Pic(spam) of the week: Winter holidays
... man, I go on vacation for a week and the world goes completely mad. I expected some of it (but not this much!) and thus stayed away from the news in my happy little Alpine valley, but coming back and catching up isn't fun either when there's such a clusterfuck to catch up with. Boo.
But the holiday, on the whole, was nice! As nice as travelling by bus (= twice the time) and with a group of senior citizens (I know, I know, one day I will be like them and then I'll so regret my youthful arrogance) can be. Fortunately, aside from the journey and meals, it was more a family vacation with my parents, the mother-in-law and the kids (poor Jörg couldn't get off work and had to stay at home). To be honest, I hadn't particularly cared to go, but my parents so wanted to treat their grandchildren, and since Felix starts school this summer and then won't be able to take part in such a trip outside the school holidays, we went. And it was nice. I didn't get to do any skiing due to the kids, but I got to take some nice walks (and photos). I reanimated the old camera I'd bought in Japan for the purpose. I know my cell phone would have taken higher quality pictures, but getting pics from the cell phone to the computer is a bloody pain and I'm not gonna face it for 30+ pics, no way. So we'll all have to deal with the flaws of ten year old technology, oh woe.
So, yeah. The less said about the journey, the better. It took over 12 hours. To be fair, the bus driver did a very good job and the kids were extremely patient, so it could definitely have been worse! And I now know that the kids are theoretically up to enduring mass transport for as long as half a day, which is probably useful if we win the lottery and catch up on all our travelling plans or something. ;) Anyway! Here, we are finally approaching the Alps.
The cable car station atop the landmark Zwölferkopf. And the moon.
A lil' walk around the village and down to Lake Achensee. They had about a week of snow just as the year began, and solid frost ever since, so conditions were PERFECT.
Modern Dwarven architecture?
From the second day onwards, Felix took part in skiing class! We had tried to interest him in skiing last year, but he refused to even just take a look at it. This year, he suddenly decided that it looked cool and he wanted to try it, yay! First, he took part in a one-day introduction class, which he didn't finish but suggested that he would do more of it tomorrow, so my dad booked another two days, after which Felix declared his intention to take part in the skiing school race at the end of the week, so in the end, he did the whole five-day class. Learning to ski, even for just 2 hours a day, is effing expensive! I'm so grateful my parents paid for it. Even though Felix didn't participate the whole 2 hours and learned precious little (he did ace the race, but only by virtue of refusing to either steer or brake until he'd crossed the finish line! Oh well, he managed to stay on his feet. That's more than most of the other kids did. :P), it was probably great practice for school (or school gym, at any rate). And he now has a general positive attitude about skiing and sports in a group, which is doubtlessly valuable.
Julian spent many of these outings in the hotel's complementary pukka. He also enjoyed running through snow higher than his little boots, though. Above all, he loved watching the cable car!
While Felix did his skiing, my mom kept Julian entertained so I could rush back to the skiing school when Felix got tired of his lessons and refused to continue. Until I got that call, I just sort of wandered around, pulling a little sled with Felix' ordinary shoes and stuff on it. XD Since I had a sled anyway, I walked up the local sled run. When I was a kid, that was a just barely tilted bit of road and you always had to push like mad to slide even just for a short while. At some point in the past ten years, they changed the location and now it's seriously steep and full of wicked corners! Wheeeeeee! From the highest point of the sled run (about half-way up Mount Zwölferkopf), you have quite a nice view, too.
Same view, later in the day, when my parents and the kids came along.
More evening light on the way back.
The hotel's swimming pool by night. Not sure that a giant greenhouse is the best way to house a pool, but I gotta admit that it's looking beautiful.
The weather one morning. It had half the group in an uproar! OMG we've been promised a cloudless day and THERE ARE CLOUDS! How can that happen! Lies! Broken Hopes! The day is totally ruined! (Yeah, yeah, I know it's hypocritical to complain about people who always complain. But sheesh, what a bunch of gripers.)
Needless to say, in spite of the sub-zero temperatures the sun managed to burn away these little whisps of fog within half an hour.
(Seriously, a lot of these people seemed to complain just for the sake of complaining. In contrast, there was a group of English tourists a few tables further away and I only ever heard enthusiastic words from them! They loved everything and sounded absolutely genuine about it. It was such a joy to listen to them.)
Seriously, how can you complain about this spectacular display of mist and sunlight!
The old house used to be a very prestigious hotel in days of yore. When I was in Pertisau with my parents as a kid, the heiress of the hotel was still living there with (depending on whom you asked) 15 to 99 cats. She has since passed away and the house is now empty; I suspect they're just waiting for it to fall down in order to build something new.
Apparently, this was also the original location inspiration for Elinor Brent-Dyer's Chalet School series back in the 1920s. IDK, I never heard of it. I grew up with Enid Blyton instead?
I've been to Pertisau so often that I lost count (it's the single one holiday location that my parents didn't mind returning to over and over), but I don't think I've ever seen such amazing light. Normally there's a few minutes of spectacular light in the morning and then some in the evening, but this week it stayed spectacularly magical the whole day. In the afternoon, the whole valley behind the village was filled with a golden glow, as if there was a second lake made out of gold or something. The pics don't do it justice but IT WAS THERE.
So the morning after, during Felix' skiing class, I went IN SEARCH OF THE GOLDEN GLOW. I did not find it. I followed the track of a horde of snow-showers though and was treated to some beautiful offroad scenery. Also, sparkletrees!
SPARRRRRKLE! TAKE THAT, JEALOUS VALAR!
Because Julian was so exited about the cable car (everything technical and mobile is a delight to him. He's a little engineer already!), on the last day, my mom treated him and Felix to a cable car ride to the top after skiing lessons and the race were over. Felix was fascinated by how small everything looked from up there, and he immediately realised that part of the lake surface were frozen. He also observed that the cables seemed to run ever closer together the further away they were! In general, he made some really astute observations throughout the week. And both kids enjoyed the nifty playground with slides and swings on top of the mountain! (There's also a skiing resort, but I didn't get to use that in spite of the perfect snow and weather. Oh well, some other time.)
Well, wasn't that fun! And now, to paraphrase JD from Srubs, I'm back to a world full of bad presidents, oaths and gonorrhea. URGH.