Innsbruck, Austria

27 February 2009- Home again from our trip. Angry Junior has finally left us alone but in a few hours, the whining will begin. Laundry and a trip to the grocery store await. Somehow the refrigerator got left a crack open since we left first thing Monday morning. It all went into the trash. I only had 45 emails waiting for me, and another 44 in junk emails. It was quite nice not to be connected for a while. Very relaxing trip. No voicemail at all. Ah, the bliss. This will be a long post so settle in...
We left Paris a bit bumpy. Some issues with Gare du Nord kept us from taking the train up to the airport. The cafe inside the airport didn't have any breakfast breads. Sacre Bleu! But it didn't matter. I got in my seat on the plane and promptly fell asleep. I awoke just a few minutes from landing in Vienna. Ah, good bumpy rides always make for a sleepy Linda on the plane.
We killed a few hours in the Vienna Airport, where? Of course, the bar. It was there I noticed the phenomenom of the glasses we were drinking from. The brand of the beer was Zipfer and a crown is their mark. There was a etched crown at the base of the inside of the glass. This caused the bubbles from the beer to stream out of that location, similar to a flute of champagne. Needless to say, this thoroughly intrigued us (chemistry does that). Nucleation is the subject . The bubbles are in a column, streaming and pretty. You concentrate the bubbling effect to take place at a certain place. How cool is that? Take a look at some YouTube shots of the mentos/diet coke fountains. Same principle that you could do at home.
After our amusement at the beer glasses in the airport, we got on the short flight to Innsbruck. We got right on the local bus to our hotel. I had booked us on the Glacier ski package. Included was the room, breakfast, ski buses to all nine resorts, ski pass to all resorts including the Glacier and dinner nightly at a nearby restaurant. A good deal indeed!
We chose Patscherkofel as our first day of skiing. A nice warm up hill for me, some runs for Chad as well. I got some free pointers from another instructor while riding the bunny slope. But those annoying little kids who just stand at the top and push straight down really get on my nerves. I keep telling myself it would all be different if I had started at the age and the falling wouldn't be as hard or long. Chad braved taking me to the top of Mountain. We had two hours to get to the base to catch the bus. We didn't make it. I kept falling all over the place. I have that mastered but the getting up is the hardest part. I don't think it was rated as a blue (easy in Austria). After a catastrophic fall, I ended up bailing on the skis and walked down the mountain at least for the last hundred meters or so.
We missed the original bus but a friendly bartender pointed us to a local bus stop to get us back to the hotel. At the second stop, we gained three chickens and a orange-headed totally 80's girl. It was Fat Tuesday or Grosse Dienstag in Austria. Again in Paris, it is a day like Halloween. The next stop we gained a celebrity, Heath Ledger aka the Joker. This guy was scarily his twin: makeup, costume but a thick Austrian not-Australian accent. I couldn't get up the courage to take his picture. A huge party with bands, more costumes and beers had assembled on the main pedestrian street when we got back to the city.
Wednesday was a day off from the skis. I had banged up my bad shoulder and Chad had tweeked his back. The weather was incredible that day, sunny, not too much clouds. It had snowed quite heavily the day before and many mountains were not open due to avalanche blasting in the area. That always make me shudder. I didn't grow up in snow but recognize that heavy snow moving that fast, can't ever be good. Nord Park was just over a mile up and the backside of the mountains are Germany. We sat in the sun, drank excellent beers and enjoyed plates of cheese spaetzl (similar to gnocci).

Ah, the beauty of the city with the river Inn running through the mountains on both sides. This is the money shot from the vast amounts of pictures taken. Not even with the good camera. Just the handy point and shoot. I decided that the big camera would not be a good idea. Plus I could only imagine if that had been in my backpack on the first day falling down the mountain. Disaster! You should have seen the packet of crackers that I had. Dust. Good call.

Those Austrians are a bit crazy. Too many funny words and just a bit goofy like their German counterparts. They were so nice, chatty, and love this guy named Mozart. By the way, Wolfgang and his father stayed at a location just down from the Weinerwald hee hee hee (Vienna forest) for five days in 1769. A plaque on the wall told us so.

On sale today at the Schmuck Galerie! No way, not my Chad. Just these Austrians making me laugh.

We had found the cool glasses again at another brewery Stiegl, the etch in the shape of stairs. And on our last day of skiing, I had a unicorn in the base of my glass. I have a lot of practice to get good at this skiing thing. I think I could really like it. I have the beer drinking at the lodge under control, now I just need the feet to comply. Skiing is fun, beautiful surroundings and good exercise. Next time, I will plan ahead and get someone good to come with us so Chad can go off and ski for real while I get more practice. Maybe Switzerland next year...Contact me if you are a good skier and willing to travel.

On our last day, we did the typical thing: Grocery shopping! You may think it strange but after seeing a French grocery store, you get interested in what other cultures sell in their stores. We bought several types of coffee, beers, some speciality hams and salamis. I bought a few touristic items, mailing the postcards from France as they are cheaper from home.

We ate like kings so now we have to dial it back. It gets you spoiled to have a four course meal every night. No longer skiing and burning the calories off. Didn't even have the time to have another Berliner.

You will be happy to know that we convinced a few bartenders to part with their glasses. Chad is so psyched! He likes to buy the big Belgium beers and needed a glass to pour them in. Now he can enjoy the beer and be entertained all at the same time. He can't wait to share his find with his German friend. Wonder if he has ever seen this effect? You can order the glasses as well on the internet. Not sure how much shipping would be to the USA. Maybe we will pick up some more on a trip to Salsburg later this year.

Next trip might be when we get some Arizona visitors. Not sure if we want to see France or get out to Belgium or somewhere else. Chad has to schedule his Milan trip for April so I will be planning the Florence and Venice part to add on to that trip. Doing our best to stimulate the world's economy and having a blast too!