Berghotel Jaga Alm Zell am See

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 ...

... s Nest a couple of times because he was afraid of heights.
Our last day in Berchtesgaden was beautiful so we went to the nearby lake Konigssee. It is a little too touristy for us but good to see. We hiked up part of the mountain and looked back down on the lake. They have lots of boat rides on the lake but all our electric boats so it was very quite and peaceful.
Overall we really enjoyed being in the mountains and ...

... ago. At that time we had entered the bunkers from that staircase and there was just our little tour and it was all very awesome and personal. In the new center, one enters from a well lit hallway (with aforementioned storyboards). And there were crowds of people coming and going everywhere. To me, it just didn’t have the same atmosphere.

We had to hop onto a second bus to head up the mountain to ...

... 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 ...

Now for the heavy stuff! After our customary farm-fresh, home-made breakfast, a 45-minute drive took us to Leogang. €25 bought a day's lift pass and I donned my arm and leg pads.

The beginner-freeride level trail is called Hangman II and runs from the midway lift station. It's a fairly wide trail with fine-gravel surfaces and big corners, with berms that weren't as high as I was ...

... 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 ...

... 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!

... finally reopened the desk and let us make the booking, but charged us quite a bit for the room. We sort of wondered what would happen to the poor group of four who hadn't arrived yet. Maybe they had train trouble and would arrive to find out their booked room had been given away at 4 pm in the afternoon. Another guy rolled up while we were filling out paperwork and asked for a bed. No dice, so he asked if there was another hostel that they would ...

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.

... I was really here, walking the streets in Kitzbuhel, Austria…one of the most famous skiing venues in the world. We stopped at a market to pick up something to eat…look at us! Here only a couple of hours and already we're in the grocery store!

There was a get together dinner tonight at 7:00. Dinner consisted of turkey cordon bleu, fries and strudel. At 8:00 pm, we decided to call it a day. We went to bed.


August 25-Sunday ...