Lake Hintersteinersee and Thigh Slapping!

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So, had said the previous day that I was planning on going to Lake Hintersteinersee, and who wanted to come with me?! A large proportion of the group did, so into the taxis (always taxis of 8, and the taxi charges from its company's start/end point, so bear that in mind when ordering) and up the winding road (at speed!) to the far end of the Lake. After a brief restaurant stop, we started our walk round the entire circumference of the lake (estimated time 1 hour), stopping frequently to take MANY photos, 2 hours later we were back at the other side. Just time for a quick dip into the lake (there is a permitted bathing area with changing facilities, 3 Euros for the area), which was pretty cold but not too bad after the swimming pool! Quick change back, some lunch, and started the walk down with Sue, Ed and James - we had to re-do half of the lake circumferance, and then headed across some lush grassland - then there was quite a few steep steps to get down - some great views, but some difficult bits... and once we got to the base of that we'd already taken about 1.5 hours (estimated time to Hotel 2-3 hours), and the sign then said 2.5 hours to Soll (which is then at least another hour to Itter!)... by this point I was getting worried as I was taking the evening meeting at 5pm, and time was ticking on! However, with some fast walking, and watching the signs change in just over another hour we'd arrived in Soll, and, despite being side-tracked by a bus which was not the one we wanted, we got to the bus-stop 2 minutes before the bus did, and made it back in time (well, Sue carried on walking!)!

So, evening meeting and dinner complete, the coach turned up and everyone had decided to go to the Tyrolean evening in Soll. We took over a whole table and settled down for an evening of cheesy tourist fun. This was entirely enjoyable, and most of the music got us going (a couple of times the yodelling palled). The audience participation was fun, especially as we had people in both the men's/women's groups - and watching the moody teenager at the next table slowly joining in with the clapping was fun too! Lots of lederhosen and thigh slapping as expected, and quite a variety of dances - the one I was waiting for the was the Woodcutters dance in which pieces of wood-chip go flying through the air! Totally cheesy and totally enjoyable!

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