Sunbathing in Kitzbuhel

Brock took this photo from the porch off our room early on Tuesday morning (1/21).

It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day. We got a late start and were up skiing by noon. After one icy run, we decided to grab some lunch on the mountain along with some sunbathing and a bier:

This was Brock's view while enjoying that bier:

I guess we're just too spoiled by those Big Sky powder days to want to ski on ice! We turned back soon after lunch.

The Men's World Cup ski racing comes to Kitzbuhel on Friday! This will be the 80th running of the Hahnenkamm Rennen race (downhill, slalom, and super-G). There are lots of preparations going on now for this race. Here is the staging area and starting gates (to the right) for the races at the top of the Hahnenkamm Gondola:

This is a good shot of the course, taken from the gondola on the way down:

The town of Kitzbuhel is expecting an influx of 50,000 visitors for this event, which is why we're glad we will not be around to experience this joy!

The shuttle service is amazingly good at this hotel. We rarely have to wait more than a few minutes to catch the shuttle. Here we are waiting for the shuttle at the base of the Hahnenkamm gondola station:

We are continually experiencing new things at this hotel. On this evening, after some much-needed massages, we relaxed in the beautiful bar area; here are some scenes from this area:

As you can see, it's an unbelievably beautiful bar!

Daniel, the bartender, found Brock some Maker's Mark (they were originally out), so now they are best friends for life!

For the first time, we ate our buffet dinner in the adults-only "Squirrel Room" - so named because of the decorations in the room, from the lights:

to the artwork:

So glad we didn't miss that!

We returned to the bar after dinner, and much to our surprise, there was some entertainment: a pretty woman playing American cover tunes on the piano! She was pretty good and it was lots of fun.

We had bought a 3-day ski pass with 4th day free for 150 Euros each. That is close to how much you would pay for 1 day of skiing at Big Sky Resort! Since today (Wednesday, 1/22) was the free day, without guilt, we opted out of skiing. Instead, we both got some good workouts and stretching in the hotel fitness center early in the morning. Before we left the hotel, we checked out this Suit of Armor in one of the lobbies. In case you don't know, I am "wanted" in Geneva for touching an antique sword. There were no signs anywhere to be found on this display, so why not touch?

Then it was on to the center of town for shopping.

We found a few fun souvenirs, then since many stores in town closed for lunch at noon, we stopped for lunch at the Italian restaurant Chizzo:

When we returned to the city center for shopping, we discovered that those shops which did not close for lunch at noon, closed for lunch at 1:00 p.m.!

We are having dinner at A-Rosa Hotel's Steakhouse tonight, then driving tomorrow to Val Gardena, Italy. It is supposed to be a 2-1/2 hour drive, so that means it will probably take us 3-1/2 hours!

We have not hit the Kitzbuhel ski area at the right time to enjoy the skiing, but the hotel has been totally first class in every way, and we're so glad we got to experience that!

Vertical feet skied on Tuesday: 5000.