Since we've lived in the desert for so long, Anna and Meredith don't even remember snow. All the girls have been asking when we can go see snow. Although we saw the snow peaks of the Himilayas while we were in Bhutan a couple of years ago, we were told "that didn't count" as it was too far away to touch. Anna even cried in Bhutan when she realized the snow she could see wasn't reachable.
We finally decided that the kids were ready to tackle the ski slopes (one nice thing about the UAE is that we have Ski Dubai where we can try the kids on skis to see if we think they are ready). Anna definitely wasn't ready the first time we took her there (and really, Meredith wasn't either), but we took them at the beginning of '14 and declared them ready to hit the slopes.
Fortunately another family decided they were ready to try as well so we had partners in crime on this vacation and it worked out so incredibly well to travel with them. Overall we had such a good vacation that we immediately booked it again for next year before we even left our hotel in Austria.
We flew to Munich and drove 2 1/2 hours into the Alps to a tiny little town in Austria called Grossarl. We stayed at an amazing little family owned hotel called Moar Gut (which in a local dialect roughly means "Good Independent Farm!" It's been in their family since 1914 and has been a guest house since the 60s. We absolutely loved Moar Gut. It is affiliated with the kinderhotel organization in Europe which means it is extremely family friendly. It has spacious (but not luxurious) family suites so our family had a living area, a kids' room with four beds and a bedroom for Jake and me. Only one bathroom though!
Other features that made it very kid friendly: a farm where our kids could adopt an animal during our stay (this was a *huge* hit for the kids in our group), outdoor playground, trampoline area, indoor playground, huge kids' club, indoor swimming pool, a real children's theater where they put on shows twice a week (unfortunately the shows are in German so our kids just watched!), teen room with ping pong, pool table). There wasn't much snow at the elevation of the hotel but they also have sledding and sleigh rides when there is more snow.
The hotel also made it easy for the parents to love, too. Plenty of room for the whole family and just wonderful food. The kids had a buffet each evening but the adults got a 5 course sit down meal. About an hour into our meal, a big chicken named Gustie would show up and like a pied piper the kids would all follow him out and to the farm or to the kids' club. The parents were then free to enjoy the rest of their meal in a leisurely pace. And the food. So good. There was a whole room for cheese. Lots of unique and yummy cheese. At breakfast we would get a newsletter which included the activities for the day as well as the menu for the evening so that we could anticipate it all day long. They also had a spa and Erin and I hit it for a massage after a few tough days of skiing - we *needed* for our muscles to get some attention. *Needed* I tell ya.
Although our kids would have been happy to hang out with the animals the whole time, they also jumped into skiing with gusto. We put Anna and her friend Carter into ski school for three days. The ski school would get them to the mountain, ski with them for three hours and then bring them back to the hotel for lunch and the kids' club until we got back from the mountain. For the five older kids, we hired an instructor to ski with them for two mornings and the rest of the time they skied with us. All four of our girls did such a great job and all seemed to really enjoy it, too.
I gave this post title, "A Taste of Skiing" as the snow levels were a little low when we arrived and dropped during our stay. We planned on four days of skiing but only got in 3 1/2. But the first two full days were wonderful. Only a few runs were open but it was just right for the kids to get to see what skiing was all about.
On day four we hiked to the downtown area of the little village (about a 30 minute hike along a stream) and enjoyed their Christmas festival with German sausages, hot drinks and pretty sights.
We spent five nights in the mountains and then two nights in Munich where we enjoyed the famous Christmas markets, went ice skating and visited their large and famous science museum there. Our last night the grown-ups embarked on a very ambitious five (!) hour beer history tour to learn all about Bavaria's long history of beer making (we went to a brewery that has been making beer since the 1300s!!!).
 |
| So a ski trip with six people takes a lot of STUFF. Eight checked bags on this trip. Jake was horrified. |
 |
| Squee! The girls and my first trip on a 380 double decker plane! Poor Jake's first time on the bottom floor with all the masses! |
 |
| The dads goofing off in the ski rental shop while we corralled all the kids. It takes FOREVER to get 7 kids fitted for boots, skis, poles and helmets. I'm pretty sure we kept the shop open an hour longer than they were supposed to be open. By the time they got to the adults, we just took whatever they gave us so that we could get the heck out of there! |
 |
| Playground! You can see no real snow at the hotel |
 |
| Our littlest ski bunny off to ski school her first day |
 |
| Carter and Anna in ski school |
 |
| Some of the gang (me, Jane, Meredith, Sophia, Maya, Regan (behind Maya) and Erin |
 |
| Lunch break. No one really spoke much English and the menu was in German so we just kind of pointed at food that others had. It worked well. Kids got spaghetti and fries. I got a nice soup with a giant meatball in it. |
 |
| A slide inside the slope-side restaurant! |
 |
| End of Day One. Meredith is Done with a capital D! |
 |
| "Up for What the Mountain Can Give Me" Regan |
 |
| Regan and Sophia |
 |
| "Bring it On" Jane |
 |
| Jake and Jane |
 |
| Jane and "Straight Down and Fast" Maya |
 |
| Regan, Maya, Cam, Sophia, Jake and Jane |
 |
| Regan, Laura, Jake and Jane |
 |
| Exhausted Meredith fell asleep at dinner one night and she was out! |
 |
| Lining up for the ski course |
 |
| There went Meredith - made it through all the gates |
 |
| Regan |
 |
| Jane |
 |
| Maya may not have made all the gates but she definitely made it down the quickest |
 |
| With Stephanie, their instructor for two days |
 |
| Getting ready to tackle the blue slope (red in Austria) - a little steeper than where they spent all of the first day |
 |
| Off they go! |
 |
| Yikes! |
 |
| Jane gives it a thumbs up |
 |
| Mere's all tangled |
 |
| Still smiling on the way back up |
 |
| Happy LaBrache clan |
 |
| Anna (2nd kid from the back) and Carter (2nd kid from the front) back in ski school |
 |
| You can't see it but there is a picture perfect Alps view outside that window |
 |
| Our family (minus Anna) |
 |
| Kitchen Party! With live music, yummy appetizers and Gustie the Chicken |
 |
| One of the shows at the children's theater. All in German but cute dancing and singing and acting by the kids |
 |
| Our kids on stage after the show |
 |
| Last day of skiing - you can see how much less snow there is on this day! Regan and Sophia on the gondola up to start the day |
 |
| Jake and Regan - we sang and jammed and sang to music the whole way up (and made the other gondola jealous they weren't with us when they saw our gondola rocking in the wind!) |
 |
| Our family - nearly same spot as before but much less snow |
 |
| On our grown-up hike. A lovely 30-ish minute stroll along this creek to the downtown area of Grossarl |
 |
| I was giving Jake and Cam grief about getting a sausage when we had a divine 5 course meal waiting for us later in the evening... until I tasted this street sausage at the Christmas festival. Yum!! |
 |
| Hot apple cider for Erin and me |
 |
| It's "Moar Gut" (our phrase of the week!) |
 |
| The kids all got awards during their stay - all of them got awards for taking good care of their animals and Anna got an award for her ski school progress. They even had a little Olympic type podium and Anna stood on 2nd place while Carter stood on 1st. Yay, kids! |
 |
| Having fun in the indoor pool |
 |
| Cuddling up with blankets and kitties |
 |
| Outside Jane and Meredith are checking on the horses |
 |
| Took the kids on our hike to the village as well |
 |
| Silly kids photo on the hike |
 |
| The kids were a fan of the street sausages, too! |
 |
| We warmed up in a bakery and Anna was a big fan of the moving, baking puppets in the window. They were just her size. |
 |
| Sausages, hot apple cider, hot chocolate.... and cotton candy??? All the yummies at the festival |
 |
| At the hotel farm checking on the animals |
 |
| Anna particularly loved the bunnies |
 |
| Meredith was shocked when the goat ate the whole paper bag holding the treats in it. "The whole bag, Mom! Not just the food but the paper bag!!" |
 |
| Anna and her bunny friends |
 |
| So our drive from Austria to Munich was quite an adventure. We discovered as we loaded up at the hotel that the driver spoke zero English *and* thought we were going to the airport. Jake has Siri going (in English) with google maps and I am looking up German translations for left, right and straight on Jake's blackberry. We made it! |
 |
| Big German pretzels! |
 |
| The waitress totally made fun of Jake for getting a "baby-sized" beer. Those Germans and their beer! |
 |
| Sausages! In a row! Just like in kids' books! |
 |
| So now our kids think that German Christmas Markets = cotton candy. Second time for cotton candy at a Christmas market |
 |
| And yes, Anna is able to eat a cotton candy that is bigger than she is |
 |
| Marianplatz in Munich! I remember this from my backpacking trip through Europe 21 (eek!) years ago (which was the last time I was in Munich) |
 |
| At Deutsche Museum (world's largest science museum, I think) |
 |
| We had fun with the facial recognition software - it told us our gender, how old we were and how we were feeling (happy, sad, surprised, etc.) |
 |
| Sharing |
 |
| Piggie cupcakes (which we found out how something to do with New Year's and well wishes) |
 |
| Hopped off the metro and found a neat neighborhood with modern furniture stores and fun restaurants. The furniture shops were good places to warm up (and kick up your feet!) |
 |
| Getting ready to ice skate |
 |
| I stuck to the edge - I am a *terrible* ice skater (I think the worst grown up in the whole place!) |
 |
| This is pretty much how I felt the whole time! |
 |
| Meredith looked a little nervous, too! |
 |
| Ahhh - relaxing on the wall by Jake (who managed to get out of skating!) |
 |
| Finally got a turn with a skating polar bear to help the little ones not fall over |
 |
| Jane was definitely getting the hang of it by the end |
 |
| Cheers! On our beer tour |
 |
| Wouldn't I make a nice beer maid? |
 |
| The girls loved the little 1/2 wall in our hotel room that separated a sleeping area from a living area |
These photos are out of order but recently recovered from a camera issue. So glad these photos weren't lost (but I still can't upload them to iphoto so this may be the only place they will exist).
 |
| Jane loving on Lucy, one of Moar Gut's cats |
 |
| Cheers! In the village of Grossarl |
 |
| Meredith on the slide |
 |
| Jane on our hike to the village on top of a giant bale of hay. Things that these city girls just don't see very often! |
 |
| Meredith with the top of her piggie cake in Munich |
Additional photos from our friends - out of order but enjoy!
 |
| Kitchen part at Moar Gut! |
 |
| Kids' table. We had the same table the whole time we were at Moar Gut. Originally it was one really big table for all of us but it was quite difficult for those on the bench at the back to get out. So we rearranged to grown-up and kids' tables. The new arrangement worked out quite well for everyone. |
 |
| Gusti the Chicken - taking the kiddies off like a Pied Piper so the grown ups could stay and enjoy a leisurely dinner |
 |
| "Iced tea" was on the menu as an appetizer course. We didn't quite believe it (thought it would be iced tea... infused... something....), but, yup, that's what it was. Jake clearly liked it! |
 |
| At the kids' show in the theater. Sophie and Regan and enjoying it even though it is in German |
 |
| On stage after the show |
 |
| Grossarl Christmas Village |
 |
| Hot little donut pastries. The kids were like begging little puppy dogs begging for more! |
 |
| Adults trying to stay warm with our hot spiced cider |
 |
| Dining room at Moar Gut - where we spent many fun meals |
 |
| Ahhh! The affectionately titled "Cheese Room" with so many yummy cheeses - the drawers straight ahead hold cheeses and meats and you can look at them through the window on the counter |
 |
| Good-bye Moar Gut - see you next year. This is probably the only photo that exists from that trip of the *whole* gang! |
 |
| Munich Christmas Market |
 |
| The "regulars" at this brewery keep their own beer mugs here. All locked up and ready to go for when they come for a drink! |
 |
| Beer tour! |
No comments:
Post a Comment