Germany/ Vienna / Amman: Day 7
UGGGHHHH! 5 am came way way to early. Little Lady refused to sleep in her crib and since we were getting up early we just put her in our bed so that hopefully we would get enough sleep to function on. Amazingly once she was out which was around 3 or 4 am she was out. S and I got up and finished packing plus got ready without waking her. I even woke her up to get her dressed and she never really woke up. She just fell right asleep on me. So I put her in my BECO carrier and finished packing. She slept all the way to the airport (a 45 minute subway ride) and through check in and she would have slept through security if they would not have made me take her off so they could scan the carrier. She woke up (which was probably a good thing) I changed her diaper and soon it was time for us to get on the plane. We held off on her bottle until we were on the runway and there was no problem with her ears at all. She downed the bottle and then was a happy camper. We were flying Niki air and even though it was a 45 minute flight to Vienna they came around and brought us drinks and sandwiches. They even brought us a large jar of baby food for Little Lady. Things were going swimmingly until the pilot announced that there would be a 15 minute delay on arrival because of congested air traffic. No sooner did he mention the delay and LL lost it. She screamed the rest of the time until she fell asleep just before landing. Once we landed I wiggled her into the BECO again and she stayed alseep while we wandered the airport. She even let me transfer her to the stroller! We had a 4 hour layover in Vienna and so we needed to kill some time. The airport is laid out kinda strangely. There are different sections and each time you cross a section you have to go through security or at least are notified you are leaving a secure area. Since we were getting a connecting flight we did not have boarding passes for the next flight and we were a bit worried about what would happen if we wandered out of security, though we soon discovered we did not have a choice. So we left the C gate we landed in and traveled along the way to the D gates. We stopped in the stores (they have lots of them like saworski crystal, burberry, and well a lot of high end things) and then we ate at this little cafe thing. There were not a lot of options on this side of the security. We put the high chairs in the window and the girls had a great view of the planes taking off and landing as well as all the usual airport "traffic" of luggages cars and trucks and etc. We all had a great lunch then decided to start heading towards our gate to get checked in. We bought a pop for the flight and off we went. Then we got to the gate and discovered we had to go through security with bag scans, and metal detectors and then we would be trapped at the gate until our flight which was still a few hours away. So we went back to the lounge area to let the girls get some playtime before we were trapped on a plane. We took up an entire section and blocked it off with the strollers. We pulled out some toys for the girls and then tried to relax. They had these great lounge chairs. 2 in each section that had a foot rest. So first the guys took a turn sitting in them and then Erin and I each had a brief turn. Ella enjoyed LL's antics. Ella thinks it is hilarious when Little lady crawls around. Then they both get laughing and talking and it is very cute. Ella also kept knocking toys through the chairs and they were nearly impossible for us adults to reach but Little lady's ability to fit in small spaces came in handy. She crawled right under the chairs and grabbed whatever fell then crawled back out! YAY!! We can give her tasks now!! S says now she can contribute to doing some chores. lol Eventually we decided that we could manage having to sit for 30 minutes at the gate and we headed to security. Once we were there we got in line and got ready to go through. Little Lady decided she was tired and bit me while we waited in line. Yep that is twice and 2 days I was bitten and nearly in the same spot. Let's just say it wasn't pretty for a few minutes there. Then it was our turn. They wanted to scan the stroller but ours was too bit to fit through the xray machine so they took it and swabbed it. I put my bag and the diaper bag on the conveyer belt and the lady told me to put Little Lady's pacifier on the belt too. I told her no (now little lady's pacifier has a small stuffed animal attached so I guess i could hide something in it but still) she told me yes and then S told her no it is a pacifier. AT that point I said she will cry if I take it from her and no i am not giving it to you. The lady got mad, forcefully opened the diaper bag, and peered in it. then slammed it in the plastic bin and shoved it through. I walked through and while I was waiting on the other side for the bag to come out the guy finished swabbing our stroller went to lift it off the table (why he put it on the table I do not know) and he hit Little Lady on the head with it. She started crying and while I was trying to calm her, and calm myself before I let loose a string of verbal things I would regret, our bag came out and they got upset about the pop and water that was in there. Well we just bought it and it was sealed. Apparently that did not matter so they threw it away. There went 3.50 Euro!  They let me keep the huge water though because it was for the baby! Go figure. Then as we finally get through we have to check in for the flight. We do but it takes a while. We get seats so we can wait and while we wait we see all these people bring bottles of different liquids and the alcohol they purchased at the duty free through security. So I do not understand the rules but apparently by not letting them take Little lady's binky I upset some balance and so they had to be hard on us about the drinks. Whatever. Then it is time to start boarding the plane (though the plane was delayed). This is the point in time when the nice relaxing vacation with all the amazingness of Germany and well Europe came to an end. Why you ask? Because this is the point in time where there were less Europeans and therefore less order. The lady announced that rows 17-27 could bored and 3/4 of the room stood up and rushed/ mobbed the gate. There was no orderly line, there were more people than rows 17-27 could hold, there was actual pushing. Then over the rush we hear the lady yelling "sit down" " only people in rows 17-27" " HAVE A SEAT" ! YEP people this is what it is like in Jordan when you are faced with needed to wait your turn for something and well here we are in Vienna on our way home and it already started. Eventaully it gets sorted out and we get called (ROW 7) and we go to board the plane and the guy wont let Erin and I go because we have the babies. But he did it to be nice. There were so many people that rushed forward the walkway was backed up and it was very cold on there and he did not want the girls to get cold. So he let S and Chris go and take the strollers but he had Erin and I wait to be the last ones on the plane so we could stay warm. We hung out and waited. Eventually he let us go. We walked on the plane and found our seats. They had given us the first row in economy class where there is the bassinets for the girls. So we had no one in front of us. Just a wall with TV's. At first I did not like it because there was no where to put our stuff but once we were in the air it was great because it gave LL lots of room to play. I should mention she was asleep when I got on the plane and was asleep for take off and probably the first hour of the flight. Long enough for me to eat my chicken curry in peace. The flight was great. She played. Then when it came time for landing she got a bit groucy. Ok she threw a temper tantrum. I am guessing she has issues getting her ears to adjust. She would not take a drink, nor a bink we just had to let her scream. We landed and things were good. We got off the plane, met our escort, cleared customs, found our luggage no problem, and we were on our way home. It was nice to be home but we missed Germany already. Now it is time to plan our next vacation. Where should we go???

Germany day 6: December 27th- our last day here :(

We woke up early and got ready to go to the Castle. We were not sure of anything other than we needed to get a train to get there but we figured we could try to figure it out. Then the longer we thought about it we realized we did not know what else we needed to do besides get a train to somewhere. Erin and Chris had made the plans. So we scratched the idea of the castle and decided to let the front desk staff decide our day for us. So we went downstairs and asked the desk staff what we should do on our last day in Munich. They suggested the walking tours and we vetoed that. We were very tired of seeing the same part of town. It would have been nice to learn a little more about what we had been walking by all this time but quite frankly I needed a change of scenery. They suggested we get a bus to Salsburg Austria and we were all for it but then the guy asked if we did the castle tours and we said no we had been planning to but the plans changed and we just did not think we could do it. He said that we really should see them and that there was a tour leaving at 8:30 just down the street if we wanted to go he would get us tickets. It was 8:15 and we did not have breakfast yet but one of these castles is the one Disney modeled his castle after so we decided to go for it. We ran up to the room grabbed as much stuff to feed little lady as we could and ran out the door and down the block. We got on the bus and the 10 1/2 hour tour started. Our bus headed to Oberammergau first. It was about a 40 minute trip to this small ski town.

A view of the mountains surrounding this town

Little Lady's first time in the snow

 There were plenty of little shops to explore but we were only given around 30 -40 minutes to shop and be back at the bus. Not really long enough to peruse everything and go back which is more my way of shopping but we managed to see some nice things and our first signs of snow since arriving in Germany. We bought a few souvenirs and hurried back on the bus.

Enjoying the bus ride

Then the bus pulled out and we drove for 30 minutes or so to the next stop which was Linderhoff Palace. This was the place that King Ludwig II spent most of his time.

The garden. The wood huts are fountains and statues that are covered for winter

The front of the palace

It was a small place similar in size if not smaller to Thomas Jefferson's Monticello. Now here is where you start to get a feel for how crazy king Ludwig was. He came into power when he was just 18 years old. He also was more of a solitary kinda guy and never really wanted to be around people. He did travel to Versailles 2ce and so he modeled his palace and castle after that.

I wish we could show you pictures of the inside of the palace but they did not allow photography of any kind and we stuck to the rules. Once you enter his palace you start by passing by 3 vases 2 of which he got from china. Then you go up some stairs and you start to notice that all the walls are covered in scroll work that is coated in gold. Everything is gold. He had tapestries on the wall and pictures of Louie the 15th and his mistresses everywhere. He collected vases and along the walls were gold shelves for the vases to sit on. He had 2 large 4 foot peacock statues (one of his favorite animals) that he made his staff put outside of the palace whenever he was in residence so people would know he was there, yet he never entertained anyone. He had his bedroom made to be the largest room in the palace so that if he needed to see people he could do it there which was the new fashion in Versailles. He loved the color blue so he had fire palaces build of blue lapis from Afghanistan. He also had central heating. He had wood stoves in the servants quarters that were connected to the palace by ducts so he did not have to see the staff. He also had a dining room table that was able to be lowered into the kitchen and set with the food by the staff then they would turn the crank and raise the table so that he would not have to see them. Eventually near the end of his life (he died mysteriously at age 40, it was either murder or suicide) he switched his days and nights and made his staff make him breakfast at 3pm and dinner at 3 am. His hobby was building castles which he built 3 of in a time when Bavaria was very poor and so he was not very favored by his people. The Linderhoff palace also had what seemed to be beautiful gardens but they were covered in snow and off limits to guests because of it. If you visit in the spring you would want to give yourself lots of time to explore this place and maybe being on this bus tour is not the way to do it. The tour kinda rushes you. So once this tour was over we hurried back to the bus as instructed and of course some rude people took their time and bought coffee and food and made everyone wait 30 minutes for them. Well that 30 minutes was a few too many and Little lady decided to have the melt down of her life on the 1 hour bus ride to the next Castle. S and I have never seen her get this upset. She got to the point that she was soo worked up she just could not stop. She was over tired and hungry (we were 30 minutes later getting to lunch--thank you rude people) and so she screamed and screamed and screamed for the entire hour ride. When the bus pulled into town the tour guide told us to stay on the bus while she got our tickets and I just ran up to the front and begged the driver to let me off. He looked at me and I just told him " please let me off otherwise I think these people are going to kill me" He just smiled and said alright. Then he opened the door for me and then pulled away to go park. I was standing there in the cold with no coat and just a blanket for the baby but she finally stopped screaming. Once we got the tickets we hurried to find some lunch and S and I found a cute restaurant and had some potato pancakes with applesauce. Little lady had a pretzel with applesauce. I could not get her to eat anything else but at least she had stopped screaming. Then we decided to wander the town.

View down the street

King Ludwigs parents Castle

 We tried to go in a shop the but the lady got mad I had a stroller so we left and started the long long steep walk up the mountain.

You could take a carriage ride up or down but it was a long wait

 After what felt like hours and some serious muscle burn later we were face to face/wall/stone with Neuschwanstein Castle.

 This castle was built but never completed during King Ludwig II's reign. The name of this castle means new swan hill. King Ludwig had swans used in decoration throughout this castle as they were his other favorite animal.

We were not allowed to take pictures inside of this castle either but this is much more what you think of when you think of a castle. He also was a bit more understated in the use of gold here. Seeing as the king never actually took residence of this castle it was not as complete as the other palace we visited. Also this is where Little Lady was awake and wanted to walk. Since the tour group moved fairly slow we let her but it meant I was busy keeping tabs on her and walking with her while I should have been listening to the descriptions of the rooms and things. I know we saw the room where he would have entertained guests. It had murals of the 12 apostles, the last few kings, and then at the ceiling was a painting of god because there are no kings above him. The throne area was complete but sits empty as the throne was never made before he died. There are mosaic tiles on the floor depicting many different animals. Then we were ushered out to another room that I think was a bedroom. It had a swan in it. We walked around and they showed us the ballroom where the king was planning to host concerts (remember this is the antisocial guy) and then the tour came to an end. We had climbed over 200 stairs to see the parts of the castle that we did and as with all good tours the way out was through the gift shop. We bought what will become an ornament for our Christmas tree and then got ready for the trek back down the mountain and to the bus for the 2 hour ride home.

  Little Lady was ok for a little bit on the bus then she started in with the screaming thing again, then a period of happy came over her and finally as we arrived back in Munich a screaming period again. It was such a lovely time. Once we were off the bus and away from the angry mob of other people that had been on the bus we decided to get some shopping done. Little Lady was very low on food pouches that we would need for the plane ride and we still had a few souviners to find. We quickly wandered around, found what we needed (turns out there was an underground mall we could have been walking in the whole time) and headed back to the hotel. We checked for Erin and Chris and found they had already gone to dinner so we headed out ourselves to a Mexican place (we can't really find good Mexican in Amman, and we didn't find it in Munich either). At the mexican place we ordered dinner and I decided to get a burrito. Now this was a very interesting burrito. It had some chicken, some kidney beans, corn, squash, large  (I mean a few inches long) pieces of jalapeno, peas and ricotta cheese in it. It was then covered in cheese that was baked on the outside. It was not what I was expecting but it was fairly tasty. Little Lady liked parts of it and she really like the transvestite waitress/waiter that we had that kept kissing her and brought her cookies. S had tacos that seemed to be alright but he also had the huge slices of jalapeno on his tacos. Once we finished dinner we left and headed back to the hotel in the rain. We had to pack and get to bed because we needed to leave the hotel at 6 am the next day to make our flight. Sadly our time in Munich was coming to an end.

Germany day 5: December 26th

  We woke up and got ready to get breakfast by 7:30 so we could catch a train by 8:30 to go see the castle. Then we opened our door and Chris let us know it was supposed to rain all day at the castle but be nice in Munich. So we changed our plans and decided for a day in Munich and we would do the castle tomorrow. We went to breakfast and we all chose to eat only a little bit so we could eat the great food of the city! It was the day after Christmas. The stores would be open. The restaurants would be open. Heck anything would be open! OR not... We walked down the street and the stores were still closed...well it was early in the day so maybe they would be opening later on...umm...no. SO we walked to the Duetches Museum to see if it was open and yes it was! YAY something open that we could do. So we bought tickets and went it. This museum is labeled a science museum. I had read reviews that said it was "awesome" "something not to be missed" "great for kids" "hands on"...yeah not so much. Maybe because I was thinking of science museums in the US but it was not what I expected at all. We walked in and were in the boat/ shipping section. It was kinda cool that they did cut aways of the ships so that you could actually see how it was built and what was inside of it. I love the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn Michigan but a car is a car, a train a train...they all look similar but this actually showed you what they look like on the inside. So that was a great way to start. However there were stairs within the exhibit and we brought the strollers so it was not the easiest thing to navigate and so we ended up having to skip parts of it. Also the signs explaining the exhibits were in German (well duh) and would take up three signs explaining it and then they would have 1 sentence in English about the exhibit. So in the airplane and space section we would see a plane and it would say 3 signs of German and then we would get " this aircraft was built in 1938 by a German and used  during the 1940's" or something along those lines. Not the most informative thing ever.

Helicopter

vertical take off plane

having a snack while looking at planes

Then we found the nanoscience section. Now this part was much more hands on. There were tons of touch screens to touch and games to play.

They offered more English explanations. It seemed to be a bit of a better set up and much more science museum esk... Then Little Lady discovered the stairs. Well my day was done. All she wanted to do was climb the stairs and it did not matter how far I took her from the stairs she would beeline back to them. Then I would let her climb for a minute then take her back into the exihibt a bit farther and the process would repeat.

staring a goat in the face (it was a stuffed goat)

 Ella found Little lady's shenanigans hilarious and I just found them tiring but at least she was having fun. Then she became tired and I put her in the stroller, threw a blanket over the screaming child and started doing laps. The nice man that started wistleing to calm her was not my friend and he most certainly recieved a dirty look, the hand, and a "not helping" from me (mind you I was on lap 15 and was really tired of the dirty looks and comments I was getting from all the other people but I really should not have snapped at him)- apologies to you kind sir whereever you are... anyways...she finally fell asleep and we could enjoy the museum. I was looking forward to the space section. I figured hey I know what the US has done lets see what the Germans have been up too. Except, I was disappointed because it was just the US's space history with replicas of the rovers, modules, and rockets. I guess I forgot to factor in the the US was kinda a major player in the whole space exploration, moon landing sorta thing. Then we decided to check out the glass blowing because the girls could see it and might like it. Well once again I think I am spoiled having been to Greenfield Village a million times because when we walked into the glass "blowing" room I was very diappointed to find a maniquin that was designed to look like it was blowing glass. Not quite what we were going for. At this point we had all hit our limit. Signs not in English, exhibits that left something to be desired, and two hungry girls, we were done. We packed up and headed out to try and find something that was open to eat for lunch. Well we walked by McDonalds and Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut hoping that we would find something a little better. We tried and tried. Eventually we found a Chinese place that was open but Chris was not interested so we kept walking...and then we found a place but there was not room available so we went back to the chinese place. It was interesting. You had to order at the counter and there were no prices on the menu. We ordered a spling loll (YES THAT IS WHAT IT SAID) and S got some curry and I had the sweet and sour chicken. The spling loll was different. It was a puff pastry with the spring roll veggies inside. Actually it was quite yummy. Then my sweet and sour chicken and S's Chicken Curry came and they were the exact same thing only with a different sauce. You were given a pile of white rice and a pile of chicken and veggies that was covered in the sauce of your choice. It really sounds appetizing doesn't it? It was not the best thing we had eaten but it was warm and we were limited with our options. It was around 2pm at this point in time and S and I decided to leave Chris and Erin so we could run to the Zoo that closed at 5pm. It was on my list of top things I wanted to do and this was going to be our only chance to see it so we hurried to the subway. Once we got there we realized we did not have a clue what tickets to buy so we asked the information guy and he said we needed the family ticket so for 10 euro the 3 of us rode the subway to the zoo and back. Our only thing is that we bought the tickets but no one ever asks to see them nor do you have to scan them anywhere so I guess it is an honor system kinda thing. We saw a sign that said the fee is 40 Euro if you are caught without a ticket but if you rode the train all the time I would think the 40 Euro fine would be cheaper than paying for a ticket each time. Oh well I guess I am too honest a person because we bought tickets everytime we used the Subway. So we get to the Zoo exit in around 10 minutes and walk out the tunnel and across the bridge. The bridge is covered in padlocks that have people names, initials, hearts, and dates on them. The fence they are attached to seems to be quite new so we are guessing that once it gets full they just cut down the fence and put a new one up in it's place but it seems like an interesting thing to do. Now we pay our 24 Euro and head into the Zoo. It is beautiful. It is like walking in a park with the occasional animal. We pass by lots of deer near the beginning and since we were short on time we decided to head to the back where the big animals are and then we could work our way forward as the zoo was closing. The did have a petting zoo at the front that we said we would take LL in but never had time for. We wander to the back and we see a Tiger in it's den chewing on a steak.

An Indian Rhino waiting to get let in it's house. Some Penguins splashing around

and then we come to the leopard exhibit. The leopard is up and walking around!

We push the stroller right up to the glass so Little Lady can see and she becomes focused on the leopard. The Leopard paces around and then another lady walks up to the glass and puts her hands on it and the leopard walks over and jumps up to the lady! This was right next to Little Lady and she did not miss a thing. S and I were both in shock too. We tried to get a picture...

it was the best we could get. But we were amazed at how close the leopard came and that is was not shy of the tourist. Then we started to walk into the animal house and the Lions were out in their enclosure and they were playing. They were running around chasing each other and seemed to just be having a grand ole time. We walked in the house and it was a rainforest. There were birds flying everywhere and they had some animals behind glass like the tortiouse and some fish. We left there though because it was kinda crowded and continued on. We next came to the apes. The thing we loved about this Zoo is that while there were houses to go in many of them had the windows to the houses on the outside so instead of having to go in the building to see the animals you just walked by the very large windows on the outside. The different monkeys and apes where very active. Most of them were near the glass and interacting with the tourist. Little Lady was able to see everything from her stroller and the animals seemed very interested in the little thing in pink. She loved hearing the lemurs call to the other animals

Checking out the lemurs

 and it seems by far her favorite was the little Tamuran monkey. At home we pat the couch or floor or whatever to get downy and dusty to come to us and Little Lady does this too now and she just kept patting her stroller trying to get the little monkeys to come see her.
 

It didn't happen. We are going to have to explain glass and wild animals to her sometime soon. The Baboon was sitting in the corner of his exhibit just checking out the people too.

Once we were done in there we walked down to the gorilla house but they were not on display at the moment as their place was being cleaned but Little lady did get to see some Chimps having dinner and playing. Then we walked through part of the Aquarium (apparently they have a shark exhibit but we did not want to take the stroller down the stairs to find out) So we hurried on to the  next thing. the Elephants were off display for winter but the giraffe poked his head out of his house to say Hi to Little lady (who was wearing her giraffe hat from grandma) then we walked to the wolves who were running around and we took some pictures of them. Another thing we like about this zoo is that all the railings or barriers (many are natural shrubs) were all low. So even though Little lady was in her stroller she had no trouble getting to see anything. Orginally the plan had been to let her walk around the zoo and we would take a day to explore but since we were limited on time she was confind to the stroller so that we could have "VICKIE" zoo tour and get a chance to see everything and it was great that we did not have to keep getting her in and out. Eventually we headed to the other penguin exhibit and these penguins were swimming around and jumping out of the water.

Once again Little lady was fascinated by the penguins. I think she could have stayed there for hours just watching them jump and swim but we heard a noise...It was feeding time at the seals and sea lions.

So we hurried over and the trainer/ keeper is standing outside of the exhibit with a bucket in his hands and the seals or sea lions depending on the exhibit were right there grabbing the fish. He was trying to throw them into the water so they had to work for it but some of them figured out to just stand next to the bucket and you could grab them before they hit the water.

We pulled the stroller up to the glass (which one seal was easily taller than) and just watched the feeding frenzy.

 I have never been so close to seals and sea lions in my life. It seems that everything at this zoo is designed to make you feel close to the animals and the animals do not seem to mind. They seemed pretty happy to be interacting with the people. There was no one forcing them to be near the glass they had huge spaces that they could hide out in but no they were all near the glass and near the people. I wonder what the difference is between the German Zoo's methods and that of American Zoo's? I mean we never see the animals behave like this and I have visited the Zoo (and many of them) more times than I can count. Once the feeding was done we started our trek out of the zoo. We wandered by some more animals though it was getting dark.

 We went past the playground and the beer garden (only in Germany, lol) and worked our way to the gift shop. Little Lady fell asleep on the way out and we bought her a little stuffed Leopard to remember her day at the zoo (which is a new favorite that she loves to carry around) and then we were the last ones to leave. They literally walked us out and shut the gate. It was a very enjoyable day. We walked back to the subway and caught a train back to our hotel. We waited for Chris and Erin for dinner but eventually we became too hungry and so we headed out to a little pizza place we saw the night before and had dinner. The waiter loved Little lady and kept playing with her. She loved the pizza. It was her first time having pizza and it was Hawaiian. I can't think of a better pizza flavor to start with. Then when we were done with dinner we walked down the street to the gelato place and got some raspberry and some strawberry gelato. Little lady loved that too. It was her first time having Gelato and she could not get enough.

 Then we went back to the hotel to settle in so we could be ready for the early morning to get to the castle. Once we got back though we found a note from Erin and Chris and they decided not to do the castle anymore and just stay in Munich for the day. So we went to bed trying to decide what we wanted to do the next morning.