Apres ski…without the ski

Getting out of bed this morning was a challenge - we were all paying the price for that big ski day yesterday and there was no new snow overnight, so we decided to take a rest from skiing for the day. That’s not to say that we didn’t have a very productive day…

After a slow breakfast, a few work calls and a bit of a cleanup, we hopped in the car and firstly dropped our skis and board off to be tuned. They will be delivered back to us just after 8am tomorrow morning - nice! Then we drove down to Ortisei to catch up on the laundry. On the way we got some anti-freeze put into the petrol tank to relieve our anxiety about the diesel gelling in the cold temperatures since the car is parked outside. Although it does not seem that it will get very cold. While we waited for our loads to finish, since it was fairly warm and sunny, we had a wander up the street plus some morning tea while we waited for our loads to be done. We also noticed that as per usual, despite that it was barely 11am, all (and I do mean ALL) of the other patrons (including a couple of Mums with kids on the next table) were having beers and wine - what is going on here?! We continued up the street found yet another lovely little grocery store and bought some home-made ravioli for dinner, along with a few other goodies.

Ortisei ice sculptures in the middle of the river

Ortisei

Laundry. Exciting.

Park your doggie here

Back to Selva, we dropped the car back home and it was time for lunch. Sean picked a place called Restaurant Freina, yet another lovely Alpine place directly on the base of the ski slope. We settled in for a nice long lunch - I had salmon and broccoli (I have been craving veggies and fish), Sean had pasta and Cameron had risotto. We spied a magnificent tiramisu being delivered to the next table, so we had to sample one for dessert. I was thinking of having an espresso, but Cameron ordered a Limoncello, so I felt it would be rude not to join her… I figured since I had just eaten it wouldn’t hit me like the Limoncello spritz did a few days ago plus I sipped it slowly, but I was wrong - it hit both of us again, very quickly. We had to go to the pharmacy after lunch to get some more medication for Sean, so Cameron and I were being ultra careful not to appear too intoxicated. Cameron whispered (too loudly) some helpful advice “Just act natural, ok?” OK…thanks for that.

Crazy snow sculpture work in Selva

Lunch!

Just to be clear…

Just found the Grappa and Limoncello

Trouble…

Just act natural ok?

This is what Limoncello will do to you at altitude

Sean had to go home and do some work and the walk to the pharmacy was helpful in sobering us up a bit, so Cameron and I opted to stay down in the main street of Selva to have a look at the shops. We bought a few things to take home and then it was getting on to 4pm. This is an important time of day because 4pm is…apres ski time! Cameron and I decided to seize our opportunity and pulled up a seat at the La Stua apres ski bar at the bottom of the slope. This place has a Champagne bar, but it wasn’t open yet so we had to settle for the regular bar…surely the definition of “Champagne problems”!

Around Selva

It’s still Xmas here

The Melbourne Cup gates

Need more snow!

The climb up to this bridge is a grind!

To Apres or not to Apres…

We ordered up a prosecco for me and a ‘punch’ for Cameron - a punch is like hot Aperol, sounds weird, tastes good - and sat back to watch the crowd. The bar was filling up, the DJ pumped the music louder and the singing started…in German mostly. We bopped and sang along to whatever English songs came on. Then the DJ annouced in a very deep voice that the Champagne Baaaaaar was open! Too late for us though, we were almost finished our drinks and given the previous Limoncello situation we figured we should stop there and go home.

Woooo!

Party!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMhqlPmVbGY

We found Sean still bashing away on his keyboard, so left him to concentrate and watched some Netflix. It was only 6pm and I was feeling pretty lazy. We were not super hungry, so Sean then cooked up the spinach and ricotta ravioli we had bought earlier just with a little bit of butter and Parmesan which hit the spot.

We are also addicted to these

Looks like it will be another sunny day tomorrow and we’ll have freshly tuned equipment, so we’ll be back out on the slopes!