By Tuesday we were all sleeping late and had taken to hanging our clothes up on the door handles. No one even asked if we could leave the TV on while we ate- of course we could! and I'd abandoned my novel (Water for Elephants- I had so thought I'd get it read by the pool- oh well) for Christo's coloring book. Our kids must think that the thin mountain air is getting to us- ha! it is. We had no desire to be tourists on Tuesday- just wanted to be lazy slugs. We managed to leave the apartment by noon and headed towards Ischgl- a swanky ski town about 10 minutes away. I'd read about a sports center there and figured it was just what the kids needed to burn off some steam.
Save for a couple of kids- maybe 11 or 12 years old...sending text messages under a big umbrella, the place was empty. I asked them if the center was even open. They grunted- really, they grunted and didn't even look at us- that it was the lunch hour. It would be open again at one o'clock . (I guess I've gotten used to the lunchtime "Ruhe" where we live. I was surprised that in a town so dependent on tourism they still took the time- respect)! We took a minute to look around and decided to stay. The grunters were now jumping on one of the inflatables doing back flips and cussing up a storm. Another one pulled up on his skateboard and greeted his buddies with the Austrian equivilant of, "Hey, as$#hole!" Locals! Now they were all bouncing around in their neon visors and hi-tops. My boys were watching them with a mixture of disgust and envy... obviously wanting to hop on, too.
"Go on," I told Sebastian, "You can go..."
*full eye roll* "Mom!" he hissed, "They're wearing their shoes."
Hmmm, this is eight-year-old logic... they're not following the rules so he won't join them. It's like he'll be guilty by association. I quickly file this away for future use. I think I'll start cultivating the idea and in about 5 years we'll all be better for it.
Klaus, my dear Klaus, decides to take matters into his own hands. Being the awesome dad that he is, he wants his boys to have a chance, too. I watch in slow motion as he confronts the boys. (At this point I should add that Klaus is really good with kids. KIDS. Pubescent teenie boys are a bit of uncharted territory for him but it's too late to intercede... here we go)! He coolly saunters up and, in a tone meant to sound like, "hey dude, what's up?" asks them if they should be wearing their shoes.
Nothing
"Shouldn't you take off your shoes on that?"
They looked up- incredulous. Honestly, at this point I'm surprised that they hadn't dropped trou and marked their territory.
"Why don't you take off your shoes so the little guy can play, too."
OK, so... I won't bore you with the gnarly details but I will say that Klaus had a totally Zen experience in self control. As the place started to fill up we did our best to ignore the young heathens and ended up having a great time. Christopher loved driving the go karts and Klaus, Basti, and I had a blast playing soccer in a cage. The idea behind the latter having to do with keeping the balls from flying over the side of the mountain... However, it added a whole new element by ricocheting the ball off the wall- a lot like billiards.
We played the afternoon away on the trampolines and at the playground. We headed over to the town center of Ischgl for a little sightseeing and coffee. Very cute and quaint and overpriced. The church was noteworthy as were the flowers around town. I can only imagine how this place looks in full Winter swing.
We headed back to our apartment and decided to go out for dinner. There was a cute little Italian place in See where Klaus had the best pizza (I can't wait to see how it tastes in Italy this weekend). The restaurant also sported the coolest sign I've seen yet- no cell phones- LOVE IT! We spent the rest of the evening lazing- Klaus and Basti worked on a model airplane and Christo and I played Donkey. The boys fell asleep after a Smackdown marathon on their bed- no tears! Life is good = )
No comments:
Post a Comment