The day after Christmas.

We woke up on the 26th of December to the sun shining brightly! It looked so gorgeous outside and Brian declared that we were getting out of the house and exploring. He opened the door to see how warm it was and let me tell you, it was NOT! Although it looked beautiful, it was -3 degrees Celsius, or 26 degrees Fahrenheit. Brrrrrr! But nothing was going to stop our going out on this beautiful day so we all bundled up in extra layers, cuddle duds, scarves, hats and mittens and headed out. We decided to explore Ingolstadt, the second largest city in Bavaria (behind Munich) and located right along the Danube River.

Some interesting little tidbits about Ingolstadt from Wikipedia.org -

"Ingolstadt is mentioned in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. It is the birthplace of the monster as created by the scientist Victor Frankenstein. The Illuminati, a Bavarian secret society, was founded in Ingolstadt in the late 18th century. The headquarters of the German automobile manufacturer Audi are located in Ingolstadt, as well as the headquarters of the electronic stores MediaMarkt and Saturn. Ingolstadt station has been connected to Nuremberg by a high-speed rail link since May 2006."

Absolutely everything, well almost everything, was closed all over Bavaria which made walking around the city kind of nice. There were smatterings of people headed to the few restaurants or cafes that were open and we stumbled upon a McDonalds that was open as well. We enjoyed our exploration of Ingolstadt, we saw the schloss (castle), the town hall and the Bavarian Army Museum, none of which were open for visitors but they were neat to see none-the-less. Luke had a great time chasing the pigeons and walking along the cobblestone streets. There is a beautiful paved walkway along the Danube that I'm sure we'll go back up and venture along once the baby is here and the weather warms up.

Enjoy the pictures and the beautiful Bavarian sunshine and blue skies!

Crossing the bridge into the city

Chasing pigeons with some German girls

Old Town Hall

Huge Christmas tree - can you see Luke at the bottom?

Fest tables set up near vendor stands...there were only a couple of stands open selling beer to their regulars.  :)

Luke and Brian

Originally a fortress city, Ingolstadt is enclosed by a medieval defensive wall. The Bavarian fortress (1537–1930) nowadays holds the museum of the Bavarian army.

 A gorgeous chapel steeple that we saw in a tiny town named Zell on the way home

You see wood piles like this all over Bavaria

Another beautiful German city - see the castle ruins and the cross at the top of the mountain?

A German home