Shane and Jason

Our friends, Ryan and Katie, came to visit us in February for a ski trip in the Austrian alps.

They flew in to Munich, rented a car and drove up to Nürnberg to meet us. The first day we took a nice long walk and showed them a bit of the city. We ate at one of our favorite restaurants, the Häusbräuerei Altstadthof, which is an awesome microbrewery and German restaurant right outside our door. 

The next day we drove 4 hrs down to St. Anton am Arlberg in Austria, rented our skis, and checked into our hotel.  The apartment we stayed in had 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, a kitchen and a balcony.  We were able to cook for ourselves a lot which was really nice.

Our first day of skiing was Monday.  Before this point I had only done 2 half-days of ski school in Garmisch-Partenkirchen.  We went up the lift and decided to ski over to another lift.  Problem was, I was definitely not ready.  Looking back, more ski school would have been a good idea.  I freaked out (maybe I’m a little afraid of heights?  definitely of losing control and falling of the side of the mountain) and fell A LOT.  It was painful and tiring, I gotta say.  When we got over to the other ski lift, they broke it to me that were just on a red trail.  Red trails, by the way, are NOT the easiest trails.  Granted, they’re not the hardest, but I had never even done a blue trail yet.  No wonder!

I took a break at the restaurant there and let the others ski a bit without me.  They met me back there for lunch and we had an awesome view of the mountains.  After lunch we went down part of a blue trail, and while I still freaked out, I made a lot of progress.  I think it would have been a bit easier, though, had I not fallen a million times already. 

After that run I decided I was probably close to being done for the day.  We all rode a lift up together and I went down the mountain on the gondola and met up with everybody else at the bottom. 

The next day I decided to do ski school after the insane chaos that was Monday.  I joined a class that had been together for two days and it was the perfect level.  We started at the bottom doing obstacle courses and gaining control, and then went up on the bunny slopes.  I started feeling really confident and got a lot of skiing in- I only fell twice, and that was in line for the lift cause it was slippery.

While I gained a lot more control, it was more with direction than speed, which I discovered after I met back up with everyone after ski school.  We decided to ride the lift up and ski down to one of the restaurants on the mountain.  I was doing pretty well, but still going a little faster than I would like.  Then we came to a really steep part, and I kinda started to freak out again.  I made it down, but it was more shimmy-ing than skiing, and it was very slow.  I was so exhausted that I started falling a lot, and decided I better quit while I don’t have any broken bones.

Wednesday we drove over to Lech, which is a ski town on the other side of the mountain.  I took a book and my iPod and walked around the shops while the others went skiing.  We met up for lunch and then I rode the cable car up to Oberlech, a town on the mountain with a lot of hotels and restaurants that you can ski in and out of, and read in the sun.  It was a nice, relaxing day.

Thursday Katie and I went to the fitness center while the boys went skiing.  We exercised some, had lunch, and went swimming.  We met up with the boys when they returned their skis and had dinner back at the apartment.

Friday we drove to Munich.  We ate at an Italian place for lunch, and it was really, really good.  Best tiramisu we’ve had yet.  After lunch we walked around the market and then by Theresienwiese (the Oktoberfest fields).  We had to show Katie and Ryan the Hofbräuhaus (one of the big breweries in town) and then ate at an awesome restaurant that Katie found in the Rick Steves book. 

All in all it was a great trip! We really enjoyed having visitors and being able to share our experience here with our friends. More pictures available here.