Pension Eschenhof Kaprun

Stayed at a beautiful spot in Austria (Saalbach) with Hilly, Stu's old friend and new Father..actually felt sorry for him, the poor sod was knee deep in relatives, in laws, newly purchased crib and nappies, etc.....we stayed for afew days and it was neatly timed with the arrival home of new born Frankie. Hilly's place is 3 feet from a field of horses so Lauren was easily kept busy with feeding duties.

Stu tried ...

We took a bus from Salzburg over to Berchtesgaden, Germany which is only about 45 minutes. It's nestled in the Bavarian Alps. We stayed on the outside of the city in a little Bed and Breakfast. It is usually cheaper to stay in a B&B then in a hostel (if the town has a hostel). We thought it would be much easier to find cheap hostels here but in Austria and Germany we're finding it harder and harder. But this place was great ...

... Eagle’s Nest. It is a precision timing of buses in that the road is only one lane, except for 2 pullover stops. After that, we boarded the brass elevator to go up to the building. Our guide gave another little speech and then we had 40 free minutes before we had to meet back down at the bus. The view was simply incredible. Puffed up the hill a ways for some good photo opportunities. (Only float pens at ...

... of challenge and reward, leading ultimately right back to the farmhouse and that long-desired beer. There was a smell of burning coming from my rear brakes!

We packed ready for departure. Keith and Manu joined us for dinner, serving up a lovely home-made quiche followed by goulash made from one of the farm's own cows, and a home-baked apple-strudel. All great stuff.

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Back up for another run at Flying Gangster without falling off, but by now the weather was closing in and it looked as though I was pushing my luck to try another run.

On the way home, we stopped off and did some shopping. We stayed in and cooked Krapfern, slow-roast tomatoes and roast sausage, which was excellent, and yoghurt for dessert, all locally-produced except the toms.

... technical singletrack which was much more of a challenge for me and I had to work on shifting my balance on the bike, keeping the weight much further back, and trying to take a more balanced approach to braking, as I was heavily favouring the back brake (to such an extent that the rear tyre showed significantly more wear at the end of the week). Mountaintop lunch was a "Strammel Max" (ham, eggs ...

... 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 ...

... broacher said, but we made in on the afternoon tour. To pass the morning time we went to the Mirabell gardens where they filmed the majority of the Do-ray-me song. These were beautiful gardens set in front of a view of old town and the castle. It couldn't be more picturesque. We had fun hopping up the steps singing so do la tea do ray do. After the tour we went to the beer hall my dad had been dying to go to, which turned out to be a blast. The way it worked was that you would go grab a ...

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 ...