Patrik Naindenel

As Diana wrote in her last post. Me and my friend Lasse had planed our yearly skiing holiday in Austria for last week.

A really nice apartment was booked, big but for a good price. As we been there last year and found it great we booked it again. It is an apartment with 3 double bedrooms so no problem to be 6 persons really.

On the other hand it is nice with some space too.

I left home approx. 09:00, Saturday 7th and estimated a 5 hours drive to Kaprun in the Austrian, State of Salzburg. The weather was just perfect when leaving home with  blue sky and 3-4 degree plus.

I was just hopping that the traffic played on my side with no traffic jams. Normal when arriving Austria you can have traffic jam for 20 – 30 km but this time it was perfect and I could keep a good pace.

The weather became a little worse in the western part of Austria. Until I passed Arlberg tunnel (St Anton) with some light snow. After the tunnel it cleared up really nice with quite some clouds but some sun in between too. Durring the whole trip almost no traffic was on the streets. Ok it is in the end of season and I found it great to drive.

I arrived as planned approx. 14:00 with Lasse just behind me with a few seconds.

We was greeted by the house owners. Friendly and welcoming as last time. As we been there befor it went really quick to move in.

As soon as this was done we drove to the shops to proviant food, beer and wine.

When back at the apartment we had a deserved whiskey and a beer and start planning our week.

Where to ski. We could choose between Zell am See, Schmitten and Kaprun. Zell am See have more people. Last year the snow was so wet that is was like water skiing which are to dangerous we think. Then Schmitten is really wonderful and have nice slops and there they have a really nice restaurant too. But it is as well at a lower altitude.

In the end we went for the Kapruns slops to start with.

You are skiing at 3000 meters altitude down to 2000 meter. Which means the snow will be great even on a sunny warm day.

As it was the first day of skiing we though this would be a good warm up day. Blue sky and 6 degree warm at 3000 meter. Hard to think about a better start.

After the first day we went over to Schmitten where we where more or less alone in the slopes.

In fact durring the whole week all slopes was quite empty. All school holidays was over you could clearly see.

The week went perfect with skiing until lunch after that we enjoyed the sun and a beer or two.

Weather was good most of the time with blue sky. Some light snow in the afternoon one day. The last day it was quite foggy so then we had just one run. It was to dangerous with no contrast in the snow. Without that you cannot see where you have good a slop with not much snow or ice.

I suppose no one have missed out all the talk about the corona virus and no one in Austria either.

As there was not much people in the slopes or in the lifts. In the end it was probably more safe there than go shopping.

We did have both gondollift and sitting lifts most often by ourselves. Suppose I we would be in closer contact with the corona at work.

On the last morning the Austrian government pronounced that all skiing areas, hotels and restaurants must close Monday morning. We really hoped we would be able to leave Austria.

We managed to leave in time Saturday morning and on our ways back home we were alone on the autobahns. even around Innsbruck for me and Salzburg for Lasse. The check points at the border was as well not up running yet. Was probably to early as it was totally empty on both sides of the border which was fine with me.

Let’s hope this corona virus disappear soon as it starts to be annoying for everyone. As me and Diana have planned to visit Luna Azzurra over eastern it will need to change soon. We start both of us to doubt that it will be possible. We are keeping our fingers crossed as we really would like to visit Luna Azzurra and install the new spray hood, AIS and some parts for the Swedish flag which needs to be mounted.