Long story short: I spent a month in Austria and Switzerland. I thought it would be a nice Euro ski trip. Silver lining (part I), I saved a fortune on ski lift passes. It was the warmest February on record. Dragging around two bags, one of which is ski bag, isn’t a lot of fun. By the way, Swiss trains have woefully inadequate luggage space, so leave your big bags at home. Silver lining (part II), found out that the carriage farthest from civilization usually has the fewest passengers, leaving room for my big bags.
Long story: I purchased a roundtrip ticket when I last left Europe, thinking that I could pop into the US and get a Portugal visa and return to Europe in minimum time. No. Wanted a November appointment to hand over my papers. I got a January appointment. That left me with a return ticket that I could change, return, or use. Turns out that changing and returning that changeable and returnable ticket isn’t as easy as I thought (read the fine print). What to do? Use it and then buy another ticket to return to the US, hand over my passport to (hopefully) get it stamped, and then return to Portugal.
So, back to Munich for a brief stay. Train to Sankt Johann in Tirol (near Kitzbühel) for some lovely beer and not much skiing. Train to Innsbruck. More lovely beer. Train to Klösterle am Arlberg (near Sankt Anton am Alburg) and, you guessed it… a massive power day!!!!! Went to bed when it was raining, and awakened to snow. Great day in knee deep powder, but then back to rain.
Train to Interlaken, Switzerland, for some icy skiing, more rain, and hot chocolate that will ruin you for all other hot chocolates. Throw out that powdered cocoa, gandpa! It’s all fresh milk and grated chocolate from now on.
Then a train to Bern, which was my first “big” town since Munich for a quick weekend. Very nice. And finally, to Zürich for a bit of real city fun, before hitting the airport. Let’s do the math: Seven hotels in 28 days. Number of hotels: Too many, entirely. Worst thing about the trip: Dragging my skis around from brown slope to green slope. Biggest surprise on the trip: Finding out that the SIM card I bought in Germany actually worked in Switzerland. Overall: Nice people and good times.
