January 22, 2010 (Newark, NJ)

This evening marks the beginning of my next European visit. This time however, it’s to some place cold. We’re flying into Zurich to catch the trains (yes, plural) to St. Anton Am Arlberg where 13 others will be heading as well but from other European countries like Belgium.

January 23, 2010 (Zurich)

Arrived in Zurich safely. View from the plane coming in gave the feeling of “cotton”. We were flying above the clouds which looked really flat when you think about / draw clouds. Occasionally, there will be mountain peaks breaking the white, fluffy surface. Yes, we were on the other side of the plane that did not see the beautiful Swiss mountains. Anyway, went to get train tickets (had to go to the ‘international’ office) and with less than 5 minutes to spare, we raced to the track and manhandled our bags in. As we were last minute passengers (and had to get off shortly after at Zurich [city] anyway), we stood near the door and obstructed (along with other fellows like us) the walkway. For about the next 10 mins, we were playing those block puzzles. That’s train 1. Train 2 is to Feldkrich and after asking around, rushing towards the wrong platform and turning back then getting on the wrong class cabin, we settled in for an hour and a half train ride to Feldkrich. Looking at the ticket now, we will have all of 5 mins to then catch our final train to St. Anton. Passing by the Zurich Lake (I think that’s it) and the view is lovely. Definitely would take the boat tour in the summer. Winter? Probably will skip.

View from the train

Made it to St. Anton just fine but finding the ski bus to get to where we were staying took quite a bit of walking back and forth and up and down (remember we still have all our bags) before Adi recognized the bus stop. Caught up with Aleksandra, grabbed something quick to eat and I was off on my errands to find out about hours and pricing for tobogganing, snowboard lessons, curling, etc. What do you know? It’s “Ladies First” week and we ladies get some goodies and a coupon book. In the evening, the rest of the crew got in. Got some dinner at Blick (had spinach, something and parmesan cheese dumplings), tried to find a bar and we finally did find one but I was too zoned to drink. Got back and slept.

Dinner at Blick (From left: Aleksandra, Alina, Adrian, Mike, Ania, Cecil, Katharina, me, Adi)

Our home for the week

My roommates for the week: Katharina and Jo

January 24, 2010 (St. Anton, Austria)

Woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep. Couldn’t really toss and turn either since I have roommates and was afraid to wake them up. Finally did go back to sleep and woke up when the ruckus began around 8/8:30. Ate some bread and drank some tea and enjoying the morning before heading down to rent a snowboard and get ski lift ticket for this afternoon for the “idiots hill”. Yes, apparently, that’s what they call the beginner’s /bunny slopes here. :) Adi is going to attempt to teach me how to snowboard and if I somewhat like it then I’ll sign up for 3 days of snowboarding lessons.

January 25, 2010 (St. Anton, Austria)

Spent about 4 hours learning how to snowboard yesterday with the first hour spent Adi hand-holding me down the ultra baby slope which was a good thing since I have no idea whatsoever what the heck I was doing and kept falling or turning the wrong way and unable to get back to the other side. The rest of the time was spent trying to go down the slopes on my own and falling either on my arse or on my knees and hands. OUCH! There were 2 Irish dudes doing the same thing I was so it was great to have some company. Around 5, I went to the Krazy Kangaruh to meet up with other folks and get some gluh wine but since I got there late (had asked an austrian couple around Dengert but they didn’t know however they decided they would go there as well so the 3 of us made our way across the ski slope (more like a highway) to where the noise was coming from), I just waited for them to finish up their drinks and went home. Some folks went to get food from the groceries store and we had pizza for dinner. After that, we play Solo which turned out to be almost Uno except a little more fun as you can change your card hand throughout the game. Got up this morning around 8 when the walkie-talkie went off in the common room. Wake-up call!!! Everyone had breakfast and tea (big thing here), and off they went on the slopes. I’m going to take it easy today and just go winter trail hiking. Going to bring my hoopty camera and tripod and see what pictures I can take today. May join Mike and Ania with ice climbing tonight and go for my snow-shoeing tomorrow at Verwall.

Crab trying to study the map

Crab enjoying the scenary at Pettneu

Interesting windows

Artsy piece of trunk

Crab in the middle of the trail

Me by a stream along the path

On the way back now...

Looking back near the starting point

No ice climbing or snow-shoeing. I did do some winter trail hiking and of course got lost. The maps have no details so it’s really hard to figure out where you are. Took the bus to Gand and started walked. I got to a cross-roads, looked at the sign and thought I followed it but after going downhill for about 200m, I saw a sign pointing in the opposite directions! So went back up and tried another path but this time uphill towards the trees (the other 2 options were roads with cars). It was quite steep getting up and after a while, maybe 150m I figured it couldn’t be that and went back down and asked someone for help. The guy looked at the map and went “this map no good”. Really … tell me something I don’t know. He pointed me in the right direction which was the first way I went but I had to go via some underpass (under the train tracks) to get to the other side which was where I wanted to get to. Walked all the way back to St. Anton, went to Krazy Kangaruh and had myself a gluh wine. It really sucks when you’re petite at the bar fighting to get the attention of the bartender when you’re surrounded by 6+ft blokes. Went back to hit the sauna a little to relax. Dinner was some polish tomato soup with noodles. Was quite delicious actually. Played some SOLO.

Town at night from Krazy Kangaruh

From left: Shanley, Eray, Jason (peeking), Stefan, me

January 26, 2010 (St. Anton, Austria)

Bad weather for the skiers today (snowfall) so my 2 roommates decided to go do some cross-country skiing. I figured I should join them and try out that sport. Got our rental boots and skis and followed some lousy directions to the start of the trail, I learned how to connect the shoe with the ski and it’s not that easy really. It’s also not very easy getting your arms and legs to coordinate alternating the balance and gliding within the grooves. Took me a while to get a hang of it and even then, I can only maintain that so long before I start getting all confused. I did fall twice – first time when I couldn’t balance left and right (lousy coordination) and second time my left ski left the groove and my legs were going in different directions. This was when I was going downhill and since I don’t know how to put on the brakes I thought I would just go on down and eventually stop at some point. Yyeeaahhhh … not such a great idea. We skied from St. Anton to Flirsch which is 11km. Took us 3 hours to complete. At one point we had to take our skis off and cross the road. That was a little odd. At Flirsch, we went to the restaurant at the local inn and I had bacon dumpling in clear soup and apple strudel. Boy, was I tired! It was such a workout.

Jo and I

Back at St. Anton, we met some of the group at Moosewiert which I’m told sells the most beer in all of Austria. It was very loud, lots of drunk people and people dancing. Had a gluh wine (they are really tasty I tell you!), went back to hit the sauna for a little bit. This time I joined the guys to run out into the snow and lie down in it real quick then run back into the sauna. The Nordic sauna way apparently. Dinner that evening was at Ferwall. We took a taxi since the horse from the horse sleigh company hurt itself. No matter.

Mooserwirt

Inside Mooserwirt (From top left row by row: Ania, Mike, Stefan, Shanley, Jo, me, Adi, Eray, Katharina)

From left: Mike, Jo, Ania, Eray, me, Stefan, Katharina

Started off with some drink that was prosecco w/ beer or something like that. That was very yummy (sweet too). Menu was entirely in German so someone at the table translated to our level since some animals are unknown to us. E.g., Roald was trying to explain some ‘deer’ meat so finally someone said “bambi” but he replied “not really ... ok … all-terrain bambi”. We’re like “What?” Next item was boar meat and someone said “Asterix”, I went “Aha!” and the next one after that was another all-terrain animal. This time it’s all-terrain cow. I ended up with duck terrine and the boar dish. Both very tasty. Had some red wine with it as well. All-in-all, it was a great time. Got back with my head starting to hurt so I started drinking lots of water. Managed to get through 2 rounds of SOLO before I had to cry off and go to bed with my head hurting. :)

Dinner at Ferwall (From left: Stefan, me, Roald, Jason, Jo, Shanley, Katharina, Cecil)

Stefan, me, Roald, Jason and Jo

Hasthaus Ferwall

January 27, 2010 (St. Anton, Austria)

Everyone woke up early today as weather forecast says it’s going to be sunny. Today is probably the only day so far that folks got up and out very early. My agenda today is to go find out (and reserve if necessary the curling lane) then go winter trail hiking at Loipe Verwall which is about 10 km roundtrip however, I lost my way again. So I asked someone for help and he told me to go up some rather steep slope behind the Ferwall restaurant and pick up the trail there. I did that and damn it! It was the cross-country ski/ice skating trail. No walking trail in sight. Oh well. I slowly made my way back the trail back and did the walk in about 3 hours which wasn’t bad. I did find about 500m worth of snowshoeing trail which was on a slope of a hill on the side of the trail. The scenery is better on this side I think because of the trees and elevation however there is no river so maybe they even out.

Snow shoeing!

Along the trail

Anyway, got back and was dog-tired. Read a little then headed down to the sauna for a little bit to relax the muscles. Plopped down on the bed for a bit (Katarina had the right idea) but had to get up and get down to do some alpine curling which is funny. It’s not the curling we see on tv. It’s more like throwing the ‘rock’ and try to get it as close to the “x” in the middle of the box as possible. No brushes required but I wanted to play with them so the guy whipped those out for us. :) Ate dinner in-house then read some. Did play some SOLO before it was time to hit the sack.

Jo and I posing at our curling session

January 28, 2010 (St. Anton, Austria)

Woke up and crap! Snow day again! But wait, the snow is going sideways. Went down to town with Ania, Mike, Jo, Katarina and Cecil so that they could rent cross-country skis. I went to make reservations at the spa for a massage. I think I need it real bad. Made it back and went to Loipe Verwall again so the guys could cross country ski while I attempt to catch up with my snow shoes. I managed for about 1 km and then I gave up. I would have to keep running every once in a while since they move at a faster speed than I obviously. I switched over to walking lane and tried for a while to go faster with the snow shoes but the snow was packed and it was not fun with the snow shoes so I took them off and started walking. I managed to somewhat catch up with the group twice (at least to Cecil and her red jumper ski suit which I later found out was termed the “anti-rape suit” since it made one look like Michelin girl :p) but I was always a tad bit short. When I got to the Ferwall restaurant, I gave up and turned around. Had a massage at 3 which I did not want to miss since I’ve been looking forward to that all week. It felt goooood!!

Mike (on skis) and I (in my snow shoes)

Afterwards, went to the other side to change into my swimsuit. My first experience with European spas - The changing room is unisex which was whatever. Took me a while to find the way to the swimming pool but I did find it. It’s basically a large metal basin with an extension to the outside where occasionally there’s a ‘whirl pool’ going on. On the inside, they have 2 columns where couples could sort of hide and make out (yes, I went into one and interrupted some snogging). It was a heated pool so it wasn’t bad especially when hanging out outside. Once the other guys arrived (Adi, Aleksandra, Katarina and Stefan) and we had enough of the pool, we headed to the sauna side. There was a selection of saunas to choose from. 55C I think is the most I can stand. We did try the 95C one but after a few minutes and the temp was up to 91C, I had to get out and rub ice all over. Shortly after trying out another sauna, I went back to the pool. Oh, the shower area for the sauna is unisex too which was again whatever but since that’s the first time for that, I thought I mentioned it. After another round of pool then sauna, we went to grab some dinner (picked up Cecil on the way) at the Blick where I had the boiled beef with potatoes and spinach. It was a local dish and it was good. :) Shanley, Eri and Jason caught up with us and we ended up having a round of drinks upstairs before heading back where the nightly session of SOLO began. :)

Living room where we play SOLO (From left: Jo, Roald, Mike, Ania, Katharina, Shanley)

January 29, 2010 (St. Anton, Austria)

Woke up to blasting sounds of bombs to trigger avalanches. Nice wake-up call. :) We had less bread for breakfast this morning than usual. Guess somehow the order was misinterpreted or something. Going to Innsbruck today with Cecil who’s going to meet a friend. Will do a bit of sight-seeing before coming back to pack. Leaving for Zurich tomorrow morning. Took the 11:06 (was 18 mins late so really it was 11:24) train to Innsbruk which is about an hour away with Cecil. Cecil’s friend, Gertie was there to meet us. She took us into the old town passing by the arch triomphe equivalent (can’t remember the name now), Cecil’s old apt and then up the top floor of the Rathaas (city hall) for a nice view of the city. Innsbruk is surrounded 360 degrees by mountains which makes it really beautiful. The river that runs through Innsbruk is called Inn (or Inns) and bruk means bridge so that’s how Innsbruk is named. And no one can go to Innsbruk without seeing the Goldenens Dachl (golden roof). It’s a porch the emporer (can’t remember which one) built so he could watch his people go about their business. Gertie showed me where to get some good local food and we split off so they could catch up and I could do my tourist thing. Lunch was clear soup with bacon dumpling, Austrian spinach ravioli with parmesan cheese in brown butter and an apple juice with sparkling water to drink. After that, I went to information centre to ask them about the ‘masters at work’ workshops I had read in the travel book I borrowed from the house we were staying at. The girl looked at me like I had 3 heads and said she’s never heard of it. Eh? Showed her the page and her first response was “This is in Innsbruk?” I then showed her the cover and she was like “huh!”. No help there so I just went on my merry way. Went up 148 steps of Zum Stradtrum to get an even better view of the city. Did some souvenir shopping then walked around and did a short walk along the river. Turned back around and went inside St. Jakob church. Saw the supposedly famous painting of virgin mary and I believe baby jesus. Time was up so I headed back to meet up with Cecil and Gertie where we proceeded to get some good pastries at Munding. I had a slice of chocolate cake and hot chocolate with Baileys. YUMMY! That was the first time I had to ‘make’ my own hot chocolate. They bring you a hot glass of milk, a chocolate bar and a shot of baileys. You put the chocolate bar in the glass, start stirring then add the baileys. DYI! Caught the 18:12 (which was also late) train back to St. Anton and then back to the apt. Very mellow evening as Shanley, Katarina, Roald, Jason and Eri went into town to party so the rest of us just chilled at home listening to Adrian’s bad (depends on who you talk to)/techno-sometimes-church-music-like music and chatting. Had 2 small glasses of cooled gluh wine.

Golden Roof

Crab in front of the Golden Roof

Gertie, Cecil and I in front of the Goldenes Dachl

Alley in Innsbruk

Happened upon a parade in old city

Scenes from Innsbruk

Zum Turm

Can't remember the church name

Along the river

January 30, 2010 (St. Anton, Austria / Zurich, Switzerland)

On the train now (1 of 4 it seems) to Zurich. Had again woken up to blasting and avalanche sounds. Had breakfast, packed, said goodbye to whoever I saw and off I went. Going to spend about half a day in Zurich then catch the night train to Koln.

Picture of the 3 roommates on the day I left

Arrived in Zurich and found a locker for my luggage. Proceeded to find the tourist information center to get a map of the city. By that time, the last walking tour had already begun so I’m on my own. :) Oh well, at least they have a map with the recommended path to take around old city. But first, I went to 1 of the 2 suggested restaurants to make reservations for dinner that night – fondue which they say is very Swiss. Walking around old town, I didn’t really get the feeling that it was the old town. There were many shops on the first level but I don’t think that was it or maybe it is. The buildings looked too well-maintained to be old. Walked into 1 church and what luck. A small orchestra was practicing on the 2nd floor. Acoustics was amazing. On and on I walked taking in the sights. Given that it’s a Saturday, the shops would close at 6. Even the museums close at 6 so I took my time until 5:30 when it suddenly snowed heavily. I ducked into the train station, got myself a cup of hot tea to warm up and read my book to kill some time. At around 7, I went for dinner. I had what-the-claim-is-the-real cheese fondue. Tasted like the other cheese fondue I had in St. Louis but what do I know? Only had it twice. It did have the alcohol in it which I didn’t really fancy but was not bad anyway. After dinner, headed back to the train station to get my luggage and hop on the train to Basel where I will change trains to get on the overnight to Koln.

Scenes in Zurich

Duckies - black and white

Me and my silly smile

Saw this building walking around the city

January 31, 2010 (Koln, Germany)

The train ride was okay and since not many people were on the train, I had 2 first-class seats (first class was only 10 euros more) to sleep. However, the announcements were very loud (which is a good thing I guess as you will get up to listen to it and not miss your train stop) and the conductors kept going back and forth with doors closing. Near the beginning though, there was a border check and the German police came onboard asking for identifications. As far as I can remember, that is the first time I was asked for identification when crossing the border in Europe (not counting UK). Arrived in Cologne at 6:05 AM. Found the luggage locker and stored my stuff. Way too early to do anything so settled into a café to have a cup of hot tea and some square bread thing with choc chips. Will have till about 3 PM before I have to get my stuff and somehow meet up with Adi and Aleksandra to take the train to Brussels. At 8, I wandered out on my own to see what I could see. The cathedrale was open for viewing so why not. Another beautiful church in Europe and it has that old charm which I do like. After that, I walked down the street where most of the shops are. I think this is one of the ‘tourist’ spots in Cologne however all the shops were close which I guess I didn’t care since I wasn’t planning on buying anything anyway. Walked back to the train station to check on tourist information and blast it! They open at 10 on Sundays. *sigh* Oh well … walked across 1 of the bridges to cross the River Rhine. View was lovely and along that bridge I noticed something very odd. There were a ton of locks along the bridge on the fence between the train tracks and walkway. Seems there are a lot of couples who write their names on their padlock and then lock it on the fence. Didn’t get very far on the other side before I decided to go back. I got what I came for which is the view of the cathedrale from across the Rhine. ? Went back and this time the tourist information was open. I booked a bus tour at 1:30pm, bought a map and headed off through the old part of town towards the Chocolate museum. Come on … you didn’t think I’d miss it, did you? The museum is what you’d expect with the posters and pictures of cocoa bean and some of the important historic figures responsible for advertising chocolate. There was even a small garden with a real cocao tree there. The unexpected part was a working chocolate ‘factory’ where the entire process was documented but it was functional. You could see the machine pouring chocolate into moulds, cooling them, removing it from the moulds to packaging them. Anyway, I enjoyed myself but it was time to leave. Went to see 4711 which is supposedly the birth place (or something like that) of the Eau de Cologne. It was closed but you could still see / hear the music playing at the top of the building every hour on the hour. Ran out of time so I skipped lunch and went on the bus tour. Really quite worth it if you don’t have much time to explore the city on your own and want to get a better look. Afterwards, it was time to collect my bags from the locker and meet Adi and Aleksandra to go to Brussels. Found them and after arriving in Brussels, Adi and I took another train to the airport to get his car to drive to Ieper. I think I’m train-ed out for a while. :)

Cathedrale

Crab at the cathedral

Chocolate museum

Scenes in Koln

Home of 4711 Original Eau de Cologne

Musical clock at the top of the building

February, 2010 (Ieper)

Road corner viewed from balcony where Adi lives

More pictures of the cloth hall

One of the streets radiating from the city centre