Blogs from Tyrol, Austria, Europe - page 8

Geo: 47.2838, 11.1333Breakfast in Switzerland coffee in Liechtenstein, and dinner in Austria. The day started out sunny and warm, then after passing through numerous tunnels, we hit serious rain and thunderstorms as we neared our destination of Flaurling, about 20km west of Innsbruck. Flaurling dates back to 763 and just celebrated its 1,250th anniversary in 2013! Saturday night we enjoyed a live “Johnny B Good” rock and roll concert in the courtyard of an ancient church on the hillside a few blocks from our new home. We've enjoyed getting to know our town hosts, some locals at the concert, and the mayor of Flaurling who gave Guenther a bottle of “1492” beer from Salzburg. Sunday we toured the local area, found a McDonalds in Telfs with Wi-Fi (none available at our lodging) and took the opportunity ... read more

Montag, 06. - 10.Juli 2015 / Kufstein Kennst Du Kufstein die Perle des Tirol?..... Die Perle welche im „Kufsteinlied“ besungen wird besuchten wir für einen Kurzurlaub. Wir buchten ein Zimmer im Hotel Alpenrose, welches zur „Best Western Hotel Gruppe“ gehört. Die Fahrt führte uns via St. Gallen, Feldkirch, über den Arlbergpass. Der Arlbergtunnel war wegen Renovierungsarbeiten bis in den November gesperrt. Die Fahrt war angenehm, bei wenig Verkehr. Am Ankunftstag besichtigten wir die Festung Kufstein, welche über der Stadt auf einem Felsen thront. Am nächsten Tag fuhren wir mit dem „Kaiserlift“, einer Sesselbahn, zur Brentenjoch-Alm. Es war ein sehr heisser Tag, wir schwitzten schon auf dem Weg vom Hotel zur Talstation. Die Fahrt von 500 auf 1270 Meter über Meer dauerte mit Umsteigen in der Mittelstation, rund 40 Minuten. Wir hofften, dass es oben auf der ... read more

Sunday 24th May. Jenbach is a bit of a different rail hub. There are three railway gauges in the station, the standard gauge ÖBB main line, the 1 metre gauge Achenseebahn rack railway, and the 760 mm narrow gauge Zillertahlbahn, which runs a half-hourly service up the Zillertahl Valley to Mayrhofen, a ski resort. Today I took trips on both the narrow gauge lines. I first headed along the Zillertal Valley to Mayrhofen. Very pretty scenery, with the mountains either side shrouded in mist and clouds. Mayrhofen is a picture-book alpine village, with many hotels, guesthouses, ski schools, sports stores and restaurants. It was cool there but not really cold. I took the Ahornbahn cable car up into the clouds. A really steep cable car, with some great views, until we entered the clouds. Lots of ... read more

Saturday 23rd May. It rained all day today! I know there are mountains out there somewhere, but I haven’t seen any of the high Austrian Alps at all, which is really disappointing, considering that’s why I came to Austria. Certainly one can see the snowy hills looming through the clouds as one travels along the valleys, hinting at something beyond, but the intractable low cloud and rain seem here to stay. I had most of the day in Salzburg. After breakfast I took the trolleybus in to see the Mirabell Garden, which I had heard was worth seeing. A very beautiful park, with formal and informal gardens. A walk across and then along the rushing River Salzach, with its many market stallholders setting up in the rain, followed. Returning to the main station, I took the ... read more

Another day of "work" checking out a few things. This time we went to Innsbruck to arrange for our group to visit the Swarovski Crystal shop. As the "Kristlalwelten" in Wattens is closed until mod 2015 - all groups now have to visit the store in Innsbruck - which means it will get a little crowded at times. Buyers will be disappointed as the store does not have anywhere near the range of product that was on offer in Wattens. Have to report that there is absolutely no snow in the Inn Valley - and this means no snow in Innsbruck. The locals and the store-keepers do not mind this - as it usually means more business as skiers now spend more time shopping instead of having to travel to the nearby glaciers to get on ... read more