Ski School

View from the top at Jungholz, in Austria

Last winter the kids were extremely excited at the beginning of winter, and extremely disappointed when we hardly got any snow.  Needless to say, my husband and I were elated that we didn't have to do much shoveling.  Well, this year, we seem to be having a 'typical' winter here in Bavaria, with lots of snow, shoveling, snowman building, snow forts, etc, etc.

First lesson at Riedberger Horn, in Germany

In an effort to make the best of snow, we are hitting the slopes!  The city that we came from in North Carolina was more than six hours from the closest mountain, and anything resembling a ski slope, but here we can get to a ski slope in about an hour.    Last year we tried a couple of times to take the kids skiing, but I can't say that it was very successful.

Enjoying a beer while we waited for the kids
to finish  their lesson

Ski clubs are very popular around here, and a colleague of my husband is a member of a club that offers ski lesson for kids at the beginning of each ski season.  We signed the kids up for the series of three lessons, which ran on Saturdays in January.

Meredith and her instructor using the T-lift

The kids (and us) were really nervous about the experience.  Of course, the instructors and other children would be speaking German, and the kids didn't think that sounded like much fun.  In my over-worrisome mind, I would be dropping my kids of with German-speaking strangers,  who would be hurdling my sweet darlings down the mountain and probably breaking their legs in the process.

Lucky for us, this of course, is not what happened!!  The instructors translated to English when needed, and my son realized that after 18 months of daily lessons in German, he could understand a lot of the instructions anyway.

After the first day, Ryan gave enthusiastic thumbs up, and Meredith gave an exhausted smile.  By the end of the last lesson, three weeks later, the kids were all smiles as the swished down the easy slopes and hopped right back on the chair lift.

Me!

The best part for my husband and I, of course, was a chance to ski by ourselves for the first time in six years.  We both grew up in northern states and had skied growing up, but I must admit that my skills are really rusty and I whined worse than the kids about sore leg muscles!

It was fantastic to actually see the sun!

We plan to do a bunch more day trips before the season is out.  The snow has been great, and way better than anywhere I have been on the east coast of the USA.  As with all of our family adventures, the times when we are the most nervous to try something new is when we have the most fun.

The Hills are Alive with The Sound of Music!!!

Back in June, Dan's mother, Theresa, was here visiting, and we took a week-long trip to Berchtesgaden, Germany and Salzburg, Austria.  We had visited Salzburg six years ago when Ryan was a toddler, and we knew that we had to take Dan's mom since the whole family loves The Sound of Music (and who doesn't?).

The house where Mozart was born.

The city of Salzburg is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the birthplace of Mozart.  It is such a nice city to visit because it isn't as overwhelming as many of the European cities, and you can get around really easy by foot (even with kids in tow!).  The people were friendly toward us as tourists, everything is well maintained and clean, and I felt like it was a very family-friendly city.

Main pedestrian street in Salzburg.

On our first evening in Salzburg we visited the Marionette Theater and saw a marionette production of The Sound of Music.  It was really a special event for us to go to the theater, and we all loved it!

The next day we took the 'Fraulein Maria's The Sound of Music Bike Tour', and luckily we had a perfect sunny day.  We had so much fun, and got to see so much more of Salzburg and the movie sights than we would have if we had been trying to find the sights ourselves.  

A bicycle made for Daddy and Daughter!

We have confidence in confidence!

Grandma Tete and Dan with the
Hohensalzburg Castle behind them.

Lucky for me they are not yet '16 going on 17'!

We visited the Hohensalzburg Castle on a rainy day and took the audio-guided tour. Unfortunately, Ryan was sick that day, and I kept the kids in the hotel for the morning to rest.  Dan and Theresa ended up taking a walk in the rain and happened upon a pipe-organ concert in a church, and visited one of the museums.

Meredith in Mirabelle Gardens

I highly recommend the hotel where we stayed, the Hotel Elefant. It was right in the middle of the historic area, with all the main sights close-by.  Many times we visit cities and feel stressed by all the chaos of city-life and public transportation, but visiting Salzburg was so relaxing and beautiful.  Hmm, maybe we should go back since I think we are due for some relaxation, and desperate need of it!!!!

Getting the kids on skis

 

When we lived in North Carolina, we were about six hours away from the closest mountain.  Luckily, we lived close to the beach, which is a pretty fair trade-off. 

Now that we are in southern Germany, only an hour from the Alps, we knew that skiing was something that we would have to teach the kids.  We headed to the ski shop to stock up on all the necessary gear, and headed down to one of the smaller ski areas just across the Austrian border, called Jungholz. 

 

We rented our skis right at the bottom of the parking lot.  It was a bit overwhelming trying to muddle through the rental process, since our German is still terrible, and I still can never remember our European shoe sizes. 

 

 The kids has a good first experience.  Ryan was a bit intimidated at first, but he was having a great time just going up and down the kids slope.  The only way I could get Ryan off his skis was to lure him with schnitzel and French fries!  As we expected, Meredith got tired quickly, and Dan and I barely even got our skis on.  Next time we will not bother renting skis for ourselves!

The lifts closed at four o'clock, so we headed over to do some sledding and playing in the snow before heading home. 



 

Luckily we were able to introduce the kids to skiing this year, and hopefully by next year we will be able to jump right in when ski season rolls around.  We are still going to try to go a couple of more times this season, but there hasn't been as much snow as usual here.  Ironically there has been more snow in coastal North Carolina this year than we have had here in Ulm!  Luckily we can just zip down to the Alps and find snow there!

 



Innsbruck

Dan and Ryan both had Thursday and Friday off from work/school in honor of German Reunification Day, and Friday was Dan's birthday, so we decided to head out of town for a few days.  We are still trying to keep our heads above water, in terms of getting into the groove of school, work, daily life, and managing in our temporary one-bedroom apartment (we should be moving to our new house next week!), so we didn't do a lot of planning. 

Our original plan was to go to Cinque Terre, Italy, but there were no rooms available!  Instead we decided on a whirlwind trip to Innsbruck, Austria, for one night, then on to Lake Como (Menaggio), Italy, for two nights.  We thought this would be feasible, since Google Maps said that it would be 2 hours to Innsbruck, then 4 hours to Menaggio, the 4 hours back home.  Unfortunately Google Maps lies!  It took six hours to get to Innsbruck!  Six hours to Menaggio! Six hours back home!!  Not to mention that our dear GPS took us on the most treacherous roads I have ever been on in my life!!!
We finally made it to Innsbruck, located our hotel, and found that despite the less-than-appealing décor, we had a fantastic view!!

 

View from our room at the Golden Krone Hotel

Triumphal Arch was built in 1765

 

 

We decided to go explore the city and try to find some dinner.  Maximilian I designated Innsbruck as the capital of Tyrol in the 1400s and has hosted the winter Olympics twice (1964 and 1976).  There were a lot of people out and about, and Innsbruck had a very urban feel to it.  The people seemed to be either elderly tourists or teenagers getting ready for an evening on the town. 

We did marvel at the vivid turquoise waters of the Inn River, which my IPhone photography didn't do justice.  We ate dinner at a café next to the river, which had a great view, and decent food. 

The next day we decided to go to the top of Norkette Mountain.  To get to the summit(7,657 feet), we first took a funicular, then two cable-cars.  The kids loved the journey, and the idea of going up to have lunch in the clouds.  There was an Alpine Zoo at one of the funicular stops, so we spent an hour walking around there before continuing our journey to the top.  The top of the mountain was completely engulfed by clouds, so there wasn't a view down to the city, but the scenery was still breathtaking.  There was a small restaurant up at the top, where we ate lunch, then headed back down the mountain so we could get on the road to Lake Como.

Dan and our 'mountain goats'

I think Ryan is loopy from lack of oxygen!

 

Treacherous!

These kids are NOT afraid of heights!

 

 

We had a fun day in Innsbruck, and probably would have needed another day or two to get a better feel for the city.  Even though we didn't get to see everything, we are happy to have gotten a glimpse, and may return again in the future.

 

Tomorrow I will work on the trip report of beautiful Lake Como.  Ciao!

The Cows Came Home

On Saturday, we drove down to the small Alpine village of Tannheim, Austria, for an Almabtrieb.  During the summer the alpine cow herds feed up in the mountains, and the farmers have to herd them back down in the fall for the impending cold weather.  Many areas make a celebration of the autumn 'cow train', complete with festival music, food, and beer (of course).  Ryan ran into two boys from school, and we ended up spending the afternoon with the other parents, drinking beer to the sound of cow bells, while the kids played at the nearby playground.  It was great!

 Meredith was being camera shy today, but Ryan was happy to pose for me!

  The kids loves being in the mountains, and were disappointed when it was time to go.  We had to reassure them that we could easily visit again, since we now live so close to the mountains.  Hopefully we can make another trip to the Alps in a few weeks to see the fall colors and do some hiking.  We are also hopeful that we will get to do some skiing this winter.  Dan and I have only been skiing once since having kids, mostly because we live so far from the mountains in the US.  We have heard good things about the ski schools for kids, and are hopeful that we might even have some blissful adult-time swooshing down the Alps!