The young adult and I stood on a viewing platform at the very top of the Hartkaiser, an Austrian mountain with an elevation of 5,000 feet. We had climbed about 3 flights of snow-covered wooden stairs at the mountain’s peak to reach the platform. It was after dark, and the platform allowed us to view snow-covered trees and Advent lights below us. I admired the view and reflected on a great day – exploration of the medieval fortress at Salzburg, a drive through snow-covered mountains of Germany and Austria, a quick peak at Schloss Itter, and now Bergadvent Hartkaiser, a Christmas event atop a mountain used for skiing in the winter and hiking in the summer.
Our enjoyment of the view complete, we headed to the stairs. The young adult took the first few steps; I saw his foot slip on a snow-covered step. He leaped into the air and took the next 12 or so steps in two graceful bounds, landing on his feet on a platform between flights of stairs. I was happy he appeared unharmed. I descended a few steps and my foot slipped...
Trip Background
The original plan for this week in December was my first trip to Israel, but that was of course cancelled. That trip was with a buddy of mine who is similar in age; he was unable to plan another trip due to an obligation that came up. The young adult is always eager to travel, though, and he was able to rearrange his schedule so that he could travel to Austria. Some of you have read about the young adult in this Normandy/Berlin trip report or this day in Sarajevo trip report. The young adult is a 21-year-old young man whom I’ve known for around a decade. He is brilliant, kind, funny, and good-natured, despite much adversity in his life.
The trip got thrown together about 3 weeks prior to departure and was focused on Christmas markets. The original itinerary for this trip was as follows: non-stop flight from Charlotte to Munich with early morning arrival in Munich, one night in Munich, two nights in Salzburg, and three nights in Vienna. Schneechaos in Bavaria resulted in Lufthansa cancelling our non-stop outgoing flight the day prior to departure due to the airline’s planes still being buried under ice and snow at Munich’s airport. We were re-routed through Toronto on Air Canada a day late… with an 8-hour layover.
Toronto
- General Thought: I’m a “roll with the punches” kind of guy. The young adult is, too. So… we decided the layover was a great chance to re-visit Toronto, which we visited for a couple of days in the fall because I had a flight credit to burn and neither of us had been to Canada.
- Transportation: We had a nice flight on Air Canada. After arrival at Pearson Airport, we took the train into the city. Easy peasy. We ended up taking an Uber back to the airport.
- Activities: We went up the CN Tower (not able to do on our last visit due to a private event there), and we visited the Art Gallery of Ontario. Both are worthwhile, but one significantly cheaper and less touristy than the other.
- Memorable Food: We ate at the revolving restaurant in the CN Tower; it was ridiculously expensive but very good. The young adult got a seafood platter that included half a lobster. He informed me he had a female lobster and provided great detail about how the external structure of the lobster (including the structure of the tail) made him arrive at that conclusion. The waitress walked up after the food was delivered and said, “Looks like you got a female!” The young adult looked at me proudly and told the waitress at length how he deduced that. She said, “Yeah, and the ovaries are right there.”