Week 247: The Winter Olympics

I went to the Olympics this weekend! But first, I had to get through the week, it was quick and quiet.

I had originally taken Friday off to attend the Wrestling Championship, but since neither kid ended up going, I found myself with a free day. The weather was gloomy, so I took the perfect opportunity to catch up on things around the house and indulge in a long, blissful nap. When Matt got home from work, we headed to Sitt Wine Bar to celebrate a friend’s birthday, a lovely way to end the workweek.

On Saturday, Matt had to work at school during ACT testing, so I slept in and enjoyed a slow morning. The weather was gorgeous, so when he got home, we grabbed the dogs and headed to Ludwigsburg for a walk through the parklands. Along the way, we discovered two castles we hadn’t visited before; Schloss Emichsburg and Schloss Favorite.

After we got back, my friend Susan, who lives about two hours away, arrived. She would be joining a group going to the Olympics the following day. We had dinner at Da Gianni’s and then returned home to watch some of the Games on TV.

On Sunday, we met my two other friends and we set off on the long drive to Italy. For background, I did invite my family to go to the Olympics with me first, but they were all uninterested! Instead, I planned a trip with three friends and we were all super excited to get tickets and attend!

Since we didn’t have any events to attend that day, we took our time, stopping a few times for food and a little shopping. We arrived at our hotel in the town of Grumes around 6 pm, got settled, and then went in search of dinner. According to Google, there was only one restaurant in town, so we didn’t have much choice, but the food turned out to be amazing! It was probably the best pizza I’ve had up until that point. The four of us enjoyed full meals with starters and wine, and the bill came to only €59; unreal!

The next morning, we woke up early since our first event was Mixed Doubles Curling at 10 a.m. in Cortina. Although it was only about 100 km from Grumes, there are no highways through the Dolomites, so our only option was the three-hour drive along winding mountain roads. Breakfast at our hotel wasn’t scheduled to begin until 7 a.m., but our kind hosts got up early to provide coffee and breakfast before we left.

Interestingly, our original plans didn’t include visiting Cortina at all. We only purchased the curling tickets about two days before arriving, when they popped up for resale on the Olympics app. At the time, none of us were especially eager to attend, particularly since Cortina was so far out of the way. But with a big gap in our schedule, we decided to go for it, and it ended up being one of the best parts of our trip!

We bought our Olympic tickets several months ago, but it wasn’t until a few days before we left that I stopped to think about parking. As it turns out, you can’t just drive right up to the event like I had pictured in my mind 🤣. Not only that, but no unauthorized cars are allowed anywhere near the city. Thankfully, I figured this out ahead of time rather than on the day of. You have to reserve parking in advance, along with a shuttle that takes you into the city.

We headed to our assigned parking lot and arrived with plenty of time to spare, fully expecting semi-disorganized mayhem. 😅 To our surprise, everything was incredibly well run and organized, with lots of helpful, cheerful staff guiding the way. Having attended the Paris Olympics a few years earlier, we couldn’t help but notice—and appreciate—the difference in attitude and efficiency right away. The planners had also clearly considered the long distances many people would be driving, and there were even clean bathrooms available right at the parking lot. We barely waited five minutes before hopping on the shuttle and heading into Cortina. Smooth, easy, and such a great start to the day!

The shuttle into town took about 15 minutes, followed by another 15-minute walk from the bus station to Central Cortina. The first landmark we passed was the Countdown Clock in the central square. Ironically, when my family and I visited in 2022, we had lunch in that very spot—the restaurant next door had set up tables and chairs in the square. Just around the corner was the Olympic Torch, and we made sure to take plenty of pictures before heading over to the curling stadium.

The curling events were held at Cortina Olympic Stadium, which was originally built for figure skating during the 1956 Olympics and was reconfigured for curling for these Games. The arena was smaller and more intimate, with only about 20 rows of seats. You can imagine that in 1956, they didn’t need as much space for spectators, as people didn’t typically travel to attend the Games.

We took our seats and were pleasantly surprised to find ourselves right at rink side, directly in front of the “house,” the bullseye the curlers aim for. We couldn’t believe we had secured such great tickets for just €35!

While we were waiting for the match to begin, Tina the mascot made an appearance and since we were in the front row, we were able to take photos with her. As luck would have it, our tickets were for a match between Team USA and the reigning gold medal champions, Italy.

What you don’t see on TV is that four different curling matches take place at the same time, and USA versus Italy just happened to be one of them. It was an electric atmosphere though, especially since Italy was the home team and the crowd was packed with supporters. The USA had a strong showing of fans as well.

It took us a while to figure out the rules of the game. It’s something of a cross between bocce, pool, and sweeping with a broom. We eventually got the hang of it, and it turned out to be pretty interesting to watch. While the USA and Italy players were civil and friendly toward one another, one of the other matches—Czech Republic versus Estonia—was growing quite heated, with players arguing and yelling at each other.

A game of curling is made up of eight ends, and after about the fourth end, one of the ushers came over to inform us that we were sitting in someone else’s seats. 😂 We were shocked and even tried to argue our case for a minute before realizing we were, in fact, wrong.

We then shuffled up to our actual seats—way up in the back row. At that point, we understood why our tickets had been so inexpensive. Still, we were grateful we’d had the chance to watch part of the match from rink side, get some great photos, and to meet Tina the mascot—something that definitely wouldn’t have happened from the back row.

The USA versus Italy match was incredibly tense—every time one team scored, the other answered right back, and the score remained tied through all eight ends. It ultimately came down to the very last stone, thrown by Italy, which secured their win. I’m so glad we got to attend a match that was so exciting and came right down to the wire!

After curling, the first thing we did was search for some Corona beers. We had noticed people drinking them inside the stadium, and they featured the Olympics logo on the bottles. We didn’t necessarily want a beer, but we did want to keep the bottles as souvenirs.

Once we found those, we wandered through town for some leisurely shopping before setting off in search of lunch. As expected, every restaurant along the main streets were packed, so we ducked down a few side streets to look for somewhere with available tables. We eventually found a spot where several police officers and security staff were eating, which felt like a good sign that it was a local place.

The pizza ended up being even better than the night before—making it the best pizza I’ve ever had. It just goes to show that it pays to venture off the tourist track when looking for lunch.

Our final stop in Cortina after lunch was the Olympic Rings. Surprisingly, the line wasn’t very long, and we were able to get some great solo shots as well as group photos before heading back to the shuttle, which quickly took us back to the car.

Next, it was time for the two-hour drive to Predazzo, where our next event, the Men’s Ski Jumping Final was taking place. We had expected to have some extra time to relax in the car, but with traffic winding through the mountain roads, we ended up arriving just in time to catch the next shuttle to the venue.

A few days earlier, it had snowed, but most of it had melted, leaving the parking lot a thick, muddy mess—about four inches deep. The car struggled to get through, and our shoes and pants were quickly covered in mud as we made our way to the shuttle. But this is the price you pay to attend the Olympics, and nobody minded.

The shuttle ride to the ski jump took about 15 minutes. From the moment we arrived, it was clear this was a completely different atmosphere from the quiet, calm curling venue. Music was playing, the crowd was loud, and everyone had horns and cowbells. It was definitely a fun and lively scene.

This venue was entirely standing on terraced steps. While the curling event had mostly American and Italian spectators, this one was packed with German and Polish fans, who were especially loud and enthusiastic when their athletes competed. We arrived a bit later than some others, so we couldn’t secure a front-row spot, but we ended up next to some kind Finnish spectators who graciously let us film when Team USA was jumping.

At one point, we turned around and, to our surprise, Tina the mascot was standing there! We couldn’t believe we had run into her twice in one day, but we quickly took the opportunity to get some more pictures with her.

There were three athletes from the USA competing, and two ended up tying for 30th place, with the third finishing 32nd. With the American athletes out of contention, we turned our support to the Germans, who also had three athletes competing. One of the German jumpers,  Phillip Raimond, famously known for his fear of heights, ended up taking the gold, and the atmosphere was electric! Phillip is actually from the Stuttgart area so extra cool for us! With so many Germans in the crowd cheering, waving flags, and blowing horns, it was an absolutely thrilling experience.

We stayed for the medal ceremony, where the competitors received their medals, and then the German anthem was played as the German flag was raised. At the Olympics, the gold medalist’s anthem is played as music only, without words. I’ve attended many events where the German anthem was played, and most of the time, Germans do not sing along. However, when the flag went up, I was surprised to hear the crowd singing the lyrics. You could really feel their pride—they were singing loudly enough that the words were clearly audible. It was an incredible experience.

It had been a long day, and once the event was over, we took the shuttle back to the car. I have to give credit to Italy—everyone was so helpful, guiding spectators to the shuttle buses and saying goodbye everyone with a cheerful “ciao” or “arrivederci” and a smile. We didn’t even have to wait more than five minutes before we were on the bus and back at the car. Luckily, our hotel wasn’t far from the ski jump, and as soon as we got back, we collapsed into bed after our long day.

The following day, we didn’t have to get up so early. We had breakfast at the hotel and then packed up the car for our three-hour drive to Livigno. Due to snow, the drive took longer than expected. When we arrived at the shuttle, we learned it would be an hour-long ride to the venue. This made us a bit late, but we didn’t mind—we were all so tired from the day before that we took the opportunity to catch a short nap on the way.

Livigno is one of the highest‑altitude Alpine resorts in Europe, so it’s not surprising that it was chosen as a venue for the Winter Olympics, where snow is all but guaranteed. It is remote, sitting at about 1,816 meters above sea level, and can be accessed via the main road over Foscagno Pass from Italy or a secondary route from Switzerland. Here, we would watch the Men’s Freestyle Skiing event.

When we arrived, the event was already underway. From our research in the car, we learned that there are three main types of freestyle skiing: Slopestyle, which features a series of rails and jumps where athletes perform flips and spins; Big Air, which is a single large jump where athletes perform one major trick; and Halfpipe, where athletes perform tricks along the walls of a U-shaped pipe. We were watching Slopestyle. In this event, each athlete gets three runs, and only their single best score counts toward the final result. This makes sense, since the jumpers take big risks and often fall—having three attempts lets them recover from mistakes without it ruining their final score.

The atmosphere was electric. Spectators cheered with every twist and flip, gasping when a jump went perfectly and groaning when someone tumbled. Watching the athletes fly through the air, spinning and flipping with precision, was thrilling—every run felt like a heart-pounding spectacle of skill and daring.

The event was over fairly quickly, and one of the US jumpers took silver! We grabbed some lunch from a pasta stand – so Italian! – and watched the medal ceremony on a big screen. Then, we walked through the fan village on the way back to the shuttle, where we saw the Livigno ice sculpture and another set of Olympic Rings. We couldn’t pass up the chance to take a photo with them again. The line wasn’t very long, and people were kind enough to take our picture for us.

As we were walking out of the venue, we spotted Tina the mascot again. We couldn’t believe we had seen her three times during our visit, so we ran over and grabbed one more photo with her!

The drive home took us along more winding mountain roads, this time through Switzerland. Snow was falling, and we had a truly scary moment in the Alps. I was running low on gas, and we decided to look for the next station—but we didn’t realize this meant climbing one of Switzerland’s highest mountains first. Gas was disappearing incredibly fast, and then a snowstorm moved in, turning it into an almost whiteout blizzard.

I was terrified, but there was no choice but to keep going. Every time we thought we had reached the top of the mountain, the road climbed even higher. I was genuinely afraid we’d run out of gas and freeze overnight in the car. Thankfully, we finally reached the summit with only 20 km of gas left in the tank and were able to coast back down. The snow made the roads slippery, but we made it safely to the bottom and rolled into a gas station. I was so relieved!

Because we were driving through the Alps, we didn’t hit a highway until we got back to Germany and we didn’t get home until almost 11 PM. While on the road, one of our friends’ husbands texted to say he thought he saw us on TV at the curling event. He sent a picture and although it was very blurry, we could tell it was us based on the clothes. We decided to re-watch the match later to try to get a clearer shot.

We spotted ourselves on TV right away since we had been sitting in the front row, and we kept appearing throughout the first half of the match. Hilariously, about halfway through the broadcast, we saw the usher come over to tell us we were in the wrong seats, and then had to watch ourselves on film as we moved up to our actual row. We laughed so hard—we couldn’t believe our walk of shame had been caught on TV!

Matt, Brooklyn, and Ryan had a great, quiet couple of days at home, eating whatever they wanted and relaxing while I was gone. Matt and I spent the rest of the night decorating the house to surprise Brooklyn for her 18th birthday the following day!