lot of the last name Wolf and my German grandmother's maiden name was Wolff.

One of my favorite visits anywhere in the world is a cemetery.  I have had the cemetery passion since I was a little girl and I remember rubbing the engraved names with my fingers.

Previous post 10 October 2024 - the story of us getting to Zugspitze the top of Germany at 9718 or so feet high.

    11 October 2024 - Friday - Edelweiss Lodge and Resort

Today tour to Ettal Benedictine Monastery and schnapps tasting!  The Monastery is home to the beautiful Basilica and it has 700 years of history and founded in 1330  by Emporer Ludwig the Bavarian.  It has an on-site brewery that produces some of the finest beers in the region. The Ettaler Klosterbiere has been in operation since the 1600s and is known for its unique brewing techniques  The famous Ettal Madonna and Child statue is here - the real one - and it has traveled many places and was known as the Madonna of Pilgrimage but is now home - at least for now!. 

We did have a schnapps tasting of 8 different flavors.  We drove through the Ettal Pass, mountains. TheVittelsbach family here in 1200 AD.

So if you use a translate app and take a photo - see the real one below - of a wood carving toilet sign translated from German to English:

12 October 2024 - Saturday - checked out of Edelweiss Resort to fly to Amsterdam for a 4 night stay in a northern suburb Zaandam.

And my 23" suitcase is pretty stuffed onto our next stop!

This was in a magazine on the plane and it reminded me of our Granny bags that daughter Jenny crocheted for us.

And this is the hotel in Zaandam a beautiful small town and our hotel was a short walk to the train station so we took a train from Amsterdam airport to the stop and then schlepped our bags but not bad!

The Central train station in Amsterdam is beautiful and built in 1869 and in the 1980s it had to add another wing due to all the passenger traffic.  It's a busy place with full trains from all over the place.

After checking in we took the train from Zaandam to Amsterdam and then hopped on a one hour canal tour with a full boat and good learning experience even though I have done it a few times.

There were a lot of tiny cars around and there is no ledge or guard rail to keep them from falling in and apparently it does happen and the drivers and required to stay with their cars on top if they have to so they can be rescued. About 12-15,000 bikes and 35 cars are dredged out of water every year.

13 October 2024 - Sunday - Zaandam, Amsterdam

Took the train them tram from Zaandam to Central Amsterdam.  At the end of the day we got 15,500 steps so about 8 miles.

Morning view from our hotel in Zaandam.  Every day we lucked out on weather and only one day about an hour or so of rain.

This is a wall art sculpture of an ice cream cone in a street tunnel.

We did get tickets to visit the famous Rikjsmuseum and it is amazing and I have been there twice in my lifetime.  There is a bit of everything including centuries old antiques of all kinds.

Guns - pretty fancy!

And what else but a female undergarment exhibit.

Famous ceramics and this guy looks like he had a pretty big dinner!

This one needs a little more wine or beer???

The tram we took around Amsterdam is efficient, clean and on time.  However, one day the tram lines were shut down for a while due to "demonstrations" at Amsterdam Central Station - we call them "protests".

14 October 2024 - Monday - Zaandam, Netherlands

Left the hotel via train to Amsterdam and we were fortunate that Kathy got tickets early on for a mid-day tour of the Anne Frank House with a 30 minute introduction with a speaker, pictures and videos.  $23 per person and well worth it and 3 of us did the climb up the skinny winding steps to the "attic" where the Frank family hid for a couple years.

Bar in our hotel in Zaandam - not bad!

So.....we did walk through the Red Light District and saw several "Girls of the Night" in the windows and one guy took a picture and the gal opened her window and shouted very loud at him.  It is no longer legal to take photos.

Truffle soup at a restaurant called The Mail Company.

15 October 2024 - took the train from Zaandam to Zaanse Schans a 17 minute train ride and it is famous for it's windmills.  From our hotel in Zaandam just outside of Amsterdam we took the train for a 17 minute ride to Zaanse Schans to walk around the village and see lots of beautiful windmills - long history and they are determined to preserve the remaining ones for years to come. At one point more than 650 windmills swung their sails simultaneously. An enormous activity, noise, smells, hard workers and boats came and went and lots of stories. From the 17th to end of 19th century these mills place an important role in the Dutch economy. They processed wood, grains and plant seeds and the products were further traded via Amsterdam. We visited the Windmill Museum and learned a lot about the history, the workers and the purpose of windmills. Lots of birds, ducks, little creeks and green land and I'm wondering where they grow all the cocoa beans they grind and transport from there. Also transport lots of spices from many other countries. And of course it's hard not to have the best chocolate in the world! The big company there transporting all these has 10,000 employees in Europe. And heading home tomorrow with a few treats and small souvenirs in our luggage! It's been a fantastic learning and fun experience.