Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
Have you ever had an itch that you needed to scratch? Well, Ben had an itch, an 18 year itch, as a matter of fact. 1994 was the last time he had gone skiing and he had reached his breaking point. He put his foot down and said "The next trip we are going on is skiing." With that said, I was put to work as a free travel agent, scouring every ski area in Austria and Switzerland within a five hour drive. Weather in Bavaria is unpredictable and we knew that a five hour drive could easily turn in to a seven hour one if we encountered bad weather.
Since it had been a while since any of the men had gone skiing (Dale - eight years, Ben - eighteen years, and Juan......never) we decided on a small ski resort in Austria called Bodele Mountain. According to reviews it was ideal for intermediate and novice skiers and was a short, easy drive from the town of Dornbirn, located in the valley. Bodele is one of the oldest ski area in Austria, but for the most part it is overlooked for the more flashy and rowdy ski resorts like Ischgl and St. Anton.
I researched the town of Dornbirn, found an affordable hotel, and a hands-on technical museum to take the kids to while the men were on the slopes for the day. It was located a few miles over the German border, a little over three hours away. I presented it to my friend Jayde and we all agreed it sounded like the best destination: cheaper than Switzerland, something to do besides ski, and an easy drive.....so we thought........
The morning of our departure we met at a parking lot, bought breakfast and coffee, and set out on the road caravan style. We made it about 30 minutes before we hit our first stau (German traffic jam that comes out of nowhere and seems to be for absolutely no reason). The autobahn was packed with Europeans in their station wagons with ski luggage racks strapped on the roof. Traffic finally let up and we started to get back up to the speed limit when we hit another stau and slowed to a measly 5mph. Then it hit me, the European children had a week off of school next week. Everyone was on their way to a family ski trip on probably the busiest ski weekend of the year. We settled in for a long drive, but we had no idea how long.
Our three hour drive to Austria turned in to nine hour, torture filled, traffic jam journey where we got an up close and personal look at all of the gravel along the side of the road because we were moving so slow. At one point we thought we were in the clear. Eventually our caravan got separated because Maddox kept saying he needed to pee-pee. We pulled over at a parking stop, but my dear son refused to go because he needed to "pee pee in the house", which meant another stop about 10 minutes later.
We could see the Austrian border on our GPS and knew the town was close by. We were speeding along at 80kph (50mph) then suddenly we get a call from our friends the Dukes. They were a few miles ahead of us in stand still traffic. There was an accident. I immediately started looking for alternate routes, but unfortunately it seemed that everyone else had come up with the same detour. We creeped along traveling three miles in an hour. Finally we made it across the boarder, but the traffic continued. We drove around in circles looking for a faster route. We tried getting back on the autobahn, but ended up making a u-turn near the blocked on ramp and ended up right back where we started from. At one point we were even driving behind a castle being pulled by a tractor. Normally I would be angry that the tractor was going so slowly and try to get around it, but it was traveling at the same pace as the rest of the vehicles, so I simply took a picture didn't give it another thought.
We followed the tractor to the middle of Bregenz, then the traffic let up and it was smooth sailing all the way to Dornbirn. The Dukes' had stopped for gas and let their son play at McDonald's play place for an hour, the Rodriguez family had decided to get lunch in Lindau, and we stopped a million times for "pee-pee", yet we all ended up arriving in Dorbirn within 20 minutes of each other.
We checked in to our hotels, ate at an Italian Restaurant, and called it a night around 8:30pm.
The next morning the men headed up the mountain. The ladies stayed behind with the kids, but at some point it was decided that we would all travel up the mountain, too. My friend's son was snowboarding for the first time and would probably need some lessons. She was worried an adult would have to stay with him, so we were driving up to check and to give the little ones some time to play in the snow. I hadn't really planned on going up the mountain, had no real desire to, but went anyway. We took two cars because of the number of car seats. I pulled into the parking lot near the ski lift, but Jayde and Mayra in the other car kept going. I waited a while, expecting them to come back, but they didn't. Marissa (Mayra's daughter) and I decided we had better go try to find them. As soon as we pulled out we passed them coming back up the road. Jayde yelled at me to turn around in the parking lot, but when I pulled in there was a car stuck in the snow, blocking the lot. I tried to turn around by reversing and, low and behold, I got stuck also.
I tried to maneuver the car out of the snow, but ended up in a bad situation. The front end of my car was butted up again the bumper of another car. If I kept slipping forward I would push the car off the cliff. In frustration, I put the car in park, and sat there. Eventually cars started backing up. Finally a group of Austrians came over to help me out. They were pushing the car and yelling at me to turn the wheel different ways, but I had no idea what they were saying because it was in German! Finally an Austrian woman stuck her arm inside the window and took control of the steering wheel. I was out!! Thank the Lord!!
I yelled several thank yous in German and told the woman that I was going straight back down the hill (it had started snowing more and I wasn't going to wait for the weather to get worse). She replied with a laugh and said "Good idea."
I dropped Marissa off at the side of the road (sorry Marissa!) She joined her mom and Jayde and I slowly made my way back down the mountain, turned on a movie in the hotel, and collapsed on the bed. I am never driving up the Austrian Alps in the winter again, unless I have four wheel drive.
Soon the girls came back knocking at my door. JR didn't need lessons, so we left the kids with Marissa and went to a coffee shop down the road (Marissa is awesome).
After the coffee we went to a hands-on museum called Inatura. On the way it started really snowing (the guys said it was almost a white-out on the mountain). We ordered some lunch, but the boys were more interested in running around like crazy people to eat. The museum was interesting, you could touch everything and of course the boys did just that. We made it about halfway through when we came to play area with a tunnel and climbing structure. We stayed there for about 20 minutes and decided that it was time to leave. All of the kids were tired and the men had left the mountain after the snow storm and were back at the hotel.
After a short rest, Ben and Dale went back up the mountain for a second ski run. They just barely made it back for dinner (we had actually made reservations without them, because we had no idea when they'd be back.) They arrived at the hotel just in time. We left Marissa and JR with the kids (did I mention those two kids are awesome?) and walked through the marketplatz to our restaurant. We had a lovely night out, sans kids, and made plans to go to the principality of Lichtenstein on our way home the next morning.
Before we left I woke up early and walked back to the marketplatz to take some pictures. I love the Rotes Haus (Red House-stained red by oxen blood) and am curious if the inside has as much character as the outside. We had a great trip with some great friends and can't wait to go back next ski season.
- comments