Austrian winter adventure with friends...

Our latest adventure was a trip to Austria with a huge Army crew.  It's a tradition for the "office" to go rodeln (sledding) in Austria every year.  Since this is our last year here, we decided to tag along.  

Off we go!

Austria has absolutely NO snow this year. An Austrian at one of the ski resorts told me it's a phenomenon where the jet stream comes up from the south instead of the north causing Italy to get tons of rain, and Austria to get little to no snow and warm temperatures.  It was literally in the high 40's every day we were there.  So strange...

Needless to say, there was no rodeln on this trip.  We were bummed.  The Austrians make sledding trails from the ski lifts.  They are supposed to be fast and crazy fun.  The trails were all closed.  We never anticipated that lack of snow would be a problem in Austria in January.  Luckily, the Alps have glaciers - many of them - and the glaciers mean year round snow. Since the snow wasn't coming to us, we went to the snow, and we had a ball!

View of the Alps from town - we had no snow at our feet, but we could see it was in reach!

Overall, we went on a trip that we probably never would have taken on our own.  We stayed in a town that wasn't terribly exciting, but we also got to hang out with people we rarely get to see or barely knew before this adventure.  There were families and friendly faces at every turn.  With no rodeln in the forecast, we headed up to the Stubaital Glacier to ski. We met some great friends at the top and had a blast.  The kids all did ski lessons in the afternoon while the adults hit the slopes or enjoyed the warmth of the lodge and yummy German food.  Baby C hung out with some awesome girlfriends while I joined the others on the slopes.  That was freaking fantastic.

The following day we found another glacier at a ski resort called Solden.  These were our single friends without kids, but we had already enrolled little r in ski school and baby c was able to stay in the kindergarten. The end result was an incredible day of skiing and snowboarding.  Even little r had a great time and seriously learned how to ski.  That and baby c took his most expensive nap EVER. Haha, at least he had a warm and safe place to nap while I tore up the slopes on my board.

On our way up to the Stubai Glacier - so ready to hit the slopes!!!

The Glacier at Solden - you can always find snow at the top!

Our nights were all different but each had a theme of great fun with friends.  We did a night with the whole crew at a pizza joint that was pure mayhem and an absolute blast.  Another night eating homemade food with friends that rented a huge apartment with other families, and our final night was highlighted by Italian food, baby c's pasta face, and toes warmed by our sweet Lando boy.  Each night ended with the kids being tucked away in bed, and us gathering into the hallway with other friends that stayed at the same hotel to enjoy some wine, great conversation, and a ton of laughter.  I had the added benefit of enjoying the company of my laptop while I did homework and intermittently escaped to the hotel next door to borrow internet to upload my assignments.

A glimpse at our nightly evening gatherings in our hotel hallway

It was a great weekend that was bizarre and unexpected, but also an incredibly awesome time. As a true testament to the type of weekend we had, we hardly took a single picture.  We aren't sure if this is because there was very little snow, and the town was somewhat underwhelming or if we were just having too much fun to remember to take pictures.  Here is a sampling of the pictures we did take a long our adventure.


little r became an awesome skier on this trip!  Check out this blog post to see a video of him skiing down the BIG hill with daddy...

Ski lessons!

And time for the big hill with daddy!

The boys always manage to make fun in the hotel rooms.  There were literally no frills at this guesthouse, but little r had so much fun playing in our bed.  Do you remember traveling as a kid?  Yeah, hotels were always super cool...

"you'll never find me in here!"

"I'm not ready for bed!  Let's go play in the snow!"

As a final note about this trip, here is a picture of all of our ski passes.  When I used to ski as a kid (and a grown up), we would always leave the ski passes attached to our jackets as a sign of pride (I guess).  Not sure if this has changed in the states, but here in Europe they use plastic cards and computer systems to ride all the lifts and gondolas.  Another funny comment about this picture though, for those that have skied here in Europe, you also know that you pay a deposit for these cards.  Basically, you get 2.50 EUR back for every card you return.  We totally forgot.  That means we are also looking at a picture of 15 EUR.  Oops!

The Hills are Alive...with the Sound of Music! - Berchtesgaden Land and Salzburg

My sister asked me last night if we ever sit still. HA!  Guess the answer to that is, "we don't" but that's also because we don't want to.  Every time we start to feel like the traveling is getting to be too much, we think of all the places we want to see and the excitement wells up inside all over again.  We love it. This past month has been especially adventurous with my mom being here, the arrival of Baby C, and Big R's parents coming for a visit.  For little r, this month has been one long and wild ride.  I mean, when you get to see things like this, how can you stay away?

Our latest adventure took us to Southern Germany into Berchtesgadener Land and over the hill into Austria to see Salzburg.  Except for one day, the weather for this trip was absolutely brilliant!  We stayed in Schönau am Königssee, which is a harbor town on the tip of a beautiful lake.  It's a stone's throw away from Berchtesgaden and Salzburg and everything in between, so I decided it would be a nice place to call home.  Our home was a sweet little hotel called Pension Berganemone, and it was comfortable and super affordable for the area during high tourist season.

We arrived at our hotel mid-afternoon and spent some time exploring the town, enjoying beer and snacks at one of the many friendly biergardens, and scoped out the adventures that lie ahead for our stay.  After a fantastically delicious German meal at the same biergarden and a good night's sleep at our cozy hotel, we woke up to rain and decided to spend the day at the Berchtesgaden salt mine and exploring Salzburg.

Delicious German meal leaves me with all smiles

The tour of the salt mine was a huge hit.  I've been fortunate enough to have been on a salt mine tour in this region in the past (including the same one!), but I forgot how fun the tour can be.  Before you enter the mine, we had to climb into jumpsuits. Little r was especially adorable in his, and I got a suit big enough so that Baby C could snuggle inside mine.  You take a train that you straddle deep into the mountain. Honestly, it's pretty spooky, particularly if you are a clausterphobe like I am.  They didn't allow cameras inside the mine, so you'll have to trust me on this one. Once you reach the station inside, you reach lower levels of the mine by riding wooden slides.  They are actually pretty steep, so it's a fun ride!  Little r thought he was in heaven and kept asking to go back.  

All suited up for a trip into the Salt mine!

Our train ride into the mountain...

Then it was time to head to Salzburg.  It's a beautiful city with a lot to see, but for some reason my attempts to truly enjoy Salzburg with Big R have been thwarted by one reason or another.  Although it was a Thursday morning, the parking garages close to the Altstadt were full, so we grabbed street parking and found ourselves limited by timed meters.  We finally found ourselves in the heart of the Old Town and made our way up to the fortress.

Picturesque street in Salzburg - we took the same picture in 2007

Water wheel powering the oldest bakery in Salzburg

The view from the top of the fortress

My tour guide

View of the fortress walls from the top

little r admiring the King's eye view from one of the rooms in the fortress

All this sightseeing tired someone out!

little r protecting the fortress by manning the cannon

Fortress view from downtown Salzburg

The day was exhausting where nothing seemed to go as planned and the weather was the pits (but no where near as bad as it was for us in Lisbon!), so we finished off the day exploring the sweet little town of Berchtesgaden after giving up on Salzburg. We found a random gem of a restaurant in town called Kurz a Curry.  Who knew that delicious Thai food could be found in the heart of the Alps?!

The next day was gorgeous and the activities were much more our speed.  The sun was shining, the skies were blue, and we spent the day out on Königssee (or King Lake) enjoying the views and hiking in the hills that inspired The Sound of Music.  Picking the best photographs to share from that day was an impossible task.  But here are some that hopefully capture the essence of the place.  We really could not have asked for more perfect weather.

Boat houses on Lake Königssee 

Ready for a day of exploring!

The water was as still as glass

little r taking it all in

beautiful Lake Königssee 

Keeping entertained on the long boat ride across the lake

more spectacular views

A perfect capture of the reflection in the lake

Stream on our hike up to Obersee

Another artful capture of beauty

Our loyal companions on this Alpine adventure! 

hiking up to Obersee - such a little man

Cooling off in the Obersee with Grandma

A summer trip to the Alps is never complete without some cow bell!

For the afternoon we visited Kehlsteinhaus (or Eagles Nest), which was a structure built for Hilter intended as a 50th birthday gift that he could use as a retreat and to host dignitaries. The road leading up to the Kehlsteinhaus is winding and narrow, and you reach the top of the structure by tunnel into the mountain and then riding up a 131 meter elevator shaft (apparently Hitler was afraid of heights).  The views from the top are magnificent when the weather cooperates.  When Big R and I visited in May of 2007, we could barely see five feet in front of us because the fog was so thick.  It was such a pleasant surprise to take in all the views on a pretty day.  The most amazing part was, there were huge snow banks still standing despite the temperatures being well over 20 degrees Celsius!  Little r thought that was pretty fantastic - playing in the snow when the weather is warm is a pretty awesome deal.

My photographer capturing that perfect shot

The bus ride up to the Kehlsteinhaus (Eagles' Nest) was CRAZY! 

Huge mound of snow still left behind the Kehlsteinhaus
(the bright orange jacket is little r playing kind of the mountain!)

View of the Kehlsteinhaus

We were so happy the weather cooperated and gave us such beautiful views!

Family portrait - we couldn't peel little r away from the snow!

Grandpa Pete is nuts! 

Again... gorgeous!

Enjoying a little apfelkuchen (apple cake) before heading back  down the mountain

The ride home the next day was quite an adventure in itself.  All of the excitement of the past month finally caught up with little r, so he was sick, exhausted, and quite frankly done with all of it.  A feisty little r means an awesome day for those in his company. We took a short detour to see Zell am See and drive the back roads home through Austria. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the greatest of ideas considering the state of our little one.  Luckily the weather was gorgeous again, which made an otherwise miserable drive quite pleasant - haha.

Zell am See

Parasailer's taking advantage of the gorgeous weather

Beautiful views on our drive home