No Change

Well, there hasn't been much happening here in Austria.

The weather has been quite cold but no snow since last week. Just have to scrape the car off every morning. I think -17 was the lowest one morning when I drove to the resort.

The skiing has continued to be good, and my cold has just continued.

Apart from that not much to report. The sun has been shining so working on the face tan, not wearing goggles so I don't end up with panda eyes.

Guest-wise it's very quiet, only 14 in the hotel this week, although the hotel itself was 100% full this weekend. Not a room to spare.

I am expecting it to pick up in a couple of weeks time when the schools go on half-term. But until then just enjoying the quiet and ski-time.

Skiing At Last

The snow last week and then it snowed yesterday has meant that it is now almost perfect for skiing.

The guests I have this week all want to ski and a lot want to come out with me so I can show them the slopes. With the good weather this means that I have been out everyday the last 3 days and yesterday was all day.

There is still some ice around to make it interesting.

The hire shop want me to get guests to upgrade their rental skis so have lent me a pair of professional skis to try. They are great, so I can recommend them to guests.

All in all it is pretty good. Just what I wanted, skiing every day and fortunately very little hassle.

But putting on chains is a messy business, taking them off is far messier!

Snow...At Last!!!

At last it's snowing here. Hoo-bloody-rah!!

The green meadows outside my window have now gone back to white, for the moment.

So today, my day off, I decide to go for a drive round to explore. Not the wisest of moves, I headed up hill. and see lorries stranded with police direct cars round them. My second encounter with the local police in so many days, but more of that in a bit. Anyway I get to a town and then decode to head back as it was not easing any, and the locals still drive like nutters.

I don't want to have to put chains on so eventually head home. Then spend a quiet day resting.

But last night I did the quiz at the hotel and left for home about 9.40. I get to the main mountain road and there are police everywhere, stopping everything. Now I have to be honest I did have a couple of small beers while waiting to start the quiz about 3 hours earlier and the limit in Austria is lower than the UK. So bollocks did cross my mind. I had a cop who spoke English and I managed to tell him I had been working and I also managed to get in that I had been in the police in the UK. But he still breathed me. I told him I had had a small beer, just the one mind, thinking something was bound to register. But it was zero, not a jot. So I bade him good night and carefully drove off down the mountain, on the road of course.

A bit of a scare, but they say they are bastards here no leeway at all, especially with speeding. So I will be extra careful in future.

Anyway with all the snow around you have to be careful because it's slippery stuff. It would have the UK on it's knees but all it does here is make the locals go about 10 kph slower!!

Who cares IT'S SNOWING!!!!!

Austrian Spring

Well the weather here is decidedly spring-like. The nights are cool, around zero and the days are warm 4 or 5 degrees. As we speak the snow is disappearing. The warmer weather means we get some great mist patches around the place and so here are yet more views from my window in the morning.

I have been skiing but it is hard work.

So I have been exploring, on Mondays I have to go and do the banking and post which is in a nearby town. This means that I drive a different route back to the resort.

On the way there are some great sights such as this castle, the Schloss Moosham. It was closed when I visited but I will return. With the mist blowing around it looked really good.

The castle I spoke of in an earlier post, at Mauterndorf, I have since found out was owned by Hermann Goering and it was where he was arrested after the war.

Also on the castle front every Saturday I have to go from the resort to Salzberg Airport on the Autobahn. On the way I pass another castle. This one is called Schloss Werfen, but you may know it better as Schloss Adler or maybe even better known as the castle from Where Eagles Dare.


It looks spectacular perched on a rock overlooking the valley, but alas no cable car. They went somewhere else for that. See here for more info:
http://www.cinema-astoria.com/cinematography/filminglocation/locations/whereeaglesdare/index.htm

Well enough of castles and the lack of snow. Forecast says we will have snow on Wednesday, my day off, and Thursday and then maybe some days after that. It better do or we might end up mountain biking here.

Just Like England Now!

Well, we have now gone from one of the best days skiing to damp old English weather.

Yesterday was great skiing, it should have been my day off but the Health and Safety people descended from Thomas Cook UK.

They wanted to check out the hotel, which passed of course. Then they wanted to check out the toboggan run. This of course meant doing it.

So I said despite it being my day off I would show them, but it did mean a 45 minute walk up the mountain to get to the start. One guy was no problem, but the woman who apparently was the boss to put it mildly was not in the best physical shape. Certainly to climb every mountain. She was no Maria Von Trapp, although she might have had all the children under her jacket though! You get the picture.

So I went on ahead and at the mountain restaurant where you hire the toboggans I waited 10 minutes for her to catch up. After a hot chocolate that they paid for we decided to do the descent.

She said she was a bit scared of going down the run. Kids go down it for goodness sake!!!

Anyway when we all got down she said she loved it.

To cut a long story short they wouldn't allow me to sell the toboggan part of the activity which included a snow shoe hike up the hill, because we couldn't find out who had the insurance for the run.

I had some guests doing it that night that they allowed and the guests thought it was great fun and loved every minute of it!

But at least I got thanked for coming in on my day off. A bit of a con as I spent most of the day skiing waiting for them. The skiing was fantastic.

Today though what a change. Rain! Just like Old Blighty. So didn't bother skiing today too slushy and heavy. Hope for better things tomorrow as I have 14 guests coming in on Saturday. I hope I can cope.

Snow!

At long last we have snow.

The morning was fairly sunny when I went to the bank and post office, but when I went up the mountain it was cloudier then over lunch it started snowing. So much so that the chains warning light was lit on the road up to the mountain.

I tried skiing but you couldn't see anything so it wasn't worth the hassle. But it is good for the guests and in the long run good for me as the runs will get better.

I think it is meant to ease off tomorrow but snow more on Wednesday and the rest of the week.

Also cleaned the car today surprising how much better it looks now.

Here are is a pic I took on New Years Day but the sculpture is still there now, mainly because it hasn't got that warm here.

The other one was taken at the nearest big town Tamsweg and is of the Ratthaus, which is not as you might think the Police Station but the Town Hall. Included for no other reason than it is a pretty building and the mild humour about the police.

Been a while

It appears to have been a while since my last post. The reason is that I was sent to Kitzbuhel as the reps there were dropping like flies. First one taken to hospital with a blood infection then the other loses her voice.

Anyway 4 days there. What a change. A very busy place with the town full of Russians all wearing very expensive fur coats and big flash cars all over the place.

As a ski town it is quite strange. You have to walk to the lifts carrying your skis and wearing boots. Not like my resort where you just step out of the back door.

A pity I didn't have time to take pictures. What with bar crawls (disgusting) and doing a quiz, god what a change of clientele, some of these were very thick and in some cases rude. That's what you get for doing Kitz on the cheap.

The bar crawl they call Kitz by Night, if they had done better bars they could have called it Glitz by Night or the seedier bars Titz by Night. The incumbent reps did not warm to any of these suggestions!

The hotel that the firm runs is where we stayed for our training and has definitely seen better days, probably several hundred of them.

It is such a relief to get away from there and back to my little 4 star. Although the skiing in Kitz was quite good if a tad crowded and the 3S gondola across the valley was special there was little else to redeem it.

Back at Katschberg it was really nice to step out of the hotel and be on the slopes. Although the weather has got a bit warmer it has softened the ice and the skiing today was very good. As it was change over day it was not too crowded. The locals all say it will be snowing in the next couple of days, and I think we need it before it all  melts.

The books seem to balance as well, so a lay in tomorrow then off to the bank and the post office, which is always an adventure as they seem to adjust the charges according to the state of the moon. I have never been charged the same twice when paying in. Perhaps they have some sort of random figure generator.

Best skiing ever

Sunday was great.

I went skiing with a couple of the instructors and one of the girls who works in the Kid's Club at the hotel, she is from New Zealand and touring Europe before she goes to university.

The skiing was fantastic, having your own instructor is the best way to do it. Michael is Romanian and some say a bit crazy bit he is a nice guy and a great teacher. He had me going down some steep slopes at speed and when there was ice. And looking good doing it as well. We only had a couple of hours before he had lessons but it was the best skiing so far.

Meant to have done a quiz in the evening but only one family showed up so I got an early night.

Today they have decided to send me to Kitzbuhel until Saturday as I only have 2 guests here and one of the reps there is in hospital having tests for some illness. So tomorrow I have to pack stuff up and head off there on the coach from the airport. Shame as we have snow forecast from Thursday for 4 or 5 days. But it will make a nice change of scenery and sounds like they only really need me for 2 days so should get some skiing in.

New Year in Austria. 1/1/11

Happy New Year everyone!

New Years Eve at the hotel was a success according to the guests. The ice carvers made an Ice Bar and a few other sculptures. There were fireworks everywhere.

Back at the farm I was invited for dinner with the landlord and his family plus the other guests staying in the B&B part. They were very nice one of whom spoke good English and was kind enough to translate a lot of what was going on. I was also treated to the landlord playing his accordion, which wasn't quite as bad as it sounds.

At midnight the TV played the Blue Danube and a few of the assembled party danced to it. Then everyone hands out little lucky charms. These consisted mainly of pigs. Such as gingerbread pigs and little toy pigs.

Then all outside for fireworks. One of the daughters works for a company that amongst other things sells fireworks, so these were huge and noisy. Everyone else around seemed to be doing the same. But it was a very cold night and a bit of a fog rolling in.

New Years Day was back to work, well for the morning and up to the hotel. They had pretty much cleared most of it up. But it was very quiet up there, not many people about. Which was good.

So a bit of greeting my guests then out on the slopes. The weather was superb, bright sunshine, clear blue skies and very crisp and cold. The really good part was that there was hardly anyone out on the slopes. Obviously sleeping off hangovers. So the skiing was good. Not so much ice apparent although caught a tip and went over gracefully on the same hip I fell on the other day. Ouch!!!

But it was good.

 Then an early end to the working day. Back to the flat and lunch. Watched the end of the New Years Strauss concert, while preparing questions for tomorrow's quiz which I don't think anyone will be attending. This lot don't seem as friendly as last week's. Oh well could be an early night.