Yodelling down the pistes of Kitzbuehel and drinking Margaritas..

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We crossed into Austria under the shadow of the Zugspitze and worked our way through the winter wonderland down to the main valley to reach Innsbrueck. Down in the valley the snow had turned to rain, but we made the best of it because we anyway needed a place to pause in order to decide where to go snowboarding. The original plan was that Olaf, a friend of Vivi's from Nuernberg, was going to join us for the weekend, so we were waiting on his recommendation and what suited him driving-wise. The SMS came through that Kitzbuehel was nice, so we were off! It turned out later that Olaf's new car had a problem so he couldn't make it.

We arrived on Thursday afternoon and decided to not to ski on Friday because we were told the visibility would continue to be poor with all the snow. Instead we took time to sleep in and later wander around the wee Alpen town. With all the driving, we were happy to take a break. I guess because we planned to stay a few days we got lazy with the photos. We have no pictures of Kitzbuehel! We noticed that the place was quite sleepy. Indeed it was because it was the last weekend of the ski resort being open! The good thing was that there were many good ski equipment and clothing sales in the shops. We both needed gloves and Vivi needed snow pants, so we were lucky. Vivi managed to find a perfect fitting pair of quality Burton snowboard pants as well; regularly priced at 239 euros for only 49 euros. The lady that loves shopping was happy!

That evening, we went to the only place that seemed to have some life... A cheesy mexican bar of all places. The music was great and the South African barmaid "Lou" was very social with us. After she bought us some sort of red vodka and red bull shots we were soon dancing on the stools. After sitting a few hours there we stopped at some other small bar that got going in the meantime and danced a short while to the tacky German 80's hit music before calling it a night.

The next day we were kitted up and on the pistes. The first couple of runs were a little painful for both of us. Vivi hadn't been in a long time and for some reason, either the change or equipment or snow conditions was doing me in. We then stopped for a Jagatee and magically things improved! It was a great day; excellent snow and weather.

In the evening, we ended up at the mexican bar again! And then at the other bar which was even more packed this time as it was the last night of the season. The only difference in routine was that we made a quick stop in the casino across from the bar in between where I won 30 euros in 4 hands of blackjack, then left. It helped pay for the 9 euro caipirinhas at least.

The next day snowboarding was considerably shorter. We were sore, bruised and slightly rough around the edges from the night before plus it had begun to snow heavily again, so we ended it after a few runs and decided to have a snow fight instead. We spend the late afternoon in a cafe with free wireless.

We had a very nice drive on the way to Germany back since the weather began to clear. We took the long way around because I was determined not to let that damn castle evade me.

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Photos

Innsbrueck
There is the "Golden Roof" at the end of the street that is supposed to be somehow special, but the tiles aren't gold.