Paul Waldowski

Hopefully, many a traveler will jot a few notes regarding the most recent Philadelphia Ski Club trip across the Atlantic to Austria, but if not, here are at least some personal thoughts and observations of my own.
1) Travel is sometimes tough......an excursion from your home to Philly airport, baggage, ski's and boot bags in hand, an overnight flight to Frankfurt, Germany, a several hour stop over delay caused by unnaturally high winds before we could leave for Munich, an aborted take off (and subsequent screeching of the plane brakes) due to a tower misread sending two jumbo planes off on parallel runways simultaneously, and finally a two hour, converted to a three and a half hour bus leg to our Hotel Winkler due to enormous backups on the highways from the storms set the tone for some very weary arrivers.
2) European hotels in ski areas are charming.....I can't remember (really I can...one time Meg and I had a basement bedroom reeking of cigarette smoke, but I digress) ever having poor accommodations. Hotel Winkler in the small skiing village of Bad Hofgastein, could not have been better. The staff was, in total, wonderful; they simply could not do enough to make certain our stay was wonderful, from the service at meals, to the dimpled bartender, Alios, to the cleanliness of the rooms and common rooms. Directions in and out of town could not have been made clearer (the owner's son, Kurt, even sent Meg and me a cab late at night from our return trip to Saltsburg).
3) Skiing the European mountains is NOT like skiing out west..... I'll be the first to admit, I thought the ski conditions were very tough, with exception of the Thursday (blue skies and groomed hills) and I hear, Friday ski days. On Tuesday, we experienced a total white out making tentative skiers out of some of us. Many of the better club skiers (Anna and Bill Driesbach, Dan and Diane Clapp with Meg Waldowski) just seemed to have fun with it. Me, Al Burns and Bill Delaney decided that digression was the better part of valor and opted to find a "blinded way" down to the half way gondola and spent the remainder of our day, drinking fine German beer.
4) The members of the Philadelphia Ski Club are just plain ole "friendly"! ..... The 30 plus members, friends and acquaintances who traveled together were as cordial and warm a group as could be; there was plenty of good natured joking, more than enough assistance with baggage carrying and loading, and total overall high spirits even when the unexpected illness or bump in the road occurred. I, for one, felt very much cared for and attended to from the start of the trip to the final goodbyes.
And on that note......Good Bye! Paul Waldowski, Trip Coordinator and Bad Hofgastein traveler.