Hotel Kitzhof Ski&Golfresort Kitzbühel

... cool view of the brick walls and timbered supports, kind of like walking through a Macaulay book. Some of the castle has been turned into a museum (half of the signs translated into English!) and cafe. While the locals ate their cake and coffee, all the Americans grabbed lunch, almost every option involving meat in tube form. How can you go wrong?

Followed the trails around the island, little chapels and farm ...

... and drinks after the hike. Unfortunately Stef and I were so tired from the hike it was an early night.

Awesome catching up with Stef and Julia and so lucky to get Stef's expert local tour of Rosenheim, Kufstein and Wendelstein mountain.

Sunday I got back to Munich in time to do the 1pm walking tour of the city. Legs were not quite up to it after yesterday's hike, but last opportunity so pushed through and glad I did ...

... hand at an ariel assault course....he came back a shell of his former self after 3 hours in the trees hanging from bits of wire and trying to keep up with 9 year old girls who were more agile than him..for my penance I had to play pitch and putt with Lauren using carved putters and wooden balls..no danger i'll be joining a golf tour anytime soon. 

Definitely worth a visit in winter for you keen boarders out there.

... the mountains and on his 50th birthday the Nazi gave him the Eagle's Nest as a present. It was a retreat for him and was built on the peak of one of the highest mountains. To get there we had to take a special bus up a one lane road straight up the side of the mountain. When we got to the top we walked through a tunnel that went straight into the side of the mountain for 124 meters (406 feet) then we came to a huge brass elevator ...

... Center and also the new, more accessible entrance to the bunkers (no steep flights of a hundred steps). There was a lot of reading and information that we did not have time to take in. We got to see portions of the bunkers and the long staircase from which the bunkers used to be entered. It was all fenced off; in fact the hotel above is now levelled. I was not as impressed with this portion as I had been 25 ...

En route to the airport, Keith needed to do a bit of shopping for next week's guests so we paid a visit to Kufstein while he shopped there. Kufstein is a town with big history, owned by Bavaria in the middle ages but long one of Tirol's most northerly towns. The historical centre is hard to miss: an ancient castle perched atop a hill.

The lower Altstadt is cute but consists ...

... for days after all! Our tour guide freaked us out slightly by telling us he had something special to tell us, then not telling us what it was. Had we won a prize? Had our holiday been cancelled? Would we have no accommodation? We had to wait till halfway to Kitzbuehel to find out. It was that there was a triathlon going on right around our hotel so we might not be able to get to the Welcome meeting the next morning as the road was going to be closed ...

... regular wages -- unlike in the U.S. Such a policy is, of course, great for the food servers since they don't have to worry about getting stiffed by stingy patrons. On the other hand, it gives them absolutely no incentive to care about you once you've placed your order. Once we finally got our check, we picked up our clean clothes and returned to the hotel for what we expected to be a good night's sleep. That was not to be however, because Tracy spent most ...

August 26-Monday
We left Kitzbuhel at 8:30. There was a brief stop in Berchtesgarden, in Germany, at 10:00. Up on the side of the mountain, we could see Hitler's Eagle’s Nest. It was rather chilling to see that part of history. The bunker is now a restaurant. Our rest stop overlooked a valley filled with wonderful homes. What a view! Back on the bus and on to Salzburg. Time 10:35.

... played a lot of old Austrian folk songs, some Strauss waltzes, some light classical music and, to top it off, the Stars and Stripes Forever. I had chills running down my spine. Another perfect end to another perfect day.

August 28-Wednesday KitzbuhelWe woke up to rain again this morning and took a walk around town to do a little shopping (we discovered that rain in the morning is fairly common and doesn’t stop the locals from going about ...