Traube Kirchberg

... 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.

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 ...

... legs began to whimper and ask whether it wasn't time to gently ride back to base for a nice, cold beer. However, they quickly came to their senses and marshalled themselves for the coming onslaught: a long, hard fire road climb up 9 long switchbacks. Bigger than anything in South East England, for sure. The reward was worth it: a long singletrack descent with lots to offer in ...

... 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 ...

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 ...

... carbon bars, stem and seatpost, very light and brisk, great for climbing, but quite different in feel from my Orange Five Pro. Brake levers are on the opposite side on the continent, adding to the task of adjusting my riding style. Our downward return was interrupted by a break to pick wild bilberries by the side of the path. I decided to ride to Ellmau afterwards to pick up some tyres that were ...

... 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 ...

... life). - the 'yoghurt' we got for dessert some nights. It tasted like it had either been spiked with an awful liquor or pumped full of sugar which had fermented. - the fact that after 5 days the snow was melting and there was no more forecast for another 5 days. We ended up cutting our holiday short by one week, figuring we were better off going back to work and saving our holidays for later in the year. We still had a good break though!

... plot’, if you will, for all its members…who are buried atop each other. Memorials, such as crosses and upright stands with names and dates, are surrounded almost completely by flowers. It is all so cheerful, not sad looking at all.

As we were walking around town, we saw several wagons decorated with flowers. We decided to follow them, just to see what was happening. Were we in for a surprise! Apparently there was a festival in town and ...