Ian, Jonathan, and I flew to Innsbruck, Austria early Monday morning, Feb. 16, 2009, to spend 5 days of the kids' school break in the holiday village of Igls at the foot of the Patscherkofel ski area.
Innsbruck was the host of the 1964 and 1976 Olympics and is now a top ranked winter sports resort in the Alps with 9 skiing regions and 177 miles of runs. _________________________________________________
We stayed at the Bon Alpina Hotel just a 3 minute walk from the cable car taking skiers to the top of the Patscherkofel mountain. ___________________________________________
Jonathan still prefers skiing, but Ian likes to snowboard. Beautiful sunny skies beckoned the boys to hit the slopes by noontime on Monday. After purchasing them a half day lift pass, I cautioned them to ski/snowboard safe and enjoyed the sunny weather on a park bench at the bottom of the mountain watching the beginners on the bunny slope. The two of them traversed the 4.5 mile Family Run until late afternoon. Neither the slopes nor the lift lines were crowded, so it was an enjoyable day with the best part being it was only a short walk back to the hotel. There was storage for the skis/snowboard and heated racks for the boots in the basement of the hotel. Our hotel package included the breakfast and dinner meals and 3-day lift passes for Patscherkofel. The meals were average fare, so we didn't go hungry and the location more than made up for the bland food.
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It was a good thing the boys scouted out the ski trails on Monday because Tuesday was a regular winter storm with heavy snowfall. This time I rode to the top of the mountain with the boys, but there were no beautiful vistas. Visibility was only about 20 feet. I remained at the top enjoying the warmth of the Schutzhaus nursing a cup of hot chocolate so as to appear to be a customer while the boys skiied until lunchtime around 1pm. After eating lunch of wienerschnitzel and wurst with them, I returned to the hotel while they continued to enjoy the slopes.
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Our afternoon ritual consisted of watching "Seinfeld" episodes on our portable DVD player, reading books or napping until dinner time. There was a Spar grocery store just around the corner, so we had plenty of drinks and snacks. The kids attempted going to the pool one day, but it was too crowded with little kids. The hotel seemed to cater to families with young children. __________________________________________________
Wednesday was once again sunny and the scenery was spectacular with the added benefit of having about 6" of fresh powder. It was still too cold(-15C)to sit outside and enjoy the sunshine on the sun terrasse, so I spent another morning drinking hot chocolate and reading my book in the Schutzhaus while waiting for the boys to join me for lunch. 
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Thursday was the last day of skiing/snowboarding for the boys and I thought I should be a little more active myself. I scouted out the tobaggan trail for our adventure on Friday. The toboggan trail wasn't clearly marked on the map, but I was told the start of the trail was in Heiligwasser, a 40 minute walk from the Skizentrum. It seems the Austrians are just like the Norwegians and don't list mileage but instead prefer time as a marker of distance. I soon found the trail which was also a hiking and cross-country ski trail.
It took me 50 minutes to reach Heiligwasser, which I thought was pretty good considering how lazy I had been for the past 3 days. 
I continued past Heiligwasser for another hour enjoying the pristine snow and quiet of the wilderness. I was following a hiking trail that soon left the ski area behind and seemed to be in the middle of nowhere. 
I soon realized I never left civilization when my cellphone rang. The kids wanted to know where I was and where we were meeting for lunch. As I crossed under the chair lift on my way down, I heard "hey, Mom" and there were Ian and Jonathan. I managed to beat them back to Skizentrum. 
Ian mastered the jumps for the FlipVideo camera while Jonathan preferred to remain behind the scenes.
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A stay in Igls wouldn't be complete without a ride on an Olympic Bobsled, so we headed out to the Bobbahn on Thursday night. The guest bobsled was invented to let the general public have a try at this thrilling winter sport on ice. The guest bobsleigh held 5 people in addition to the authorized pilot. We left from the Ladies starting point and reached speeds up to 80 - 100 km/hr. The 800 m ride was quick and the 10 curves were the most thrilling part. It was all over in less than a minute. 
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Friday, February 20 was our last day in the Austrian Tirol Alps. Since our flight back to Amsterdam wasn't until 6:50pm, we still had a full day to enjoy the mountains. We rented toboggans and caught the local bus to the Skizentrum (no pass for the cable car) where we began our hike to the top of the toboggan run. It was snowing once again, but our physical exercise kept us warm. It was a 10 minute hike up a steep incline to reach our starting point, then just a 1 minute run to the bottom. We managed 4 runs before giving into exhaustion. Lugging a heavy toboggan (they're small, but solid) up a steep hill wore us out. We walked/tobogganned back to town where we ate a leisurely lunch, then read our books in the hotel lobby until our taxi came to take us to the airport.
For a voyeuristic ride on a toboggan ride, click on the video below:
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