Arriving in Innsbruck we were so happy to see the Alps and be back in Northern Europe again. It was so refreshing to breath in the crisp mountain air and Kai and Vea were so excited to see snow again. We all broke out into a spontaneous snowball fight on the side of the road.
We had done a lot of research about trains and schedules for the coming weeks and decided it was cheaper and more flexible to rent a car. This allowed us to drive out of Innsbruck for our first few nights to a mountain resort town called Solden. We couldn’t be so close to these mountains without getting at least one day of snowboarding in – so we rented gear, pulled out all of our biking rain gear and layered ourselves up with everything we had in our suitcase. We even put on our padded bike shorts for extra warmth!
It turned out that we were very lucky with the day we chose to go snowboarding as we had a fresh 10-15 cm of snow on the Glacier and the upper mountain areas. It’s still early season here and there’s been warmer than average temperatures – so half the mountain is still closed. But the areas that were open still provided a huge amount of terrain for us to explore – almost the same size as some of the resorts we went to in British Columbia. It took us all a few runs to work out our kinks and rental gear malfunctions – but we were soon back in our element and loving every minute.
The next day we drove 5 hours from Innsbruck to Switzerland to meet up with our friends who live near Thun. We had first met Wolfgang, Petra, Enola and Lenny Megert in New Zealand during our first week in the North Island. We quickly became great friends sharing stories and good wine. We happened to meet up with them a couple more times by chance and promised to see each other again in Switzerland. It was so nice to see them again and we were treated so well with amazing food, wine and great conversation. Our original plan was to only stay the weekend – but we felt so at home and were enjoying our time so much that we stayed an extra few days. The Megarts live in a small mountain village with an incredible view of the alpine ranges and valley below. It was so ‘koselig’ and one of our new favourite words now is – Tschuss!
While in Switzerland we got our first taste of a traditional Christmas market in Bern. It was so festive with all the lights and street vendors selling hand-made crafts, hot Gluwein and all sorts of sausages.
Another highlight for Kai and Vea was when they were both able to attend school for a day. Vea was in Enola’s class and Kai spent the day with the senior class. Kai was even lucky enough to have a Swiss fondue for lunch with the class. This experience has both Kai and Vea super excited to get back to their school in January.
With 4 days left until returning our rental car in Innsbruck, we decided to drive up to Munich for a few days to enjoy the festivities and one of the larger Christmas markets. It was the perfect spot to finish up our Christmas shopping and we loved strolling around town at night. More sausages and Gluwein for dinner!
Back in Innsbruck we returned our rental car and had the rest of the day and evening to enjoy this beautiful town – the capital of the Alps. There are six large Christmas markets here, and I think we managed to get through all of them!!!
Tomorrow we’re up early to catch our 14-hour train to Amsterdam. iPads are loaded up with Christmas movies and we’re well stocked with Swiss chocolate!
Here’s some more photos from our travels through Austria, Switzerland and Germany over the past 2 weeks.
All 4 now!!
FANTASTIC!!! HEART HEART HEART!!! What an incredible adventure, to say the least! XOXO
Save travels guys,
Can’t wait to see you all and hear your incredible tales!
What a year!,but now WELCOME HOME!,,,,i will have the wine ready.
I noticed this morning you have changed the name of your blog.
Back 4 NOW. Welcome home!xoxo