Favorite Things: Skiing

Late February:

School Dad to another school mom and me: “What are you doing for the long weekend?”

Other Mom and me: “What long weekend?”

Oh that’s right - International Women’s Day y’all!

The state of Berlin has the fewest number of public holidays at 10, Bavarian having the most at 12. As such, the state of Berlin started celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8th, 2020 as a public holiday. The catch was that March 8th fell on a Sunday that year, so it wasn’t really a day off. Germany doesn’t move holidays if they fall on a weekend. So yes, Christmas and St. Stephens Day falling on Saturday and Sunday in 2021 was a super big bust for people wanting paid time off. But, hey, Paul’s company did increase vacation days from 25 to 30, so it’s all good around here. Also, when a holiday falls on a Thursday or Tuesday, the school will often take a “Bridge Day” to make it a four day weekend. So, this year we got a four day weekend in March.

In general, we usually have a “four night minimum rule”. What is the four night minimum you ask?

It started long ago on our very first road trip:

Crosby meeting his middle name sake for the first time.

Over that long weekend we stayed in three different locations, each for one night. When kids are little, one night here and then there is just too much work. With each subsequent kid, we’ve added another night. So, if we leave our house, in general, we shoot to stay for at least four nights.

But with skiing, we throw caution to the wind. We all like it so much that even a long train ride and three nights is worth it. And, we will also throw money down to not have to schlep our stuff around. In this case, we were so last minute that we literally only had one hotel option - one right across the street from the central train station in Garmisch.

I’m not totally sure what this quote means from the wall on our hotel in Garmisch. But in summary, Obama was here, and he was glad about it.

We heard great snow reports from our friends who went skiing during the winter holiday this year which usually falls around Crosby’s birthday. But many of the stories ended with families then quarantining for crossing borders. So, we decided to stay in Germany and go as high as possible to make sure we had snow. Also, we asked our babysitter extraordinaire to come help with the kids. We are big Kinderhotel fans, but with covid the risk/cost ratio isn’t in our favor. So, here’s the day by day of our epic last-minute adventure.

Friday: 

Send Crosby and Paul ahead to scout

This step wasn’t maybe entirely necessary, but I wasn’t entirely sure how easy it would be get set-up with ski school and skiing. But in any case, look how happy Crosby is to have time with Paul:

Because this trip was so short, I wanted to make sure we had a lay of the land before we had Gen to watch the kids on Sunday. Crosby proved himself to be a trooper on his trip to Phoenix and this train trip with Paul past midnight was no exception.

Saturday:

Gen has mad kid skills. 

We arrived in Garmisch in time for coffee and cake hour. Love Germany. We booked a half pension - breakfast and dinner was included. The cake hour was just an added perk.

Paul took the little rascals to the pool, and managed to return with three of them, while I went to get my ski rental.

Wet suit + furry slippers = ready to swim

Sunday = The longest kid free time Paul and I have had together in 2.5 years

I don’t really know how this is possible, but lift tickets cost 50 Euros, $60 for the day. I can’t compare ski school pricing however. 

The top of the Zugspitz has a place to rent some very professional looking sleds to go down full separate sled runs that weave across the ski runs. I don’t know if this is just a Zugspitz thing, but it looked like fun.

And Gen managed to keep all these crazy people happy:

These little had donuts and then Crosby sled while Carmen napped. 

Hugo wanted to go skiing right when we got off the train. He was a happy ski school kid.

Paul and I went out to dinner for some classic German food and stumbled upon some local Gems.

Meat vending machine: we’re not in Berlin anymore.

Monday:

Gen got on the train back to Berlin and Paul took the boys skiing while Carmen and I got some hanging out and swimming.

The big surprise of the trip was how much Crosby loved skiing. He opted to sled with Gen on Sunday instead of skiing, but on Monday he was all business. After his private lesson with Hugo, he did laps on the ski obstacle course.

Tuesday: 

Train back to Berlin and Crosby kicks off a round of the stomach flu.

Our next ski trip will likely be the first week in February of 2023 in the Czech Republic. It’s a bit of a gamble because its not as high but it’s closer and cheaper. Also, so you aren’t too jealous, we’ll likely need to rent a car. Train travel outside of Germany isn’t as easy to come by. We’ll have three little kids in ski school. Start emotionally preparing yourself now for the photo cuteness.