Another week has flown by; I guess that’s the way it is when you are gone every weekend like we have been! We have not even been completely unpacking our bags, just leaving them open and adding and taking things out during the week.
Softball tryouts were this week for Brooklyn, so she spent every day after school at the field. On Friday, she found out she had made the team again! It was not a shoe-in as there were no freshmen trying out this year, so Brooklyn remains one of the youngest on the team. This year, another pitcher also tried out so the competition was a little more stiff. The new coach picked all three of them so we are looking forward to seeing Brooklyn in a few other positions this year.
Ryan went to a friends’ birthday party on Friday night. I followed the directions provided by the parents and ended up at the Bebenhausen Monastery, which we visited on Columbus Day weekend, last Fall. Apparently, the family lives right next door in one of the old medieval buildings that has been modernized. It was so cool, I wanted to stay for the party just to check out the house. It’s also pretty funny when you stop and think about it; receiving directions to a medieval monastery when you are dropping your child off at a party; not something you are likely to experience often in the US.
As soon as the party was over at 8pm, we picked up Ryan and started our drive to Ischgl, Austria for what was going to be our last ski weekend for the season. Ischgl is in the next valley over from St. Anton, where we were last weekend, but in a different Austrian state. It’s known as being “snow paradise” and is one of the largest ski areas in Austria, although not as big as St. Anton. We were eager to check is out and compare the skiing to that of St. Anton. The drive was relatively easy as there was no traffic, but we were all super tired when we arrived shortly before midnight.
On Saturday, Brooklyn woke up with a bad earache, so we decided she could stay in the hotel and rest while the rest of us skiied. She has SATs next Saturday so wanted to use the time to study.
Matt, Ryan, and I spent all day at the ski resort in Ischgl. A lot of the time was just me and Matt watching Ryan go off the jumps at the terrain park. When Brooklyn is around, we let them go off and ski together, but poor Ryan had to stick with us all day as he had no partner to ski with. Matt seemed to turn another corner with his skiing and is back to being way better than me, technically, and speed wise. I am still super nervous so we talked about doing more lessons, and skiing with a ski guide next season in order to get my own confidence back.
After lunch, we skied all the way to Switzerland via the Schmuggler Run. Not an exaggeration! One of the mountain peaks borders Switzerland and you can ski all the way to the town of Samnaun for duty free shopping, and then ski back to Austria. We did not do any shopping but had fun on the international ski route.
Overall, the skiing was awesome! Ischgl lived up to its hype of being a “snow paradise.” While the rest of Europe has been suffering snow shortages, there was no hint of that here, despite it being a warm weekend in the valley below. I would not recommend this resort to beginners; even the blue runs were pretty steep. It was pretty crowded this weekend too, probably due to there being no snow anywhere else. So, there were lots of moguls just about everywhere we skied. I would say the restaurants and ski huts were just as nice as those in St. Anton, but not as expensive. The chair lifts were so nice too; we rode on several six-person chairlifts, so didn’t experience many lines and the seats were heated! What luxury! We barely scratched the surface of what Ischgl has to offer so we are hoping to make it back next year for a longer weekend.
When we were done skiing, we headed back to the hotel. Brooklyn was ready to get out of the room at that point so we had an easy dinner, right in the hotel restaurant and ended the night with our new favorite card game, Phase 10, and Netflix back in the hotel room.
On Sunday, we decided to head to the therme one more time. This time, we went to Silvretta Therme, which was much bigger than the Arlberg Wellcom in St. Anton, but also much more expensive at over 30 euros a person. It still was not as nice as the Mineraltherme in our town, which is only like 15 euros a person. I am just now realizing how lucky we are to have that.
After our soak, we hit the road, stopping to grab the puppies from the dog sitters on the way. When we got home, we finally took the roof box off the car, which has been on for forever, and cleaned and put away all the ski gear for next year!
Gilcrests Abroad 