Parkhotel Hall In Tirol

... it is covered with a chocolate ganache- it was delicious, much better than the day before.

The afternoon was Greg’s choice and we went to the Bergisel Stadium which is the new ski jump facility which was opened in 2001. This was on the site of the original ski jump facility which was used for the Winter Olympics in 1964 and 1976. You went in a cable car, then a lift to the top ...

... hands.

We went to have lunch at what turned out to be a very smoky cafe with salty soups and a so called “Sacher Torte” which wasn’t very nice.

We spent the afternoon wandering through the shops, finding a nice chocolate shop and an amazing Christmas shop which had thousands of real egg shells that had been delicately handpainted as Christmas decorations as well as Easter and Halloween. They were so beautiful ...

Walked to the train station and did an expedition to the supermarket to spend our last Swiss Francs as we are back to Euros in Austria. Had a stopover in Zurich for a while and then caught the train to Innsbruck. Again this was a scenic trip over the mountains and it started snowing and was very deep as we got higher- just beautiful scenery. Innsbruck is surrounded by mountains, all of which had snow on them.

We checked into our hotel where we ...

It was uptime pretty early to get on the road and do the circuit we had planned. We headed down to our first full breakfast of eggs and bacon and a yummy croisant and booked accomodation in Innsbruck (just out at Zirl to be exact) and hit the road by 9am.
We were heading out to GrossGlockner pass...and going to scenic way we were in by 10.30 (28 Euros!) to drive the pass that was in the National Pass ...

... 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 ...

A museum mom and I had been anxious to visit while in Austria, Swarovski Crystal Worlds was our next stop on route. Visitors enter the "museum" under a curtain of water spewing forth from a giant's head. Once inside, there are a series of rooms with low lighting and unique displays, all involving crystals of course. The first room has a beautiful (fake) horse dressed in crystal studded tack ...

... 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.

... The towns of Garmisch and Partenkirchen were combined by Hitler in the early 1930´s in order to host the 1936?? Winter Olympics. We finally arrived to Hall in the afternoon and spent the early evening walking through the old town. Hall´s oldtown is actually much larger than nearby Innsbruck´s. When Innsbruck was only a bridge, Hall was a thriving trading port along the Inn river. The old town was ...

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!