Skiing in Austria

We spent the second week of Osterferien (Easter Break--kids get two weeks off in Deutschland) skiing in Austria. We stayed in a condo in Radstadt and skied Obertauern. The boys took three days of lessons. Philip took an advanced beginner class (he took his first ski lessons in Obertauern three years ago), and Alex took a beginning class. Philip had a great time skiing both easy (blue piste in Austria, instead of green as in the US) and intermediate (red piste instead of blue) runs. Alex, on the other hand, was not begeistert (enthusiastic) about skiing. He complained that he didn't like falling and getting wet.

On the fourth day, we skied as a family. We stayed on the blue piste because of Alex, and even these were steeper and longer than the runs Alex had been skiing. So, Bob took his ski pole and held one end, while Alex held the other end, and they skied side-by-side. Alex enjoyed this form of skiing more than skiing on his own.

Oscar joined us on our trip, although he didn't do any skiing--he just wore Alex's helmet in our condo. It's easier to take pets with you on vacation in Europe than it is to leave them in a pet hotel. There just aren't that many pet hotels around. In Chicago, when I asked Oscar's vet for a list of boarding kennels, she gave me about 25 names of kennels and in-home services. Our tierärztin in Erlangen gave me a list of three names, one of which was in Munich, two hours away. Thankfully, most hotels and vacation apartments allow pets.

Even though it was a great trip, it wasn't perfect. Unfortunately, our car got towed in Salzburg. We stopped for lunch on our way to Radstadt, and we parked along a busy street, just as we had three years ago. I noticed signs with a drawing of a bus and hours on Werktags (work days) and Samstag (Saturday), but I understood these as the hours when parking is allowed. There was nothing such as "Parken Erlaubt" (Parking Allowed) or "Parken Verboten" on the signs, and other cars were parked as well. Five years ago, I got a ticket in Erlangen for parking on a street without any signs (There were other cars parked there, and they got tickets, too.). I learned to look for signs stating when and where parking is allowed, instead of "No Parking" signs, such as the ones we have in the US. In hindsight, it should have occurred to me that the hours on the sign in Salzburg indicated the hours when the bus was running, since there was a drawing of a bus instead of a car. But, I didn't take the time to think deeply about the sign. I just wanted something to eat.