It may be hard for any of you reading this from the East Coast of the US to sympathize with, but we haven't had much snow here this winter to speak of at all. I was getting a bit worried that with the weather and everyone's busy schedules there wouldn't be any chance for skiing or other proper alpine activities this season. Thankfully though, a couple of us managed a quick day trip to a place only an hour from Vienna. I definitely used it as a relaxing day to just enjoy the surroundings, with a side of skiing.
A gorgeous lunchtime view
Our little ski team
Aaaaaalmost sunny enough to sit outside...but not quite. Sadly by this point it was getting pretty windy and the ice pellets flying were a bit painful.
A little apres ski glühwein
As I've mentioned before, the square in front of the Rathaus is rarely ever just empty, and after the Christmas Market was all cleaned up, the next up is the giant ice rink. Along with the ice rink is this little mountain hut structure, which houses a restaurant and bar. So thankfully even if our days have to be filled with work, in the evenings we can still feel like we're in the mountains somewhere.
And of course, sitting inside here is super cozy and properly decorated. You do forget for a minute that you're in a temporary structure in the middle of town. I am really curious to know where all these decorations come from.
Tricky bar stools...looks a bit chilly sir.
Generally in winter around here there is a pretty constant grey sky, even if it's not super dark, but this week we finally got some truly blue sky and views out to the mountains which we haven't seen from school in several months.
A lovely dinner out with the girls
And of course some Olympics viewing. We went to a pub in town to watch the USA/Russia game, and by the end of this game the room was full of random Americans yelling loudly.
And winning the award for perhaps the most random event of the week, the "Kranensee" which translates to "Crane Lake", a "ballet" of construction cranes. Not exactly ready for the public yet...this is how we got up to where we could see.
There is a planned community being built out at Seestadt, and there isn't much there at the moment, just a giant construction site. The ubahn was extended to reach out there, which opened this past October, but none of us had been out that far yet.
There are about 45 cranes out there and someone composed a 15 minute piece of music which was then choreographed to the cranes moving and lights flashing and changing color on them.
The whole thing was oddly beautiful, with the lights reflecting into the water and the cranes moving gracefully around.
I'm having trouble getting my video to load on here so I'll try again later...in the meantime in case you're curious...several other people have posted on youtube:
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