Reporting from the slopes

This morning it seemed that somebody had stolen the mountains - all in thick snow, couldn't see more than 20 meters. Anyway, the locals are used to it and the ski school was on, so we went up the mountain as well to give it a try. Not great visibility but better than expected. Also we couldn't ski quite as fast because of all the fresh snow. Then had a run down the small slope with the kids before lunch break. And the sun came out and it was beautiful. The whole village smelled of vanilla sauce and "Kaiserschmarrn"! Yummyyyyyy!
By the time the break was over the valley still had sun but in the top we were in a thick cloud. We skied down and went over to the other side, that had a little bit more sunlight. That was really magical with clouds below us and on the top. It kept changing rapidly. For the last run the sun had come out just a tiny bit over the tops on the other side, so the tops of the mountains peeked out from a thick snowcloud. Then further down the clouds were so thick, we could hardly see a thing and it was so still like being stuck in a big ball of cotton wool. As we came down to the Startbahn, the boys were up there! They had their first day today going up with a proper lift and coming down a proper hill. They did so well and were so extremely proud of themselves. And Beatrice - she had gone up to 2500 meters with the big Kaiserbahn Gondola and came down all the way, part of the slopes being red and really tricky. Absolutely fantastic! Afterwards the ski school had a little party with drinks and their mascott Cow and music and dance.
Tomorrow we hope to do a little skiing before the school starts, so that all can make the most of the last day. Before the "Weihnachtsmann" (Santa Claus) comes...

What a scare

Yesterday the skiing went much better already although the afternoon was cloudy and suddenly everything was so white that you couldn't see anything at all - not where the slope ends or starts, not if it goes up or downhill. And the last Glyhwein didn't help but we got home safe. Then the promised sauna adventure took a bad turn. Started off really well but as I waited for two guys to get out of the showers before I could go out I probably overstayed. Anyway - tryed the snowrub outside which was nice and then into the shower which was not very nice as I felt I was going to pass out. Somehow managed to grab a towel and sit down. One fellow sauna-goer, a German gentleman helped with another towel and there I sat and it just didn't get any better. Don't know for how long. Finally Robert got fed up being in the pool with the kids and came looking for me. Then I really had a blackout, probably not having to try so hard to stay concious. Only after he carried me to the pool area where the loungers could tilt ones feet up did it get better and after a while I could go back up. I guess it was a combination of the altitude, dehydration, too long sauna and then the steep drop of temperature outside. Not to mention the Glyhwein. Somehow alcohol has a different (read "stronger") effect at 2020 meters above sea level.
So I took it easy with the wine at dinner, which was very casual last night, only 6 courses! Skipped the wine and dessert and much better today.
The weather has changed and it was around 0 degrees today. Had to strip off, so hot! But it was also sunny and such brilliant skiing. Have become more daring by the third day and tryed out some new RED!!! slopes today. Really a great skiing day. And Beatrice went up the lift as well with her school. All kids really enjoy it and are making good progress.
Will probably give the sauna a miss tonight, just dig into the Tiramisu!

Snow paradise!

Now I will make you all green with envy! It is absolutely fantastic here in Kyhtai. We are 2020 meters high, white winter wonderland with bright sunshine and blue sky, -16 degrees yesterday, today feels a bit warmer. But because of the dry air this temperature actually feels warmer than 0 degrees in the rainy and windy Croatia.
Now just taking the break from skiing and letting the kids have a rest before their next session in the ski school.

We were so lucky to have driven to Zagreb a night before the outbound flight. As it turned out on Saturday morning Zadar airport was closed and we would not have gotten to Zagreb in time for our connection. Stayed in a small hotel near the airport, there was lot's of snow and very cold. A very funny place with colourful rooms and huge light fittings, just according to my idee fix about slavic taste! But friendly service and very quiet, we must have been the only guests. Then Saturday morning dragged our luggage through snow to the airport, at least 500 meters!
From Munich we took a train to Innsbruck in Austria. Innsbruck is a real gem in between mountains with small pretty lanes in the old town and several Christmas markets. After a stroll there and a hot punch got to our taxi and off to Kyhtai. It was starting to get dark already and it seemed that the temperature dropped with every km we passed as we were slowly winding upwards between the high peaks. It felt remote and a bit scary. By the time we reached the hotel the car thermometer showed -17 degrees celsius.
Got here just in time to settle and to get the kids registered for ski school and off to dinner. That was much more upmarket than we had expected. With a traditional Tyrolean buffet for Saturday night, the chef in Lederhosen serving meats and cracking jokes non stop.
As it was Beatrice's birthday they had decorated our table and made a cake for her with sparklers and all.
Yesterday then was the first proper skiing day. Kids delivered to school and off we went, me more on the bum to start with and sooooo embarrassed seeing all these 4-year-olds whizzing past! It was the perfect weather, the trouble was Robert dragged me to red slopes assuing that they are all quite flat. But then I had to get down no matter what. There I was falling down 10 times, loosing skies and trying to get them back on while the snow cannon was blasting straight into my face and all these crazy snowboarders whizzing past! All the blue slopes somehow still end with steap red bits and you have to get back down.
Then picked up the kids for lunchbreak, delivered them back and off we went again. This time had even a Glyhwein up in the "Kaiser-Maximilian-Hytte" and it went downhill like mad. But touch wood nothing hurt.
After skiing comes the best bit of our daily routine here - pool and sauna! And you must imagine Roberts delight to find out that it's a mixed sauna everyone in the nude! The Germans are really very liberal. So I sat there with my bathing suite and felt like an awkward Britton or something! I guess tonight it's gonna be off with the covers!
Kids have made friends in the hotel already, it is very child friendly with extra playroom and lovely kids menues (not just chips and nuggets!). Last night they served another feast - Gala dinner with 7!!!! courses. I only managed 6 though, had to roll myself to the elevator before cheese. To work it off we should really be doing 40 km cross country skiing. But just as our table neighbors from Germany consoled - we will all go running after this is over. Anyway they served meat from local young bulls that was the best meat I had ever tasted. Just no matter how many calories it all made up.
Now it's time to go and deliver the kids to school. They all seem to enjoy it a lot although Raoul can't wait to get to the big mountain. And I will try to convince Robert not to got to the steapest slopes just yet. Although it did go much better this morning already, didn't have to dig myself out from the deep snow under the blasting cannon. That's my scariest bit. So wish me luck!!! And I shall report back later about tonight's sauna experience...

Snow chaos

These few mm of snow that fell yesterday were enough for us to have snowball fight outside but unfortunately also to stall air traffic out of Zadar. We don't want to risk missing the connection from Zagreb tomorrow morning so will have to travel up there today by car. Such a beatiful bright sunny day today but quite crisp cold in the wind. Most of the snow is gone but puddles are still covered with thin ice.

Croatia

We are on the sunny island of Ugljan now off the Croatian west coast town called Zadar. Except that it is not sunny, in fact it is snowing now so that we cannot even see the small island that just an hour ago used to be some few 100 meters away. Not to mention the city of Zadar or the Croatian mainland mountains in the background.
We travelled last Saturday - a trip that felt almost as long as the whole way from Singapore. The trouble is that now in the winter there are no direct flights to Zadar from anywhere so we had a 5 hour stopover at Munich airport, then 45 min flight and then another 4+ hour stop at Zagreb airport. Munich was not too bad as there is lots to do. Beatrice and Raoul even went ice-skating! They have set up a small Christmas market in the outdoor area between 2 terminals and there is an ice rink. Also my old university friend came to the airport to see us, so we had a good few hours to chat while the kids were playing in the McD playarea. I hadn't seen Anja for 10 years now, so there was a lot of catching up to do. By the time we realized we need to get our connection we were really in a hurry already. I hadn't calculated in the time for passport control etc but of course we were leaving the EU!
Zagreb airport was a different story of course. A bit like Tallinn airport in the early nineties. The main restaurant reminded me of something even older. But it helped to kill the time. And of course we spent some of it on the playground in front of the airport building. Freezing cold and dark! A motorcade with blue lights passed through between the park and the terminal building at some 100 km/h. Don't know what dignitaries it transported but the speed certainly was impressive. The connection was delayed by a good half hour and it was after 9 already and I was worried that we might miss the last ferry from Zadar so I would end up looking for a hotel there at midnight. Luckily we made the ferry and got "home" just before 00.00. That made our total journey time to be 18 hours, 30 minutes!
Kids were excited to see daddy. I hadn't realized how especially the boys had actually missed him.
Robert had Sunday off and it was nice and sunny so we went to the top of the mountain here on the island to see the ruins of an old monastery. Verey exciting to go the last bit up hiking. And so good to see the sun after a week of darkness and grey skyes in Tallinn. The views are really pretty with lots of small islands dotted in the sea, hilly and green. There are millions of olive trees, the rest covered by big pines, palmtrees, oranges, lemons, wine. Beautiful clear water. Many marinas along the coast with most boats anchored for the winter. The island is very laid back, no big hotels, just small guesthouses, mostly people just let a few rooms in their houses for holiday makers. It looks all very meditarrenean and I could easily take it for an Irtalian village if they would change the signs. Of course out of season now and very quiet. Only a few restaurants open but food is good. They still smoke in the restaurants here so not very inviting with kids.
Sunday afternoon we took the ferry over to Zadar to have a wander around the old town. Very prettily located on a peninsula surrounded by a nice promenade. There is a water-organ - something we had never seen before - some holes in the pavement of the promenade and apparently the waves come in underneath and make sounds by pushing air through the holes. That way it produces a melody of the sea.
The other days have shown a more typical Croatian winter weather with wind and rain. So we have mainly stayed indoors and watched movies and played lego and games. A few trips to the playground but usually it is so cold in the wind that I start wanting to go back as soon as we get there. And today it is snowing... but it is the wet kind of slushy snow so no good for anything really. Forgot the cable for the camera so unfortunately cannot download any photos now.

Relocation

I should probably start a new blog now as the Singapore adventure is behind us but would not want to loose all of you, so will keep this one running for the time being.
We left Singapore after quite hectic few weeks on the 5th of December. Squeezed in a few hours by the pool and the boys Taekwondo on the last day and Beatrice delivered her hamster to the new owner.
The handover of the flat was quite a scrutiny - every lightbulb counted, AC remotes batteries, etc. I had had the whole place painted the day before and thoroughly cleaned but the agent still wasn't pleased. We'll see how much of the deposit we get back. They are real sharks. Even my Singaporean friend Corina was surprized at this level of meticulousity.
The last weeks in Singapore had been very rainy so the plan to make the most of the pool didn't really work as hoped. But the kids still got out quite a bit and there was always someone under our windows calling them out to play. That was really the best bit of living in a condo like Cavendish Park - not too big and it was easy to make friends, for the kids as well as for me.
Corina, Pat and the kids took us to the airport and shared a farewell currypuff after check in. It was really kind of them and a good warm feeling to know that in these less than 2 years we had made such good friends.

KLM was a good flight. Kind service and good entertainment unlike our last longhoul experience with Lufthansa. They had even upgraded the kids playarea in Schippol airport so that our wait didn't seem that long and unbearable. The boys were still a bit unsure where we were and which country and so on.

Arrived in Tallinn in early afternoon to be greeted by +1 degrees and grey skyes. We had a lucky coincidence with flight times so could meet our swedish grandma on the airport - she was on her way back home and had already checked in. So we had a half an hour at the airport. Then headed to the appartment that we had bought this automn without having seen it at all. So far I haven't discovered major hiccups, just small things that need to be fixed. But that's all minor. Main thing - location and size are good and having spent a week there now it feels quite good. Not a home yet as all our things are still on the way and we are kind of camping but nice enough.
We have had to struggle with jetlag this time more than before - due to the lack of light I guess. First morning kids got up 3.30 am and it was dark until 10 am. Already 3 pm dark again. So by 4 pm one feels that it is time to hurry home, have dinner and go to bed. A real struggle to stay up until 8 or something.
The main challenge for the week was to get Beatrice's school sorted. Most schools that I had emailed had given negative replies - no spaces. Luckily after lots of interventions Vanalinna Kool (The Old Town School) has accepted her. Now having been to my old school that is actually very convenient for our flat and Vanalinna kool there is no doubt in my mind that this is the best possible option for Beatrice in Estonia. She knew it immediately after the first visit and didn't even want to see any other schools. Therefore she never opened her mouth while in my old school. This one has better test results but clearly the general attitude is still old-fashioned and "factory-like". In fact mos schools at the top of the results list just aim for their ranking in the annual tests and don't pay attention to the individual abilities of the kids. Everybody has to finish the program regardless. Vanalinna is really friendly. Beatrice spent an hour with the psychologist there and I could see from afar that she was relaxed and happy. It has been abit tricky for them to establish which year she should join as the curriculum is so different from the British one. There will be even two girls in the school who went to Beatrice's school in Singapore for a little while.
Also went to see the boys kindergarten. The class is going to be much bigger than before and the schedule so different. As they can spend the whole day there they are expected to take a nap, which might turn out to be a problem. Otherwise it looks nice and clean, big outdoor space and near home.
We did have a hint of the snow one day and everyone was keen to take the sledge out already. It wasn't quite enough for that but at least for a small snowball fight.

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