May I have this dance?: Wednesday July 30, 2008

Today was that day we had planned to go back to Möseralm and ride the Rodelbahn. We drove to Fiss and parked in the parking lot right next to the cable cars. We rode one of them up to Möseralm and got our start tickets. There was no wait at all and within minutes we were hurtling down the mountain through alpen meadows at 30 - 40 km per hour. It was so much fun, we raced back up the mountain on the cable car and did a repeat performance.

Because there were no lines at this time of day, Graham rode the Flieger again while I tried to videotape him, but I messed up and we didn't get the footage. We were down to one ticket now, so I bought one more and we each rode the rodelbahn down the mountain again.

At the bottom in Fiss I noticed the one cable car we hadn't yet ridden. It didn't go high, but actually traveled over the meadows to the next village of Ladis. We took it and explored Ladis. we found the lake and the castle and took photos and we had our picnic lunch on a bench by the lake.

We returned to Fiss in time for our 2pm Segway lesson and practice. The lesson was actually about 3 minutes of instructions and then we were sent across the street to a very small parking lot cum obstacle course with about 10 orange cones. We had 20 minutes to maneuver and ride around the cones. We attracted attention and people stopped to ask us questions. It was fun, and I would like to try it again sometime.

We weren't sure what to do next, so we rode up the Schönjochbahn (the one we took on our first guided tour) all the way to the tippy top. We tried to climb a rocky trail to a high lookout point, but a group of hikers had plopped themselves down for a rest and we couldn't get by, so we turned around, rode back down and drove the 2 minute trip back to Sefaus. Our parking spot was gone (we thought it was assigned), so Graham ran in to ask where to put the car. We were told the person parked across the front was leaving soon, but we could have the small spot next to him. This was very tight and it took me 10 minutes to get into the spot and just as I did, the man came out and moved his car. As it was a better spot, I had to maneuver myself out again to take the better spot.

You know what comes next! Cake and coffee again. Graham had two pieces and herbal tea which translates to sugar and no caffeine and you guessed it, he is napping as I write this.
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Dinner tonight was two kinds of dumplings served with sauerkraut and celery-straw. We both had this, but Graham only had one kind of dumpling because the other wasn't vegetarian. It began to rain hard as we ate. After dinner we attended a Tirolean Traditional Evening around the corner at the Saal via Claudia. This was one of the highlights of the week.

The venue was a nice big room with long tables and high stage. It wasn't crowded so we picked a spot right up front next to the stage. They were serving drinks, but I just had a diet coke.

The group performing is called Trachtengruppe Pfunds. There were two musicians playing at the back of the stage, but 5 men in Lederhosen and 4 women in Dirndls did the dancing. Some of the dances were the traditional slapping dances, but in between each of them would come down into the audience and select a partner to take back on stage to dance with. I was asked to dance by the man in the photo above. He was really nice. We spoke in English and he was surprised to discover we were from America. It is not that common for Americans or Brits to come to Serfaus. When the dance was over, he escorted me back to my chair (not sure how he remembered where we were sitting) and pulled out my chair for me. So gallant!! That was so much fun. A few songs later, Graham was pulled on stage by one of the lady dancers and he got to dance.

At the end of the show they did a song/dance where they used real axes to chop a log in time to the music. Chips of wood were flying everywhere. It was so amazing. Lastly, they got nearly everyone in the room to do a congo line to traditional music. We all snaked through the room and all ended up on stage. We had a hilarious time and if we get back to Serfaus, I hope to see this show again.