Pat & Bob arrived the next morning (their plane was 40 minutes early! Go German efficiency!). John hopped on the metro, got them at the airport and brought them back to the hotel. We then stashed our bags, went for a walk to Marianplatz (again), ate at Hofbrauhaus (again), and marveled at the gorgeous snowfall that stayed nice and thick through the day in Munich.
Then at 4 PM we schlepped our bags on metro to Hauptbahnhof, Munich's central station and found our regional train to Austria. We took "second class" (open coach) which was just fine--it got full but we had assigned seats, and it was comfortable, clean, safe, etc. Unfortunately, it was also dark outside, so we didn't get to see much on the 4 hour trip to Austria.
We departed the train in Altenmarkt, Austria, where a taxi was supposed to be waiting for us. It wasn't. And the hour was "late" (no more area buses). And our mobiles didn't work at that point. And there was no where logical to walk...with all seven of us and our 10,427 suitcases...in the snow...
Did I mention that we desert people are sort of astounded by how cold anything under...um...85 degrees feels?
Thank heavens that the little train station had a phone and Your Correspondent is uber-organized and about 20 minutes later, we had a taxi. From there, it as a harrowing 15-minute ride, speeding through the snowy dark along winding narrow roads which gave me one, long, slow-motion heart attack while Hannah fell sleep next to me drooling all down her jacket and incrementally sliding, inching down the van's third row seat and into the floorboard. Then we arrived in the tiny ski village of Zauchensee (Zow-ook-en-see...I always think of "Look and see!"). We trudged upstairs to our nice, big, warm third floor apartment and passed out, still not really being able to see much of what surrounded us.
Zauchensee, we later learned, is really a "local" ski town--their main visitors are middle-class families from Germany and Austria. I think it's sort of like a Red River, New Mexico is to Texas, which suits us just fine because we love Red River and don't need any extra hoity toity Except that this also meant the use of English was limited.
Our hosts told us we were their first English-speaking guests. In stores and restaurants, everything worked out fine, but at moments it was awkward, like when we tried to figure out stuff at the grocery store. You're buying some ham and cannot read whether or not it's already smoked or raw. The butcher is kind but speaks no English. All ham packaging is in German. You can't figure out whether the tall flowery bottle is shampoo, conditioner, or body soap. The only lady in the store speaks no English. The only German you can say is "pinklepause,"
I think about Pat and Bob...they had come from Texas to Munich to Austria in one long trip with no rest. How did they not fall asleep standing up?
The Jagdhaus apartments. Our place was on the upper left, sort of set back.
Desert child peeking out at the snow.
The deck of our apartment. Apparently, the snow came late to Austria. Just a few weeks earlier, there was none. But once the snow started, it kept coming. It snowed every day we were there (six days).
The view from our deck. That's Zauchensee village--other hotels, some small restaurants, bars, and ski rentals as well as a few other shops. And ski lifts. Oh so many fabulous ski lifts.
The Austrian alps.
