Day 11 and 12: Tegernsee and Salzburg

Katie and Robert had a much more detailed itinerary than we did, so I told them whatever they planned to do, we would tag along. The plan for Friday was to go on a hike to Tegernsee and stop in at a biergarten of which my dad was well acquainted due to his decades long relationship with the area.

However, on the previous Wednesday, my dad commented that there was also a plan to visit the Slyrs Distillery first thing in the morning.  Those who know the Buschelmans know we do very few things "first thing in the morning".  And visiting distilleries is not one of them.  As those going on this particular tour had to come back through Holzkirchen for lunch, we elected to meet them at that point and merely sent our representatives (Dom and Will) in our stead.

 And we had a relaxed morning in Otterfing...which is how we prefer to spend "First thing in the morning" time.  We even had a second breakfast at the bakery and visited the Catholic Church and village World War I memorial for good measure.

In my mind, this picture looked much more idyllic...but we had a lovely breakfast of semmeln, nutella, and strawberries.

 And soon, we were on our way to Holzkirchen to meet up with the rest of the group and have lunch.  This is where I learned that my sons, nieces, and nephew had been playing The Great Dalmuti for hours...and they continued to play this game whenever they had a table available to do so.  And never asked if I wanted to play.  Not once.  Though, I did fill in as advisor for Molly and Margaret and they were pretty impressed with my skill (Molly suggested me to Margaret and told her she wouldn't regret it...she didn't)...yet, I was still not invited to actually play.  This was a first in my life and I feel a corner has been turned.  Though, I did get to fill in as various participants left to use the facilities from time to time.  So I had that going for me...which was nice.

We got off our train a stop before Tegernsee in order to commence our hike.  Of questionable length.  L'Opa said it would be a couple of hours.  Now, perhaps this would have been successful if we had started it 'First Thing in the Morning', or if they hadn't already done a couple of kilometers to the distillery, or if it wasn't a particularly hot day, or if there wasn't a park that everyone preferred to play on (Biergartens just don't quite entice the youth like they do the elders).

 After several conferences, a command decision was made to play at the park for an hour and then take a short boat ride to Tegernsee.

 Which turned out to be a pretty nice plan B (Plan C would have been to catch the train)

 We disembarked, spotted an ice cream shop so a good portion of us headed in that direction while Eric, Nana, and L'Opa went to get us seats at the Biergarten.

 Where we stayed for a few hours.  It was a beautiful day and at one point I looked over at Eric, grabbed his hand and said: "Let's NEVER GO BACK!"...

The kids played The Great Dalmuti the entire time (when they weren't eating pretzels, naturlich!).  And they, again, never invited me to play.  I was sitting right there...next to them...the whole time!  I gave them that game!!

 After several rounds of beer, plates of sausages, radishes, and pretzels, we settled the bill and headed to the train station.  By the time we got back to Holzkirchen, the boys sans John headed to the Schmids with Nana and L'Opa and the rest of us went to the Reddigs' apartment for a little Nachtisch...or coca-cola and chips.  AND! I finally got to play cards.  We played a few hands of Spades, which Katie and I won, naturally.  Not sure why people don't invite me to play more often...

 On Saturday morning, we saw that there were two flights out of Ramstein headed to Dover on Sunday morning.  Time to face some hard decisions. Option A was to cancel our day trip to Salzburg with family, pack up and head to Ramstein immediately.  I nixed that.  Our kids had handled all of the unknowns and change of plans so well, but, I couldn't do that to them.  Option B was to take a later train and at least have a couple of hours in Salzburg.  I hoped that by the time we met up with everyone, one of the flights would slip to later in the day or maybe even Monday.  Which they do often. And we could maintain our original schedule of staying through noon on Sunday and head up to Ramstein that afternoon.

 However, that was not to be.  We let the adults know the situation and they were supportive.  After we arrived in Salzburg, we headed to Schloss Hellbrunn.  A delightful sightseeing destination with loads of trick fountains that soak the tourists.  Eric and I broke the news to our kids that we would need to leave sooner rather than later.  There were a lot of tears.  I hated breaking the news to them that they only had a couple of hours with everyone left. 

However, there was a plan C...to get up in the middle of the night (1AM) and catch a train to Ramstein that would get us there in time for the second flight.  It was risky, but we decided it was worth the risk in order to enjoy the full day as much as possible.

 Which the kids did by getting soaked.  I somehow managed to bypass most of the water, but the kids managed to find water...always.  It was a particularly hot day, so it was definitely a perfect outing for Salzburg.

 After the water tour, we made our way to the center of town and enjoyed a lunch at an outdoor cafe before doing a quick walking tour of the town center.

 We visited the Cathedral where the von Trapps got married in the film and lit a few candles for some special intentions. 

And listened to the bells ring.

 It was another beautiful day.  But, storms were brewing, and we had a train to catch.  We headed to the train station just before the storm hit.  There was a grocery store where we got ice cream and drinks for the train ride home.

 Which were enjoyed by all.

We suggested we get pizza one last time and L'Opa knew the perfect place.  The kids could even watch them put the pies into the brick oven.  And there wasn't a slice left by the end of the meal. 

 We took a quick stroll to the town center of Holzkirchen, and then returned to the platform to say our last goodbyes.

 It is always hard to say goodbye to family, but this time was particularly hard.  I was crying, the kids were crying...even Eric said he got a little teary.  John's voice cracked as he looked out the window and said: "I miss them already!"...Thankfully we already know when we will see them again.  And as Eric pointed out, it is extremely fortunate that we have people we love so much in our lives.

 And, so it was somber crew that disembarked in Otterfing and headed back to our apartment to get our belongings together for a brief night of rest.  But, we really had a great time with Nana, L'Opa, and The Reddigs in Bavaria.  And our luck with travel was sticking with us as flight times had changed and we would be able to compete for both flights which had a total of well over 100 seats available.