February 2010 - More Sking

Feb 5 – Another ski trip with the ski club.  We went to Obertauern in Austria, which was a 2 ½ hour bus ride.  This was one of the longer bus rides and we didn’t get on the slopes until nearly 10:00 am.  It was another great day with blue skies and temperatures in the low 30’s.   This is another big resort with about 100km of runs.  This time I was able to ski with a group from the club without losing them part way through the day.  No major falls this trip, even though I went down a few of the black runs.  We were scheduled to leave at 4:15, but two people were late.  The rule is if you cause the bus to be late, you have to buy a crate (20) beers for the bus.  Not sure if they really made them buy a crate, since a free beer didn’t make it to me.

Sunday was a really nice day in Munich.  Temperatures were in the mid 50’s and not a cloud in the sky.  I took a sandwich and went out for a walk along the Isar river, which is only a block from the apartment.  People were everywhere enjoying the day.

Feb 9 - I had work visitors from the US this week.  There were 6 folks from HSB.  We had meetings all week, plus held a day and a half training course on electrical equipment.  My staff and the US vistors went out for dinner to Augustiner Keller.  Our table was located in the basement, probably 10 meters underground.  The room used to be for storing the beer during the winter.  The beer barrels would be covered with ice cut from the local lakes and rivers.

Augustiner Keller

Feb 12 - Skiing again with the Munich Ski Club.  This was the 6th weekend in a row for skiing for me.  It is definitely convienent for skiing being here in Munich.  We went to Schefau, an large resort, which is connected to Itter.  The skiing was so so, with a little rain in the morning, but sun by noon.  The mountain looked like it had white carpets on it.  The only snow was on the piste (ski run) and the rest was brown.  I had a nice lunch with 16 of the club members.  We met at a small restaurant off the main slope with a nice view of the valley.  This was another Apres Ski, meaning drinks after skiing.  This was at a small tent at the base of one of the runs, sort of a mini Okotberfest.

View from the deck at lunch

Apres Ski

Jan 18 to 30

Jan 18 - Linda flew back to Houston today to check on the house and will fly to Chicago to surprise her mom on Saturday, so I’ll be doing the blog until she gets back which won’t be until March 1.   

I went skiing over the weekend at Spitzensee, a German ski area just over an hour from Munich.  A friend from my office has a cabin just outside the ski area and invited me and another American who was in Munich for meetings to spend the weekend.  The cabin was built in the 1880's.  It had some modern conveniences such as running water and electricity, but not much else.  There was no road to the cabin so we had to hike by snow shoe about 1/2 mile from the nearest parking area.  The cabin is heated by a wood stove and it warmed up to 12C (54F) after a few hours.  The weather and skiing were great.




View from the Cabin



Path to the cabin. The cabin is near the top of the photo.

I learned a Bavarian card game called Watten.  Watten is played with German suited cards, with suits of acorns, leaves, hearts and bells. A 32 card pack is used, the cards in each suit being the ace (As or Sau), king (König), over (Ober), under (Unter), 10, 9, 8, 7.  The object is to win at least 3 of the 5 hands.

Three of the cards are called Kritische; they are permanent trumps, and are always the highest cards whatever other trumps are chosen. These are:
1.Maxi - the king of hearts - the highest trump
2.Belli - the seven of bells - second highest
3.Spritzer or Soacha - the seven of acorns - third highest

Belli

Spritzer

On Sunday I didn't have a ski pass for the lift nearest the cabin so we talked to the lift operator to let me go up the lift to get to the office to buy the pass.  The operator said OK, but I had to share a drink of Schnapps with the operator before I could go on the lift.

Jan 26 – I went to an Irish pub after work to celebrate Australia Day with some of the English speaking colleagues from work.  There were a lot of people there, but the only Australian may have been the one colleague from the office.  I guess it was a good reason to go out and have a beer.

I also ran into the two gay guys that Linda saw this summer.  They both have long blond hair and one was wearing pink hot pants with bows on the side and tall white go-go boots.  The temperature was in the mid 20’s.  They were quite a sight.  They got off at the same train stop I did, so I walked very fast to the escalator so I wouldn’t have to ride up the escalator behind them.

Jan 30 – I went skiing again with the Ski Club to the Itter ski resort in Austria.  The resort is very big and we didn’t see half of it.  The weather was spectacular with blue skies and temperatures in the mid 20’s.  I started skiing with the group but on the third run they went down a black run and after I got up from my two falls, the group was no where to be seen.  Luckily we made plans to meet at one of the many restaurants located in the ski runs.  After a beer and bowl of goulash, we skied together until around 4:00.  This was an Apres Ski trip, meaning that everyone meets at one of the bars for drinks before heading to the bus for the ride home.