Boarding and Biking, Part 2

So let’s get to #5 on the list.

This past weekend, my friend had a birthday, and I had the good fortune to be invited along on his birthday weekend. (We later told him that he should celebrate his birthday at least 4 times every year -- that’s how good it was!)

His brilliant idea was to check out Snowworld, which is the biggest of the 4 indoor snowboarding hills in the Netherlands. Did I say ‘hill’? Compared to Snowplanet, it was a resort! (In fact, I found out later that Snowworld is the largest indoor snowboarding center in the world. By contrast, Dubai is third.) We had ski-in, ski-out accommodations right on the ‘mountain’. Once inside, you really could pretend you were in the Alps. The lodge was packed with skiers and snowboarders, bundled up and bootstomping around, because it was still cool in the reception area. There was a fireplace, with a gas fire in it, and comfy chairs around. The wooden beams were decorated with Christmas lights and there were a few Christmas trees scattered here and there as well. The winter sporting goods store was the biggest one I’ve seen so far in Europe. Through the windows overlooking the slopes, you could see people lining up for the 6-person chair lift. On the left-most slope, ski racers were speeding down the slalom run, which was marked with bright orange and blue flags. There was even a mid-mountain ski hut, with a bar and a DJ on Friday nights.

We checked into our 4-star hotel rooms (though my equally snowboard-crazy Dutch colleague later scoffed: “do you know what it takes to get 4 stars in Holland? You get 1 star if you have a swimming pool, 2 stars if there’s a mini-bar...”). Rooms were 75 euros per night for a double, and 100 euros per night for a double with the sofa bed unfolded to squeeze in a third person. The rooms were right out of a design magazine. There was a marble sink, fancy bathroom fixtures, and a sliding glass door that served as the door to the shower if you pushed it to one side and served as the door for the toilet if you pushed it to the other. A giant photo of snow-covered woods was wallpapered above the beds. The comforter was so nice that I may have to buy one for myself. The freebies arranged attractively on the shelf above the sink included q-tips in a fancy box and “Snowworld”-branded shampoo, body lotion, and shower gel.

We were too late to eat dinner at Snowworld (nota bene: the website said ‘apres-ski’ facilities closed at 10pm, but they really closed at 9pm – if there’s any complaint I have about Snowworld, it’s that they were very disorganized when it came to information dissemination, with some employees giving us contradicting information). We ended up instead at a place in downtown Landgraaf called Mykonos Palace. Highly recommended. They serve you a glass of ouzo as soon as you sit down. What more can you ask for? Oh yeah, the food’s good too and reasonably priced. Just make sure you don’t order too much, as we did. The waitstaff were too shy to warn us, but they giggled as much as we did when we had to make room for yet another plate from the kitchen.

The next morning, we got off to a slow start – lingering over the huge buffet breakfast, which was included with our hotel stay -- but it hardly mattered. 4 hours at Snowworld is 25 euros and 8 hours is 30. If you get the package deal, like we did, then you only pay 39 euros for 8 hours plus an all-you-can eat barbeque lunch. The 8 hours is pure piste time. If you leave the piste to go to the restroom or get a snack, the clock stops. Given that the 39 euros also includes rentals, and I already brought all my snowboarding gear, I decided to ski – yes ski! -- for a few hours after lunch.

It was my first time on skis in more than 10 years. People told me that I would notice an immediate difference between shaped (i.e., parabolic) skis and the long straight skis I used when I was in my teens and 20s. But it was too long ago. I didn’t notice a difference. The first run was a bit scary, in fact, as I had to remember to keep my body facing downhill at all times. The opposite of snowboarding. I also didn’t quite remember what to do with my arms and poles, so the poles dragged like a useless set of appendages behind me. But by the fourth run, I was feeling comfortable.

But…I still spent the bulk of the day on my snowboard, because nothing beats that feeling of being one with my board and surfing the snow!

The piste seemed longer than it really was, because there is a bend in it and you can’t see the bottom from the top. There was enough snow that if you fell, it wouldn’t hurt that much. Also, the snow was piled up in some places and thinner in others, just like on a real piste. So it was easy and fun to do little hops and spins along the sides of the slope. The ski lift took you to the top of both a blue and a red slope (for North Americans, the colors in Europe equivalent to green-blue-black are blue-red-black), but unfortunately the red slope was closed for competition. From the lift, you could watch the competition or see the action in the park, which was a decent size, well-designed, and served by its own button lift. After 3 or 4 piste runs, I went to the park to session one of the smaller jumps and made some good progress.

We finished off with a delicious fondue dinner and plenty of wine. I was sad that we only had one day at Snowworld, but I was looking forward to the next day of biking…in a cave!

To be continued…