7. Oh no, I think I'm gonna throw...
Trip Start
Jun 17, ????
1
9
36
Trip End
Ongoing
Tyrol,
Austria
Wednesday, August 17, 1988
We stayed at the Hotel Mauth in the Tyrolean village of Kirchdorf. Our room was a little basic - I remember that the curtains made only a token nod towards covering the window, but it was clean and we had our own bathroom (expectations were not high at that time of my life!) The village is nestled under the Wilder-kaiser (wild emporer) mountains and the scenery is just spectacular. (I say "is". Obviously I'm hoping that no-one has put a cement plant there in the last 20 years). On the first night we walked into the village centre and sat at the bar where we proceded to work our way through the quite extensive selection of schnapps, before being persuaded to try port and brandy too. We were quite taken with the novel approach of running a tab and paying at the end. Our combined bill came to £26. At the time I was earning about £300 per month, so that was a lot to spend on one night out. When we got back, it was so warm we decided to sleep on the balcony on the deckchairs. We had a lovely time munching crisps and tucking our duvets round the chairs. Then I noticed a large number of spiders lurking round the woodwork and shot back inside. The next morning we were both as sick as dogs and I was woken by the sound of Kay trying to push carroty chunks down the sink.
We did do some great sight seeing that fortnight. Kimml waterfall in the rain, feeding the marmots buscuits on Grossglockner (mountain), rowing across Schwarzee (lake) with Vinny & Jane, who we met in the hotel, and shopping for crystals in Achensee. We joined in with the tour operater's bowling night, which was a schnapps fuelled laugh (but without the morning-after vomiting I'm pleased to say). We got to dress up as miners for the saltmines and slide down the miner's chute - fantastic fun. We also managed trips across to Berchesgarten (I do actually recall this trip to Germany - perhaps I should tackle that next) and Venice (I'll definitely do Italy after that). Actually, we went to Germany a second time on the day we went white water rafting. I got quite cold and a nice bloke called Jonny (who was retired and there with his wife, Sheila) lent me his green tank top. Mmmm stylish! It was great going over the border and ignoring all the "achtung" signs. We were met on the other side of the border by a bloke who we'd given our passports to earlier. (This was an organised part of the trip, not just a passing stranger). Chuck in a midnight hike, a spot of cycling and a daily swim in the outdoor pool and you have great trip. Actually, I almost forgot "glasshoppa" - I have genuinely forgotten his real name, but he did a fine impression with empty schnapps glasses - and Andy & Marilyn. I sincerely hope that this young couple have long since split up, since as we walked back from the bar Andy (in all sincerity) asked me to sleep with him while Marilyn was about 300m ahead up the road. What a t.......r.
After that great introduction to holidays abroad, you can probably see why it has become such a great passion of mine. I don't pretend to be any more than a tourist, but at least I go and I do try to look about me when I'm there.
Happily, that wasn't my last visit to Austria as 3 or 4 years ago I did manage a week's skiing in Hinterglemm and I really enjoyed it. We stayed at the Haus Wolf, which is handily sited close to both the main lift up and the Goatsh....r Inn. Actually, thinking about now, I suspect that that isn't its real name, but it was certainly in general use when I was there. We stayed half board and ate at the main hotel building in the evening, but had breakfast in the annexe where our rooms were. That was nice actually; the annexe was quite sociable and we were persuaded to try the sauna and steam room, despite lacking costumes. (I kept my towel wrapped round me firmly: I'm still English).
I remember being a bit taken aback by the cost of the wine. Plus we were somewhat disadvanted by our lack of knowledge of Austrian wines, and you wouldn't want to part with all those euros for a duff one. After some racking of brains, we did recall one word associated with Austrian wine: antifreeze. No doubt this is hugely unfair after so many years, but we gave the wine a miss anyway. Besides, we were getting enough gluhwein down us on the pistes to keep our unit levels up.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, France is my favourite country for skiing, but I do have to concede that nowhere French that I have skied is a pretty as Austria. French resorts tend to be more practical but nod towards the utilitarian with it. Bit of a generalisation, but anyway, the point is that Hinterglemm is a beautiful place to ski. It's linked - almost merged - with Saalbach and you can ski as far as Leogang and back.
My final experience of Austria was trying to get out. It had taken about 2 hours to get to the ski resort from Verona airport and it took 7 hours to get back. I have never seen snowfall like it. Happily for us , we had booked with Neilsen (easily the best company to ski with) and they are owned by Thomas Cook who also owned the plane taking us home. As a result, we were assured that the flight would wait for us all, which it did. Mind you, Verona airport was closed at least once as we made our way down, but luckily before we could redirect the coach towards Vienna, it was reopened. When we did get on the plane we had to wait half an hour for a go on the de-icing machine and then another half an hour to actually de-ice.
One place I would like to explore properly is Vienna, so I hope its not too long before I get back to Austria again.
