Skiing in Innerkrems

Innerkrems, Talabfahrt Blutige Alm

Daily Schedule

Wednesday 23.02.2011: Painting day

09.00 o'clock: Good Morning! Here I am again, Smiley! I hope you are waiting for me. 

09.30 o'clock: Hocus, Pocus, Fidipus! It's magic time with Ines in the cinema.

10:000 o'clock: Put on your warm clothes and come with us to feed our rabbits. We meet us in the playing room on the 1st floor.

11:00 o'clock: Painting! Our T-Shirts are white and need colour. Come in the playing room we want to paint.

12:00 o'clock: Hungry, Hungry Hungry!?!! Come and eat with the kids and the child care in Smiley's kids-food-corner.

14:30 o'clock: We draw a colourful picture.

16:00 o'clock: Come in the playing room. We frisk a bracelet. Also Mummies and dadies are invited.

As the daily schedule indicates, every morning the hotel mascot, Smiley, comes out and dances and pets the children, to a saccharine fanfare:

"Ich bin Smiley / dum de dum / einfach Smiley / schooby doo..."

It's been an earwig for the whole family, even Joey, who every once in a while pipes up, apropos of nothing, "Smiley smiley / do do do." (Oh, Joey is fascinated with Smiley.  He talkes about him constantly when he's not there and his face splits with a grin when he is. However, one time Smiley went too far and tried to pick Joey up: "Nooooo! Scary Smiley!")

As irritating as it is to have that song stuck in my head all week, I realized this morning, on our ski shuttle run, that our hotel mascot situation could be much worse.  We paused at other local Kinderhotel to pick up some guests, and noticed their mascot.  Given the choice between a Smiley and (could that be?) Richard Nixon, holding a worried rabbit and a golf bag with a partially concealed rifle....well, I'll gladly take Smiley (schooby doo!).

Ella admitted that magic school wasn't all she'd hoped (instructions being difficult to follow in German), so she was happy to go to the mountains early today. While yesterday the kids only had an afternoon class in ski school, the official course, in which Dennis enrolled the kids, has two sessions each day, one from 10:00-12:00 and the second from 2:00-4:00.

Of course, that meant we were leaving Joey behind in day care for quite a long time: we had to catch a 9:00 shuttle, and the creche doesn't even really open until 9:15.  However, the stern-looking hotel owner assured us that she would take "personal care" of our Joey until they arrived.  I'm not sure what her real name is, but Dennis has taken to calling her Inga, so clipped and Austrian is she.  And Inga scary, too, for poor Joey.  He was not such a fan of being left behind, I'm sorry to say. As I left he was calling "Ella! Alex!" Interesting that he didn't call for me, although I suppose it makes sense. I had betrayed him to Inga.

The kids, now steadier on their skis and still happy from yesterday's encounter with Bobo and the clown, were much more content  to be in ski school this morning.  You may recall that Ella was keen to move up a level in school, and she did her best to advertise this fact by hotdogging for the teacher a little before class started, where, by hotdogging, I mean, plowing slowly down the mountain before coming to a full stop at the base.  We had explained to her that stopping was a key skill for advancement, and she took that quite to heart.  After each descent she looked pointedly and hopefully in her instructor's direction.

The view from the lift
was so dear.

A long string of empty gondolas: once again, we had a
mountain all to ourselves.

Gladly, there were a lot fewer tears and many more smiles on all the other kids' faces as well this morning at ski school, so we felt it was okay to head for the hills, stealing an hour and a half of skiing time for ourselves.




It soon became clear why Innerkrems is so invested in their ski school: their slopes were, well, not so great. None of the lifts to the blue slopes were open, so we were left with the harder reds. And the closest red to the ski school was solid ice, with a teaspoon of snow blowing wildly across at the crest.  At least when we fell (often), there was no snow to mark our shame.

The restaurant was very welcoming.

At the very top of the mountain is a little restaurant, and Dennis and I felt that a full 10 minutes of skiing called for a little coffee reward. We then stumbled down the mountain a few more times before picking up the kids for lunch.

At which point Ella gleefully told us that her quiet campaign had paid off. She had been moved to a different class, one in which she wasn't a head taller than all the other kids.

Alex, however, didn't share Ella's good mood.  He didn't like this, not a bit, and was quite ready to go home. However, I had one trick up my sleeve.  My friend had written the night before, saying that her daughter Sydney hoped that Alex would try skiing.  When I told him that, Alex got very, very quiet.

On The Sound of Music Tour, we learned that the mountain flower edelweiß is a symbol of pure and nobel devotion. Since it only grows on the highest peaks, finding edelweiß for a dear one is a quest of courage.

I do believe if Sydney asked for edelweiß, Alex would fetch it for her.  For when he heard Sydney wanted him to ski, there was nothing else for it.  We strapped on his skis and he wobbled stoically into line.

And Dennis and I followed Alex's good example and got back up on that mountain as well.

This one's for you, Sydney.

Joey was whole and happy when we returned at the end of the day, and, after a half-hour of wild playing with the other kids, our three were thrilled to find a chocolate fountain in the dining room.

There was quite a bit more wild dashing around and playing after all that sugar, but I do think my brave kids earned it.