Flu with a View

Alternative Working Title: How to Lermoos

This post will both answer the question, "How was Christmas?" and offer some practical tips how to recreate a lovely ski holiday in Lermoos. During our last train to ski adventure to Garmisch Partenkirche, we met another family who was going a few more stops down to Lermoos, Austria. 

Transport: Die Bahn

We spent the four hour train to Munich doing this:

Video games for Cros.

Thor: Ragnarok for the less sensitive members of our family.

We had 30 minutes to transfer in Munich, and then another two hours of a regional train to Lermoos. Last summer there was a train accident on the line from Munich to Lermoos, so we had to jump on another regional train in Garmisch Partenkirche. 

The desks between the seats on the regional train have these handy maps so we could show the kids our trajectory. 

The Gear:

We travel "light" which is to say our ski gear is still at Paul's parents' house in Spokane. 

Clearly Lederhosen makes the cut. 

We had twelve articles of baggage to track:

• Two American sized cabin bags. These would never fly in a European plane, but they fit above the seats in the train
• Two European sized rolling bags for Crosby and Hugo
• Travel duffel backpack with trolley strap. In the future, we'll likely let Carmen just roll her bag instead of having Paul carry it
• Four backpacks 
• One empty brightly colored duffle bag with lunch and space for all of our hats, etc
• Travel stroller
• Large duffle bag - we were trying to avoid bringing a big bag but with rain in the forecast, I wanted to have extra ski clothes for the boys to stay dry

We rented ski gear at the rental place near our hotel. However, it is much better to rent at Mader as they have a ski depot right near the ski school. 

Carmen loves ski gear. The skiing part...well...see below.

The Hotel: Hotel Edelweiss

The view from the train station:

 No google maps needed. Just walk towards the sign.

The other family we met last year stayed at a family pension with breakfast and dinner. However, with climate change and small kids, I knew we needed a place with a pool and/or alternative activity options. The reviews of Edelweiss were accurate when they said, "Best value for your money." Yes, there is a lux family resort next door that will drive your kids to ski lessons and has water slides out of all sides of the building. But, did their staff all dress up in Trachten for the Christmas show? Did Santa visit and give them random stuffed animals?

Just out of frame: a grandpa straight jamming out on the keyboard.

A small beaver attached to a pillow. It's a thing.

The location of the hotel didn't work out so well for ski lessons. There is a lift 200 meters from the hotel, but the ski lessons were a kilometer down the road. The shuffling of kids and gear was a bit of struggle for littler kids. This is the part of the post where the trip diverges into more awesome for some members of the family and less awesome for others.

Ski Lessons: Skischule Lermoos

One of the parts of this trip that was the most difficult/frustrating to figure out was the ski school options. My general feeling is there isn't kids' care at the mountain where you just drop your kids and do what you want for the day. Carmen could only go for two hours, we had to buy additional lunch care for the boys, and then patch it all together. It was neither cheap nor convenient. Also, most people book ski vacations from Saturday - Saturday, so many ski schools don't offer classes on Saturdays as they are a travel day. Our plan was to patch things together for two days until Paul's parents could give some assistance.

On day one, I came to pick-up the kids at noon to find:

A very sad Carmen

A Hugo who didn't want to stop.

Crosby had a bro crush on his Dutch instructor, and was looking forward to being the only person in his group lesson for the afternoon. I took Carmen home for a nap and realized that she felt warm and I wasn't feeling great. Here's where things start to turn...

Cue me being in bed for the next four days with the flu while our friends Shannon, Maciej, and Agata came to bring me various medicinal remedies. Meanwhile, Paul brought me food and watched the kids with his parents. Paul's camera doesn't lie, they had a good holiday. 

Carmen had a quicker recovery. 

OK, I did sneak out for a couple hours before my body stopped working entirely. I don't know if that was a good choice for my physical health, but I think necessary for my mental health.

Photo credit: Shanni

We made it back to Berlin without anyone barfing on the train. Oh yes, we had a round of the barfies starting in Lermoos and ending in Berlin for everyone but Carmen and me. The upside to the flu is that Carmen and I weren't close enough to the boys for the stomach bug. 

Although, while looking through photos, I do see Carmen co-napped while Hugo was getting over barfing and she was getting over the flu. 

So I guess we were a little lucky. I am going to declare victory on this holiday and hope for a healthier 2023.