Strauss thought little of sporting activity in today’s sense. Skiing, he wrote to his grandson, is, "a pastime for Norwegian country postmen.” The composer much preferred skating at the side of his wife Pauline, or tobogganing (to the great delight of his two grandsons). His art was always true to the small details of life and Strauss immortalised Pauline in the sledding scene in his autobiographical opera Intermezzo. As a young man Strauss enjoyed horse riding but he gave it up in middle age.

From his youth on Strauss enjoyed being in the great outdoors. Lengthy mountain hikes relaxed and inspired him. This passion for high altitudes bore sonorous fruit in his Alpensinfonie. Even in later years he went walking twice a day in Garmisch (Pauline, too, greatly valued this exercise). Strauss compared his creative rhythm to nature’s cycle. His compositions blossomed in spring and summer, while autumn and winter were better suited to conducting.

The section on "Holidays and Travel” deals with the automobile as a sport form. After a minor mishap at the steering wheel, Richard Strauss only took part in this new pastime as a passenger.
His greatest passion – after music and his family – was Skat (from the Italian word "scarto" = "discarded"). Strauss learned the card game in Weimar in 1890 and thereafter was a keen player at every opportunity. He is remembered as a brilliant, imaginative and very daring player. He described his motivation for this "relaxation sport" to Karl Böhm: "People criticise me because I like playing Skat so much. Böhm, I can assure you, that’s the only time when I’m not working. Otherwise, there’s always something going on in my head."

Pauline disapproved of her husband’s love of games. In more than one letter she reproached him for it and called the company he sometimes kept as a player "Skat rogues". But Strauss also entertained celebrities such as the singers Hans Hotter and Franz Klarwein or the industrial magnate Manfred Mautner-Markhof with card games in the "Skat corner" of his Garmisch Villa, in Vienna or while travelling. Skat is also given a musical memento in Intermezzo.