Confessions of a Travelling Clutz: December 2014

Oh man have I been slack!

Well, not really, I've just been sooooo busy with work that I have not had time to post about events that happened in August, September, November or the last few weeks. And boy have they been eventful. The only on time post I gave you was Oktoberfest in October. So I hope I can tell you about some of the more exciting things that have been going on....

First up - August.
So my last blog detailed the two big birthday parties that took up the beginning and end of August. What I didn't get to explain was the mini holiday we took in between the two parties. You may recall that the first birthday party was a triple party, for Michael, our friend Matt (Shauna's bf) and Shauna's good friend Lyndsay.

Well as an extra treat for the two boys, we decided to make use of a long weekend in the middle of August and got away from Munich. In fact, we got out of Germany. We hired a car and jumped across the border to Innsbruck. The main intention behind this was so that our boys could go on a big Mountain Bike trek together for their birthdays.

I won't go into great details but I will say that lots of fun was had in our little holiday apartment, with games like Ringo Flamingo, German scrabble and Cluedo just to name a few. And lets just say, when Shauna gets bored with German Scrabble, she found her own way to make it interesting.... which in turn had me in stitches with a bright red face, which just encouraged her more!

As well as our evenings (which were filled with yummy food and lots of drinks), we also enjoyed our days which included a trip to see the local area just outside of Innsbruck. This particular day it was cold and raining, but it didn't stop us from braving the rain when we stumbled across a local event which is apparently tradition. It was wheelie bin races - and it was taken very seriously by the locals!

We didn't stay too long but we stayed long enough to see one entire round of races, a few near misses and one good stack. And as we went to leave, couldn't help but laugh at the racers being taken back to the starting line for round 2. See photo!

After that we visited the Swarovski Crystal World. Now this was said to be something spectacular and I had wanted to visit it for quite some time. What a let down it turned out to be. The most impressive things about it were the water fountain at the entrance, the entrance hall's stunning display of crystals, and the bathrooms. But everything else was just bizarre and awkward. We weren't even halfway through and I was apologising to Shauna and Matt for dragging them there. It was such a disappointment.

From here it got weird. Really weird!

Shauna was singing and dancing like these crystals were playing the back drop for her solo debut concert..... twas brilliant, shame I didn't get it on film!

The next day we split up - the boys went riding, the girls, naturally, went shopping! In Munich, we do not have a Primark - but Innsbruck does! So Shauna and I braved the massive place that is Primark, and swearing that we were only going to have a little look, ended up walking out with 4 big bags of goodies! Including my very own Giraffe ONESIE!!!!!! I have wanted one for soooooo long and finally it was mine!

That night we returned to the apartment and waited for the boys in our newly acquired purchases - Shauna had new Sesame Street PJs! That night did indeed go off like a frog in a sock, with quite a lot of drinks, resulting in a sheepish Giraffe on the balcony floor at one point after it slipped off it's chair and broke a beer bottle. She still swears it was the slippery fur of the Onesie!

On our last day, we packed up and headed up into the hills, to the Stubai Glacier. We caught a cable car up and played in the snow (in the middle of summer!), saw some stunning views and even ate a quick lunch in the snow. It was an absolutely stunning day and we all loved being in the crystal clear sunshine and the frosty air.