Ski Week 2014

The kids have a week built into their calendar for "Ski Week".  It's exactly what is sounds like, 10 days off school for all the families to take off on fabulous winter vacations (aside from skiing, some included staying at the Ice Hotel in Norway and flying down to the Canary Islands for some sun).

We opted for Imst, Austria, with our friends Stephanie and Brian and their 2 kids, on my first real attempt at skiing.  We took the train, which is an awesome way to travel.  For Mike and the kids and I, it was €240, round trip.  Can't beat that.  We left Wednesday morning, changed trains in Munich, and Innsbruck, Austria and by 4 PM that afternoon, we were in our hotel, Apartement Haus Winkler (http://www.winkler-imst.at/).  We had asked for a two-bedroom apartment, but ended up with 2 rooms, which was great.  The kids were right down the hall.  Lots of families in the hotel, which is good because people can never be sure that it is our kids making noise!  Since there were only 2 restaurants around, we opted for dining in the hotel.

 Ryan spent most of his time sitting at the bar watching the Olympics.

Like I said, this was my first real attempt at skiing.  Mike took me one other time.  I think I was pregnant with Ryan (maybe Erin), and it was at Boyce Park in Monroeville, not exactly the Alps!  So, we signed the kids up for lessons, and I was right there with them.  I'm sure it was the right decision, but it is hard to be the ONLY person over 14 learning how to ski!  Our teacher did speak English, but she kept asking me where we live in England, or at what age the kids start school in England.

 She is probably still wondering how far the towns of "Pennsylvania" and "Arizona" are from London!  We had 2 hours of lessons in the morning then lunch then 2 more hours for 3 days.  I will say there seemed to be a big difference in teaching styles than I would have expected.  She never taught us how to put skis on or off or get up if you fell. (remember, my first time, none of this is intuitive to me).  Of course by the end of the weekend we figured all this out (kind of) without being taught.

There was a great schirmbar (umbrella bar) at the bottom of the mountain.  They served pizza and bratwurst, as well as beer (obviously) and hot drinks for the kids. Best part was they could open or close the umbrella depending on the weather.

By the end of the first day, Erin decided she was ready for the bigger hill, so Stephanie (amazing, wonderful, patient Stephanie) took her down. She did good, but great for it being her first day.

As I said there was 1 bar, 2 restaurants, and like 2 hotels on the mountain, and NO ATM.  Any everyone takes cash only.  So Thursday afternoon, Mike and Brian got a ride down into town with the bartender, Nikki, to get cash.  Yes,that picture you have in your head of  a small town, ski resort bartender named Nikki, she looked just like that!

Friday was more of the same, but we went to the 'other' restaurant.  We sat next to a table of 2 Dutch families, who come there every year.  So comfortable, that they had brought their own food for the restaurant to cook for them, it looked delicious.  And their own alcohol to be kept behind the bar and served to them.

The owner of the restaurant was a snowboarder so last year they had wagered him a case of Dutch beer that he could get down the mountain in less than 15 minutes.  He broke three ribs, and it took him 16 minutes, but he got his case of beer this year.  Sitting with them also led to loud singing of Dutch soccer songs and Ryan dancing on the table.  Normal night right?

Saturday we convinced our teacher that were could leave the bunny hill and head up the mountain.  I survived, the kids thrived.  After lunch, I skied with Mike instead of going with the kids.  They even were doing small jumps, crazy.

View from our room with the Schirmbar

Saturday everyone also went for a ride on the Alpine Coaster, a 3500 meter track, coming down the hill, dropping 500 meters in about 15 minutes.  My job was to stand at the bottom and take pictures, my favorite assignment!

Saturday night we were having dinner while the TV was showing the medal ceremony for Women's Slalom. The US took the gold, so Mike asked them to turn up the volume on the TV so the kids could hear it.  The owner seemed confused, but did, and even turned down the music on the radio.  A few minutes later we realized why he was acting weird, Austria took silver and bronze!  We made them listen to the American National Anthem over two of their own skiers!!!  Oops!

Sunday morning, Mike the kids and I set out to attempt to see Imst, that took about 10 minutes since nothing was open on Sunday, so we ended up at McDonald's for some lunch and some free Wi-Fi!  On our taxi ride back to the train, Mike was telling the driver about how we were skiing with our friends and we are all from America but we live in Düsseldorf now, he replied, "Yes, I know, I took your friends up the mountain on Wednesday".  Apparently we were the only Americans in town!