Mountain #13 of #EpicRace -- St. Anton

We finally arrived in Europe! Luckily we arrived without too much hassle, even after having to quickly switch flights from United to Lufthansa due to a delay on our flight out of Detroit where we would have missed our connection. We were able to make the change though and our bags made the switch as well and we were off to Frankfurt! Right before we landed, one of the flight attendants brought me a rose! Only one other lady got one that we saw... was definitely one of the odder events, but still really fun and sweet.

Once we arrived in Frankfurt, we headed to the Lufthansa Lounge since Dave has status on United that transferred over.  We had enough time to sit, grab a bite to eat and check our email before it was back on a flight to Zürich! Another easy flight and soon enough we were in our rental car and on the road to the Alps! It was only a 2.5 hour drive from the airport to the town of St. Anton where we are staying while in Austria.

Never ones to just sit still, we headed out to check out the town soon after checking in to the hotel. We found the information office and sorted out our lift ticket for the next few days and got our resort checklist stamped for the #EpicRace. We grabbed some lunch and then it was back to the race to check off St. Anton for the day!

St. Anton with the Galzig Bahn in the background

We finally got on the chairlift around 2pm and headed off in search of Mooserwirt, apparently one of the most famous après ski spots in the world. Figured it wasn't a bad way to start our trip! Just a note, runs over here aren't marked with names like they are in the states. Here they have a tiny circle with a number in it marking the trail, which can be easily missed. We found the bar without too much hassle though and decided it was time for a beer! :)

We visited Mooserwirt on a weekday, in early season, and a bit earlier than when the slopes close so it wasn't crowded and was easy to grab a drink.  A quick YouTube search though shows a different scene when it's super busy/crowded!

We left to catch the last chair lift up at 4:15pm so that we could try to ski back to our end of the town, but didn't read the map quite right. We ended up back at the bottom where we just were and had a bit of a walk through town. Good thing we have new ski boot-walker-thingys that make it much easier! Oh well, gave us a chance to see more of St. Anton!

For the photo/video requirements for St. Anton, we completed the following:

1) Mooserwrit -- The Mooserwirt is maybe the most famous Après ski bar in the world.

2) Museum St. Anton am Arlberg represents a worthwhile cultural achievement -- since 1978 it has given visitors and historians an overview of the history of skiing in the Alberg area, regarded as the "Cradle of Alpine skiing."

3) Galzig Bahn is a unique glass-construction that is fully illuminated by night and cannot be missed.

Day 1 in Austria off to a good start!