Neuschwanstein Castle and Thanksgiving

We weren't so lucky on our second day of vacation in Garmish. It hardly mattered to us though since we had seen the most beautiful view ever the day before. Tuesday morning we got up nice and early and headed to visit perhaps the most famous castle in Germany. Neuschwanstein Castle was built by King Ludwig in the 1800's and it is said that the modern day Disney Castle is modeled after Neuschwanstein. Deaner and I visited here last summer while on vacation but we were happy to come back. The weather, like I said, was sort of typical for Germany but since the tours are inside, no big deal! There is another castle right next to Neuschwanstein called Hohenschwanganau (God, I hope I spelled that right!) and we toured this one first. It was actually built by King Ludwig's father. Here are a few pictures of it. Imagine it with a bright blue sky in the background and it might look better!Our second tour was of Neuschwanstein and here are a few shots from that.In the next picture you can get an idea of exactly what elements we were facing!All in all it was a successful day of sightseeing. When we returned to the hotel late that afternoon we boarded a bus to head on a tour of the Greisbrau Beer Brewery. What a treat this was! We had a tour of the brewery before settling in for dinner and our beer tasting. Normally on beer tours the tastings are really skimpy and we were not disappointed this time. After taking our test, receiving our beer diploma and a big ole German dinner (don't worry, I got to have pizza!) we had our picture taken with the Brewmaster, Wolfgang.We also left with a mini 5 liter keg of the Christmas beer that was AWESOME. I think that Steph and Jon can vouch for that since we got to enjoy it on Thanksgiving. Which brings me to Thanksgiving! It was the first time that I have hosted a Thanksgiving dinner of my very own and I was really excited about it. I quickly found that I don't have NEARLY the amount of decorations that my mom has always had for our Thanksgiving dinner table. Here is what my table looked like. I was not thrilled about it the way that it looked. So bland.Here is my Mom's table.It's just not fair!! I am going to be searching year round now for good decorations for my table! So annoying! I do think that all my food turned out well. Deaner's dad grilled a 7 pound tenderloin, Steph and Jon made a turkey and I made hashbrown casserole, toasted almond green beans, green bean casserole, gravy and rolls. We also had sweet potatoes and stuffing. Not to mention the desserts! Needless to say, no one went home hungry and a good time was had by all!

Tomorrow I will post pictures of my Christmas tree which I am happy to say we are enjoying very much. I went to spin class today and it was a great workout. I was slightly surprised when two mothers rolled their infants into the class in strollers and parked them by their spin bikes. No big deal but this class is a little on the loud side with the instructor constantly yelling over the music. Towards the end I glanced over to see how the babies were fairing. I was quite surprised to see that the mother was HOLDING THE BABY while continuing to spin!!! I'm sorry, but how can this be safe? I think that the instructor was thinking the same thing because when she noticed it she got off her bike and took the baby from the mother so she could finish up the class. A little bizarro but whatever!! Hope everyone had a good day! More pictures to come tomorrow!