Cycling Salzburg - August
For our main summer holiday Jules and I headed over to Salzburg for a circular cycling tour via St. Johann, Kaprun, Krimml, and Zell am See before returning to Salzburg for a couple of days relaxing in the city. The chosen tour was the "Tauern Loop", and a direct train from Zürich made the journey pretty easy with our bicycles.
Monday
We left Zürich by train in the late morning. It was a bit cramped getting the bikes onto the train, but it all worked out in the end. We arrived uneventfully in Salzburg and found the Villa Carlton hotel easily. We then headed into town for a wander around including a drink in the Mozart Square and dinner in Geheime Specerey in Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse, which was very pleasant.
Tuesday
We had a leisurely start from Salzburg and managed to squeeze in a bit of shopping before leaving. We headed out of town following the Salzach south along the riverside path. It was very easy navigation and almost traffic free, which was a nice start to the cycling. We decided to go up to the salt mine museum at Hallein, which turned out to be further up the hill than Jules realized, and possibly a bit much. After a bite of lunch there and picking up some salt (it seemed appropriate) we then headed back down to the valley and along to Golling. We arrived at the lovely hotel Döllerer in late afternoon, and decided to relax in the hotel garden rather than head back and see the waterfall. We had a lovely traditional dinner at the hotel - very impressed by the service and the food.
Wednesday
After an excellent breakfast, including cold cuts from the in-house metzgerei, we continued on our journey. It was again easy navigation as we cycled through the very pretty valleys of the Salzach Tal, framed by mountains. The valley sides steepened over the Lueg pass, then we continued briefly on a more major road through the steep sided valley, which was quite impressive. We stopped for coffee at Werfen before continuing on traffic free paths along the riverside to Golling.
After checking in to the hotel we decided to go to the Liechtensteinklamm Tal to see the waterfall. Jules found an excellent home-smoked trout in the gasthaus at the base of the falls and suitably fortified we headed up. The falls are quite impressive, as is the high alpine river as it has carved its way through and down the mountain side.
Thursday
The day started well with self-made waffles in the hotel breakfast bar - Jules was very happy about that! After breakfast we headed out, taking the detour to avoid the section of the cycle path that was under repair. This resulted in one extra hill, and not feeling 100% and combined with a difficult section upcoming, Jules decided to take the train from Schwarzach. We met up in Lend and continued on to Bruck where we stopped in the Hotel Lukashansl for lunch. unfortunately Matt wasn't around to say hello, but we had a nice meal by the river anyway! Suitably refreshed we rolled into Kaprun in the full sun of the afternoon. We washed up and then headed into town to try to buy Jules a pair of walking shoes. We were just about running out of faith when the last shop in town had a pair of Scarpas that fitted well. We returned to the hotel Barbarahof hoping for dinner, but the bistro was closed (except to the family!) and we instead went to Dorfkrug for a perfectly acceptable salad for me, and trout for Jules.
Friday
The itinerary for the day was a train ride to the waterfall at Krimml and then cycling back to Kaprun, but Jules wasn't feeling quite up for that, and instead decided to see the waterfall, but to take the train both ways and having an afternoon of wellness instead. It was a train and a bus to get there - the train tracks having been washed out a few years ago and still under repair - but very well organised with separate transportation for my bike for the bus leg. We only walked up to the half-way point of the waterfall since we were a bit time constrained, but it was very impressive, and it would be good to spend a whole day there and do the complete route from the bottom to the very top and back down. I cycled the 55km return to Kaprun, which was a gentle down-hill run along the pretty valley. I arrived back in Kaprun just as the first drops of rain started to fall and grabbed a late lunch of excellent salad in Chilla's and a cheeky beer to recover from the ride. We decided to have a tapas dinner and a bottle of wine on our balcony and watched the thunderstorm roll through.
Saturday
We packed for a bad weather day, but it stayed dry until Saalfelden. It was a slightly easier cycling than the first few days since we started on the downhill half of the loop following the Saalach north. We stopped for a coffee in the pretty town centre of Saalfelden, having accidentally missed the extra loop up to the Maria Alm. It started to rain shortly after we set off, and we changed into our wet weather gear anticipating a big storm. However, the heavy rain never materialised, and we were only mildly damp when we arrived at Hochmoos. We declined the walk into town and instead settled in for a bite of late lunch and then a go in the bowling alley. We enjoyed a good dinner and a gentle walk before retiring early.
Sunday
It was a bit grey when we headed off in the morning, and the water in the river was noticeably higher after the recent rains. However, it wasn't cold, and we made good progress out through the pretty village of Lofer in good cycling conditions. The surfaces were a bit more mixed today, including some gravel sections but never technical or difficult. We entered the danger zone without warning (a bit rude, I felt), and stopped in Bad Reichenhall for a coffee. We shortly crossed back into Austria, and made good progress back to Salzburg. We looped past the Schloss Leopoldskron and the lake, then round the castle on the hill and into the centre of town and the hotel to finish the cycling part of the holiday. Overall we cycled about 290km with 2,600m of ascent/descent over the 6 days. Our equipment all worked very well - no mechanical problems or breakages, and we had everything we needed.
In the afternoon we headed into Salzburg through the tat-markt - managing not to buy anything. We went for a quick drink in the beer garden at Sternbräu then headed to Zur goldenen Kugel, for a generous traditional dinner.
Monday
For something a bit different we cycled over to Europark to go shopping and then walked into town. I managed to buy some t-shirts, but didn't go for the €1500 lederhosen from Meindl. Jules also did well finding not one but two watch straps! We stopped for an excellent kaiserschmarrn & coffee at Gasthof Alte Fuchs before continuing shopping. In the evening we finally went to Café am Kai, having walked past it quite a few times, but were a bit disappointed in the service. For dinner, we headed back to Gasthof Alter Fuchs for an excellent meal to complete our holiday before travelling back to Zürich on Tuesday morning.
Fishing Passeiertal - June
Finally managing to take a corona-delayed trip, Jamie, Jules and I headed down to the Passeier valley in South Tyrol for a long weekend of fishing (for Jamie and I), and some horse riding and sightseeing for Jules. We stayed at the Hotel Pension Sonnegg, which was as good as we remembered.
Friday
We headed off on Friday morning and had a good run to via the Brenner pass to Saltaus in the Passeiertal. We arrived in bright sunshine earlier than expected, and after some equipment faff we were ready to go. We were very capably guided by Arnold and I managed to hook a couple, although I did have a little trouble landing them. I eventually caught one (sigh of relief at that), and then relaxed a bit and enjoyed it. We had lovely conditions all afternoon - bright, sunny, and warm with the river in good flow. Tired but happy we headed back to the hotel for a lovely dinner then an early night after a fairly long but rewarding day.
Saturday
Jules was up early for a hack along the river in the cool of the morning. It was a slightly more relaxed start for Jamie and me for which we were quite grateful. At lunchtime, we headed down to Torgglerhof, where we picked up some goodies, but unfortunately none of their lovely soap. We went for lunch at Radlstadl, which is still a lovely little café with great food and service. In the afternoon Jamie and I headed out fishing. I was feeling less tired and caught some perfectly respectable fish. I even managed to land my first ever trout by myself - only a tiny rainbow, but nonetheless I was very pleased. I was also very happy with the new (Cresta) sunglasses, I found the light yellow lenses made a big difference in being able to see the fish. In the evening we were treated to another lovely dinner at the Sonnegg, and then retired to the roof terrance for a digestive.
Sunday
It was an early start on Sunday for the fishers (ouch), and a bit of a challenging day with the breeze. We headed further upstream to try to find Jamie a marble trout, but without success. Arnold thought that it was a bit late in the season (apparently the Marbles are normally caught in March/April) and despite fishing deep pools with nymphs we didn't have any luck. It did feel like proper fishing though - lots of climbing over rocks to get to the right spot, then tricky casts into the likely places.
I wasn't very good with the nymphs, but I did manage to catch one nice rainbow with them, plus a lovely rainbow on a dry fly. Unfortunately I also lost a couple of fish where I shouldn't have - I need to remember to relax and not strike too soon. Overall it was a lovely three days of fishing, and excellently guided by Arnold.
Monday
After a more relaxed start we headed off for home. We went back via the Timmelsjoch pass, which was a little tasty for those in the car with acrophobia….
Orchid Walking Erfurt - May
To celebrate Andreas' birthday (delayed by a year, owing to Corona), Jules and I headed to central Thuringia for a lovely weekend including a guided orchid walk, and plenty of food and drink.
We decided to travel by train - with just one change in Mannheim on the way to Erfurt. There were the usual slight delays on the way there, but we arrived with no real stress. After checking into the recently rebuilt Prizeotel we went for a wander around the lovely town centre with Andreas & Inge. We went past the Krämerbrücke (where we stopped to pick up some more mustard and wurst) and around the Altstadt with its waterways and shops and took a stroll up to the cathedral (but couldn't go in the see the big bell “Gloria”). We had dinner in restaurant Pavarotti, and all went for traditional Thuringia food and a quiet drink to finish off the day.
After a good night's sleep in an excellent bed and a good breakfast, we headed off for the guided walk. The chosen route was along part of the Geo- und Genussweg “Von Bier zum Bratwurst”. There were a few orchids out, including one that Albrecht said was very rare (I'll defer to his expertise on the matter). The area is a small, protected reserve somewhat like a Naturschutzgebiet in Switzerland, but with the orchid patches carefully cordoned off. It was a nice and gentle stroll, and the weather was quite kind to us - a bit windy, but sunny spells and dry. The gpx plot of our route is here.
After the walk we recuperated with lunch in Ratskeller in Mühlburg before transferring to the Hotelpark Stadtbrauerei in Arnstadt. The beer is brewed onsite, but unfortunately they had run out of the rather impressive 1l flip-top bottles of the Helles, and I didn't fancy taking a chance on the dunkel, so we passed on the take-away beer and instead opted to drink it there.
We had a lovely dinner in the evening in celebration of Andreas' birthday, with a rather special saxophone accompaniment courtesy of two of Andreas and Inge's friends. It was all a bit too sedentary for the kids who decided that races in the grounds were much more the order of the night!
In the morning we said goodbye to most of the guests after breakfast, and then headed out to Arnstadt for a look around the town. We took a quick look inside the JS Bach church, with its very impressive organ and took a stroll down to the Schloss ruins and gardens. Andreas and Inge kindly gave us a lift back to Erfurt to catch our train back to Zürich.
Unfortunately the return journey wasn't quite as smooth as the outward travel. Deutsche Bahn decided to re-route the train (?!?) and bypassed our scheduled connection in Mannheim. This necessitated an extra two changes in Singen and Schaffhausen, running for very full trains and a couple of hours extra travel. My sense of humour was restored in Schaffhausen where the interchange was long enough to secure a beer from Kiosk, much to the relief of everyone!
Milan - March
For a short trip away - keen to get out a bit after lockdown part II, Jules and I headed to Milan for a relaxing city break. We were pleasantly surprised with the city - we stayed in pretty much in the centre whilst we were there and found it to be charming, pretty, fairly laid back and relaxed. The metro system was spotlessly clean and efficient, although I did struggle with the Tram maps (much to the amusement of Jules). We ended up buying €7 day-passes for the central zone and then just jumping on and off metros, trams and busses as we pleased.
We took the train out of Zurich on Thursday morning, which was fast, efficient, and uneventful except that we didn't realise that a passenger locator form was needed to enter Italy (oops). Fortunately the border patrol had spares, and so we were allowed in! We found the Hotel Milano Scala easily and after checking in we headed out to explore the city a little. Our first stop was the recommended Biffi restaurant in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II for a very good risotto Milanese and a glass of wine. After lunch Jules headed off to meet some people, and I wandered around the Brera area around the interesting little shops and side alleys. In the evening we stopped by the lovely roof terrance at the hotel before heading for dinner at El Beverin in Brera.
Friday started with a very good breakfast in the hotel, accompanied by some very pleasant live piano music. In the morning we went for a wander round the castle then took the metro down to canal region. We had a very pleasant coffee at Gūd, then a spontaneous focaccia for lunch at Farini Venzia. In the afternoon we failed to buy a teapot (slightly disappointed that they all turned out to be mugs - don't ask me how we made that mistake), and then headed back down to the canal region for aperitivo in the very cool Sofa bar. We managed to get a table at El Brellin (not as hard as we feared) which was another very good risotto Milanese for both of us, with veal for Jules and Ossobuco for me. We did manage to catch the right tram most of the way back to the hotel...
Saturday started with breakfast accompanied by harp (which was also lovely) and then we headed over to the Wagner market. This was a bit smaller than I expected, but very well frequented, seemingly by locals, and with lovely little shops. We bought some sausages and cold cuts plus some other nice bits and pieces to take home. It was quite relaxed atmosphere - seemed an up-market market, great selection of fish, meat and cheese. After a coffee we headed over to the Saturday market at Via Garigliano, which was a more typical open-air street market, but with a very nice vibe. We stopped for an excellent lunch at Pizzeria Naturale - Jules had a very good gnocchi, and I had a carbonara which didn't disappoint. We stopped briefly on the way back to the hotel pick up even more cheese, before heading to the main station for a very easy and relaxing journey back to Zurich.
Overall it was a lovely break - two nights was good (although we could also have stretched to a third) and we were very pleasantly surprised with Milan
Skiing Lech - January
Braving the Covid-19 restrictions, tests, uncertainty, and general stress, Marcus and I headed to Lech in Vorarlberg for five days of skiing in glorious weather with a few friends. The snow was pretty good in most places and the company even better. We stayed at the Hotel Roggal, which turned out to be a very good choice - it's a friendly, family run hotel and in addition to being very welcoming they also helped with dinner reservations and general advice. We managed at total of 181 km and 33,600 m of descent over 101 runs during the five days.
Wednesday
We set out early from Zürich and were lucky to have an easy run to Lech. We were on the slopes about 10am after having checked into Hotel Roggal, which is about as early as one could reasonably expect. The weather was lovely - blue skies all day and the slopes were pretty empty.
We did a few runs around Lech to warm up, and then headed over to Warth. We stopped in Punsch Hütte for a perfectly respectable goulash soup and after lunch we headed back to the Lech and did a couple of lovely off-the-side runs and ski routes.
My technique wasn't great after nearly 2 years off, but I managed to stay upright, and Marcus seemed not to notice (or he was kind enough not to mention anything). We finished off with a quick drink in Balmalp at the top of the new gondola before heading back down to finish a very successful first day on the slopes.
In the evening we went for a pretty mediocre beer in Tannbergerhof in town followed by a pretty fair pizza in Pizzeria Don Enzo. Ali, Johnathon, and Gordon arrived in the late evening, keen to get going in the morning.
Thursday
After sorting out skis and boards for the new arrivals we headed off for a gentle warm up around Lech. Conditions were pretty good and there were even fewer people than Wednesday. Lovely blue skies and good snow, what’s not to like?
After a coffee in Rud-Alp we decided to head up on the gondola for a bit of a cruise around Zurs. The run down from the gondola - skiroute #127 - was excellent. Great cruising conditions, empty piste, bright sunshine, and lovely snow. We stopped for lunch at Trittalpe Above Zurs for lunch - a perfectly respectable chicken salad for me and generally good comments about the food from the others.
After lunch we headed over to the Zürsersee, where we were very happy to see that the old 2-man chair had been replaced by a shiny new 6-man "Madloch" turbo chair - that will definitely reduce the queue to get to Lech. Conditions were a bit less good on the ski route down to Zug, and it was a bit icy in places. We took the new gondola up from Zug to Lech and once back on home turf we did a couple of ski routes, which were in lovely condition including #222, and Osthang & Nordhang off the top of Kriegerhornbahn. Giley even managed one run without his poles, having left them for the lifty...
For dinner we headed to Olympia restaurant in town. An acceptable Spaghetti Carbonara for me, but Giley’s Gnocchi with Gorgonzola looked better.
Friday
It was a big day of touring around with not a cloud in the sky. We headed over to St Anton with a stop off in St Christoph for a hot chocolate in HospizAlm and to use the slide. We headed over to Rodelalm for lunch in the sun for old times sake. The Schweinshaxe is still very good, although quite a lot for a skiing lunch. We didn't hang around in St. Anton for very long owing to the journey back, but we did take a detour to the top of Trittkopf, just because…
We finished off up at the Balmalp above Lech for a cheeky glass (and to help recover from the bare patches on skiroute #170) before heading down to finish off a long but excellent day.
We had an excellent dinner in Hinterweis in Lech. Very nice restaurant and what looked like a rather nice good bar. Worth remembering, but perhaps a bit wasted on the lads.
Saturday
We declined the Weisse Ring race (we didn't want to upset the locals by taking all the prizes) and instead headed over to Warth in search of some quieter pistes and good snow. it was slightly busier that the last couple of days - probably on account of weekend visitors, but there were still no real queues.
We took it more gently after the excursions of Friday. We cruised around Warth, and stopped for a hot chocolate Punsch hütte in the sun mid-morning. Refreshed we continued to cruise around. We found a few nice rolling gentle runs, and one ski route that was quite pleasant.
We tried to have lunch in Warth village, but only found one place open and that completely full. Instead, we headed up to Hochalphütte where we picked a table that came into the first sunlight that cleared the mountain (and felt clever about that). After lunch headed back slowly to the Lech side, dropped into Oberlech to try to find a coffee, but everywhere was completely packed.
Keen to get a bit more skiing in, Ali and I headed back up the slopes, whilst Gordon, John, and Marcus settled into the bar at Petersboden Sporthotel. Ali and I joined the lads after a couple more runs top to bottom in hope of a refreshing beverage. Nil points for the bar who had run out of beer ( or just didn't want to serve us), so we headed over to Montana hotel, where the service wasn't much better, but we did at least manage to get a drink.
Sunday
We finished on a fairly gentle day. We stayed in Lech and had a good cruise around. The slopes were a bit more busy, and the snow getting a bit thin in places, which kind of dampened our enthusiasm a bit. We did take the skiroute #177 down from the bottom of SteinMädher chair, which has to be the easiest skiroute I've ever done - it was all bashed and corduroy and pretty gentle for the entire route.
Ali and the lads wanted to ski on through to departure, so Giley and I said goodbye to them at about midday, and we went for a long lunch in Rud-Alpe - they were a bit understaffed for the weather, but the food was good.
We finished up with one loop around the top of the mountain and down to finish a lovely holiday.