Hello from Abtenau, Austria!

Sue and I just finished a 24 hour journey to Abtenau, Austria, which is in the
Alps SE of Salzburg. The Austrian Nationals / Pre-Europeans 2009 kick off on
Monday with 150 pilots registered, with many top world pilots participating.

Not too bad.... 6 hours to Chicago from Anchorage.... 8+ hours to Frankfurt from Chicago.... 45 min to Munich from Frankfurt.... 3 hours via Eurorail train to Abtenau train station. Then after wandering the streets near the train station for a bit not really having any idea where we needed to go, a complete stranger, a German man who was out doing some yard work, litterally scooped us up with all of our gear and drove us 30 kilometers to the headquarters hotel!! There were no more busses running, and no taxis to be had.. Talk about hospitality!!

So basically what we saw in all directions this evening when we arrived under the puffy clouds were either 1000s of feet of granite rising above the treeline, grassy slopes as far as the eye can see on the hills below the treeline, or green grassy fields on the valley floor extending in all directions.... The headquarters hotel where we are staying is at the bottom of the ski lift with the lz out front.....

http://em2010.ikarus-abtenau.at/

I'll plan to keep up my blog with pics and possibly some GoPro video... Please everyone send good weather vibes this way.... I was initially excited just to be able to compete in this venue with this high octane pilot group.... now I'm getting excited just to fly in such a beautiful setting.... I was honestly expecting to see Julie Andrews come dancing down the grassy hillside behind the hotel singing the Sound of Music....

They are planning on doing live spot tracking for the top 10 pilots. I expect
that this effort will be a bit more successful than the recent effort made at
the US Nats in Dunlap.... I'll send links and instructions if it's a go...

Sue is excited to check out some of the great hiking spots, maybe some mountain biking, and if I know Sue, probably some river rafting.... We have nice high speed internet in our room so we will make the blog a priority so stay tuned!!

Jack & Sue