Family skiing adventure in the Alps - our return to Alpbach

When we discovered Alpbach last year, and easily had one of the best weekends of our life, we knew it would be a place to come back to.  We spent a week in Alpbach this summer, and we had already put a ski trip in Alpbach on our calendar for this February.  It was just the family this year, and being pregnant, I wasn't hitting the slopes this time around, but we still had a fantastic weekend.  We are convinced that it's hard not to have a great time in this place we are calling "our home away from home."

The farmhouse we like to stay in was unfortunately booked during our visit, so we tried out a new Gasthaus on the other side of town, called Haus Luzia.  This one wasn't a barn, but it was equally quaint, charming, and ridiculously affordable.  We really fell in love with our host, and the location was great and convenient. In fact, it was nearly perfect with only one detail that will keep us from staying there again.  Let's just say I will never underestimate the phrase "non-smoking" on a hotel listing again.  Austria is a fabulous country, but they are a bit behind on a few things and the lack of smoking rules is definitely one of them.  We worked around it though, and still enjoyed our stay.  We were surprised how easy it was to walk to town from a seemingly distant location. In fact, we pretty much walked everywhere - we had to do something to walk off all that rich Austrian food we ate!

This weekend was all about being together as a family, teaching little r how to ski, introducing our new buddy Lando to the Alps, and relaxing away all the current stresses in our lives. We spent all day on the slopes, and every evening we had reservations to eat at one of the town's fine dining establishments.  The best part was, Lando was welcomed pretty much everywhere we went including dinner. Instead of going on an on about how great it was, I'll instead share our weekend through pictures...

skiing with daddy - this picture makes little r look like a pro
(the poles didn't last long though)

Big R earned a gold star for his patience helping little r ski -
he started out going up the tug line with daddy...

while I strapped on my snowshoes,
so Lando and I could watch slopeside

then he finally got brave enough to do the tug line by himself 

talk about brave! heading up the "flying train" to the  BIG mountain with daddy

Lando and I waited patiently - they were gone a loooong time

My guys were up on that mountain somewhere! Finally they made it down with little r in Big R's arms. I asked how long they were like that. Big R said, "pretty much the entire mountain" - oh well, we can try it again next year!

We spent the next day on the BIG mountain - Wiedersbergerhorn in Alpbach.
I think this is one of my favorite pictures from the trip!

little r was really excited for another day of skiing

The views from the top were stunning!

I didn't get to ski, but I still went along for the fun

Big R literally carried little r up the puma lift
- sheer determination, daddy!

and he used a leash as a tether to help him ski
down the mountain - it worked really well!

This trip included quite a few hot chocolate breaks :) 

And puppy breaks were in the mix, too :) 

Views we experienced as we walked into town from our Gasthaus

yes, we were VERY spoiled - it's a beautiful place

One of our favorite parts of the trip was having our
new buddy along - he loved the snow
and we loved his company

So, yeah, our winter adventures in Alpbach were brilliant this year.  Don't get me wrong, we certainly had our moments, as skiing with a three-year-old never disappoints in that category.  But overall, we could not have really asked for things to have gone much better.  I hope you enjoyed the pictures, and don't worry, there will be more to see next year when we go back!

xoxoxo