IGLS AUSTRIA

HI!!! I made it to Europe... It was an easy but long trip and the jet lag has been brutal with 8am sliding. Right now we are in Igls, Austria which is a tiny town on the mountainside overlooking Innsbruck. This was the first european track that I ever came to two years ago and I haven't been back since. It's a really fun track to slide... not as technical as most and you don't get beat up like many but it's tough to go fast. We're lucky to have a coach from Austria, Martin Rettl, who was an awesome slider during his career but has since retired and is now spending time with team USA. THANKS MARTIN!!!

Our time off the track seems to be consumed by where we're going to eat next and spending time on the internet. Our hotel has wireless internet and is giving us a team discount of 5 Euro/day for unlimited use so we're getting our money's worth! It's hard to find internet over here and if you do, it's usually 5 Euro/hour... with the currency conversion, that's like 50 U.S. buck...ok not quite that much but way too expensive for the penny pinchers we've become.

We were greeted with snow covered mountains and fields but since we've been here the weather has gotten warmer by the minute. Now everything just seems to be wet and the wind is surely bringing in some kind of front. I did a little resistance training this morning during my warm up just running up wind on a patch of ice... i didn't make it very far ;) Good thing the hotel has a hot tub, sauna, steam room and tanning bed just in case we get cold. It really is an amazing place...the best I've stayed at in Europe and somehow we got a great deal including breakfast and dinner!!

So, in a nutshell, the four of us (Matt, Kyle, Becca and I) are having a great time and are traveling really well together. We get our ab workout in at dinner when we don't stop laughing for and hour and a half straight between cracking jokes and trying to figure out what's on our plate! haha We race on Friday and then join two more teammates and Jody (our new coach) in Torino, Italy. HOPE EVERYONE HAS A WONDERFUL THANKSGIVING!! I'LL BE THINKING ABOUT EVERYONE BACK HOME!!!

Pictures: (click on any of them to make them bigger)
1) Me at the track with the amazing mountains in the background.
2) Our Hotel - Hotel Batzenhausl
3) The crew at the new Bob-cafe at the bottom of the track (Martin, Becca, Me, Matt, Kyle)
** I put more pics of our trip in the media gallery in the "2007-2008 Season" Album**