Sporthotel Alpenblick Zell am See

... 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.

... cozy and German. Because it is surrounded by mountains we went for a long hike the first day. There is a lot to see in this area. Lots of little villages off the beaten path and the highlight is the Eagle's Nest.
Hitler spent a third of his time in Berchtesgaden. He had a small compound made here and it became the second seat of government next to Berlin. It was called the Bergoh and was his home. All the buildings were up ...

We got an early start because I thought there would be more shopping opportunities in Berchtesgaden than there ended up being. Jill led us on back roads again through nice little towns but between them and trucks, it seemed a little slow. Apparently there is major road work on the Autobahn, however, so at least we were constantly moving. The mountains got closer and the scenery was just beautiful. The river ...

Overnight rain had made little impact on the trails. Out here, they don't degenerate rapidly into mush like back home. Keith and I rode up behind the farm and up into the hills. The climbs were long and hard but rewarded by sweet woodland singletrack descents of varying levels of difficulty, peppered with rooty and rocky sections, steep and technical. Really big roots! I couldn't ...

... but it's steep and challenging in parts and has added challenges from the wandering cows. Further down it lapses into fire road then tarmac, and winds along the valley's Radwanderweg back to the lift station.

I did this three times then broke for lunch at a restaurant near the lift station where I had a rather salty burger. It was a poor choice as it was a bit too heavy for a ...

... 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 ...

... the hotel wouldn't be able to give us a lift into town. Okay, we thought, but would we be able to book the glacier trip? I resolved there and then to find our own way into town. How hard could it be?

Anyway, they taxied us out to our hotel after dropping the Kitzbuehel contingent as our hotel was out by the lake. First impressions - very beautiful setting and they gave us a room with an enormous balcony - even though we hadn't paid extra for ...

... It saved us an extra two hours and most likely a bit of money, so we took the shuttle. It was operated by a Czech guy named Martin, and we had three South Koreans and an Argentinean family of three (Mother, Father, and kid) as well. The mother was a translator in Argentina and very... outspoken. She asked everyone where they were from, videoing everything. She told the Korean people in the back that every super market in Argentina was run by Korean ...

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.

... can share some of its beauty with you. The weather was starting to break, and we decided to head up to Kitzbuheler Horn. To get to the top of the mountain, we had to take two separate cable cars. The first car was a gondola-type car that took us to what they call the 'middle station’. There we had to change cars to reach the top. We had about 45 minutes to wait for the next car, so we had some time to view the valley from this point…and oh ...