Skiing

Seiser Alm, Dolomites, Italy - March 2014

Greetings,
We have been a skiing family for years. I grew up in Colorado, skiing every weekend with my brother at Winter Park or going on family ski vacations. My brother, Steve, and I regularly took the Winter Park ski bus from our neighborhood to the ski area on Saturdays in the winter; we tried to work our way up the rainbow of colors which indicated our skiing level. I distinctly remember a certain point when my younger brother was clearly a better, stronger skier than I. It happens for the younger: get better faster to keep up with the older sibling and then soon the younger is better and faster than the older. I seem to recall that I took it gracefully and it didn't end my interest in skiing. We had wonderful family vacations spent at condos in the Frisco area, I think, where we skied daily. I remember that as we got older, my dad would often comment on how much he enjoyed skiing with my brother and me. I suppose these comments became more frequent when he was no longer teaching us how to ski but was simply trying to keep up and enjoy the moments. I hear myself, as a mom of a 13 year old and a 9 year old, saying the same things. "Stay in control." "Be careful." "Slow down."

I remember a particular moment in time when my dad relinquished the fatherly ski instructor role and told my brother and me that we could ski down the black diamond run and meet him at the lift at the bottom, while he skied the blue intermediate run. Another time I remember taking my dad down a famous run at Winter Park-Mary Jane called 'Outhouse' when my dad fell and broke his leg. I humbly drove him home from the ski area to have his leg set in a cast.

David and Logan - Seefeld 2009

After years of living in Asia, I thought I had 'moved on' from alpine skiing. I still went occasionally but not often and could not imagine affording what has become a very expensive sport, one that is not easily accessible to a typical family. I easily transitioned to Nordic skiing with David. Living in Seattle, we skied cross country with each other, with students, and, increasingly, with friends who were also invested in the Nordic ski world. We joined a Nordic ski club called Kongsberger near Snoqualmie Pass outside of Seattle and began teaching our children to ski cross country from early on. Once in Colorado I took Hayden alpine skiing with my dad, my brother, and my brother's son, Barrett. It was tiring and exhilarating, and I realized how fun it was to teach our children to ski. It reminded me of all the family times I had had growing up. Over the years, David and I continued to commit ourselves to Nordic skiing, but I took Hayden alpine skiing at least once a year - and Logan too when he was strong enough. We spent a couple of days skiing on a small hill with a brutal rope tow in Leavenworth when the boys were younger, and they sort of got hooked. We even ended up buying Hayden's rental skis, boots, and helmet after that weekend.

Seefeld - Dec 2009

Jennifer and Logan - Seefeld 2012

We moved to Saudi Arabia. No snow in sight. But we had promised the boys that we would take one big ski trip during the winter. We ended up in Seefeld, Austria, during our first Christmas, where we skied alpine at Rosshutte and Nordic on the Seefeld trails. We loved it so much that we returned to the same apartment and skied at the same glorious places for four years. We have favorite restaurants, grocery stores, and traditions from those four memorable years. Now we are living in Stuttgart, Germany. We waived our connection to 'our' Seefeld apartment, allowing the landlord, who has come to feel like family, to rent to someone else this past Christmas. Instead, we have tried skiing in new places this year.

Sportgastein - Jan 2014

Seefeld - December 2012

Hayden and Logan with ski instructor

Sankt Anton am Arlberg, Austria. We skied here for three days leading up to Christmas. A bit expensive and sparse on snow this at that point in the year, we noticed that English was widely spoken throughout the village - a definite change from Seefeld. The alpine skiing was rigorous and interesting, though lacking snow this year. Sankt Johann im Pongau, Austria. Skied for five days after Christmas as part of the ISS Ski Week. Beautiful, gentle slopes. The boys had a fabulous ski instructor and after five days of lessons, we noticed dramatic improvement in Hayden's and Logan's technique. On our way home, we spent the morning Nordic skiing at Sportgastein, Austria, where we enjoyed gloriously groomed trails, sunshine, and a fabulously delicious lunch. We have skied in Oberstdorf, Germany, where from the top we can ski down a long, sometimes narrow run, through snowmaking machines spraying light snow crystals and end up in Austria. We were so impressed by this idea that we skied the run many times, partly for the fun of the run and partly for the coolness factor of 'skiing into Austria'. We also tried a day of Nordic skiing in the Black Forest at Feldberg, Germany, the highest mountain in the Black Forest at 1493 meters.

Seiser Alm - March 2014

Finally, we ended the ski season this year with a week-long trip to ski at Seiser Alm, SudTirol in the Dolomites, Italy. This was probably one of our most fabulous ski vacations of the year. The snow was outstanding, the days a mixture of sunshine and clouds, the grooming impeccable, and the food delectable. We stayed in an apartment in Völs am Schlern, where we discovered our favorite Austria grocery store, Spar, and we found an amazing family-run pizzeria. The town was about 5 km from the ski resort base, where we parked in the gravelly, muddy parking lot, wondering about snow, and took a 12 minute gondola ride up to a true winter wonderland. On our first day, we explored some of the gloriously groomed Nordic trails, and for the next five days, the boys skied alpine. I joined them for three days and skied Nordic with David for three days. Each day we tried a new ski hutte for lunch, where hot, Austrian dishes were prepared. We explored a trick park as well where I endured brief moments of fear as the boys tried various jumps.

March 2014

The trip to the Dolomites highlighted our passion for skiing and winter, and we were all so grateful to travel there. Having boys who are excited about skiing has rekindled my own enjoyment of alpine skiing, though Hayden, in particular, is also a strong climber in Nordic skiing as well. My best memories over the last five years nearly all center around apartments in Europe where we have played family games after days of glorious skiing together.

Thanks for reading! Jennifer

Seiser Alm, March 2014

Seiser Alm, Dolomites March 2014

Strike!

Greetings.

Early last week we were informed via email from several friends and colleagues that the drivers of all Stuttgart buses and trains would be on strike on Wednesday of this last week. Since we often drive to school - except David who always bikes - we anticipated on Wednesday morning that the traffic would be horrendous, so all of us decided to bike the 7 kilometers to school on Wednesday morning, cleverly avoiding the traffic.

We biked through neighborhoods and farming fields heavily scented with freshly spread manure and compost. We biked past the American barracks and around the corner to the Mercedes headquarters where a woman, stuck in traffic behind two large trucks had gotten out of her car, left her door open, and was screaming in rage at the drivers and the gate man. When we first left our neighborhood, I thought that maybe the strike was not really causing that much of an issue since I didn't see the traffic I expected. Maybe, I wondered, the buses and trains do not transport as many people as I originally thought. Once we turned the corner near Mercedes, the lines of traffic were immediately evident, backing up in a long snaking line down the road. People generally seemed patient with the slow-down, but I was grateful to be on the bike paths and riding bikes to school.

It made me wonder what the complains of the drivers actually were. Were their working conditions unfair? Doubtful. Were they paid poorly? Probably not. Based on what I have seen here in Germany in our own place of employment and what I have learned from colleagues, workers' rights are carefully controlled by unions and workers have protections that are beyond the rights, honestly, of probably most working people in the world. The rights of immigrant workers in Saudi Arabia, for example, are pretty much non-existent. I wondered about German employees who did not have the luxury on Strike Day to opt for a car. Did they have to call in sick? Not everyone owns a car and not everyone owns a bike or has a safe bike route to work. It's a luxury to call a strike that affects so many other people's ability to get to their own jobs. Perhaps those families just stayed home. Certainly there were employees who, that day, could simply not get to work. What then?

As I crossed the highway, I saw an ambulance stuck in the unusually intense traffic and wondered how that was going to turn out. Perhaps the bus and train drivers have legitimate complaints about salary, working conditions, or benefits, but I hope they realize the tremendous toll it takes on many other, often less secure or less fortunate, workers when their source of transportation is suddenly not available.

Christmas Markets

Greetings,

Stuttgart Christmas Market

As we are living in the land of Christmas markets - as well as in the general location of the source of Christmas - we, of course, visited several of the markets over the holiday season. First was the Stuttgart Christmas market, with foods, drinks, specialty items, ornaments, local products, Christmas gifts, candles ... Of course, it's all outside, and one of the things I love about Germany is that people are willing to be out and about, walking, eating, sipping hot drinks, socializing even in the winter and regardless of the weather. So even on a chilly day at the markets, you still see people standing around eating crepes, drinking beer or gluhwein (hot mulled and spiced wine) or hot chocolate, eating bratwurst and bread, smoking (a lot of smoking in Germany, actually), chatting. We wandered through the markets, selecting a few new ornaments for our first Christmas tree in five years, sampling some of the local specialties. The stalls are each decorated with elaborate scenes or images of St Nicholas or reindeer, angels or Jesus' family ... they are truly lovely. What I love most is the celebratory and festive feeling of Christmas - mostly through candles, wreaths, decorations, lights, trees. It's glorious.

Buying our Christmas tree

We explored the Hohenzollern Castle where there was also a smaller Christmas market, which included many smaller stalls with locally-made clothing, hats, jewelry, antiques, candles, and a large man dressed as St Nicholaus. Again we sampled some of the local treats and enjoyed some Christmas music played on an accordion, surrounded by candles and twinkly lights.

Another evening we headed to one of the most famous Christmas markets in the area - the Medieval Christmas Market in Esslingen. Here they had people dressed up as if it were medieval times (minus the odors, fortunately) and many stalls had demonstrations of paper making, candle making, games, quill writing

Locally made candles in every color

oils and vinegars

I find that that I really enjoy the Christmas season in Germany and Austria, more than I felt I sometimes did at home in the United States. It appears here to be more about connecting with friends and family, enjoying the celebratory and festive decorations, and being outside than necessarily about purchases (though, of course, that is part of Christmas here as well). Nonetheless, the holidays are essentially over now, and I feel a little remorseful that they seemed to go by so quickly. It has been so lovely!

Thanks for reading, Jennifer