Discovering Bavaria with a Fantastic Home Exchange in Pfarrkirchen

Our adventure in Bavaria is based in Pfarrkirchen, a town of 12,000 inhabitants near the border with Austria, 1h30 from Munich, 1h15 from Salzburg and 40 minutes from Passau. We chose Pfarrkirchen because this is where we organised our house swap, and we liked the swap at once; the house is enormous, like a castle, with a garden around it that looks more like a forest. In short, it could not have gone better... all fantastic, and a warm welcome too! Federico's first trip abroad (23 months) could not have been better, and what's more my mother Carla and my father Luciano are returning to Bavaria 40 years later, while for me and Valentina it was a destination that intrigued us, one we had been missing and the ideal one for Federico's first trip. In short, we are all happy with this adventure in Germany.

Federico adapts at once to the big new house, and the many toys made available by the Alfred family help us keep Federico entertained, but not only him... In the garden there is a nice football pitch and a little match is the order of the day... what's more, the (enormous) trampoline makes us laugh too! Also nice was the visit of a young deer that came to see us in the garden every now and then, but at our slightest noise it ran off; for us and Federico it was a surprise to see this large animal. We spend the mornings in this mansion, and the afternoons we dedicated to visiting Munich, Salzburg and Passau. In Munich we spend some lovely hours on the central streets, buy typical Bavarian sweets, buy the Bayern Munich ball for Federico, who sits in the pushchair quite happily without complaining too much; we spend a nice Saturday afternoon like this, without rain.

The visit to Salzburg (Austria) was the most surprising, because we did not expect to find such a beautiful city in Baroque style, partly surrounded by high mountains, with a very characteristic centre, all along the river Salzach; a really lovely place where we took some nice photos. Excellent the stop at one of the many ice-cream parlours in the centre, where we enjoy our cones; some of us go back for seconds and then for thirds... Passau, on the other hand, is a town of 50,000 inhabitants, famous because this is the starting point of the famous cycle path that leads to Vienna, which my father and I rode back in 2007, though from Linz; it is also famous because here the Danube and the river Ilz meet, turning the historic centre into a kind of island.

Here too we stop to have a fantastic ice cream, appreciated by all of us, Federico included, who turns out to be a passionate consumer of cream-flavoured ice cream! We buy Federico the flag of Germany and the flag of Austria, his very first ones... the next one will probably be Belgium's, as we enjoyed the experience hugely and cannot wait to take another holiday, in a new house, in a new country, getting to know local traditions and cultures.... We were very well indeed, the adventure went really well, and none of us can wait to set off again and relive unforgettable moments. Pfarrkirchen, a town unknown to mass tourism, with a very nice centre, was ideal for us. Here we found a fantastic restaurant, "Il Cavallino", where we met lovely people and could eat excellent meals; the other restaurant was very good too (I don't remember the name), where Federico ate a special pizza (see photo).

A special thank you to Jelana, who welcomed us warmly into their very large house, and to Alfred, who accepted our house-swap request. Thanks to mamma Valentina, who looked after Federico on his first trip away, and to the grandparents Carla and Luciano, who are amazing... Without the support of all of them this fantastic experience could not have happened. A greeting from the travellers Claudio Federico Luciano Valentina and Carla Germany / Austria (30 APRIL - 5 MAY 2015)