When the tour bus crossed into Austria, I was surprised by how gorgeous the scenery was. I realized that I was looking at the Alps. Happily, we were able to stay in a chalet instead of pitching a tent in the snow. I cranked the heater up and felt warm for the fist time in weeks.
We had the opportunity to ski in the Alps, and even though I was a beginner and had only skied once, I wanted to have that experience. Of course, I stayed on the bunny slopes because I didn’t want to break an a
rm or leg. Besides, I didn’t know what I was doing. But apparently, the few people who had come with me had never gone, so I told them briefly what I knew: if you point your skis straight down, you go fast; if you ski in S’s, you go medium fast; and if you put your feet into a V-shape, you slow down and eventually stop. Everyone was hugely grateful, since people who actually knew how to ski were nowhere in sight. This was the Alps, after all. The views were much better higher up.
We stopped in Salisburg, where we saw a statue of Mozart. I even got to see his piano in the Mozart museum. I stood in the church where “The Sound of Music” wedding scene was filmed. The sculpture of a dove was at the very top of the dome. It was a beautiful church.
