The Italian Alps

One of the disadvantages of shift work is that I quite often have to work on public holidays. Last year I worked Christmas day and Boxing Day, which really isn’t a problem as Christmas is celebrated on the 24^th here in Germany and I was off work on that day. For the New Year we spent a couple of days in Munich followed by a week in Süd Tirol in the Italian Alps. I found Munich really quite interesting and was rather pleased to find a Bayern Munich fan shop in the centre of town. By pure coincidence I happened to be wearing a Werder Bremen scarf. A photo was a natural formality.

On New years day we headed south through Austria and via the Brenner Pass into Italy. Our destination was the Sarntal Valley where with had rented a house on a farm along with family members Deepblue, Mr Blue and Boyblue. We had a wonderful relaxing week, with really good company and excellent food. The weather varied from lots of snow to clear blue skies. We visited Bozen to see the Otzi exhibition which we all enjoyed. It’s weird to see a 5000 year old corpse. The Juniorette and her cousin were learning to ski most days and after 5 lessons the Juniorette skied down from the top of the mountain with her ski instructor. This included a black run. Mrs H and her sister were on skis for the first time in 20 years and both did very well indeed. Rather then risk broken bones Mr Blue and I decided on filming events instead, although I have promised the Juniorette that I will learn to ski next year.

The week was over far too quickly. The Juniorette loved sledging every day and feeding the chickens & ducks on the farm. The farm house was built totally from wood and great to stay in. I think it’s safe to say we will be going back again next year.