The Lewis Ski Trip 2015

So much has been going on over the last few weeks that I'm going to split it up into a couple of "parallel" entries - otherwise I'd have 500 pictures and 20 videos on this one alone.

Crocus Break finally came, and the family took a little drive to Kitzbuhel, Austria for some fun in the snow. The drive was 950 km (600 miles), mostly through Germany. I have the urge to make an entry dealing with driving in Europe, so I'll leave the details for later. Suffice to say that the Autobahn is fantastic when there is not a lot of traffic/ construction. Otherwise it is like I-65. And with the luggage box strapped to the top of the Audi we were artificially limited anyway.

We left school Friday afternoon and headed south into Germany (in the northern hemisphere, we headed south - a LONG way south - in order to get to ski country. Kind of remarkable.) We spent the night in Frankfort (NOT good time as it took ~6 hours to get 450 km/ 280 mi), but didn't really spend any time there as we got back on the road just after breakfast.

Google kept re-directing us further and further east as the deluge of Dutchies continued to crowd the roads. We left the Autobahn behind, crossed into Austria, and passed some indescribably beautiful scenery before arriving at our hotel around 5:00. Overall the trip probably consumed 13 hours - one helluva lot longer than the drive of similar distance from the Ville to Seaside - but then again there are no ski slopes in Florida! Holli did get some great pictures (from the moving car) of the Achen Lake, about an hour north of our destination.

We finally arrived!! Then the fun started as I unloaded the endless stuff that we carried across Germany.
Those bags are all ours, and that's not even close to all of them. 

We stayed at the Hotel Tiefenbrunner near the center of Kitzbuhel. Breakfast and dinner were both included in the price, and we got to try the dinner shortly after we unpacked. As as came to find out, the food was excellent and came over five courses. Wine and beer were not included, but unlike American restaurants, the prices for those were very reasonable. In fact, the Mini Bar beer in our room was only 2 Euro, probably about 1/3 to 1/5 of what it would run back home!

The view from our room was awesome!

Breakfast was nearly as good as dinner, set up as a buffet so that people could get in and out to the slopes as quickly as possible. Before we did that however, we had to get the girls dressed and get my badly-sprained ankle into my boot. We walked from the hotel to the ski rental shop, which is also where we thought we were supposed to bring Eliza for ski school. Unfortunately that was another 1/2 mile walk. Once there, Eliza and I found out that we had to rent skis back at the shop. So we walked back, and then back again, but finally we got her going. I then realized that I didn't bring her goggles, so I had to make another lap back to the rental place, but this trip went a little faster and Eliza got a few runs in while I was gone.

I went through some Aleve during the trip, but it really didn't hurt while riding - only after.

Now we're ready!

She was REALLY into it this year!

Here are some shots from the time we spent in the snow. Two beautiful days with hardly a cloud in the sky and two days with snow falling and low visibility. Overall, it was a great combination!

Holli shredding the gnar!

The girls had to learn to ski when they couldn't see more than a few feet.

A still captured from Eliza's video - I've rarely seen her this happy!

The girls and I were not pleased with Holli's choice of pants.
The only way we could keep track of her was to look for the light-blue helmet!

Lilli kicking up some fresh snow.

Lilli nailing a turn!

This was much more like it!

Looking at the run where we spend most of our time.
Groomer run and some fresh powder on the right, off-piste valleys/ natural half-pipes to the left.

All smiles today!

This is my beach.

Lucy had a bit of a tumble into some wet snow - time to warm up & have some lunch!

Something else that's happily different from American ski resorts - prices; Lunch on the mountain was not only good and plentiful, but priced correctly. A huge bowl of chili con carne was about 8 Euro, and a large draft beer was 4.

Apple pie!

So it wasn't all great - we had a pretty good scare on our last day. We were going through the valley (off-piste) - Lucy and Holli ahead of me and Lilli. I heard Holli scream for me and looked down to see her kicking her board off and scrambling down into a hole. I got there pretty fast - she was already down in the hole getting snow off the top of Lucy. She had gone over an unmarked gap and dropped about 8 feet, just clearing some open ice-water (or as we referred to it for the rest of the trip, the ice-hole). Other than being scared and a little snowy, she was perfectly fine and continued to ski for the rest of the day!

After extraction... Lucy "jumped" from where Holli is standing and landed below the rock on the left.

The view from above, approaching the hole. No way to tell it's there!

Lucy proudly posing with the Fargin Ice-hole in the background.
I broke off some pine limbs and put them at the top of the hole to mark it to help prevent this from happening to someone else. The limbs/ take-off point are just to the left of Lucy's goggles.

The last day wasn't all bad however - Eliza won her first trophy for finishing third in her group.
She was VERY proud and so happy to have won a trophy!

Eliza with her instructor and her trophy - they got along famously.

Eliza's ski video:

The big girls' video:

I couldn't be more proud of the improvement the girls all made during the week - Eliza linking her turns like a champ, Lucy finding the bumps across the flats and trying to get air, Lilli mastering the difficult transitions from powder to ice on the steeper slopes. It was a joy to watch!

The little skier girl in Kitzbuhel.

We hadn't done this in years - it's a lot harder to do with hair that long!

Salzburg
After 3 days of skiing, we took a day off to visit Salzburg (Austria), an area inhabited by people since the stone age. The primary attraction was the Hohensalzburg Fortress, a castle that sits on a hill above the city. Construction of the fortress began in 1076 and continued until around 1500. You can access the fortress by walking, or by the funicular. We choose the latter, which dates to at least 1515 when it was operated by horses turning a winch at the top. It has of course been updated since then!

The fortress seen from the Old Town below. The funicular rail is to the right, passing through the small building above the rooftops and into the fortress at the black hole on the right side of the fortress wall.

The view from the top. The Salzburg Cathedral is in the center, the much older Franciscan Church immediately to it's left, and the river Salzach cutting through the town. On the far hill, the yellow building is the Capuchin Monastery.

This number is carved into a ceiling beam. I think it's 1084, Holli says 1984. I think I'm right.

During some remodeling, they discovered some beautiful archways that had been bricked in during a previous remodel.

Where the cannons are! This room overlooks the city and must have been the primary location for defense.
Cannons are stationed at the windows, and large eyelets in the ceiling were likely used to help move the cannonballs and gunpowder kegs around.  

Wonder how far a cannonball would fly from here?

As we left the fortress, I noticed a "house" built into the rock above us.
It turns out that it is an ancient abbey and Christian church (possibly dating to the 400's). 

Climbing the narrow "staircase" to the catacombs.

Very old.

The LOVE Grotto - One kiss and your love will be everlasting!
I guess we'll see...

Because there are never enough pictures of churches, here are a couple from inside the Salzburg Cathedral. It was incredible how perfect everything was considering the age (late 700's), until we read that it had been severely damaged multiple times over the years. Most recently a bomb destroyed the central dome during World War II, essentially requiring a complete rebuild. Still, it was awesome.

That's it for this entry - the other one should be done soon.

Tot ziens!