Salzburg Land Trip

Last Friday we loaded up the family truckster and headed to Salzburg.

Claudia passed the six hour drive with some yoga moves.When we arrived in Fuschl Am See (half hour outside Salzburg),

there was hardly a spec of snow.

When we woke up the next day... snow everywhere.

We got Claudia ready in a puffer snow suit.

She actually liked it! She didn't necessarily want to go outside in the puff suit, though.

Just wanted to wear it around the hotel.

She eventually warmed up (figuratively only) to the idea of sledding.
Claudia was most happy at the hotel, eating french fries.

She braved the cold as long as Russell held her hand.

She'd yell "Hand! Hold! Tight!"

Here they are ambling along in the snow.

We couldn't get over how beautiful it was in the snow.

Here's the path leading to the bunny hill, where we spent all our time.

Being in the snowy woods was peaceful & a little spooky.

Things were much more upbeat on the sleigh ride.

During the ride, Claudia stood up in the sleigh and stared at the horses.

She identified the horses' legs, ears, head, tail, bottom & tummy

for everyone along for the ride in the sleigh.

They all spoke German, so the insightful lesson was lost on them.

We found this guy carved into a tree stump.

If you look close (bottom left), you can see his name is Alfred.
Claudia called him Tiki Man.

Here's Claudia and I tearing up the bunny slope on our sled.

Walking in the snow with Daddy

just something pretty to look at...

These are the same hills where Maria once frolicked.

They look a lot different covered in snow. Russell was pretty speedy on his tube.

Here's a shot from the sleigh ride.

We were going through the Ellmautal Valley.

I took this on the way out of town... it's 7 degrees below.

I think that's around 19 degrees farenheit. Too cold for me!

That leaves us with Claudia's favorite part of the trip:

a chocolate filed donut thing we had on the way home.

It was probably one of the funniest parts of the trip. =)

All the schools are out this week for "ski week." Seriously. We followed suit and headed for the Austrian Alps. It was a six hour drive to Salzburg Land... or as I call it Sound of Music Land. We definitely will have to go back in the summer when it looks more Sound of Music-y and we can tour all the sites from the movie. We didn't do any skiing. Claudia definitely wasn't ready for that. We stuck to sledding, which she tolerated and even enjoyed at some points. She loved the sleigh ride, the swimming pool and the big indoor slide and ball pit. These were a few of her favorite things. Eventually we had to say so long, farewell, auf weidersehen, adieu. It was a beautiful trip and I definitely want to climb every mountain there again some day. Ok, I'll stop now.