Ski Week 2012: Austria

A proper Austrian lunch - hillside.

The family on top of the world.

Skiing at Hochjoch. 

More Hochjoch.

Ready for some fun.

Hard to get tired of this.

Taking a break. 

Local restaurant in Tschagguns - traditional Austria cooking.

We tried snowshoeing.

Ann tries it too.

Appetizer at dinner - the food was fantastic.

Kid table - Anna and Kate with friends Daisy and Hamish Evans.

Adult table with Kylie and Mark Evans.

Tschagguns church - we welcomed the bells each morning.

Our home in Austria - we loved this place and its people.

One of the many things we like about Switzerland is ski week - the time off from schools for families to go skiing. This year we headed to the Montafon area in nearby Austria. Maria found us a nice (very nice!!) hotel nestled in the small village of Tschagguns - Montafoner Hof. From our hotel, we had access to the ski areas of Golm, Hochjoch, Grasjoch, Nova, Versettla and Valisera. Except Golm, all these areas were connected. Montafon is a family friendly area offering many groomed runs for beginners and intermediates, and some off-piste fun for more advance skiers. We had snow early in the week and sun at the end - we couldn't ask for better conditions. In addition to the skiing, we met really nice people. The hotel staff went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We think they purposefully put us next to the Evans family, the only other English speakers in the place. Aussie's now living in Luxembourg, we quickly made friends with them and Daisy, their 11 year old, became friends with the girls. We plan to visit them in Luxembourg. In addition, Kate and Steve took the snow bus home from Hochjoch and met Karin Sander, a lovely local woman, who helped them navigate the buses back to Tschagguns. The next day we ran into her and her husband Hubert on the slopes. Steve joined them for wine Friday night and the families will stay in touch. We love Austria, the people, the skiing and the food and look forward to coming back.