Saint Nicholas Ski Weekend in the Alps

Thursday Night:

Exactly a week ago at this time, I was waiting, and waiting, and waiting….  in front of the Hofburg Palace for my Czech friends Antonin, Soňa, their daughter Iva and her friend Jakub to pick me up.  I thought I had chosen a relatively easy place to meet, right off the main Ring road.  Alas, road blocks and detours had them circling in Vienna for 2.5 hours before we finally met up. Thank goodness for cell phones!

Luckily, we had such a great weekend in the Austrian Alps that our rough start was soon forgotten.  We got to Tauplitz , the oldest ski region in Austria, a bit past 10pm.  Antonin and Soňa are part owners of Haus Alpin, a hotel at 1650 meters above sea level that caters only to Czechs and is booked by individuals and school groups 2 years ahead of time.  A few choice times a year, they and the other 39 owners come together in this 40-room hotel to socialize, feast, and partake in the many blessings of these 2000-meter mountains. This time, I was blessed enough to join them.

Once in the parking lot at the end of a steep twisty road part-way up the mountain, we called Haus Alpin to be picked up by a couple of ski-doos with luggage/people-wagons behind them. After dropping our stuff off in our room (6 beds for 5 people – plenty of room!), we headed downstairs to the dining room to socialize.  I was tired, but it was great.  Czechs speaking Czech all around – what more can I ask!?  Sitting on a small table was a huge round of Parmesan cheese from Italy (2 feet+ in diameter) with a few knives to jab our way through it.  That was dinner as I was too tired to get a real meal from the kitchen (I’d be getting plenty of those later).  Boy, did I sleep well that night.  I didn’t even hear the others come in.

Friday

As was forecasted, we woke up on Friday morning to a huge snowstorm with hurricane winds that shut down the whole mountain.  There were reports of thousands losing power in the Czech Republic from the same storm.  So we spent all day

• sleeping (I was up at 5am, but ended up napping for 4 hours before lunch – it’s the altitude, you know)
• reading (thank goodness for Iva’s Kindle e-reader that had some English novels on it to choose from – I got hooked! I didn’t think I’d like reading on a Kindle, but it’s like reading on paper and fits in your pockets.  I can see myself with one of these one day).
• eating (and eating, and eating – what great food and plenty of it – all included in the price, which was free!  Such blessings!)
• playing ping-pong (while running around the table)

After lunch, which always consisted of 2 choices of soups with Czech rolls, Soňa, Jakub, and I headed out into the storm in full gear to go to the nearest hotel around (which is also the most historic), Hollhaus.  There, upon request, we had an English lesson while Iva and Antonin trudged half-way up a nearby hill on foot, battling the elements, to then ski/snowboard down once. They had been more restless than I was. Tony joined us after that for a cappuccino and mulled wine.  By then, every table was crowded with Czechs from next door – great minds think alike!

Friday night, we celebrated Saint Nicholas.  No one told me that we’d be having a second feast, so I loaded up on the grilled potatoes and corn on the cob to go along with the bacon-wrapped turkey brochettes I chose (others had venison steaks with traditional dumplings and red cabbage).  An hour after dinner, however, we were presented with a gourmet buffet (that I skipped), followed by amazing deserts (that I didn’t skip – a mouth-watering hot chocolate cake with hot chocolate sauce inside – a description that doesn’t do it justice).  Oh, but I forget – sorry …. a bit food obsessed, especially after this weekend).  Between dinner and the feast, we had a visit from Saint Nicholas, accompanied by an angel and devil.  Each child (and a few teens) were called and The Book was checked to see if they had been good or bad in the past year.  No one got coal, this year, but a few little ones who thought they might were literally trembling and crying, waiting for the verdict. A few had to sing a song, but, in the end, everyone got a bag of goodies, much to everyone’s delight.  Once again, I was in bed and asleep before the others.

Saturday:

I didn’t wake up as early, knowing that the ski lifts wouldn’t open in the morning due to the continuing winds and blowing snow.  After a bit of yoga in bed, I really got into my book – “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn and enjoyed my time with my friends.  After lunch, however, we got geared up and headed out to the few open runs in our vicinity.  This was my first time on skis since a weekend in the Rockies with my ESL classes when I was teaching in Calgary (2004).  It had been more than a decade before that, so you can imagine how nervous I was heading out with the wind and low visibility.  But I did it (self-pat on the back), equipped with Soňa‘s ski pants, Honza’s helmit (the son that didn’t come this weekend), Iva’s old skis and boots, and Jakub’s goggles (he chose to use his new sunglasses).  It was a bit nerve-wracking, but Tony and Soňa were patient and very encouraging.  Yay!  By the time I got back to Haus Alpine, my legs were sore (my butt wasn’t though, despite my one fall, which you may get to see when Tony edits his video that he shot with a camera on his helmit) and I was very hungry (those butterflies in my stomach made some space after lunch).  Before dinner, however, the gals headed down into the hotel’s new steam sauna – very nice!  I hoped it would help relax those unaccustomed leg-muscles that had had quite the workout that afternoon.  I then thoroughly enjoyed my huge piece of vegetarian soufflé and salad.  After dinner, I stayed downstairs to read, and just when I was getting ready to head up, Soňa asked if I wanted to join them at a crowded table.  I had been relishing in all the Czech conversations I had had up to that point, but I knew that I wouldn’t understand a word anymore at that hour, exhausted from my first half day on the hills.  So once again, I was first asleep.

Sunday:

Up at 5am for some yoga and reading again before the others woke up at 7:50am, 10 minutes before breakfast.  I don’t know how they do that!  What I do know is how I came back from my 2 years in the Czech Republic, 20 years back, with an extra 20 pounds!  I’ve never enjoyed bread, but I do love my Czech rolls with cheese and tvaroh, a milk-product we just don’t have in North America.  I worked it off though – with better weather and visibility, we headed straight for the hills. This time, I actually found myself enjoying it, just like when I was a kid zooming down the hills with such a sense of freedom.  My family spent 5 years in Europe when I was 5-10 years old, and I have many fond memories of ski holidays in our camper.  I reconnected with that on Sunday.  Sure, the butterflies visited the belly a few times, but I even found myself singing as we coasted down Panorama Alley and other more leisurely runs.  The whole mountain was open, and so we went on 5 different kinds of lifts and skied from 1914 meters all the way down to the village of Tauplitz and back up and around.  Wow!  At times, we could even see the mountains in the distance, which was spectacular! (photos included above).

After lunch, we grabbed our luggage, which we had stored in the ping pong room with everyone else’s stuff (no worries about anyone stealing anything in this crowd), and enjoyed a ski-doo ride back to the parking lot.  I had my camera out and did some drive-by shooting, both on the ski-doo and in the van on the way down the mountain and away from Tauplitz.  First though, we had to take the snow off the car, and no one has shovels or scrappers around here it seems (note: they wanted me to take pictures – it’s not like I wasn’t ready to help, just so as you know!).  What an amazing weekend for which I am so very very grateful, thanks to my dear friends!

Since classes were finished, I headed back to the Czech Republic for 3 days with my friends, but I’ll write about that in the next post.