Crystal Mountains

So as many of you know (or at least you should if you have been keeping up with your reading) we spent last week in the land of Southern Germany. 

It had been a while since we took an adventure and Nate was itching to get away from work for a while and enjoy the slopes that are so famous around here- The Alps! So we packed up his snowboard and hit the road. 

After a few days there we decided to take a break from the mountains and make the 45 minute drive down to Innsbruck Austria.  That's right- add another pin to our world map (and just in case you are counting that is 8 countries in a little over a year)!!

*Germany, Switzerland, France, Italy, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, and Austria*
Although is was freezing (OK, so literally below freezing) we still got out and walked around to see what all this little piece of Austria had to offer.

Our first stop was the Swarovski Crystal Factory- lets just say that this wasn't exactly what I had in mind.  We have seen several tours to this factory advertised since we moved to German so figured it must be worth our time.  I pictured a glistening assembly line of crystals and displays of some of the finest jewels that Swarovski has ever produced- what we found however was a modern art museum full of dancing pants and opera singers (literally).  I spent the entire tour trying to connect waltzing planets to brilliant bracelets with no luck.  The only time that we even saw crystals was when they were trying to sell them to us at the end- and lets just say that Nate wouldn't go for the 80 Euro crystal pacifier (that was about the size of my thumb nail). 

After that we strolled through down town and took in sights like the Golden Roof, the City Tower, and  all the colorful buildings that line the river!  We ended our tour of Austria by stopping for some delicious pizza that I have come to love so much. *Don't worry I won't mention here that after I happily downed an entire pizza I almost threw it back up when I saw the bill- I don't know when I will ever get used to paying over ten dollars for two small sodas (I mean get real you can by 3 twelve packs for that in the states)- especially when the pizza itself only cost $8.*

As if it isn't impressive enough to say that you spent three days snowboarding the the Alps there were a few things that made a trip a little more memorable!

* In the days before we arrived the World Cup was held on the same exact mountains that Nate was snowboarding, and the path was still clearly marked- How many people can truthfully say they have tumbled down the exact same track as some of the worlds greatest! 

* The U. S Women's ski team signed autographs at our hotel the day after sweeping the Wold Cup!  Lets just say that I don't have to worry about Nate straying on mountain.  As we were watching from our second story room I asked him if he knew any of the women and he replied by saying- I think the one on the end is Lindsey Vonn and the one next to her must be her brother (as they are both clearly signing hundreds of pictures of the WOMEN'S ski team). 

Luckily we made it through the week without any injuries and really enjoyed our time in the land of the snowy Alps!