While the world was going to shit – Trump and Musk destroying the US government, thousands of people losing their jobs illegally and unfairly, allocated money not going where it was allocated. While murdered innocent babies were returned to Israel in the most disgusting way, and we were all reminded about the atrocity of October 7th and the entire situation…we had a truly beautiful and wonderful holiday in Austria.
We flew directly to Innsbruck, Austria. The plane landed in a gorgeous valley, right next to the amazing Alps mountains. We got picked up and drove about thirty minutes to our amazing hotel. I happened to be searching through the Hampstead Mums facebook page in July, looking for a great place to ski, and I found a thread that had a recommendation for this random hotel, VitalHotel Edelweiss, in this random place I had never heard of. The random woman said she goes every year, and it’s wonderful. I looked at the hotel’s website, looked at the reviews, and it looked truly amazing (and reasonably priced, compared to other options I explored), and we took a risk and made a booking.
We had to get the nicest room in the hotel, because it was the only one that fit 5 people. It was two storeys, had a room with three separate beds for the kids, and bedroom upstairs for me and Matt, two full bathrooms, a great table for games, a big couch, lots of outdoor seating on two balconies with amazing views of the Stubai Glacier and beautiful mountains, our own sauna and tub (the tub we didn’t end up using). The room – and the entire hotel was newly redone and so so beautiful and clean. It felt more comfortable than our London home. We all slept so deeply. Breakfast, a large afternoon snack and an amazing dinner were all included. There were loads of fresh vegetables, fruits, deliciously prepared healthy food, lots of options. Breakfast was a buffet, and dinner had a salad bar with tons of buffet options plus three mains to choose from – with an alternative menu available every night. The alternative menu included schnitzel, French fries, pasta, dumplings and fried cod, so if the kids didn’t like the mains offered, they always had something. The fresh bread, croissants, desserts, crepes, EVERYTHING WERE SO SO GOOD. They have about 50 something rooms, and they said they were all taken, with about 125 people total, and it didn’t not feel crowded or stressful. They had a great room for all of the ski equipment, transport to the glacier (15 minutes each way) at times that made sense, an amazing indoor/outdoor pool, plus an indoor pool, ping pong table, gym, spa (which we didn’t use)…I need to find a way to get back to this place. In any season. It was glorious. Though we do amazing vacations, I don’t usually actually enjoy them while we’re on them. I usually stress, don’t sleep, worry about ridiculous things (bed bugs, stomach bugs, lice, food poisoning, someone getting super sick, stupid things I can’t control that generally don’t happen…) and am not the most fun. This holiday was totally different. I was so so relaxed, so happy, enjoyed everything.
Matt, Elie, Koby and I generally spent the days skiing. The first four days, then the last day, we got up early and got a ride to the glacier. The boys went to ski school for the three middle days. We skied the rest, and then took a shuttle back. We had lunch on the top of the mountain each day. Lots of frankfurters, bratwurst, kneidelech, pretzels…The skiing was great. The entire area was smaller than Les Arc where we were last year, but there were some great, long runs – the longest being more than 10km from the very top to the very bottom. I did that twice, and Elie did it with me the last day. There were very few black runs, mostly blue and red, which everyone in our family can do. I loved it. We had a few eventful occasions: one where Koby fell down a very steep slope off of a tow-rope type of lift. It’s a bar that you put behind your “underbutt” (we decided it was your underbutt – we may have made that up?), and you hold on and let it pull you up, on your skis. He was with Matt, and it seemed uneven, and he fell off and slid waaaaaaaay down – and he hurt is thumb on the way, so he was a bloody mess when I finally got to him. Someone grabbed one of his skis on their way up, threw it at us, I grabbed it and skied down the mountain to find him. Some other dude got off the lift and helped Koby get his other ski and walked him down with his poles and bloody thumb, until I could reach him. He recovered fairly quickly (but Matt didn’t…). Elie had a bad fall on the last day where his skis happened to fly up in the air, he fell on his butt, and slid nearly halfway down the mountain, head-first, on his belly. I happened to be recording…Otherwise, the boys learned a lot and got better, and I enjoyed the skiing so much. Matt enjoyed most of it but was happy to go back early or come late most days.
Sam tried skiing twice last year, and she decided she didn’t want to ski at all this year. We got professional input that helped us determine that if she is genuinely happy to be alone and chill all day, and we’re all a lot happier when she’s not there out of her own free will, it’s better for everyone. I project a bit that it’s not great to leave her alone, or maybe she will feel left out or less loved, but she genuinely loves it. She slept in, went to breakfast on her own, read books, jumped rope and obviously watched shows, played some horse video game and texted her friends. She was very happy every day we got back. And she played Settlers of Catan with us each night. She even won her first Settlers game!
Sam's first settlers win
The one day we didn’t ski, we all went swimming in the indoor/outdoor pool for at least an hour – had it all to ourselves. Then we went in the sauna and all went to the nearest town, Neustift, to go tobogganing. We take a gondola to the top of a mountain and go down 8 km. Sam wanted to go super slowly and with me, so it was a bit slow for me, but we all had so much fun. (Though Matt thought it was out of control and dangerous) Elie and I went back the last day and did it twice.
the indoor/outdoor pool - what a view!
at the top of the tobogganing run
three tobogganers
We played an insane amount of games. We were back by 4:20 each day, went for a quick snack and then were free until 6:30/7 when dinner started. After dinner we also had time. We played at least four games of Settlers each night, loads of Splendor and Matt and I played Lost Cities at least once a day. I also finished one book (All the Colors of the Dark – whoa, it was good!) have read nearly an entire book (The Goddess of Warsaw – also HIGHLY recommend). I loved sitting in a swinging couch on our balcony, watching the sun set over the glacier.
Overall, I’m trying to figure out how we can get back to this area. No direct flights from Boston! But what a beautiful place filled with clean air, lovely people (though a SERIOUS lack of diversity – I saw three Chinese people, no south Asians, no Black people, absolutely everyone was white, and we heard about three Americans during our time (not at our hotel) and nearly no English. It felt like another world.
This was my first time going to Austria. First time in a German-speaking country. It was so interesting, because it all felt and looked so unfamiliar, but words and foods were so similar to what I know from Yiddish and growing up. I asked what the soup was last night at dinner, and she said horseradish. I tasted it, and it didn’t taste so spicy, so I asked what the word was in German, so I could look it up to make sure the translation was correct. It was chrain (like what we call horseradish at the Passover seder). We asked what the difference was between two lasagna dishes, and the cook pointed to one and said “fleisch” Like our “fleischig” (meat) dishes. We saw a soup for lunch that had kneidelach. My grandma used to make kneidelach. They were a bit different – more like matzah balls with ground meat in them, rather than dumplings, but it was so similar. We also tried another dish that was just like sweet kugel. It was weird to have so many familiar words and familiar tasting foods in a place that was so incredibly unfamiliar.
Truly a wonderful week amongst a feeling of doom in the world.
In other updates since my last post, we have seen a lot of theater – trying to maximize before we move back. Cabaret (wasn’t my favorite, but it was a cool experience, with the stage in the middle and cool dancing), Percy Jackson Lightning Thief (kinda a bad play but fun experience), Titanique (hilarious if you know loads of movies, which I don’t, but again, I enjoyed the experience), What we Talk about When we Talk about Anne Frank (absolutely amazing and so so up my alley – things I think about all day), everyone but me went to the Addams Family, the high school play at the kids’ school (they enjoyed it), MJ the Musical (the story of Michael Jackson. It was not my favorite. I don’t recommend it, but Matt enjoyed it).
Matt was home from 2 Jan until 9 Feb, which may have been the longest streak ever. It was great to have him around and not have to adjust and readjust as a family again and again. He really traveled a LOT over the fall.
I went on a few hikes in the countryside with the ladies and one as a family, though Sam went to a riding lesson and cleaned her room instead (see above for decision to leave on child at home who doesn’t enjoy the same things the rest of us enjoy). We also went on a day trip with everyone to Windsor to see Windsor Castle. It was pretty.
We went to visit our good friends from Singapore, Tali and Alon, who moved to a town outside of London. It was wonderful to connect with them after leaving Singapore so long ago! (10 years ago!!).
We also began the renovation of our house in Newton. They have knocked down part of our house and started digging. They, of course, found a problem with the foundation and it’s. all more complicated, etc. etc., but it’s happening. We were going to just add a bedroom, bathroom and office on the top floor, but in order to do that, we had to rebuild part of the first floor (or the ground floor as they call it in these parts). So as long as we were already doing that, the way it was organized didn’t make the most sense, and Matt convinced me to also do part of that floor too, so now it is a big one. And we’re hoping they can lay the foundation as the weather warms up next week, then they can start framing and moving forward with the rest. Oy.
My good friend, Alli, from Newton came to visit. We had a wonderful time catching up – she could see our life here, and we had some great food and walks around London. She was a trooper heading all the way out into the country to Elie’s ping pong tournament, when he wasn’t playing well and was super grumpy. She wins an award.
I also had some uterus surgery. My uterine woes never quite end, but I’m fine, and it wasn’t a bad experience. It just took a long time.
We had a half birthday party for Elie. His birthday is in August, so he doesn’t get parties with friends. We did a small thing two falls ago, but this year we did nothing. So he wanted to take four friends to a really fun place for tea. It was a bit outrageous, but he kinda never really wants anything like that, and other kids’ birthday parties always cost a lot of money, so we thought it was ok for him and four friends. Then they watched The Martian (he and I just finished the book – it was great!) and hung out.
We also nailed down dates to fly back and to be packed out, and we formally changed our address back to our house, so this whole moving thing feels like it may be really happening.
And lastly, of course, life has been full of the normal: school and cheder (Hebrew School) for the kids, horses and play practice for Sam plus a whole bunch of other support that has been making her year wayyyy better than last year. Ping pong, soccer and robotics for Elie. Soccer and American football for Koby. Loads of running for me (up to 9.6 miles! We ran to Canary Wharf! Making our way to that half marathon in just over a month), pickleball, tennis…And Matt works a lot and plays basketball. All in all, we’re doing well.
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