Europe - Travel Inbound

Click here to go to the start of the trip.
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(Previous Stop: Venice and Milan)

I was just so happy to be able to check my bags in and walk around without them. The terminal at Milan was very crowded at 10 in the morning with many long haul flights leaving at the same time. The boarding line to Delhi and Chicago were right next to each other. The agents were also scanning in every passport before boarding and this delayed departure for an hour. I don't understand why they repeated this, since we just passed immigration.

To get over jet lag on the way back, I had to stay awake the whole flight and the whole next day so that at night back at home, I would fall asleep easily when it was actually waking up time in Europe. Luckily Alitalia had a great in-flight entertainment system with Audio/Video on Demand (meaning I could start/stop/pause whenever I wanted).


The great thing about flying is that no matter what the weather is like on the ground (foggy and rainy)...


...once you pass the clouds, it's always sunny up here (except at night of course).


Saying good-bye to the Alps that provided some exciting skiing and stunning scenery.


Lunch on Alitalia. It was some lasagna with salmon on veggies (again, but I'm trying to eat more fish when I can) and overall not bad.


Breakfast: that yellow bread was warm with some cheese in the middle, along with the pastry and Red Orange juice.


Ahoy there Long Island - the last bit of the Atlantic Ocean before touching down in New York.


Landing and that brings an end to this fabulous trip.

(Back to Trip Index)

Europe - Venice

(Previous Stop: St Anton, Day 5)

With a day to kill before my flight back from Milan, I stopped by Venice for a night. This is a city like Paris and Rome, which we hear about so much all through our lives and have really high expectations for when we visit and so far, those expectations have been met. So, I guess next up is Rome then.

Of course the most unique thing about Venice is the lack of cars there and the numerous water canals running through the city. Everything that's normally brought in by truck (groceries, goods, etc) is all brought in by boat. I've tried to capture a little bit of what it's like in Venice...



Map of Venice (from Lonely Planet)


View from across the St Lucia train station... a cafe on the Grand Canal.




One of the only three bridges crossing the Grand Canal


A vaporetto, the public bus system, which is used by tourist and locals. It costs 5 Euros for each trip.


A couple starting off on a gondola ride, which are generally quite expensive. They start around 50 Euros and the gondolier doesn't usually sing like in the movies.


These two older gentlemen seemed to be practicing for some sort of race.


A private taxi boat


Looking down the Grand Canal




A sewage boat


A boat hauling goods and private taxi chatting with each other down the canal






The symbol of Venice, the traditional winged lion of the apostle St. Marks, whose tomb was robbed in Alexandria, Egypt by some Venetians in the 9th century. The religious leaders then made St. Marks the patron of Venice and have used his symbol since then.






Lots of parts of Venice are deteriorating...






Since there's only three bridges that cross the Grand Canal, many operators have a little ferry system to get across where the bridges are too far away.


Passing a loaded vaporetto


The Rialto Bridge, which is the most recognized symbol of Venice. My hostel was about 5 minutes from here.




Lots of colorful buildings








A traditional mask shop in Venice, aimed mostly at tourists.


The funny thing was this sign was above a little 2 inch wide window sill. Who would even consider sitting there?










Lots of dark and dingy alleys broke off from the main walkways.






















A ski resort display in a shop window




Tourist Menus. Never eat at a place that has a tourist menu. It's usually more expensive and the food's worse, but the menu's simple and it's in English. Some old ladies were pondering the menu and I pointed them away and they thanked me profusely.




Some pigs showing off "all" their features.


An old water fountain








Looking across the Grand Canal at the Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore


Some Middle Eastern architectural influence






The tower in St. Mark's Square


St. Mark's Square


St. Mark's Square


St. Mark's Basilica






One of the main shopping streets. Venice is clearly a walking city and part of the charm of the city is just walking around and getting lost. It's said to be very safe.


A boat hauling cement


Instead of a Garbage Truck, they have Garbage Boats.




There were signs for this lost Golden Retriever, Molly all over the city.


St Mark's Square in the morning. The pigeons are everywhere.


Notice the Heineken stashed behind one of the wings


The Winged Lion of Venice


A gondola stand


A taxi boat stand








Interesting street light holder...






My hostel room was on the second floor

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Milan

There isn't really much to see in Milan besides the Duomo and then it basically comes down to shopping. It's the biggest city in Italy and thus attracts a variety of people trying to make a living in the city. There were lots of street hawkers and the city itself didn't feel all that glamorous, compared to Paris.


Heading down the main shopping alley, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele towards the Duomo.


The funny thing about this scene was the dog. These Native Americans were promoting their CD of natural sounding music, which had wolf calls and other sounds typical of Native American music. And this poor dog was going biserk and howling and barking at the music...


The main Ferrari Store, which is quite close to Ferrari's headquarters in Maranello.


The Duomo di Milano, which is known for its gothic architecture and its role in the establishment of Catholic traditions of worship.






Entrance to another shopping street from the square




One of the many "Meals on Wheels" kinda food stands which had roasted walnuts, gelato and other snacks.


This guy had crazy skills. He was sculpting flowers out of vegetables (beet roots, onions, etc). Note the two little gold fish carved from carrots.


That was the end of my short visit to Northern Italy. Venice was definitely worth it and totally lived up to its hype. Milan was also what I expected... Rome and Southern Italy are next.

(Next Stop: Inbound Travel)

Europe - St Anton, Day 5

(Previous Stop: St Anton, Day 4)

On this last day of my skiing, I wanted to head over to the upscale ski town of Lech and see what kind of skiing was there...



Here's a few pics of the typical lifts at St Anton. When the red gates open, you scoot forward onto the moving carpet, which moves you ahead to the loading point. Worked great.


The chair lift gates. Instead of getting lift tickets like in the States, we got smart cards which we just had to keep in our jackets and as we got close to the sensor, it would recognize our valid lift pass and let us through. And you get a couple Euros back for giving back the card at the end of your stay.


The Arlenmahderbahn lift, which was needed in order to get to the free bus to Zurs. This chair lift begins at an elevation of 1834 m (6050 ft) and it rose about 700 meters. Most of the lifts here were at a resonably low elevation. In Utah and Colorado, most of the villages themselves are at 8000 ft and the lifts take you up to around 12,000 ft. Altitude sickness is definitely more of a problem in the US resorts.


One thing nice about the chair lifts here was the bubble enclosure to keep out any howling winds or blowing snow.


Warning sign on the bubble


I could tell I was in Lech (luxury ski town of the area) as I saw this display for a Maybach 52, which costs around $300,000.


The town of Lech




A massive 8 passenger chair lift system at Lech. The biggest I've seen is a 6 person one before.


The trail map at Lech showing a majority of the lifts and trails as being open.


"34b goes that-a-way..."




Two dogs getting frisky in the snow... must be the mountain air.


A hotel on the middle of the mountain


Looking down at the town of Lech


They had a tram (Rufikopf), which would basically scale the face of this steep mountain. Impressive stuff.


Looking down at the town of Zurs from the top of the Rufikopf Tram from Lech.


The top station of the Rufikopf Tram.


Heading down to Zurs. They had this trail called Der Weisse Ring, which was a massive ski trail loop between the towns of Lech and Zurs. I'd guess it's about 8 kms (5 miles) in length. Took me most of the afternoon to do.


One of the mini-lifts on the way to Zurs.


Lunch of sausage and beef goulash.


Continuing on Der Weisse Ring. Heading down to the Madlock-Joch Lift.


On the Madlock-Joch Lift


Looking back at Zurs and St Anton in the distance behind those peaks.


The very tiny Madlock-Joch Lift, which was generally slower than the other high-speed high traffic lifts.


One of the famous off-piste chutes in the St Anton area, which I'm told gets very narrow and steep. Being the last day and sore, I decided to skip it.


Der Weisse Ring trail maker




Looking down at the town of Lech


Now that's product placement. An all-wheel-drive Audi wagon at the top of the mountain.


Heading back on the bus... this truck came flying around this blind corner and almost collided with us.


Directions on how to close the bubble


Taking the Valluga tram (which this resort is known for) for my last run down. Looking down at a very high cat-walk ski trail coming down from the Valluga peak.


The backside of Mt. Valluga


Taking a little tow-bar lift to get us over to the front side of the mountain... and taking me home one last time.


I thoroughly enjoyed this ski trip and met some really great people on the chair-lifts and during meals, as well. The terrain is definitely the kind that I like to ski and I'll be back soon...


(Next Stop: Venice and Milan)

Europe - St Anton, Day 4

(Previous Stop: St Anton, Day 3)

After finding what I liked at Zurs yesterday, I wanted to spend the whole day there and I loved it. Lots and lots of off-piste skiing, which kills the muscles. I was hurting very badly throughout the day and not just my legs, but upper body as well. Piste skiing (on groomed trails) is defintely a lot easier on the body than off-piste. It was also too hot for my taste in regards to skiing with the temperature hovering around 32 deg F. My ski gear is most ideal for around mid 20s temperature. With more energy being burnt during off-piste, I ended up sweating a lot more and had to cool off after every 30 minute run. This was my favorite day here.



A tunnel between St Anton and Zurs


Following another ski bus to Zurs through the tunnels










The start of my runs from the Zurs Trittkopf Tram. You basically had to ski off the face of this mountain... wonderful stuff.


Clear skys on a neighboring mountain


The mid-point tower for the tram. Today, I easily figured out the best way down the mountain without getting stuck like yesterday and the best thing was at times, I had the whole mountain to myself with very few other skiers there.












The tram


Part of the off-piste trail heading back down to the tram






View from the tram of the area that I skiied down


What is it with guys and having to mark their territory...


Me, at the top of the Trittkopf tram in Zurs.


If you squint really hard, you can see my territorial marking in the snow. View from the tram.






The top of the tram that had a nice little warming room inside.


Heading back home... those same awesome towering rocks.


The highway in the valley below




A few days after a snow storm, it's very hard to find any fresh powder as is demonstrated in the whole face of this mountain being skied out.






An injured skier getting air-lifted down to the hospital in the valley. Besides being injured, what a fun ride that would be...




Waiting for the bus back to my hotel... thin cross-country skis in comparison to my all-mountain skis.




The village of St Anton


It was much warmer down here than on the mountain and it was getting quite slushy...


(Next Stop: St Anton, Day 5)

Europe - St Anton, Day 3

(Previous Stop: St Anton, Day 1 & 2)

The first two days I skiied the mountains that were close by to the main village. These were generally more crowded with longer lift lines and also more skier traffic on the trails. I was trying to get to the other two mountains, Zurs and Lech that were behind St Anton. One could take a bus to Zurs, but it cost 8 Euros. Plus, there was a way to ski over the mountains and ski down to another town which had a free bus to Zurs. This was also more adventurous since I had to take a series of lifts to get over the peaks. I got to Zurs in the afternoon and ended up loving the terrain there and figured I'd head straight there the next day.



It snowed overnight and below me was fresh, untouched powder snow... mmm...


My skis are an all-mountain ski, meaning that they can carve on the groomed trails and also float a little on the fluffy powder. But not having a proper powder ski (fat skis, which don't sink in the light snow), made skiing in the powder a little difficult. But I was enjoying it.


Results of a mini-avalanche, where the top melted and refrozen layer of snow slides down on the fluffy snow underneath.


Those are my tracks in the fresh snow...


My ski pole... it's 48 inches long, so you can guess how soft and deep the snow was here.


The very informative trail maps at the bottom or top of chair lifts. Green tells you which lifts and trails are open. A trail will be closed if there's not enough snow covering the rocks and other hazards underneath.


There was a bunch of people in crazy ski costumes. Here's Superman, then there's a bunny and Dr. Jekly behind him, a leprachaun, etc...


Even though it had just snowed overnight, their snow making machines were going on full blast as they were taking advantage of the temperature being below freezing. It hovered around 0 deg Celsius the whole time, making snow-making difficult at times.


View from the chair-lift of my fresh tracks in the snow. No one else seemed to be skiing my little hidden area.


The sun finally came out to a beautiful day




I got a little too adventurous one time down the mountain following these crazy snowboarders. I'm looking back up at those little trees that I just navigated through.


Looking down at the narrow chute that I'd have to tread slowly down...


Looking back up where I came from


I got to a point where I had to take off my skis and crawl myself out of there. Yes, it's so soft.


The thing about taking off your skis in soft powder is that you sink very easily... up to my knees in powder...


...and loving every moment of it


Waiting for the Trittkopf Tram at Zurs




This is how skiing should be. The tram climbed about 3300 ft (1 km) in height in just 4 minutes and then it took about 25 minutes to come down the mountain. Perfect.


The first time down this mountain, I was loving it. Lots of Steep N' Deep terrain and no real set trails down the mountain. You had to be a little adventurous. The downside of being adventurous is that you can make the wrong decision and I ended up taking the wrong path down the first time and got stuck on top of this 100 ft cliff for about half an hour. It was lots of heavy uphill hiking with my equipment to get out of there. But still worth it.


The cool thing about taking the bus to Zurs is the road tunnels that you pass through. The tunnels are cut into the side of the mountain and it's very twisty.


Some turns were really sharp and only one bus could pass at a time.










Taking the lift back home


Some very steep rocks that reminded me of some Lord of the Rings landscape...


The setting sun of a great third day of skiing in the Alps


This is what's called a White Ribbon of Death - one trail with tonnes of skiers and snowboarders on it. This was the trail home where people with varying skill levels ski very close to each other. This invites accidents and I fell victim to one of them. Somebody turned left into me and launched me forward on the hard ice knocking the wind out of me for a while. Luckily someone else stopped behind me and put up their board to prevent anyone else from running into me.


The ski town of St Anton with lots of nice shops and restaurants


(Next Stop: St Anton, Day 4)

Europe - St Anton, Day 1 & 2

(Previous Stop: Heidelberg)

Now onto the main reason for this trip to Europe - 5 days of skiing in the Austria Alps. In the weeks leading upto the trip, I was getting nervous regarding the weather since this winter happened to be the warmest the Alps has experienced in a thousand years. Winter was having a late start and quite a few resorts had to delay their opening. But I seem to bring the snow with me where I go and it snowed about a foot or more in the days before I got to St Anton in Austria. It also snowed heavily right before my Colorado trip in December and also before my trip to Banff, Canada in Jan 06.

I chose St Anton after researching that it was a mountain aimed more at intermediate and expert skiers and that it was always a good bet for early season snow. I also chose Austria over the resorts in Switzerland or France because things were generally cheaper in Austria. Also, the chance to visit an authentic Austria ski town, which most resorts in the US try to emulate, couldn't be passed up.

I booked myslef in a little bed and breakfast (Haus Kleinhans) for 40 Euros a night, where I got my own single room with a private bath. The owner was very friendly and gave me lots of tips of where to ski each day and where to eat in town.

The difference between European and American ski resorts is in the amount of grooming that's done on the trails and the vast acerage increase. There're less defined trails in European resorts and lots more off-piste skiing within the resort boundaries, in general. My 40 Euro a day lift ticket got me access to five different mountains, which sometimes required a shuttle to get to the other side of the mountain.

St Anton, Day 1


Looking down at the St Anton valley


The new gondala that just opened this year, the Galzig Bahn




Mt. Valluga, the tallest peak in the area


It was still snowing the first day I was there and just a few days before, people said they were skiing on grass...


A communications tower on top one of the peaks














A snow cat, which is used to groom the main trails. As people ski on a certain trail, it will eventually start forming bumps and by the end of the day, a flat trail in the morning would become moguls in the afternoon. There was a whole army of these snow cats.


The Mooserwirt - on mountain pub. St Anton is also known for its very active Apres Ski (like a happy hour after the day's skiing). In Europe, it's also more customary to ski a little bit, take a little break, ski some more, grab a beer, ski some more... it's more relaxed. But almost everyone there (including kids) seemed to be advanced intermediates, at the least.

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St Anton, Day 2


The few trails that were mapped were marked really well with directions and colors, as well. Unlike the States, where the difficulty increases from Green to Blue to Black, in Europe it goes from Blue to Red to Orange to Black and sometimes this chanages between resorts. At least they're consistent with keeping a Black to be the most difficult.


Some fresh powder next to a trail. A majority of the skiers seemed to stick to the trail (piste) and only quite a few were venturing off-piste.


Day 2 was very foggy and visibility was very limited. There was lots of skiing like driving at night where you simply the follow the tail lights in front of you. I'd get behind somebody with a bright colored jacket and just follow them down.


This is supposed to make you a better skier, since you have to take whatever terrain comes at you. You can't plan a nice route around the bumps, you have to ride them and go with the flow...


A net to catch falling skiers. This was used in areas where the chair lift was crossing a small valley or if the terrain was unskiable below.


Mountains in the mist






Electricity tower in the middle of a trail


(Next Stop: St Anton, Day 3)

Europe - Heidelberg

(Previous Stop: Brussels)

Next stop was Heidelberg, Germany, a small city south of Frankfurt. It's a unique city in Germany in that it didn't get bombed during World War II and currently houses the US Army headquarters in Europe along with other NATO offices. It also has Germany's oldest university; Ruprecht Karls University, founded in 1386. The city is also known for an abandoned castle that sits on a steep hill near the main village.

I was visiting my friend Stephan who lives here and studies Mechanical Engineering at Karlsruhe University (a top engineering school in the country). I met him while at Texas A&M through IAESTE (the international internship exchange program).



The old church in the center of the village


A building from the 15th century (I think) that had a very posh restaurant at the bottom.


A view of the castle (schloss) from the village


A good German dinner: huge pork chops with savory bread dumplings along with a massive helping of sauerkraut, with a good local brew.


A typical village in the German countryside (Stephan's mom worked at a bank here). Note the black cat crossing the road...


A sign with a slash through it means the posted sign no longer applies, so end 20 kmph zone. As soon as we left the town and saw the slash sign, Stephan hit the gas.


On the Autobahn for the first time in my life. Having been a BMW fan since middle school and loving everything about the German Autobahn since then, I have dreamt many times about the joy of driving without a speed limit. Stephan didn't disappoint, taking the VW Polo to 160 km/h (100 mph).




Taking a twisty mountain road up the backside to get to Heidelberg Castle




The woods near the Schloss


"Left to the castle"


Taking a little hike through the woods to get down a little bit. It was quite slippery on the wet leaves.


The castle's main entrance to the left with some typical terrain in the background.






A building in the castle grounds with a blue-tiled roof.


This was a great shot cause this building had no roof.


Strange, but the castle also housed the largest ever wine barrel (that's me on top).


Refreshment from different eras. Another massive wine barrel.


The Bavarian flag from when the King from Bavaria (Munich) used to stay here.


View of the old part of Heidelberg from the castle's balcony.




Each lion here had a different expression


Stephan




View of the exploded amunition tower. You can see its walls are around 7 feet thick and there was an explosion inside of the amunition which blew it outwards.


Down in the village looking up at the castle


"Yes, sit here and relax and wait for the bus." It's actually a bus stop of a mobile library.


A monkey sculpture at the Old Bridge Gate.


Cool looking branches


Shot of the old bridge and the castle in the background.


The Old Bridge Gate




A typical side street with bars and cafes here and there.


They actually took the effort to lay down all the bricks in this nice semi-concentric pattern. It's worth a shot.


Taking a train to head back up the mountain to our car.


Wurst mit frites - bratwurst and fries. A most excellent train station meal. They love their french fries all over Europe.

(Next Stop: St Anton, Day 1 & 2)