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.

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.