A few days off

We had two days off after the Cesana races and didn’t want to waste them while in Europe. Unfortunately there weren’t too many things that close by that we could go visit. We have a limit on our mileage on the car for the month and we didn’t want to drive too far and go over.

Caleb myself, and Kimber decided to go to wine country are in Italy. We headed towards the Barolo and Barbaresco areas. We figured we could have some good wine and relax for two days and see some pretty awesome Italian cities.

It was a ton of fun; the first day we got there the weather was beautiful and sunny. It was Sunday and in Italy nothing is open on Sundays. It’s a really cool concept but really different being from the US and all. So we basically walked around lonely towns until we found a place to eat. It was random down a side road in one of the towns, but they had amazing food. There were a lot of families eating at about 2:30 or so, we think they must eat supper on Sundays because they were eating the full 4 or 5 course meals. Again another great concept, very family oriented. The three of us on the other hand had just eaten so much for the past week 3 courses for lunch and 5 for dinner we couldn’t bear to eat more than just one, didn’t even have room for dessert. It was amazing food though, that is the best part about Italy.
We went back to the hotel and just hung around for a little while, unpacked and then decided to go walk around the town we were staying in. Again a really nice town, a lot of stores and some were actually open on the Sunday night. This town was a little busier than the small wine towns. Good thing or we would have been extremely bored! We found an amazing pizza place to eat at, it only cost 4.50euro for a pizza, talk about an amazing deal. (I know it sounds like we had just eaten lunch but the night was actually getting late, we do more than eat, time flies by and I don’t know how.) We decided to get pizzas for the next day so we could have then for lunch!

The following day was a pretty gross day out. It started out just rainy and cold and slowly turned into snow. We walked around a town and checked out some of the old buildings. The problem with being tourists in the wintertime is that nothing is really open. We couldn’t see a few of the castles we wanted to but the towns themselves are worth walking through. Caleb found a wine store with really good priced bottles he wanted to buy, so Kimber and I sat there and drank amazing cappuccinos while he read the list and decided. (Another amazing part about Italy would be the to die for cappuccinos). After that we had appointments at local wineries, I’m not going to lie I was a little skeptical I was afraid to be bored. I had the best time at both wineries. The owners and wine makers sit down with you and personally pour their wine for you and talk to you about it, and listen to what you have to see about it. Its crazy the history that goes into all the wine and how many family generations have had their vineyard. On owner was telling us that he thinks this type of wine will die with his generation because the younger ones don’t care enough. I found that to be really sad, I wouldn’t mind coming to Italy and living on a vineyard, it would be like the Parent Trap. That’s a good movie. Speaking of movies if anyone wants to get the Italian wine experience through a movie go watch A Good Year. I saw that one a while and couldn’t stop thinking of it all day.

Ironically enough we went back to the same pizza place for dinner, we couldn’t help ourselves! I think we all fell asleep at 9:30, what an exhausting day, but a ton of fun and a great way to refresh our minds!

12th and 7th in Cesana ICC races 5 and 6

Let me first start by saying Cesana is the track from the 2006 Olympic Games in Torino. They built the track about an hour and a half north of Torino because of the colder weather. They tend to do this a lot for the sliding sports. When we have races here we stay about 20 min past the track up the mountain in Sestriere. Its a nice town, small ski town with hotels all over and people walking in ski boots.

The first race in Cesana was Friday (yesterday) I finished 12th. I had been having problems with track all week, I wasn't understanding it and couldn't go fast or have good runs. I figured for the race I was just going to let it happen and see if I could make something click. That wasn't too much the case yesterday I had two decent runs that weren't very fast, and with some mistakes here and then that added up to big mistakes. I wasn't dissapointed at all since I have only been here once before which was last year.

The race was crazy though its still snowing, on top of the 7ft they got in late December it won't stop. I think we got over a foot of snow yesterday. This morning when I woke up it was snowing again. The track is almost completely covered, everything but the start. You don't see any snow in the track only when you load the sled and continue into corner 1.

Race day number 2 I finished 7th today. I am so excited. My first run was amazing the best I had all week. I made one major mistake I hit the wall before the first corner which is slow. So I was hoping to improve my second run. I was in 6th place after my first run. My second run was not as pretty as my first I made a lot of mistakes that just add up once you get to the lower part of the track. I fell back one spot, at least I didn't fall back more than that.

At first I was a little disappointed because I hate falling back in races, it is my goal to not do that this season. I realized that for the second time on this track I can't complain too much. I was able to put things together in the second race and I learned a lot about how to drive on this track. I am very excited that I finished 7th and am growing to like this track because if you had asked me in the beginning of the week if I like sliding here I would have said no.

If only someone would go play in the snow with me that would be perfect. I don't think anyone wants to get cold though. So I might have to go jump in the snow piles by myself since I have never seen this much snow in my entire life!

Thats all for now, have to start packing for our next stop we have a few days off so I will keep everyone updated on what we decide to do!

After that a pitt stop in Venice, Italy

After leaving Cortina and heading for Cesana, we decided that we would stop for a few hours in Venice since it was only about an hour away. It was complete spur of the moment and we didn't have long time to spend there before needing to get to the hotel in Cesana.

Unfortunately the weather wasn't very nice, it started out just being really foggy I kept hoping the sun would come out but it didn't. We parked and walked across the main bridge. It is such a cool city. I thought it was so weird just being right next to the canal the whole time. If we had more time it would have been so much fun to take a boat tour, but we were cutting it close.

We walked around and stopped in some of the Vencian Glass shops. The glass is beautiful, made right there in Venice. They make amazing things, dishes, decorations, jewelry. Everything and anything really, at a decent price I was very surprised. I wanted to buy the entire place, but I thought it would be best if I didn't.

We had lunch at an Italian place, it was cute and I had the best pasta ever. Raviolis with pumpkin sauce they were amazing! The waiter was telling us about the flood they had a few weeks prior. They got about a foot of water in the building. I think its crazy that the city floods but still looks as beautiful as it does! There is graffiti all over the place which is very surprising. You would think the city would clean it up.

If anyone is every looking for a place to vacation go to Venice, but wait till it gets warm because it started raining pretty bad which was not fun. Everyone walks around with umbrellas though and I really thought I was going to get poked in the eye with one. Luckily none of us did.

Really if anyone ever wants to go bring me with you please!! Thats really all I have though, since we didn't get to spend any time there. I'm just glad I got to see Venice once in case thats the only time I ever get to go.

24hr stop in Cortina, Italy

After we picked up Kimber at the Munich airport Sunday morning we headed on our way to Cortina, Italy. There really was no reason we decided to stop in Cortina. Just the fact that there is a bobsled track there and skeleton was suppoesd to race on it this year, but they didn't open the track because of financial problems.

The drive in was insane the mountains are crazy (they are pretty awesome everywhere but these were unbelievable.) Here are just a few pictures.

Realizing now that we would probably never get to slide in Cortina we thought it would be a cool place to stop. And it was the town was so old and cute. Its not a very big town but main street has a lot of shops, and some cool old buildings.
We walked around main street, for a while and checked out some of the shops. Most of them were having amazing sales, I was very surprised. The festival of ice sculptures must have just finished when we got there, because there was about 20 sculptures of animals or monsters. They were amazing. Probably about 10-15 feet tall or bigger.We were complete tourists and took pictures in from of them. Caleb me and Kimber in front of the polar bears.

The next day we drove around the town to find the bobsled track. It took a while to find, since they weren't using it this year they really didn't plow around it. We found some of the corners though, and it was crazy there was about 5 feet of snow in it. After that we drove to almost the top of a mountain just to drive and see the view of Cortina from the top. It was really awesome. I love the town, its just so beautiful.

We didn't do too much, we didn't have a lot of time. It was just a cool stop for a day off.

From Konigssee to Munich

Before we left for Munich we decided to stop and do a little sightseeing. We drove up Kesltien, the mountain that Hitler's Igls Nest is on top of. During the winter you can drive all the way to the top so we didn't get to see it, but it was a beautiful drive and must have gone up another 2 or 3 thousand feet in elevation during the drive.

After the race in Konigssee (so now this was Saturday the 17th) Caleb and I headed back to Munich to spend the night before picking up Kimber at the airport the next morning. It is only supposed to be about a 2hr drive from one place to the other. About 45 min into the drive there was a decent amount of traffic just going a little slower than extremely fast.

We didn't think anything of it really. They have electronic signs that change when things are happening on the road. This sign was a triangle with cars saying STAU at the bottom. We didn't know what stau meant and from the picture I was just guessing that it meant slow moving traffic ahead, because that was all that was happening.

Well we came to a dead stop and at that point decided to look up road signs and words. Well STAU mean dead stopped traffic. Funny, if only we had looked it up sooner we might have been able to take another road. But no so we sat in traffic moving about 5 or 10 feet every so often. Then we stopped moving. In Europe when you are in traffic and aren't moving you have to shut the car off. So we sat with the car off for 2 hours! Luckily it was a warm day so we weren't freezing.

If you think about it is so smart to shut the car off, you save so much gas. I think they stop the traffic completely when there is an accident since we were on the autobahn it must be a safety issue. At least thats my opinion!

We finally made it to Munich. We were going to visit the Germany museum of science history, but by the time we got there it was closing soon and we were tired. We stopped at a nice wine bar and were planning on heading to the Hofbrauhaus but it is really crowded on Saturdays and would have been insane. So we just went to the hotel and had dinner.

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8th at Junior World Championships

It was a difficult week for me in konigssee, Germnay. The track isvery tough and you need to find that rhythm in order to slide well. I got half of the track down, which is a step in the right direction. I am hoping when I come back at the beginning of February I can figure out the rest. With any of the German tracks, the most important thing is getting more training runs, which is hard to get on these tracks.

I wouldn't say I am dissapointed. I didn't crash this year, so that's a positive step. My runs weren't anywhere near perfect.That's what happens sometimes. Next stop is Cesana, Italy for the Torino track. There should be a lot of snow waiting for us. They got about 7 or 8 feet in December right before Christmas.

I have pictures from Konigssee I will post as soon as I have internet again.