Day 27
Today we spent the day in Munich, it was nice to spend the day in the one place. The first thing we did was catch the train into the city and look around, we saw the Rathaus (city hall) and walked along a few streets. Then we went to the Deutches museum and looked around. It was mainly about different modes of transport so there were ships, planes, rockets and other similar vehicles there. After spending a bit more time in the museum we had a look around the markets and wandered through a few churches. Mia and Charlie both enjoyed lighting the candles that were laid out and lit candles in three different churches.

Day 28
We’re all heading back to Vienna today to conclude our holiday within a holiday! On the way we stopped off at Herrenchiemsee castle, a beautiful castle built on an island in the middle of a large lake. The castle was similar to Neuschwanstein, as it was made by the same man, as everything was dedicated to someone. This castle was built after the style of King Louis the 14^th of France. The rooms were all dedicated to Louis or the kings following him. Then we headed towards Vienna and we were planning on calling in at a concentration camp, but the weather turned cold and started snowing heavily so we decided not to. Because we couldn’t go to the concentration camp we decided to go to Eagles Nest which was Hitler’s bunker during WWII. We walked through a small amount of the underground bunker system. Afterwards we all went outside and threw snowballs at eachother.

A statue at Herrenchiemsee castle

Day 25
Our last day in Switzerland today, we are heading off to Singen in Germany for the night. Another long day of driving, but to make it a bit more interesting we decided to call in at Liechtenstein. Sadly everything was closed in Liechtenstein as it was Saturday, so we filled up our car, bought a kit kat and left. We were in Liechtenstein for all of 10 minutes. We arrived at our hotel in Singen got dinner at a Turkish place, the people there were very friendly, but hardly spoke any English, it was interesting communicating with them.

Day 26
Drove to Munchen (Munich) today, but not before making a few stops, the zeppelin museum and Neuschwanstein Castle. The zeppelin museum was interesting, but couldn’t really hold my attention for long. Next we drove to Neuschwanstein castle, it was absolutely amazing, and it looked like it was pulled right out of a fairy tale. We caught a horse and cart up to the castle itself and waited around for a few hours until our tour began. The inside of the castle was beautiful; all the rooms were incredibly ornate and shiny. All of the rooms were dedicated to operas by Richard Wagner in some way, after a while it all got a bit creepy and obsessive.

Day 23
Off to the Matterhorn! We got up early this morning to leave for Zermatt, but with some very nice stops along the way. Our first stop was the Calier chocolate factory, a wonderful place where entry is free, and you get to eat all the samples you want! After the chocolate factory was the Gruyer cheese factory (I live a very tough life!) where we got to see how Gruyer cheese was made, and then sample some. A few hours later we arrived at castle Chillon by Lake Geneva. We did a tour of this amazing 12^th century castle, and I got some amazing picture. Later we arrived in Tasch and parked our cars then took the train to Zermatt, Zermatt is a car free town.

Day 24
Got up this morning very excited to go up the Matterhorn. We took a 15 minute walk to the cable car station then took 3 cable cars up to the Klein Matterhorn which is 3883m high! We went outside and threw a few snowballs around, I accidentally got my cousin Charlie in the face (whoops!) We then went into the Glacier tunnel, which was a beautiful tunnel about 3m in diameter that was drilled through solid ice! Inside it were some beautiful ice carvings. After the glacier tunnel we finally got to see the Matterhorn (4478m) from the viewing platform, of course there was a fluffy white cloud that stayed in front of the Matterhorn the entire time, so we didn’t get a good view of it. However I got some lovely photos of Breithorn (4164m) and of some groups of climbers making the difficult ascent to the top.

Day 21
Left Venice for Lake Como today! The drive to Como took about 3 hours, but unlike from Vienna to Bolzano, the view was not very nice for the entire time everything was industrial. Mum and I were expecting to be staying in a small town, but for the whole time everything was residential areas. Technically we were staying in a small village, but unlike Australia where two towns might be 20km apart; these little villages were directly next to each other. Our bed & breakfast was a lovely place, although it was in a built up area as it was on a hill, when you looked around you felt like you were in the middle of the country.

Day 22
Today we left Italy to go to Interlaken in Switzerland, but not before having breakfast! Our breakfast consisted of bread, hot chocolate and homemade jams, including peach, strawberry and raspberry. The drive from Como to Interlaken was amazing, we went through a 17km tunnel, and then drove through the mountains. Just looking at the mountains you felt like you were staring at a postcard. We were just going through the foothills of the Swiss Alps, yet we were at a higher altitude than the top of Mount Kosciusko! The water in Switzerland is the most amazing colour, because the bottom of the streams and lakes is rock (unlike dirt for us Australians) the water is an icy blue colour!