Slushy spring skiing

We popped down to Austria for a final ski trip of the season yesterday. It's so easy to do this that I'm having a hard time remembering that Austria is, in fact, another country. You'd think after two years in Switzerland I'd be over the novelty of popping into another country for a day trip, but you'd be wrong. What can I say? I'm easily impressed.

The time change meant we got even less precious sleep than we normally would have, but on the plus side now we can be happy that all that daylight is no longer going to waste. And, we're finally back to our normal 6-hour time difference from the east coast of the US. Whew.

We went to the irrsinnig gross ski area called SkiWelt Wilder Kaiser Brixental, which was indeed quite sizable. The skiing was pretty good - slushy, to be sure, but that slush allowed me to ski the red slopes like a rock star, granting me the opportunity to think that my skiing skills have actually improved in the past couple seasons. The sun was brutal and relentless (some people might have called it 'pleasant' or even 'beautiful'), and we probably could have spent most of the day skiing in little more than t-shirts.

Forgot to bring the camera this time, but I'll add a photo off of the old camera phone as soon as I can figure out how to magically beam it to the computer. Or you can just get the general idea from any other photo I've taken skiing.

Austrian snow therapy

We would be awfully bummed about moving away from Switzerland in the middle of ski-season... if we hadn't moved to Munich. The oh-so-conveniently-located Austrian Alps are close enough for easy day-trip skiing. Unfortunately this season hasn't been as snowy as we would like, but the Austrians seem to be pretty good at filling in the gaps with man-made snow.

There seem to be dozens of resorts to choose from. In January we hit Kaltenbach, and just yesterday we were in Alpbachtal. Kaltenbach had a nice variety of runs, and our enjoyment was greatly enhanced by a covey of skiing witches. Alpbachtal was a little short on the blue (easy) slopes, but I managed to stay entertained for the entire day (and conditions were even good enough for me to successfully navigate a couple red runs). We also enjoyed riding the charmingly antique single-chair lift.

While lift tickets seem to have comparable prices in Austria and Switzerland, equipment rental is noticeably cheaper in Austria (skiing pro that I am, naturally I own my own, but Scott is still renting until he finds a snowboard he can fall in love with that doesn't have a wild west theme painted on it). From what I've seen, Switzerland has more ski areas that are easily reachable by train than Austria does. We've heard that Germany's Garmisch is a quick and easy train ride away, but haven't had the chance to try it out yet.

My TravelBox articles

My four weeks at TravelBox on Slate.com are coming to an end. Here's a round-up of all my posts over there, for your reading pleasure:

Italy
A culinary layover in Milan
There's more to the Veneto than Venice

Austria
An Easter weekend in Vienna
Seeking out wine in Vienna (or Wein in Wien)

Switzerland
Switzerland's answer to Groundhog Day
Switzerland's off season

Germany
Discovering Berlin's divided past
Dresden rising

Vienna's Naschmarkt

There are lots of things about Vienna which make me think it would be a nice place to live. One of my favorite parts of the city is the daily outdoor market called the Naschmarkt. It's just one of those sumptuous sensory-overload type markets, bursting not only with fresh fruit and veggies, but also olives, fresh bread and pasta, dried fruits, fresh sauerkraut, and plenty more. There's also a section of the market which consists of primarily Asian shops and restaurants where we enjoyed a couple meals during our Easter trip.

Kaffee und Kuchen in Vienna

The Viennese have a lovely tradition of dropping everything at around 4 PM and indulging in some Kaffee und Kuchen. In the interest of getting the most out of our vacation, we of course also adopted this practice while we were in Vienna. We are nothing if not cultural adventurers.

To get the true Austrian experience, you have to order your coffee mit Schlag, which translates roughly to buried under copious amounts of really stiff whipped cream. I'm not sure if it's the word or the actual cream which makes me not like this particular type of coffee, but I always just got mine black.

Although Kuchen translates to cake, it's used more as an umbrella term to include a wide variety of sweet baked things that one may consume alongside the coffee. Of course there is the oh-so-famous Sacher Torte, a chocolate cake with raspberry jam filling and a chocolaty outer coating (not entirely unlike Magic Shell). It originated at the tragically snooty Hotel Sacher, which is right next to the Vienna Opera House, but these days every Thomas, Dieter, and Horst in this city makes his own version of it (despite Hotel Sacher's claim to having a top-secret recipe).

Luckily Vienna had plenty in the way of sweets that I was actually impressed with, like this thing called a Scheibbserkugel - a chocolate-coated ball filled with cookie and creamy goodness. We found them at the Easter markets around the city, but hopefully these things are around at other times of year, too. Another thing I liked were these pointy chocolate things filled with chocolate mousse. I think the name had something to do with Paris (how's that for good journalism for you?).

Buona Pasqua

Easter in Italy is always marked by the omnipresent giant chocolate eggs. No bunnies, no peeps, just big chocolate eggs. If you're lucky, there's an exciting surprise awaiting you inside your giant chocolate egg. These surprises can range from cheap plastic toys to fine jewelry, depending on where your egg came from. They're kind of like giant Kinder Surprise eggs.*

Easter in Europe can be tricky, as Heather recently discussed. On one hand, it's a four-day weekend. On the other, it seems like all of Europe is closed. It's like having four Sundays in a row: no groceries, no shopping, and limited restaurants. That makes it a little difficult to pick a destination for the weekend. It would have been nice to go skiing, but we're done with fighting the bad snow. Last year we went to Berlin, and the year before that we came to Zurich for the first time (having no idea that we would eventually move here). This year we opted to continue our success with 'big' cities, and head to Vienna. It turned out to be a good choice, as pretty much everything was open as if it were a normal weekend. Plus we got colored eggs and chocolate lamb-shaped cake for breakfast. What more could you ask for?

Speaking of religious holidays, this article about the recent marketing efforts of Swiss churches caught my eye this morning. As in many European countries, funding for churches (well, mainstream Christian churches anyway) is done through taxes collected by the government here.

* remind me to tell you a funny story about Kinder Surprise eggs.

As seen on the streets of Vienna

Back signs seem to be the preferred method of advertising in this city. They were all over the pedestrian zone. This guy wanted us to say rosaries to have our sins forgiven…

…while this one wanted us to go drink beer. Hmmm, which one do you think we listened to?

And, everywhere you turn in this city, Mozart is there beseeching you to try his balls.