Leavenworth is a seriously adorable Bavarian-themed town. Downtown Leavenworth is the village, where every business follows suit. We went into a lot of shops I didn't document with photos (the shirt shop, the Cheesemonger (I sampled jalapeno Havarti and my son sampled rasberry cheddar, both good), Soup and Barrell, Shocolat, several cute gift shops... but these are the ones I did document and we liked every single one of them.
We stayed at the Hampton Inn and it was a great hotel. The rooms were very nice (and the TV had Hallmark = WE WATCHED A HALLMARK CHRISTMAS MOVIE, Y'ALL!), full breakfast each morning was excellent and had a lot of GF options, they had a lint-roller at the front counter when I asked for one. It's November so I wrote a whole lot of my Christmas novel at the desk in our room (and almost stayed totally caught-up, too!), and the walls weren't too thin that my in-laws could hear the kids singing and shouting despite being right next door.
We showed up at 9:30 on the first morning. A lot of places were already open but we opted to start by walking along Waterfront Park to give the shops more time to open. There was a great playground there and the views were just beautiful, especially because the fall foliage was still going strong.
We had brats from Munchen Haus on that first day and everyone liked it. There were two different vegan brats, and organic turkey dogs along with all kinds of more traditional brats.
We also went to Andreas Keller and had fries, and then all six of us split a gluten-free hazelnut torte. It was admittedly about a bite and a half each once we split it but those bites were really good!
The bookstore was cute and quaint with a pretty good writing section, all the food we tried was great, and my husband and I were extra excited for our first date night in a long time!
We went back downtown on Sunday night but nearly everything was already closed at 8pm. We went to Bavarian Bistro & Bar where he tried a gluten-free huckleberry cider and we shared a root beer float, but then they started closing so we walked around a little to find something else. There was another bar nearby, The Loft, where the live music sounded pretty good so we went in there to listen. The singer was actually an American Idol contestant (Maggie, but I didn't catch her last name), and she was really good. I mentioned that her voice was really unique and would probably sound awesome covering Dusty Springfield.
The Nutcracker Museum was really fun. I love Nutcrackers and took a lot of notes for the book I'm writing, but also just generally enjoyed seeing so many neat authentic Nutcrackers. My son really enjoyed doing the Nutcracker Hunt and then my mother-in-law bought them a Mouse King nutcracker ornament for our tree so we can always remember this trip together :) Also, how cute is this marzipan pig from Das Sweet Shop?
We all sampled all three gluten-free cookie flavors at The Gingerbread Factory and admired the ridiculous cuteness of that place.
More than anything, the details of the town were what made me so happy. I loved all the architecture choices and the little details like an axe as a door handle. I hope we'll go back again <3
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