Winter

The Death Pass – an excellence place for an Aussie to learn about snow driving

debbiekaye19803 Comments

My job is conveniently located (despite quite a long drive) just off the autobahn out of Graz, which means I have an easy run every day with no traffic problems. The only problem is that it also requires me to drive over ‘The Pack’ which I have affectionately renamed: the Death Pass.

It's not surprising it's always snowing on the pack
It’s not surprising it’s always snowing on the pack

It is one of the higher parts of the Austrian autobahn, climbing up over a mountain range and being notorious for heavy snow and ice. With my minimal snow driving experience, the thought of driving the Death Pass in winter scared the crap out of me. I was sure I was going to be stranded overnight in my car as thick snow slowly built up around my car turning it into an icy death den… ok so I was being a little bit melodramatic.

So now that winter is finally over, here are my more realistic reflections on the Death Pass.

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Christkindl Markets – Austrian winter at its best

debbiekaye19802 Comments
Christmas markets in Germany and Austria
Stalls fill every square

I’m talking about Christmas Markets. In Europe around Christmas the streets come alive in the evening with brightly lit markets and stalls squatting out in the cold, snowy streets.

The light fades early here, around 4pm and the temperature drops as soon as the sun disappears, but in European towns and villages, the locals rug up and head out for a night of festivities and celebrations. Continue reading →

Terror on the roads – my first snow driving experience

debbiekaye19804 Comments

My first winter, I had exactly one.

In retrospect, it wasn’t that bad. Though at the time, pretty traumatic.

Ice on windscreen
First thing you have to do is scrape the ice off your windscreen

I scraped the car windows and drove out of the slippery, ice covered parking lot. So far, so good. The weather conditions weren’t bad, but I had a 45 minute drive on the autobahn… and as I found out, conditions can change a lot.

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The joys of running… in winter and summer

debbiekaye19802 Comments

I like running. It’s easy, it’s quick and it doesn’t cost anything. And it’s something you can always do – you just have to rug up, right? Wrong.

Feel like running today? Not me.
Feel like running today? Not me.

Turns out we didn’t have a particularly cold winter this year in Austria (that’s what they tell me), but it was plenty cold enough for me! Though I managed to keep a pretty consistent outdoor running schedule I did spend quite a few days inside on the X-trainer!

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The endless search for sun in winter – hiking & sledding

debbiekaye19801 Comment

Living in a valley surrounded by beautiful mountains is very scenic, but it does have its downfalls. In winter we don’t get much wind (bonus), but that also means that we’re often shrouded in clouds, with no wind to blow them away (anti-bonus). But if you know that somewhere up there the sun is shining, all you have to do is jump in the car and drive up a small mountain until you pop out!

P1010687
See the blanket of clouds… I live under them 😦

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Ice skating like an Austrian

debbiekaye19801 Comment
iceskating
Exercise, fresh air and sun too!

I can ice skate to a reasonable level, but never got the chance very often in Melbourne, what with the few ice skating rinks we have. Maybe three?

But in Winter in Austria it’s easy. YOU JUST ICE SKATE ON A FROZEN LAKE. We are surrounded by lakes and mountains so it’s pretty easy to find one, hire a pair of skates and go for a few quick laps. The day we went was beautiful and sunny. I found it a little daunting to step onto an ice covered lake, but the 14 inch thick ice block they’d carved out to check the depth earlier that day was quite reassuring, as was the car driving round and around on it, smoothing out the ice.

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The ultimate Austrian winter sport – Skiing

debbiekaye19803 Comments

Despite the fact I’m from Australia, I am an avid skier. So skiing was on my list of ‘must-dos’ for winter. Unfortunately, I seem to have shacked up with the only Austrian who ‘doesn’t really like skiing anymore’. An oversight on my part. However, he was still willing to take me, given he knew how much I loved it.

In Australia it's basically the same price to fly to NZ to ski... so that's what we did
In Australia it’s basically the same price to fly to NZ to ski… so that’s what we did

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