Skiing in the Alps, Pizza in Italy, 220 kmh on the Autobahn

One of my co-workers, Joe, is pretty much the most avid skier I know. So when he found out he could go on this trip to Germany with our group, he set out to discover whether we would be able to ski while we were here.

Yup - just about an hour away, high in the Alps, a ski area was scheduled to close on May 1 - the very day we had off for sightseeing and whatever. SCORE!

However, other people persuaded me that Germany had had a very poor ski season, the ski area would likely close sooner than May 1, and skiing probably wouldn't happen. So I didn't bring my ski pants or gloves. I did bring my jacket and sunglasses, though.

Joe brought all of his gear (except skis and boots, of course - too much to lug) and was totally serious about going. And if someone is going skiing, and I have the day off, well, everyone knows where I would be.

We met for breakfast at 6:30. The car rental place was supposed to open at 7. Well, it's a national holiday - so it was closed. Strike one!

We hopped in a taxi and went to the train station. We could have taken a train, but a car-rental place at the train station happened to be open. We got a BMW 320S Limited. Now we get to drive on the Autobahn!

The car had a navigation system. We named the voice Ingrid and plugged in the general area we were headed to.

I wasn't really interested in driving, even though it was a hot car and a six-speed. On the way to the ski area, Joe got the car up to 230 kmh. No speed limit is amazing - kind of liberating and sickening all at once.

We found the town outside the ski area easily, then pretty much followed the road until we could see the train and cable cars that went up to the ski area. We took the cable car up - at times it was like we were scaling a rock wall, way above the tree line, and it was amazing and beautiful and a little scary.

The ski area - Zugspitze - is actually a bowl at the top of the mountain. I suppose more of it is open when there's snow, but it was probably 65 degrees and the snow was soft, spring stuff. At the top, there was only one actual chair lift and the rest were T-bars, which I'd never done before. We rented skis, and I hit the slopes in my jeans with running tights underneath for warmth. Joe thought it was warm enough to go gloveless, so I used his.



We hit every lift on the mountain that was open. They were all pretty much blue and green cruisers, so I had fun trying to go fast and keep up with Joe (which isn't actually possible, but I tried). We soon discovered, though, that the most fun to be had was in the terrain park.

Joe is pretty good, so I figured I'd just watch him and take pictures.



Then he convinced me to try a small box. All I had to do was ski straight onto it and jump off.

The first time, I was terrified and didn't come close to landing it. In the pictures, I look okay heading onto it, but then at the end I got scared and leaned back and landed on my bottom.

The second time, I almost caught myself before falling. But that time something cemented for me, and I knew I could do it if I tried again.

The third try was perfect. I landed it and skied right off. Sweet!



Then Joe suggested I try a small rainbow box. He promised it was easier. And I landed that my first try!

My second try, though, was a disaster. I fell off the side. The thing is, the photos from before I fall look like I was trying to go sideways, so it's sort of cool.






Joe was doing a larger jump and a much larger rainbow box, so pretty much for the rest of the day we took turns taking pictures and video of each other in the terrain park. The ski area was fairly empty, so it wasn't embarrassing at all.

At one point, Joe told me to go faster than I ever had over the rainbow box - so I got some speed leading up to it and basically launched off the first half of the rainbow into the air - and landed upright! It was amazing!



So at the end of the day, we decided to go to Switzerland. Joe thought it was just over one of the peaks we'd been looking at all day.



Well, let's just say our mental map of Europe wasn't as good as we thought. We bought a map, and found out it was Austria that was over the peak, not Switzerland. So we figured we'd go to Austria.

Joe drove while I studied the map. I realized we were actually pretty close to Italy, too - we could go straight through Austria and be in Italy in another hour or so.

We decided to have dinner in Italy.

How insane - and cool - is that???

So we drove at crazy speeds (when allowed...and the entire part in Italy was subject to speed limits) to Bolzano (also known as Bozen...everything in this part of Italy that we saw was in German and Italian). It was the biggest city we thought we could reach in a reasonable amount of time.

Once there, we were hungry. But Joe didn't have decent clothing - he had a base layer, board shorts, and his ski pants - so we knew we couldn't go anywhere super-nice. Plus, it was close to 9 p.m. and we wanted pizza in Italy.

We parked the car and walked around for a while, not finding a pizzeria. Finally, we jumped in a cab, said to the driver, "Buona pizza?" and that we wanted to be close to where we were. "One kilometer?" he replied. We agreed, and he drove us to a pizzeria. He also called over the manager as we were exiting the cab. I can understand Italian - can't speak it very well though - and I know he said that we were English speakers who wanted good pizza.

And OH. MY. GOODNESS. The pizza was incredible. Seriously. I had a pizza with roasted peppers; Joe had a pizza with salami; I also got a mozarella caprese starter. Everything was absolutely perfect and delicious. We got a bottle of wine, but only drank one glass each (plus a liter of water each) - and the restaurant let us cork the bottle and take it with us.

The drive back to the hotel - 282 kilometers by now - was a little rough. It was 11 p.m. and we were tired. We drank some Red Bulls we picked up at a gas station and tried to find something to talk about. But it was not happening.

Finally, we pulled off to get gas and go to the bathroom. When we came back to the car, Joe handed me the key and told me to drive.

I asked if he was tired; he said no. He said he really wanted me to drive.

I really didn't want to.

But I felt like it was not fair to expect to be driven around all day, so I got behind the wheel and started the car.

WOW.

Driving woke me up immediately. That car is freaking awesome. It was so smooth and quiet and just plain FUN to drive! I perked up a ton and said THANK YOU to Joe for letting me have the keys.

And then we got into the sections where there's no speed limit. Driving as fast as I want on super-straight, flat highways was incredible. I had to work into it - first getting accustomed to 140, 150 kmh, then moving up into the 160s and 170s. I ended up finding 170 pretty comfortable - that's like what, more than 100 mph - but I was able to push my speed at one point up to 220 kmh. That's FAST.

And it felt so awesome.

It was pretty much the most perfect day I could have had. Everything just came together - the car, the skiing, the weather, the traveling.

And now, it's time to work. That's why I'm here in Germany, right? Right? :-)