Sporthotel Brixen Brixen im Thale

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 ...

... of courtyards and buildings, and eventually a steep tunnel leading down to the courtyard below.

At 12:00 the Heldenorgel or Heroes' Organ pipes up and swells the courtyard below with its tunes.

I didn't see much to recommend more than a day's visit but we were glad to have stopped off here.

We wandered along the river back to the van to head off to Munich.

... all of it but enjoyed what I could.

We lunched on snack bars and fruit after another big climb then did more challenging singletrack descents. I get a bit of vertigo on some of the trails where there's a steep drop to the side.

I was now on my 6th day of riding and when Keith asked whether I was up to another big climb to sample yet more singletrack descending ...

... a little drop into a berm and I managed to confuse myself into doing something stupid and taking a brief trailside lie down. This is a trail with big, steep, fast, bermed sections and is fun to ride in sections and a bit scary in others, particularly on a 4" lightweight XC racing bike. Down at the bottom it goes a bit 4x and you can walk back up and practice this section, which is good, fast ...

Another lovely farm-fresh breakfast. We had bought 2-day lift passes for Skiwelt so spent a second consecutive day there. Katie used the lifts and went walking along the top from above Scheffau toward Ellmau then down the funicular railway there.

Keith and I took the lift up from Scheffau. A lovely, blue, sunny day. The nature of the riding took a significant step up today. We practiced ...

After breakfast, we took a short ride along the cycle route to Söll where we bought our Skiwelt lift passes and took the ski lifts up to the hilltop.

There had been some rain overnight but it doesn't degenerate the trails here to the same extent as those around London. We practised gravelly switchbacks: moderately challenging and reasonably steep, then took the lifts up again from Söll for another go. We lunched at a mountaintop restaurant with it's own open ...

... u Saisonbier, accompanied by a harpist and some impromptu virtuosoo accordion-playing by two of the inn's guests. You wouldn't get this in the French Alps!

The riding was on a variety of natural trails, but not too technical as Katie is a novice MTB rider and I was struggling to get used to the hire bike, which was a light, racy Intense Spider FRO, kitted out with XTR brakes, gears and drivetrain ...

... 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 ...

... main shopping street called Getreidegasse. The museum consisted of about three rooms filled with random articles of stage costumes and who knows what else. It seemed like the curators used Mozart's name to draw in crowds, but there was not much ado about Mozart except he was born there. The next leg of the day was to Mozart's Wohnhaus. This was the eight room building the Mozart family lived in for a few years. The museum was much more like a museum here. They had audio ...

... sort of garden. The beauty of this town is everywhere…the murals on the buildings, the home gardens…everything is so colorful. We walked into the old part of town, with its curved wall entranceway, cobblestone streets and little shops and it’s just as you would picture it. We went to the Church of Our Lady, built in 1373. From the outside, it looks like it’s every bit that old, but on the inside, it is exquisite. The statues ...