Taking the Ring Tram to orient ourselves to Vienna, Austria

Up in the tower at St. Stephen's Cathedral

Practicing with Johann Strauss in Stadtpark

She makes it look so easy to make Apple Strudel!

Fun time hiking with Chris's home town friend Erika and husband Gunter in the Wienerwald (Vienna Woods)!

First time for Sharon on ice skates! Watch out for the next Olympics! At the impressive ice skating complex at Vienna city hall.

First taste of the Austrian Alps outside Salzburg.

The evening glow of beautiful Salzburg.

Throw the key in the water for good luck!

Uber scenic Neuschwanstein Castle in the Germany Alps

There is supposedly the longest pedestrian suspension bridge in the world at Ahrenberg Castle which is a cool one to visit too.

The summit of the Zugspitze which is the highest point in Germany. Reachable via cog railway and cable car. There is a good ski area up here as well.

The panorama from the Zugspitze

Now down to St. Anton Austria for some great skiing. Here's the view from the cable car down to a run.

We then were in Zurich to meet Chris' friend Marc and his family. His daughter Olivia is a cutie.

We had a fun dinner at Marc and Alex's flat too

After that we headed to Chamonix France, the home of Mont Blanc and tons of great skiing.

Sharon getting in some cross country ski action at Les Houches

The Alps and fondue go hand in hand

We took the Montenvers cog railway from Chamonix up to the Mer de Glace which is an impressive glacier coming off Mont Blanc

They had signs to show how much the glacier had shrunk in recent years.

An ice cave is carved into the glacier that you can explore.

On the opposite side of the Chamonix valley from Mont Blanc is Brevent which you can check out via cable car to a spectacularly situated restaurant.

Para-gliders soar year round here

The Brevent cable car.

After spending a couple weeks in France, I tried escargot for the first time.

First week of April. The team for our Haute Route tour came from Washington, Colorado, Oregon and Florida

The Haute Route(High Route) travels via back country huts from Chamonix France to Zermatt Switzerland through the amazing Alps. Here the team gawks a bit.

Much time on the tour is spent with climbing skins on our skis as we ascend passes and glaciers

Happy at the summit of a beautiful pass.

Down the other side of a pass involved a handy ladder to descend a cliff face.

View from the stairway sums up the awesomeness of the Haute Route(for diehard skiers at least). We'd cross a large glacier to get to our next hut, Cabane des Dix. And also bagged a small peak that afternoon to sample the powder too

Me enjoying a surreal run through deep pow.

For an afternoon "snack", the huts serve a calorie maximizing dish called a Rosti. Potatoes, ham, eggs, cheese and a nice full belly. Seems that a post-meal nap is part of the experience as well!

I peeked out the window our last night to see this amazing moonscape. This was after 2 full days of clouds, fog and snow! We had our share of bad weather so we were primed for an epic final day of the Haute Route.

That is our last hut, Cabane des Vignettes, perched on the cliff! Who thinks to build in such precarious spots? Do they have eagle DNA?

We had to earn our turns. Here is a tough climb up to the 2nd of 3 passes we conquered that day.

Triumphant at the top of our last pass. With an epic 12km run left for us down past the Matterhorn to Zermatt.

Kurt claiming the money shot of the trip with the Matterhorn and deep pow

Well earned brews at the end.

Matterhorn. Notice the wind. We had a couple serious battles that day to get through it. But fortunately it was OK most of the time.

Alps villages don't get any better than Zermatt

The scene up on the mountain at Zermatt

I flew out of Milan so got to check it out including Duomo Square. The highlight was seeing da Vinci's "Last Supper" painting which was something else.