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.

Christmas in New York

Hi there. This week I'm in New York City, one of my favorite places to spend Christmas. I'm a couple trips behind on my blogging, but here are a few New York Christmas photos to keep you entertained until I have a chance to catch up.



Merry Christmas, if you're into that kind of thing. More photos at my Flickr.

Montana skiing, take two

Better snow, warmer air, more fleece clothing - we had a good day of skiing at Bridger Bowl yesterday (even though it didn't end with anything fried on a stick).

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrr Montana

I've learned there's a key difference between skiing in the Swiss Alps and skiing in Montana: ambient temperature. I had no idea how good we had it in Switzerland, where we could ski on perfect snow in little more than an unzipped ski jacket for most of the season. Not the case in Red Lodge, Montana. All my warmest clothes worn simultaneously proved no match for the frigid air, and I only survived a handful of runs.

Luckily the Bierstube ('stube' rhymes with 'tube' here) at the bottom of the slopes serves a whole lot of yummy microbrews, so the day wasn't a complete disappointment. They also had deep-fried candy bars, which Scott insisted on trying. It came in a coating that made it resemble a corn dog. I found the whole thing rather disappointing - I mean, something that sounds as ridiculous as a deep-fried candy bar ought to at least taste insanely good, right? It didn't.

The town of Red Lodge itself was very cute and small-towny, where the locals all seemed to know each other and restaurants and bars posted their opening hours as "11am till close". "Close" in this case tended to be rather early, since most folks are done eating and back at home by 6:30 or so.

Greetings from Yellowstone

Where in the world am I today? It's getting hard to keep track... I'm several blog posts behind, but I figured I'd share a couple photos from the last couple days in Yellowstone National Park (that's in Montana and Wyoming, just in case you were wondering).



It has been crazy freaky cold, but we're having a good time. We saw all kinds of wild animals (elk, wolves, bison, coyotes, deer, bighorn sheep, and an elk-like species I have dubbed 'white butts') and walked around the steaming hot springs.



More soon!

Mmmm.... winter

When we weren't pulling our hair out trying to plan travel this weekend, we were off enjoying some lovely winter-like activities. Zurich is a fabulous place to be in the winter, assuming you like, um, winter. I am sorry we will be leaving before the real winter starts, but at least we are getting a little tease now.

Fondue season was declared officially open on Saturday. I think raclette season is right around the corner. Sure we'll be bringing our fondue pot and raclette grill with us to our next home, but what if these treats don't taste as good when you're not physically located in Switzerland? Best to eat as much melted cheese as physically possible while we're still in the country, just to be safe.

On Sunday morning we woke up early and went ice skating at Dolder. Environmentalists are unhappy with the fact that Zurich's outdoor rinks have opened despite unseasonably warm weather, since it's awfully inefficient to make all that ice. But if Al Gore can travel by private jet, I certainly get to take a little spin around the ice every once in a while. It was glorious. The rink was pretty deserted for a weekend, with the exception of some intense curling (matches? games?) going on in a roped-off section of ice. Given that it was before noon, we resisted the Gluehwein on offer in the snack bar, but it was tempting...

The wintery weekend was topped off with some roasted chestnuts. Now I'm just crossing my fingers that Coop will start selling Zimtsterne before we move away. Sometimes it doesn't take very much at all to make me happy.

Skiing in Davos – a post for posterity

Sunday morning we woke up hideously early and hauled our ski gear to the train station for a day in Davos. On the way there my husband joked that someday we would tell our kids about this last day of skiing ever before global warming made it a thing of the past. So I figured I better write about it so we’d be able to remember.

We took the train to Davos Dorf (don’t you just love the word Dorf?) and then a short bus to the Parsennbahn, which brought us up to a lovely cluster of blue slopes at 2600 meters.

At least it was a pretty good ski day. The snow was the best we’ve skied on all season (and would actually have been some of the best skiing I’d done in my life prior to last year’s fabulous Swiss ski wonderland). Plus it was a beautiful, sunny day, without a cloud in the sky. The slopes were somewhat crowded, which was to be expected on a Sunday, but even so the lift lines were for the most part tolerable.

The bummer is that neither of us feels like we’ve improved at all this year. Not the best way to end a ski career. I guess we’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope for some snow for next year after all...

No Jacket Required

Now I understand what made Herr Liechtenstein take off his shirt - the $#%&ing weather. Today we have crystal clear blue skies and temperatures in the 60s. Flowers are in bloom everywhere you look. All the windows in my apartment are open, and the heat is off. This would be a perfect day... if it were the middle of the summer, rather than the middle of February. Children all over Switzerland are off of school for ski vacation, since now is supposed to be the best skiing. What will they do instead of ski? Practice their yodeling? And what about me? How am I ever supposed to advance beyond the blue slopes if all the red slopes are covered with more grass than snow? Pity me.

Sledding down the Alps

If there's one thing the Swiss do right, it's sledding. OK, they actually do several things right (melted cheese, dark chocolate, public transportation, yodeling...), but sledding is one of the most fun. It's a completely different activity here than the sledding I grew up with in the US, which consisted of trudging up a small hill dragging a plastic disc and then flying down said hill on said disk, landing in an uncomfortably cold pile of icy snow only to brush off and trudge back up the hill.

In this country, sledding (or sledging, as they seem to think it is called in English) is much longer on the downhill, and much less strenuous on the uphill. A more satisfying experience all around. Here's how it usually works:

(1) You spend around CHF 10 on renting a quaintly old-fashioned-looking wooden sled (or sledge, if you speak that wonky British version of this language);
(2) You get into a big ski gondola or other mass-uphill-transit device and ride to the top of an Alp;
(3) You get on your sled(ge) and ride it down said Alp along a narrow groomed path, dragging your feet and leaning your body to and fro in vain attempts to control the trajectory of your vehicle;
(4) Assuming you managed to make it to the bottom without losing consciousness or a limb, repeat steps 2-3 until it's time to start the apres-ski (apres-sled?) part of the day.

You've never seen grown-ups laugh, shriek, and tumble around as much as our merry band of 30-something lawyers, engineers, financial analysts, and journalists did during our last couple days in the Bernese Oberland. Even though we had gone sledding in Switzerland a couple times before, we weren't prepared for the steep icy bits we encountered on the first day in Grindelwald. Luckily there were a couple of old Swiss ladies walking nearby who instructed us on the proper method of breaking on such hills (grab the front of the sled and pull up, while gritting teeth and trying not to pee pants).

The lower parts of the runs were closed (due to inadequate snow), but we still got to sled for over an hour at a time, down 10-15 kilometer trails. We came home a little banged up and bruised here and there (who knew that sled runs had moguls?), but at least we got to have some good old-fashioned winter fun in the Alps.

Planning ahead gets you nowhere

So my first attempt at premeditated week-long skiing was not particularly successful. We're back from Grindelwald, two days early. I'll let this article in SwissInfo explain why:

The month of January is set to be the warmest on record in Switzerland despite the cold snap at the end of the month, according to the national weather service. [...] This development coupled with little snowfall, has wreaked havoc with the ski industry, with many low-lying resorts unable to open for business.

We did manage to get in a little skiing at the beginning thanks to last week's snowfall, but the oppressive sun showed no mercy, making the conditions worse and worse each day. We entertained ourselves with sledding for a couple days before giving up on more snow coming to save the week.

My brother is still here for two more days, so we're trying to figure out some non-snow-oriented entertainment to round out his Swiss vacation.

The Bernese Oberland – the reason why I fell in love with Switzerland in the first place

Switzerland won my heart over in January 2005, on a trip we planned at the last minute for the long weekend of Three Kings Day (I was working in Italy, where we actually got the day off of work for it). My husband and I were both tired and stressed, but we managed to find a good hotel deal in Interlaken, so with little additional research we hopped on a train.

We spent the next four days in a snowy, Alpy wonderland that filled us with absolute joy just to be there. We bought regional transportation passes and spent the entire time exploring the cluster of tiny Alpine villages known as the Bernese Oberland. We traveled on cog-wheel trains, gondolas, and funiculars to the little towns, admiring the views and rejoicing in the snow. We ate fondue in adorable, rustic taverns, and drank beer in flimsy, busy tepee ski bars. We trudged around in our winter clothing that hadn’t been used in a long, long time. The trip was dubbed “best vacation ever” about 30 minutes after arriving, and held true to that title the entire time we were there.

Since moving to Switzerland, we have been back to the Bernese Oberland several times, but really not enough given how much we love it. I suppose everything loses a little bit of appeal when it becomes more accessible. Nonetheless, I couldn’t be more thrilled that we are spending the next week there, in an apartment we rented with some friends and my brother. Given how much snow Switzerland has gotten in the past couple days, I’m downright giddy for this trip to begin. It’s all I can do to not shriek with joy and dance around like a maniac. See you in a week!

Obligatory snow pictures

In case you haven't already read about it here, here, here, or here, the non-Alpy regions of Switzerland finally received some serious snow in the night from yesterday to today. Actually it's still coming down. Woo hoo!

Crap skiing at Flims Laax

[For those of you who haven't been following along, we are in the midsts of the warmest and unsnowiest winter in the history of Switzerland (please note that this is just my own estimate, and that I am not a weatherman).]



Not being able to hold out any longer, we finally went skiing today for the first time this season. We knew conditions weren't going to be great, but we were confident we could handle it. After all, we've skied in New England before. How much worse could a Swiss ski resort be?

My wonderful husband did some research on the Swiss ski resorts with the best snow, and based on how long it would take to get to each of them, we decided on Flims Laax, home of the famous Craplift. (Just in case you're wondering, 'crap' is actually the word for 'peak' in the local dialect. The locals are well aware of its meaning in English and have learned how to make a buck off of giving us a sophomoric laugh. Also, please note that the title of this post is much cleverer than you originally gave it credit for.)

It was far from a day of perfect skiing. The prevailing snow conditions on the slopes could best be described as 'solid sheet of the hardest ice you've ever attempted to dig your skis into' alternating with 'slush up to your ankles'. A couple hours into our ski day it started snowing a little (good) combined with driving wind that closed several of the lifts (much less good). Still, we pressed on, determined to get our money's worth out of the price we paid for our train-bus-lift tickets. Luckily the crazy winds managed to blow a little powder onto the runs in spots, giving us little teeny tiny reminders of how good skiing can be.

We skied a full day and then retired to the Crap Bar (seriously, it was called that) for a beer before catching the bus/train connection back to Zurich (which takes a little under two hours for the whole trip). Despite the less-than-perfect conditions, skiing reminded me again why, deep down, I really do love Switzerland.

Hunting winter down wherever you can find it

Today we dug our skates out of the closet and went ice skating at Oerlikon, one of Zurich's three public outdoor rinks. It wasn't quite as picturesque as skating on a frozen lake (as we were able to do last year in Pfäffikon), but hey, beggars can't be choosers. At least it felt like winter.I hear the Dolder ice skating rink is the best. I'll be checking it out soon.

I hate global warming

As I’ve mentioned before, I am a winter person. Every year I patiently wait out summer, reminding myself that the weather isn’t going to always be so sucky and warm. My reward is especially worth it now that we live in Switzerland, where winter is so gosh darn glorious: pointy snow-capped Alps, outdoor ice skating rinks and frozen lakes, tiny Alpine villages buried under 10 feet of snow where you use a giant sled to haul your suitcase and skis to the hotel, cozy wooden Stübli serving fondue, sledding runs that go on for miles and miles… pure winter paradise.

But this year? This Forbes article is just one of the many out there declaring what those of us in Switzerland already know: it’s much too warm. There’s no snow. Ski resorts are telling guests to bring their hiking boots, because most can’t open a single run. Even the plants are confused - flowers are blooming all over the place.

And the experts seem to agree, this type of weather is going to become more and more common in the future, rather than just being the anomaly it was in the past. I feel like punching an SUV driver.

A toast to the Christkindli and his Markt

If there’s one thing the German-speaking world does right, it’s Christmas time. Christmas markets pop up everywhere selling lots of things you don’t need. Glühwein (hot, spiced wine) becomes available on every street corner, as do roasted chestnuts, to warm you on cold days. Twinkling little lights hang above all the shopping streets (OK, the Swiss seem to have gotten this part slightly wrong – but I’ll address this in a later post). Zimtsterne, Magenbrot, and other Christmas delicacies show up at all the stores.

Another nice thing about the Christmas season in this part of the world is that there aren’t any of those annoying right-wing bible-beaters complaining about how Christmas has become too commercial, or how we’ve all forgotten its “true meaning.” In Zurich, the baby Jesus is too busy running the indoor market at the train station to care about whether you’re celebrating his birthday in the correct fashion.

Today we strolled through the newly-opened Christmas markets around town with our visiting friends from Geneva (who, amazingly, had never been to a Christmas market before). We ate Chäs-Chüechli (unpronounceable Swiss cheese pie) and drank Glühwein while browsing through the little market stalls. I think about half of the inhabitants of Zurich were doing the same thing. The only thing missing was the snow.

You’ve seen one Alp, you’ve seen them all

Today my husband played hooky from work and we ran off to Davos to squeeze in one last ski day before the season ends. The snow was remarkably good for this time of year [note: this observation is based on my extensive knowledge of April ski conditions, given that I’ve been skiing in April none times before today]. I even managed a couple red (intermediate) slopes.

How ridiculous is it that I have already started to take panoramic views of snow-covered Alps for granted? We hardly took any pictures today. I really wanted to photograph the crash site from Scott's face plant in the fluffy off-piste snow, but he didn't think that was a particularly good idea.

I know, I know, you're tired of hearing about snow. Tough.

We just got back from a glorious long weekend in Mürren, an excessively adorable little skiing village in the Swiss Alps. To get there one must take an incline railway to a cog-wheel train to the town. Once you get to the town itself, the only way to get your luggage to your hotel is to drag it through the snow (which we did), or go get a giant sled from your hotel to put it on and push (much easier). Luckily it was only about a 5-minute walk to our hotel, even though it was completely across town.

We spent the majority of the time skiing on the fluffiest snow I’ve ever seen. The lifts were a few meters away from our hotel, and we could ski all the way to the front door. Scott had a blast snowboarding off-piste in knee-deep snow, and I was delighted to have so many different long easy slopes to choose from.

On the third day we rented little wooden sleds and sledded down to Gimmelwald, a village that made Mürren feel like a bustling metropolis. The Swiss do sledding the right way—none of this trudging up a hill to ride down for all of 5 seconds. We sledded on two different groomed runs, each taking about 20 minutes, and then took efficient Swiss public transportation (a ski gondola or cog-wheel train) back to where we started.



We also ventured up the hill to Piz Gloria, a revolving restaurant 3000 meters above sea level which offered, of course, breathtaking views of the snow-covered Alps. Apparently this revolving restaurant rose to international fame in some James Bond movie. The side of the gondola, all pamphlets about the restaurant, and every item in the gift shop made sure that I was aware of this James Bond movie connection (although they weren’t diligent enough to make me remember which one).



The après-ski locales offered by Mürren did not disappoint. The best meal we ate (well, the best one that didn’t consist primarily of melted cheese) was at Alpenruh. The casual atmosphere didn’t adequately prepare us for the elegant food and service we received. The view and the white Glühwein are also not to be missed.
















We aren’t usually the types to vacation in the same place twice, opting instead to explore new places, but we have already talked about going back to Mürren. I think we’re even considering going next weekend, before the ski season ends… although maybe we’ll just stay home and rent a James Bond movie. I’ve never seen one.

Zurich Fasnacht, the tamest carnival in the world

Nevermind that Lent has already started - Zurichers braved the snow by the tens this weekend to revel in the streets with a bunch of funnily-dressed marching bands. I'm guessing that Zurich celebrates carnival the weekend after the rest of the world because all the good bands are busy during the real carnival playing in other cities. There are several other towns in Switzerland that host better-known carnivals.


The trams weren't running Sunday morning due to the snow piled up everywhere, so we had to walk to the center to watch the parade, which consisted entirely of marching bands, dance groups, and gaggles of witches. If anyone out there knows what witches have to do with carnival, please enlighten me.


I couldn't end this post without one more gratuitous snow picture.

More WSB (Weekend Snow Blogging)

Saturday it snowed all day long...




















...and into the night.


















Not bad for a camera phone, eh?

So far we're at a foot and a half, and it's still coming down. I'll let you know when it stops.

2:00 AM update... still snowing.
















We just went out and made snow angels.











































And at the top of the street we found a traffic mirror and had fun with it.






















It finally stopped falling Sunday afternoon.

We are happy we don't own a car today.