Tyroler Hof Kirchberg

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 ...

... little more than one street. The castle looming above is well-preserved and evocative, and really worth a visit. There's a panoramic glass lift to get you up there if you're too idle to walk. The prison tower holds historical exhibitions and details of the erstwhile prisoners and ancient torture methods, including a shocking engraving showing some poor unfortunate being tied ...

... 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.

... lunch but I went back up and used the Flying Gangster trail as my post-lunch challenge. It didn't disappoint! It's a freeride trail, with some very steep, fast sections, jumps, drops and big berms, but there's nothing you can't roll over if you're a beginner-level freerider or more used to XC, like me.

On my first run, I fell off after a bit of the trail that was covered with wood ended ...

... 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 ...

... bakery where they served a nice Gulaschsuppe.

Some more fun trails, then we descended toward Ellmau but this is where it went awry. Katie had a spill on a fire road descent. It wasn't anything particularly technical, just one of those unlucky moments when a drainage gully snags a front wheel that's going too slow. The kitty-litter gravel that covers these fire roads is unforgiving and Katie left behind quite a bit of skin from her right knee, with some minor ...

... to the ones I use at home as I wasn't used to the racy tyres on the Spider.

The evening meal, cooked by Keith and Manu was served in our kitchen. We had courgette soup for starters, Tirolean meat and herb dumplings, and a chocolate, vanilla and melon ball dessert. Just right to replenish depleted energy reserves after the big climbs. We rounded it off with a game of Trivial Pursuit... in German.

... views. We made it down to dinner just in time for the last servings, and celebrated by buying some local red wine recommended by the tour guides en route. Staff seemed very friendly too!

It was a bit dark to go out exploring so we took in the atmosphere from the balcony, drank our wine which they let us take upstairs and considered our plans for the next few days, the peace of the mountains slightly spoiled by the disco music from the triathlon!

Spent part of the summer back in Kirchberg, keeping busy with biking along the river trail, swimming and sunbathing at Schwarzee, riding the chairlift up the Gaisberg and walking down through the forest. A few things had changed since I was last there, a few new faces but plenty of familiar people. I met a neat Aussie girl called Kate or 'Chippy'. She ended up going to Canada for one of their winter seasons after finishing the winter in Austria.

... saw the most delightful parade! All the vehicles were decorated with flowers, from horse drawn wagons to cars, trucks, even the fire engines. The parade stepped off with the town band, playing that wonderful Bavarian music. We just stood on the side of the street with the rest of the people to watch the parade. It was a great experience, and one that we just happened upon! The festival with music, food…the works…was going on in town afterward ...