MIKE AND JESS' TRAVEL DIARY
Germany and Austria Trip
Day 10 - December 15 2016
We woke up early for our trip to Zell Am See, a small town an hour and a half from Salzburg at the base of Alps with multiple skiing resorts.
We had taken the tram from the Salzburg train station to city center and assumed the lines went in a circle. So, we boarded the same tram so it would take us back to the train station. About fifteen minutes into the ride, Mike tells me we were still heading in the opposite direction of the main station. At this point, we were the only ones still on the tram. I walked up to the front and asked the driver if we are going to hit the station and he laughs and signals with his thumb behind him. Whoops. We decided to get off on the next exit to try to catch another tram going the opposite direction but the driver starts to skip exits. We were looking at the time, knowing the trains going to Zell Am See only leave every hour and we will be waiting at the station for that hour if we miss ours. Before we hit the final and, apparently, next stop, we get the pleasure of seeing a “you are now leaving Salzburg” sign. Once the tram stopped somewhere outside of Salzburg, we see another tram that is thankfully going to the station, but in ten minutes. We looked around and this little town looks straight out of Sleepy Hollow (one of our favorite movies), low fog and all. We are anxious to get going and know we only have 45 minutes to be on the train, but have the entire route, 15 stops, to go.
We got to the station with 8 minutes to buy our tickets, find our gate, and board. We made it just in the nick of time after literally running through the station. Whew! Now we get to relax on the beautiful train ride up to the alps. The blogs I had read said that buses are right out of the station and take you to the resorts. However, when we get off, we don’t see a stop but do see a couple men with skis walking to the right. Seemed like a safe bet to follow them.
It wasn’t, they disappeared into a restaurant after we followed them for about 5 minutes. We headed back to the station to look for buses and do find a stop, but the route maps are not so easily understood. Mike looked up a tourist station and we headed there for directions. They gave us a couple maps and tell us what bus to take. Back to the bus station to wait. While we waited, we looked at the ski runs and find that some runs are closed due to lack of snowfall so we make the decision to go for the Kaprun mountain, which is right next to the Zell Am See mountain. We did not realize the bus to Kaprun was 35 minutes long. We are now only working with a couple hours to rent the equipment and get some sliding in.
At the equipment rental station, the worker laughs when he hears that I have never been on skis before. Apparently, this isn’t the most beginner-friendly mountain. We rented helmets and insurance, just in case.
The lifts up are large gondolas with windows all the way around and very nice. If I have not made the extent to my fear of heights known, let me now. I stared at the floor between my legs while gripping onto Mike begging him not to move. It was beyond terrifying.
We made it up, thankfully, and snapped on our board and skis. Unfortunately, there were not any flat areas to put the skis on, and the area was quite crowded. I knows I’m supposed to plough (I’ve seen the South Park episode- pizza and french fry, so I figure I’m set) and I tried to keep a slow pace but the decline is too steep for a beginner, so I fell in a *controlled* fashion. At that very moment, Mike is getting strapped in on his board (he has snowboarded many times in his life) and starts heading down the hill about a hundred feet when he hit an edge and his binding broke clean off the board, sending him falling backwards, hitting his (helmeted) head. We were a sad set of misfits on the slope of apparent professionals.
We had to walk back up to the lift (not a far walk embarrassingly) and take the gondola back down to the ski shop to get Mike’s board fixed. Onto the death gondolas again. By the time we were at the rentals, we only had two more hours until we needed to be getting off the mountain. I would need much nicer slopes and a lot more time to learn to ski. Mike was not really feeling it after his fall so we returned the equipment thirty minutes after renting it. To make the best of the trip, we wanted to play in the snow and at least get some great pictures. Our slope pass allowed full access to all lifts and the worker at the rentals recommended we take the lifts all the way to the top where there is a restaurant and lookout balcony.
The many, scary, gondola rides were absolutely worth it. The entire debacle, actually, was worth what was at the top of the mountain. The lookout, Gipfel Welt 3000, Panorama-Plattform, was over 3,000 m above sea level and overlooked the never-ending range of the Bavarian alps. Mike exclaimed that he had never felt so on-top-of-the world.
To really soak in the view, we got a couple beers at the restaurant and a couple at the midway point down the gondola ride. I started to enjoy the gondola rides a couple beers in!
This was a particularly humbling day. Almost nothing went as planned, but it reminded us that as long as you go with the flow and allow for alternate endings to your plans, you can sometimes have an even better experience. The lookout was one of the highlights of our trip and we never would have gone if we had not made such fools of ourselves on the slopes!
We ended the evening with another wonderful dinner at the Goldene Kugel.
