Vacationing in Austria

Jason and I found ourselves wide awake early on Mother's Day morning. Even after walking to the bakery for semmel and enjoying a leisurely breakfast we found ourselves at 9:30 AM wondering what to do. We decided to hike.

We ended up exploring the Stubach valley. At the top of the valley we found another hydro-electric power station. This particular one is run by the ÖBB and construction began in 1906, as a result of "predicting that coal would eventually be unavailable and from a wish to be independent from relying on foreign sources" which to me was fascinating. Anyway, we would have liked to see the dam and lake, but it is still winter in these parts, so we will have to come back in late June. The area is the Uttendorf - Weißsee. The glacier and Weißsee are about 3000m above sea level.

I have been paying attention to the old style farms and houses of the region ever since visiting the open-air museum in Salzburg.

After all the hiking, a traditional Wiener Schnitzel seemed to be deserved.

This and that....

It dawned on me that I have not been doing a whole lot of anything lately. Sure, I do daily housewife things: cooking, cleaning, grocery and I have been working on cleaning up quickbooks for an organization in the US, reading IRS regulations, trying to find interest in things in the news, reading for pleasure, administrative things, but all of this at my own leisure and nothing of urgency.

I can spend hours walking alone only concentrating on the birds and on not stepping on ants. It is strange, but I am happy I have been able to achieve this state, that is, not constantly worrying about the past or future, but just being in the present.

It is annoying how this pleasant bubble can burst just by being asked a few pointed questions that even you don't know the answer to.

Anyway, here are some pictures of this and that here at home in Zell am See...

We had 4 big trees in our backyard. Now there is only 1 and an amazing view.

I made Thai Fresh Spring Rolls in an effort to clean out some of the random things in my food pantry.

We are always fascinated by this hideous "flower sculpture duck" that to me has come to symbolize that Zell is indeed a hot destination for tour buses filled with Omas.

Here is the other hideous bird that comes out for the summer crowds...sans head.

And here is Jason being silly....

Finally, Murmeltier!

This last weekend we decided to vacation in Austria. The weather was not super on Saturday, but that did not keep us from enjoying the outdoors.
We decided to try to hike to the top of the nearby Walcher waterfall. The waterfall is located right before the toll on the Großglockner Hochalpenstraße and the base is about 1200 meters above sea level. The Quelle of the Walcher, which is also the base of the Walcher Kees, a glacier, is about 2200 meters above sea level. So we had about 800 meter elevation climb.

Halfway into our climb, I was complaining about how we have been in Austria for over 2 years and I have yet to see a Murmeltier, which I guess are Groundhogs in the US. Not 2 seconds had the words come out of my mouth then I glance over to the left and down the hill a few feet sat one!
It was a curious little creature. Jason and I took dozens of pictures of it and managed to scoot ourselves closer and closer so that we were practically sitting right next to it. It kept running in to it's hole, but as Jason and I quietly sat there waiting, it would poke it's head out to check on us!

As we continued further up the mountain, we saw several! They had a shrill bird-like chirping cry that I assume they used to notify the others that people were coming.
Hiking in these parts of Austria is basically straight up and straight down. One thing that is so amazing about the Alps is how suddenly the environment can change. We went from pine trees to an alpine glacier basin that was snow, clouds, and wild purple and white crocus.

A closer picture of the glacier.


Part of the trail went under the waterfall. You can barely see me on the left on the trail.
This picture was taken on the decent. On the left, you can see a zigzag outline in white, of the snow covered trail that we took up. There were two Alms, although neither of them were open yet because apparently it is still winter here!!

May Day

I really thought today was all about bringing the cows out to pasture. Apparently it has a socialist undertone and some kids just use it as a day to party. According to wikipedia,

May Day is related to the Celtic festival of Beltane and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. May Day falls exactly half of a year from November 1, another cross-quarter day which is also associated with various northern European pagan and neopagan festivals such as Samhain. May Day marks the end of the uncomfortable winter half of the year in the Northern hemisphere, and it has traditionally been an occasion for popular and often raucous celebrations.

We went on a bike ride and were a bit late for the Maifest, but Jason still gave a go at climbing the May pole...
welcome summer!!

45 days and 1006 KM

I did it! I put over 1000 KM on my snowboard this season. 90 KM in the last week! The surprise snow on April 1 really helped.

I kept track of my kilometerage on www.skiline.cc. I actually think I might have found a glitch in the system (according to computer nerd Jason) because instead of showing up as 1000 KM it started over, and shows me as 1.006 KM. I Y2K'd the thing!


The question I have to ask myself is, "What now?" I have traded my snowboarding boots for my bike and hiking boots. The picture above is of the Schmittenhöhe from the mountain across the lake, which I decided to climb yesterday. I was not in Austria on the 18th of April, the last day of my pass, to see what exactly the slope conditions were at the season end, but as you can see from the picture above the snow is almost gone.

My hike yesterday was about 3.5 hours/10 KM long with about 600 meter change in altitude. I know I do not like trading in the downhill boarding for the uphill climbing, but it is a different way to appreciate the mountains I guess. I hiked number 89 and part of 84 above Thumersbach. I found a few waterfalls that were very worthy of a sit-down, but I resisted.

Because it is the low season, the Alms are not yet operating during the weeks. There is a romantic concept of an Almsommer, spending summers in the Alps in an Alm, and until I went to this open-air museum in Salzburg, I was a bit unclear on the purpose they served. Apparently they were not just built as a place for hikers to get beers, but were the summer residence of the farmer, or worker from a farm, while tending the cows in the summer months.

From this side of the mountains there is a lovely view of the Gletscher.

Austria's Idea of April Fools

So I have been going on and on about slush, and we have been experiencing some serious spring weather these last weeks that has melted my beloved snow. So after all this beautiful spring weather, April 1st rolls around and Austria gives us the big, "APRIL FOOLS! It's not really spring yet!!" and drops the temp and about 2 feet of snow.

HOORAY! Granted I am probably the only person who feels like that, I know now it is getting late enough in the season where you have to get up early to take advantage of what Mothernature has gifted us!

Here are some early photos to give you an idea what it is like to be one of the first ones on the mountain!




I should really change up the pose shouldn't I?

Skiing the Gletscher: Kitzsteinhorn

As I am sure I have whined about this before, "winter" here runs from October through April, so finding something to do here other than skiing can be somewhat of a challenge.

Considering how slushy the snow has been on home mountain Schmittenhöhe, I suggested to Jason we go do some glacier skiing. The Kitzsteinhorn is less than 10 KM away and it gets fresh powder every night!

Jason and I get the "we live here" discount too, so it is not too terribly expensive.

Before hitting the slopes, we went to the top observatory deck. Here is a different view of Zell am See, framed by clouds.


The skiing was OK. Yes, there was fresh powder, but there were also a whole lot of tourists. The past few days on the Schmittenhöhe had been relatively tourist-free, which surprised me because Zell am See seems to be alive with guests. Evidentially they were all just coming to the Kitzsteinhorn. Sometimes when it is too crowded it is hard to enjoy yourselves because you have to be such a defensive skier/boarder.

The slopes are all above the tree line so you can see everything. I got a little excited by all the challenging rodeos (ungroomed marked trails, for more advanced riders), but not sure Jason enjoyed them as much... the quality of snow and the terrain made for some challenging riding. Here Jason is coming out of the bowl in the background (that nearly killed us).

What is interesting is that the actual slopes are very high up, higher then the top of the Schmittenhöhe, so between 2000-3200 meters.

There is also no way down to the parking lot, which means the slopes all start closing as early 3:45 so that people can get shuttled down to the parking lot via one of the 3 main lifts before 4:30. Since everyone feels like they need to make that last lift, it can get kinda sciencefairriffic.

Also, there is only one slope down to catch the final lift that takes you to the parking lot. No matter how good/bad people are, EVERYONE starts stampede-skiing it at 4:00. By this point of the season the run is literally a sheet of ice. Now add a million inexperienced, over confident and unaware skiers and you have challenge.

Still, it was a nice change of scenery and a good break from the snow-cone spring conditions I have been putting up with. It was really fun to shred some new territory and get a final taste of real snow before summer hits!

Hot Pastry of the Day: Homemade Cinnamon Rolls!

So as I mentioned before desserts are just not as sweet as they are in the US. This is fine, and actually Jason prefers it this way, but I on the other hand get obnoxious cravings for desserts that are entirely too sweet for me.

I have been experimenting with yeast. I have never been very talented at baking. I had a go with this cinnamon roll II recipe from allrecipes.com and paid special attention to some of the comments, in particular I let the initial dough mixture rest for 10 minutes before kneading it (a French method known as autolyse).



Voila! Beautiful, disgustingly gooey and way too sweet for you cinnamon rolls that were better then any I have ever had!

SCHIFOAN!

Everywhere I have lived I have really tried to find that one something that is from that particular place, or culture, to which I can really, truly relate. Something that really translates, not just in words, but also feelings. I have struggled enough with the Austrian dialect - especially here in Pinzgau and it did not help that I actually spent more time in Tyrol the first year - so I often did not get much further beyond the literal meaning of things.

So one day I was on the Schmittenhöhe and happened to hear this song being played at the obnoxious-yet-I-can-see-how-it-can-be-fun-PS.-your-liver-will-hate-you-the-next-AM bar at the tippy top and I understood it. Not only the words, but I totally relate to this song. I feel exactly the way this song describes going skiing.

If you are interested, Wolfgang Ambros, the artist, is known for starting the genre of music called "Austropop".

Last night Wolfgang Ambros gave a free concert here in Zell am See. I was there and I sang along with the locals, because this is my anthem when it comes to how I feel about skiing....

...speaking of which, I am still on the slopes!! Let's hope the snow holds out until April 18!

Unser Osterbaum

In our almost 8 years of marriage we have never had a Christmas tree, not to mention an Easter tree.
This year felt sort of different. So we hiked up to the Ebenbergalm to where Jason had seen some branches of Weidenkätzchen. There were enough on the ground from where the forest service had trimmed that we did not even have to hurt a tree. We admired the view, had a drink, and then rode home on a sled through slushy snow, with our Weidenkätzchen.
Frohe Ostern!

Alpinzoo

What a better way to spend a Saturday then watching Jason interact with animals! A visit to the Alpinzoo in Innsbruck was a perfect way to enjoy the spring-like weather on a Saturday.
Braunbär

Steinbock

Actually, we were really impressed with the conditions in which the animals were being kept. Alright, it is still a "cage" and it is not the wild, but we felt the zoo did an excellent job in creating the habitats and the animals for the most part (according to Jason the animal whisperer, the animals seemed "happy").
Steinadler

Most of the animals were visible, except for the Murmeltier, a wild cat and deer. I had really wanted to see a Murmeltier after seeing all the signs in the Alps pointing to where Murmeltier were supposed to be visible.
Luchs

All of the animals were from Austria; they either continue to live in Austria, are part of a project to revive an endangered species in Austria, and there were a few that had lived in Austria in the past (like Moose) and no longer. It was neat to be able to realistically place them in the areas that we have become so familiar with. Actually, I had just seen Gämse on the Schmittenhöhe this past week!
Gämse
Now we at least know what the Austrian Osterhase looks like....
Schneehase

The Alpinzoo is easy to get to from Innsbruck, because it is practically in the city center! Innsbruck is one of those amazing cities that has the Alps dramatically and practically growing from the center of town. From the city center you can walk or drive there, or take a very short train ride from the Congress Center located in the city center.