I am writing this from the lovely town of Kitzbuhel, Austria. Joe and I decided to take a trip here because I have a week-long training for work at our lovely training facility in this Austrian ski-bunny town next week. Our hotel is pictured left and is literally right at the base of the slopes. The weather has been great so far too - lots of snow at first and now its been sunny the last few days.
I'm not the best snow boarder, though I've been trying to get better (I just like to look around while I'm on the slopes, so I tend to go really slow, stop a lot & be generally pretty boring). Joe and I went out together the first 2 days, but I think I just slowed him down - he's quite the pro, I've discovered! So instead, I'm heading to the spa today and he's headed back out on the slopes. On the trip so far, we flew into Bratislava, Slovakia (see us left with one of the many statues throughout the city - this one is supposed to be Napoleon eaves dropping on our conversation :). That was particularly cool for me because my great grandmother (Nanny) is from Slovakia. I got my mom & grandma some handmade sculptures from there as a reminder of her, so that was neat.
From there, we moved on to Vienna which is a beautiful city - so many things to see on every corner. Joe & I took a 3-hour Segway tour of the city (see picture, left) which I'm getting a lot of flack for on facebook (thanks, Mall Cop). I know it looks dorky, but it was tons o' fun and a great way to cover a lot of ground. We stayed in the historic Hotel Bristol while there and went to see the ballet Romeo & Juliet (box seats!) at the Vienna Opera House while there too. 
After 2 nights in Vienna, we moved on to Kitzbuhel via train. The journey took about 5 hours, but was stunning. We got to see a lot from the train and sat in this nice little semi-private compartments. Once in Kitzbuhel, we got ready to head up the mountain - renting our snowboards (Joe had to get the super-pro one) and buying 3-day lift passes (only to find out you had to use them consecutively). I was looking forward to a day on, a day off type snow boarding model, but it looked like we would be going full force for the next few days. One of the best parts of snow boarding/skiing in Europe is "Apres Ski", which translates to "After Ski", but basically means cocktail hour. People seem to spend just about as much time on the slopes as hanging out in the many cute Alpine lodges doted all over the mountain. They are usually eating some local specialty (gulash, new potatoes, wiener schnitzel, ...) and drinking a large weiss bier or glass of wine. The views are amazing from the top of the mountain, so who can blame them?! Prices aren't crazy here either, like in some Colorado ski resorts (i.e. a big 0.5 L beer is 3 to 4 EUR).
The mountain is huge too - I think there's something like 75 different marked trails (not to mention some of the unmarked trails which we accidentally went down - yay for fresh powder!) and 60 or so lifts. You could spend a week here and go to a different area each day!!Yesterday (Saturday) we took the day off from snow boarding and took a day trip to Innsbruck - it was awesome! There's all sorts of Olympic stuff to see there - we went to the ski jump arena, which is a crazy sport to begin with but so amazing to see the scale of those jumps up close 
(instead of in front of the TV). Innsbruck is only about 1.5 hours by train from here and made a really nice day trip. We were back in time for another good dinner at the hotel and got to bed early for the time change today.
(instead of in front of the TV). Innsbruck is only about 1.5 hours by train from here and made a really nice day trip. We were back in time for another good dinner at the hotel and got to bed early for the time change today.Tomorrow, its back to reality for me with the start of my training program. It should be still fun to work from such a beautiful location, though.
