...or the spotless glistening snow, 
...the snowflakes so large and perfect they sparkled and blinded like like diamonds,
....the glorious sunshine and clear, clear blue sky EVERY DAY,
...the absolute and complete satisfaction of the children at being towed in unison by their GPA and Daddy, 
...just the simple glorious mountain air,
...or being surrounded by incredibly majestic snow capped peaks of rocky Alp the entire way
...or the fact that we had GPA with us the whole time and we ALL were SO happy about that...
that seared this part of our journey indelibly in my brain, as the my UTMOST FAVORITE moment-of-the-day ....or not.
But it sure did...
More to come tomorrow...
The morning after we arrived found us bathed in bright sunlight in a large expanse of snowy valley surrounded by the Austrian Alps. Just beautiful and amazingly balmy and warm at between plus 5 and 10 degrees C all week. This is the view from our window. 
We walked the several hundred metres to the ski hill 
and got the kids and ourselves all kitted out for our first foray into skiing in Austria... and the kids first foray into skiing...period! Things proved to be a bit wobbly at first but ...
With the help of GPA 
....and Daddy (hey, I was driving the camera!) , and 
...after a few wipe outs (Riel claimed at one point to have had to dig snow out of his nostrils) and with great enthusiasm 
...both kids were zooming in no time! 
The local "Bobo" park or ski school for kids ran 10 to 3:30 with a break for lunch which mean that with Lily comfortable skiing in the mornings I could head up the mountain with TBG for a little adult skiing. What a treat!! I would have to say the conditions were simply super. 
Perfect!
I LOVE looking at this map...it makes me wonder who you all are way off in the far reaching corners of the world...if you feel like it...who are you? If you click on the globe map on the sidebar and then click "Map with smaller clusters" you will be able to see approximate viewer locations...too cool...
:-)
The train station, one of the cool HABA games-in-a-tin we play on the road, Riel and TBG peering back at us from in betwixt their seats, the oh-my-goodness-are-we-really-going-that-fast train speed of the super efficient German train service, slogging bags...thank goodness for strong 7 year olds...looking at the scenery change and rush by (our favourite thing about taking the train) and LOOK...Guess who we discovered at the Munich train station!!! And finally arriving a mountain from our destination...
Weeewww hoooo!!!!
PS..Is this collage not THE coolest thing...if you click on the collage the it will enlarge so you can get a better look!
MMMmmmm... I see raclette and fondue and lots of red wine in my future...
and then meandered through the old town area 
past the Market Church... 
here...
The old buildings are beautiful, sort of remind me of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and border on kind of a Glaswegian style of architecture...guess we are not really ALL that far from Scotland after all. So then I meandered down a few allies, discovered a very old church... 
and town square... 
that I had so far completely missed, I always love unexpected discoveries...
In this photo of the town sqaure you may notice some very modern sculpture in the thick of all this medieval architecture. Hannover is just sort of like that, due to the extensive damage sustained during the war large sections of it have been rebuilt and there is more modern sculpture here than in any other place I have ever visited...sort of cool...
... and wound my way along the river. 
an homage presumably to the first world war and the second shot ... 
...of the river Leine.
