Hello from the Austrian Alps!
We had a great week in Austria! From the moment we landed I felt a bit nostalgic being back in Austria. Austria was the first country I visited and then lived in outside of the US (and Canada).
This trip was dreamed up by Ryan as he has said he is really into skiing. Although, he has only skied in Wisconsin so stay tuned how skiing in real mountains went for him 😂.
We ended up picking Saint Anton as it has a lot of blue runs, is connected by train, has a nice town, and is a huge ski area. Fun fact, it is actually the largest connected ski region in Austria and in the top 10 worldwide! I also had a few European coworkers that confirmed it is a great place to ski so that helped.
To start, we flew into Innsbruck and had a day there. We wandered around, went to a famous cafe for pastries and coffee and relaxed playing games at our hotel with views of the mountains.
Next stop, Saint Anton! it was under an hour from Innsbruck and our hotel was a 6 minute walk to the train station and then 10 minute walk to the lifts- so easy!
We looked at the map and decided to start easy with a blue run. Blue runs are the easiest in Europe vs medium difficulty in the US. I have been skiing quite a few times in Minnesota/wisconsin, but have done some skiing in Montana as well. I am no expert, but am good enough to get by.
Well, on that first run, I lost Ryan within 10 seconds and he bombed down the entire mountain. Apparently, in his 10 times skiing in Wisconsin he was bragging about he never learned how to do anything than bomb down the hill. Zigzagging? He had never heard of it. After I got down to the bottom after do very slow zig zags Ryan was like “wow, that was so scary, this is not Wisconsin!” Haha love that confidence 😅
From there, we had our lesson scheduled for a few hours later which was good for him to learn more from a real expert best practices. It was also a good refresher for me too.
We had a great time throughout hanging on the mountain, taking breaks to eat, and enjoying the vibes. Because Ryan had only ever bombed down the hills in Wisconsin it was a bit of a wake-up the 2nd day on how sore his body was.
Most nights we crashed and fell right to sleep, but on our final night we had to check out the famous Moosewirt. It is very popular all over Europe for the ski in and ski out parties. It did not disappoint!
❤ Melanie
Smiles from Miles Away 