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UPDATE: Anticipation is building as we countdown the days to seeing our families for the first time in nearly 2 years.  Tony & Nicky's wedding is in Krabi, Thailand next Saturday 26January & we can hardly wait.  We haven't been on a holiday for ages!!!!  LOL

anyway, here's a quick snap from today at the top of Salzburg - what a day and what a view

DAY 657 - doin' winter the Austrian way!

I was thinking of heading this post " the hills are...." but then I thought everyone would have that little tune stuck in their head all day.....oops there you go - I can hear you singing it already.

Mr Holzmann's milk tractor

....alive with the sound of cows mooing.  
We still get a giggle when we hear them having a good mooing session out in the shed.  The cows are tucked away nice and warm for winter, fed 5 times a day & milked 3 times.  We're also in the company of celebrity here at Farm Holzmann, being the home of the "Lady of Salzburg" a prize winning cow has been awarded many blue ribbons, which are stuck tall & proud on the barn wall.  Also twin baby cows where born on 18Dec....they are soooo cute for words and love a good tickle under the chin.  

This "white winter wonderland" is spectacular!  We didn't know if we would get use to the 'snow' driveway...aka the 4km road down to the village...but alas we are pelting up & down every day just like Herr Holzmann & his tractor full of milk & get a real kick out of it every time.  

On the night of our arrival, not use to driving in the snow, we started slipping & stopped half way up to put on snow chains.  Stupid us stopped in the middle of the road thus holding up a few cars, only to find our chains didn't fit...bloody dumb ozzies!  A tad embarrassing and perhaps something we should have checked before arrival???  Anyway a local guy came to our rescue with some valuable advice "drive on the soft fluffy stuff, not on the icey tracks of other cars" ....VIOLA we where on our way again no chains required.  We have winter tyres on the car, which makes this possible & now carry the correct chains.

Salzburg

As you can imagine the Austrian Alps are SMAZING!  High moutnain passes, snow covered peaks, frozen lakes & waterfalls....views abound in every direction.  Everyday we catch ourselves saying WOW....it's certainly a memorable winter.  Since we're "in da hood", we've checked out the beautiful city of Salzburg (40mins) and a day trip to Munich (1.5hrs) & a few other locations around the area.

It's unseasonably wet in this part of Austria & many of the Austrian's we have met keep apologizing for the weather.  Our Ski pass gives us access to 22 ski regions in Salzburg area so we can always find powder or excellent snow conditions, even if we wake up in the morning to rain & green grass on the hills outside our bedroom window.  

Skiing this year is a totally different experience than that of last year.  As our snow pass was only for Alpe d'Huez (and a few bonus days in neighbouring resorts) we got to know the mountain really well.  This year with 22 resorts to choose from...I've found myself sighting seeing, taking pics and enjoying the view a little too much.  Unfortunatly I'm not really sure if my skiing ability is going to improve this year (Paul's is - must take leaf out of his book) as I'm spending so much time exploring and not enough time on technique.

Our favorite ski resorts thus far are: Obertauren as it always has amazing conditions,  Hochkönig for its nice long runs with views (aka königstour) & black run no.14 at Zell am See (rest of Zell is too busy).  

Zell am See - Black No.14

Yesterday was a tad exciting as we saw someone get taken off the slopes in a Helicopter at Zell am See (well maybe not for them), it was a very spectacular rescue for a broken leg.  It's been snowing quite a bit the last 2 days, so I think we'll head out & do the königstour again today....hopefully we don't break a leg!

Zell broken leg rescue

Bischofshofen was over flowing with an extra 35,000 people who had come from all over Europe to view the final stage of the 4 Hills ski jumping Tournament on 6Jan.  Awesome event and once in a life time opportunity for us to see it.  The rian unfortunately didn't ease up but the Austrians don't let a bit of rain dampen their spirits.  They know how to party & keep warm by making good use of hot mulled wine & beer.  By the end of the night most where soaked through, muddy & taking 3 steps left and 1 step right, signing away to sweet Caroline - it was hilarious.  

Here's some footage of the jumping: 

Here's sweet Caroline being sung by the drunk Austrians.....apologizes for my singing - it was too funny not to record & share:

"other people" on holiday = manic queue 

Thousands of Europeans came to the Alps for a White Christmas and it was bedlam for weeks on the ski slopes.  The queues at the charilifts where manic, especially at the end of the day when your trying to get from one side of the resort to the other where you parked the car.  We'll be in Thailand for the next round of holidays thank goodness.

They have all gone home now so its quite and we once again have the slopes all to ourselves.  Its just under 2 weeks before we head off to Thailand for Nicky & Tony's wedding so we are making the most of it plus the weather gods have been kind to us are we are being treated with fresh dumps these past few days so the conditions are just perfect.

I got a quick glance of my naked body in the mirror the other day and it's safe to say the Greek tan is certainly fading.  It's remained well hidden under all these layers in Austria and the wonderful summer spent in our togs seems like a summer time ago....funny that!  My pimply bum still glows like a Scottish neon light bulb & unfortunately the rest of the body is fast catching up.....Bring on the sun in Thailand.  

My camera hasn't recovered well after dropping it in Hungary so the photos I've taken thus far are not really that great....but I'll post a few anyway.  Can't wait to get my new camera (Canon SX50HS) in a few weeks so I can then spam facebook to make up for it.

....with the sound of.......MOOOOOOOOO