Dorint Sofitel Seefeld

... it. It was pretty scary to think that they do the jumping in summer when they wet the slope and land on fake grass. In winter, there is at least 30 cm of hardened snow. It actually looked scarier from the bottom than the top. The stadium is also used for concerts in summer and the pope has also held a mass there.

By time we headed home, the rain had started and had set in for the night.

... political advantage. He was really horrible to this wife, with her often being deprived of food. Maximilian spent furtively both through defending his Tyrolean empire and also on artwork advertising his great achievements (he was all for the printing of books to reach the masses, but these usually contained pictures for those who couldn’t read). It was amazing seeing original portraits, writing and medallions from the 1500’s. It was ...

... a large room and then walked into the old town to have dinner at a restaurant that had Austrian food. The prices seem quite reasonable after Switzerland, but that might be because they are in Euros. I had a goulash which was quite nice but salty. Again German is the language used but most people speak English so we haven't had any problems. It was very cold as we walked home and Tara kept saying, I hope it snows tomorrow (it certainly felt cold enough).

... packed in tightly on either side of the narrow pedestrian street. My mom was sucked right in. I don't know how long it took for us to walk the length of this short street, but it was several minutes too long.

We never did visit the cathedral. Our stomachs took over and we went for food instead. We found a nice pizza place with good prices so we went in. Everything seemed OK until my boyfriend asked for a new set of cutlery because when we first sat on our table it had ...

... purchases.

The museum was pretty cool and certainly a unique experience. The weather was really nice today too so once we completed the museum and the shopping, we went to the park behind the giant's head. Here they have a hedge maze shaped like the giant's hand which looked pretty cool but we didn't venture in. Instead we soaked up a little sun before moving on to the next destination.

... too.
The rest of the tour took us to Linderhof castle and Neuschwanstein castle. What magical looking places they were. Neuschwanstein is the castle Walt Disney uses the sillohette of at the start of his movies. Anyway, after the trip it was back to Munich for a day or so and then on the plane home.

Wong & Gem's European Vacation - Diary Update 8 Day 158 -Friday 20th July 2006 - Kutna Hora to Telc This morning we woke up and drove the 66km east to Kutna Hora (did we mention that the roads here are really bad, so bad that they have massive groove marks in them tracks that make it really hard to driver) which is the second largest town in Bohemia after Prague. Well it was an interesting drive as the signs in Czech suck as they are basically non-existent and we made a few wrong turns ...

and what fun we had, cross-country fashion, snow and plenty of sun..... really lucky with the weather and the snow; apparently very unusual to have so much sun and snow together at one time. Seefeld is a world-class cross-country resort with stacks of trails and areas to explore. World cup combined (the last before the winter olympics) was on over the weekend as well as the annual ¨scnhi-fest¨ (snow-festival). The combined is an event which combines (funny that) ski-jumping and ...

Another work conference for my parents brought us to Oberammergau for a week. We stayed in the cutest little wooden cottage - like the whole thing ceiling to floor and including flowering window boxes was made out of wood! Totally picturesque like you've read about in Brothers Grimm fairy tales. Aromatic town bakery. Absolutely enchanting.

Sadly, I dont remember much about Austria. Too bad because I have read so much about it lately as the music and art centre of Europe in the 1700s, I'd love to check that out.
I asked my dad recently if we had been there before. He said, 'oh yes, many times, we loved it'. Hmm, what a pity. I suppose it still counts because the images of scenery must be in my mind somewhere... curse this short memory of mine!