Erin go Bräu!

Today was the Munich St. Patrick's Day parade which is billed as "one of the largest St. Patrick's Day parades in Europe." Dubious claim.
The best part was that our weather has improved greatly and it was 60 degrees and we had some sun. You can see that many people turned out and Guinness was nice enough to sponsor the event.

We had bag pipes and some small girls who were studying Irish step dancing but they also invited just about everyone else to march in the event.
The kids were questioning some of the marchers including:
- The Munich area Bolivian History group (full dress and dancing)
- The Munich are Australian rules football team (feel free to join them on Saturday mornings!)
and
- The England-German friendship association

Our German friends questioned everything except the celebration of beer.

New glasses

David got glasses. They look pretty good.

Kristallhuette

On one of the few days that Daph could ski, we had the kids go to ski school and Joachim, Daph and I went to the top of the peaks to a "hut" where people relax before/during/after skiing.
The best views of the region come from a lodge built on the peak with large sitting areas for sunbathing, coffee drinking (morning), and preening (apres-ski).
Here - Daphne is posing with Joachim in front of the mountains that extend south beyond Italy. Daphne not only maintains total safety with her helmet on for the slopes; but also on the huge deck of the lodge. Joachim shows that as a true Bavarian, he not only doesn't ski with a helmet; he could ski to safety even without his skis. He is the best skier I have ever seen.
It was 10.30 in the morning on the deck but Daphne wanted to show how sunbathing could work (take off your helmet for effect). We loved the glass walls. We couldn't capture the steep drop off to the certain death below the perch - you will have to come visit for yourself.

If you make the trip - they have table service with fur blankets for your comfort.

Local find in Austria

One of the best parts of traveling with some friends in Austria has been to explore the local area where we are skiing. Right next to our rented house was a building that said they produced schnapps. Here is Daphne and Katarina walking across the parking lot.
Joachim and I searched out the owner and he showed us his 'schnapps keller' where he explains how he learned to brew the schnapps over the past 50 years of his career (from his grandmother). He invited the two families to learn how he maintains his own farms and orchards to ensure there are no pesticides or chemicals in the berries before he uses them in the process.
Everything seemed out of the old country until we went into the 'keller' or basement to see where he actually distills the alcohol.
He would not sell anything until someone actually tasted the vintage - here he is pouring a taste to our friend Joachim.
He actually will not ship a single bottle unless he knows the people so he is constantly having people ask to come to his village. He said he is an international schnapps brewing champion (meisterschnappsbrewer) since 2002 and does not need additional problems.
Daphne asked if he knows how to properly fill a ocean container. The boys asked if they could go home to play Wii.

Tirol adventure

If you look just south of Germany, you will notice that there are many large mountains that have produced some of the most accomplished winter Olympians in history. We were lucky to join our good friends in renting a house to go skiing in Kaltenbach which is in the Zillertal valley of Austria. It is nice that it is so close (90 miles), and less than two hours away from our city apartment.

The valley has a huge vertical rise which produces steady skiing from October through May each year. We took a 15 minute gondola ride each day to reach the "snow" and then took lifts from there to the peaks which rose above 3000 meters.

We had to begin by getting gear which meant the usual interaction with nice locals as our group caused chaos in the store. David discussing how he was going to jump the tallest peak, Brian indicating that he was looking to get back to the house for dinner each evening, and Julia discussed how, on the whole - she would rather be in Philadelphia.
Here is Brian going up the first Gondola.
The views were outstanding! The mountains rose straight up and produced stunning panoramas.
The boys were sent to ski school with the German, Austrian, and Dutch kids while Julia tried to say how she would like to stay home and read/knit. She was unsuccessful. I made her attend "Dad's ski school" which was tough at first but improved as she realized there was no other option except to join Brian.
Classes included - pretending to have some fun, going slow in non-dangerous situations, taking long breaks during peak skiing hours to have an expensive Pepsi, and taking your father's picture during a sunny lunch. She got a B.
Our weather was great - sunny and bright with unlimited visibility and temperatures of 0 degrees C/ 32 degrees F. You can see that Julia had plenty of snow to turn in on the hill.
By the end of the week - it got good enough that she couldn't complain.
The only problem was that our best skier - Daphne - experienced chronic knee pain and swelling that only allowed her to ski on 2 of 6 possible days. This was like taking George to the park to play with squirels but keeping him on the leash while his friends feasted on unlimited small prey. BTW - George had a vacation at the kennel.