Life: Idiotropic

So have you heard about the great mountains of The Netherlands? You know, they might just be vying for a position to host the next next winter Olympics!

Ok, ok... so yes, The Netherlands is flat almost entirely with most of the country below sea level. But, that doesn't stop the Dutch. These people are world travellers and skiers and there's no telling them not to ski in the summer. So, they built SnowWorld.

Yesterday, we went skiing with a bunch of friends, looking for something fun to do and excited about the idea of skiing in July.

SnowWorld is a indoor ski center in Landgraaf, NL just about 30 minutes from our home where you can ski any day of the year. There is one small area for beginners and young kids with a conveyor belt so that they can step onto it and get slowly moved up the hill at a non-threatening pace. Arianna spent quite a bit of time there confidently skiing on her own in that little area. Some of her friends played in that area with their little red sleds.

Just to the left is a banana tow, a rope tow with plastic "bananas" that hook behind you and pull you up. Then, just to the other side of the run sits the one and only chair lift there. It's not bad. It goes up a ways in between two runs that weren't open that day and over the top of a mid-hill restaurant advertising "biertje?" and other Dutch foods. (bier is beer) It lets you off at the top, of course, and then there is one run to go down that is a perfect beginner run.

I decided to take ALL FOUR GIRLS with me for the day confident that Arianna and Luci would remember how to ski and I could ski for a while with Elise before she went home with a friend. Tiara got there, got ready quickly, then took off skiing before I even had the little girl's skis on.

Arianna was nervous, but went up the banana lift by herself and skied down pretty well, falling once, but not being upset by it. Luci, on the other hand, forgot how to ski. She was scared. So, I finally got her and Elise up the banana lift comically, then told her to make her pizza with her skis and go down while I held Elise between my skis to help her down. Luci made her pizza, pointed down, built up speed, and crashed. Poor thing. So, I picked Elise up, skis and all, and raced down to where Luci crashed with Elise on my hip. Elise loved skiing with me holding her between my skis, but I couldn't do that all day and she didn't want to try anything by herself. Luci will do great again in ski lessons, but needs more instruction before she has the confidence to ski by herself again. So... I did another run each with Luci and Elise and then sent them inside with a friend so she could take them home with her. I am a mother, not a ski instructor and while I feel great about helping Tiara, I am not skilled to logic with little people on the slopes. Arianna skied a while longer and then we all went in for lunch. Aria saw my friend, LaVonne with her sisters and decided that playing with the dogs was going to be more fun than being cold. FREEDOM! Tiara and I skied the rest of the day both together and with our friends. She's FUN to ski with! Confident and fast.

So, there it is... indoor skiing. This place is great for people who love to ski and want to continue in the summer. It's great to train. It's great for beginners. It's set up beautifully with everything that you need pretty conveniently located. However, being indoors, it lacks trees and sky - two things that play a large part of my ski addiction.

Will I go back? Probably, occasionally with friends. Often, not. I need sky and trees and a variety of runs. This one run was fun, but got boring really quickly and I can imagine that on a busier day, the little slopes would fill up making it impossible and probably a little dangerous to attempt a good run down the hill. Tiara enjoyed herself, but she felt the same way. She'll go with friends to have a good time and be social, but it's not a place she needs to go a lot. We prefer the mountains. Send us to the Alps!