Written by Rod

 

Christmas

Hamish thankfully slept in until about 7:30. He finds that Santa and his hungry reindeer have tracked him down and that he has (just) made it onto the ‘good’ list. There were a variety of gifts in his stocking and Hamish was very excited. Amongst these is a DVD of ‘The Sound of Music’. Very appropriate. We watched it later in the day and, ever since, Hamish has added various scenes/dialogue/songs to his repertoire of things to act out. We exchanged our presents, Hamish getting a Playmobil (sort of German Lego) police station, amongst other things. He and Belinda had great fun assembling that. It’s a pretty quiet day, with some roast turkey breast for dinner, which Hamish would not eat. He made himself a ham sandwich instead.

 

Skiing

I had never seriously considered skiing during this trip to Europe. Too difficult to get to, too time consuming and too expensive. Or so I thought. Upon browsing the myriad brochures in our Salzburg apartment, there is one that catches my eye. The Flachau snow shuttle (bus) offers free transport, English speaking guides and assistance in hiring the gear. And the snow field is only 70 minutes away. It sounds too good to be true, and it almost turns out that way when we hear negative reports about the (lack of) snow. But I give it a go, in the finest spirit of “probably never going to be here again” travelling. The bus is indeed free and the total cost for the gear-hire and lift pass is 87 Euros.

A few dramas to start, of course. After getting fitted for my boots and skis, I go to the toilet. As I then start to head off to find the ski lift, I realise I am travelling light; I have left my skis somewhere. Five minutes of panic and retracing my steps later, I head off, now fully equipped, for the lifts. The queues are enormous. I ask the person in front if this is the queue for the lifts. Ja, is the reply. I wait and barely move for 10 minutes. I notice that many others in the queues are not carrying skis. So I turn to another in the queue and ask if this is where you catch the lift. No, it is where you buy the ticket. So, the time saved by getting the group-organised ticket has been partially wasted. Never mind. I find the escalator which takes us to the real queue, which is about 300 deep! Fifteen minutes or so later I am in an 8 seater gondola, ‘Achter Jet 1’, heading up the slope. That was the last long queue of the day. The rest of my time is spent skiing, taking photos, lunching and riding lifts at my leisure.

The bus leaves at 4, but by about 2:30 my aging joints have had enough skiing for one day. I could catch a gondola back down, but where is the fun in that? Instead, I ride my steepest and iciest section of the mountain back to base. Big mistake. Up till then I had come off my feet only twice, in a fairly innocuous fashion. The final descent is full of drama. It starts with a crash into another skier, when we both try to evade and choose the same direction. From here I lost my nerve. I am zig zagging down the hill at speed, getting tenser on every turn. I fall, painfully, too many times to count. Often this was through over-compensating, finding myself pointing uphill before starting to ski backwards; something I am definitely not qualified to do. Eventually I make it back safely to the bus for the trip home.

We get back to Salzburg and it is dark and the bus drops us in a slightly different spot to where we departed (around the corner, as it turned out). I do not recognise it, but walk off in what I think is the right direction, thinking I will get my bearings soon. Having been in Salzburg for 9 days, I almost feel like a local. Thirty minutes and several frantic texts to Belinda later, I have walked a lap of inner Salzburg before finally locating a bus stop that will work for me.

Science/Nature Museum

Whilst Rod ventures to the ski fields, Hamish and I head back to the Science section of the Nature Museum, as promised. We have a good couple of hours and complete our trip into the city with our customary picnic by the river. I note that perhaps we have started a trend, as, for the first time this week, the riverbank is lined with many people enjoying their lunch in the sunshine.

 

Swimming

We look online and find an interesting looking indoor pool/sauna. The photos of the sauna look particularly interesting (see below). It’s in town and we decide to drive and park in one of the underground car parks. The pool has a slide and a rock-climbing wall! Hamish loves the slide. It gives him the chance to act out one of his favourite Mr Bean scenes. Every time he climbs the steps, he makes a point of patting the sides of the slide before turning around and sliding down on his stomach. Otherwise it’s a fun and active time, until it comes time to leave. This is, of course, the chance for Hamish to say “Everybody out now please’ and try to take off his swimmers. Belinda manages to keep his trunks on until I get him into the shower.

We don’t venture into the sauna. It looks too European for us.

 

Kufstein

We have purchased (exorbitantly priced) tickets to ride on the train to catch up with Marlies (Jessica’s friend who stayed with us in Oxford) for a few hours. The train ride is schmick and we arrive bang on time. Marlies takes us on a guided tour of the town and the castle, which is most interesting. Hamish is excited at seeing ‘soldiers’ (national service types) at either end of the journey. He also loves catching up with his old buddy Marlies, who is very patient and engaging with him. Kufstein is quaint and pretty. Lunch is at a tardis-like restaurant, which just seems to spread out in all directions on the inside. I finally get to order Weiner Schnitzel in Austria and it is good. It comes with a half lemon wrapped in muslin cloth as well as a jar of red currant jam. Yum.

Addit…

Oh, and it the middle of all this at some stage, we had a trip to Mondsee. Beautiful lakeside town and awesome park.