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Published: October 16th 2013
Mayrhofen
Where we had Kaiserschmarrn!Now Sarah and I both go weak at the knees at the sight of any impressive mountain range, so as you can imagine, we have a love affair with Austria that has actually been ongoing for some time now. We’ve previously visited three times on skiing holidays and just love the place for what is has to offer, we’ve skied at Iggles, Leche, St Anton, Mayrhofen and the Zillertal Valley and have a very good perspective of this place from high up on the mountains in the snow - the aspres ski is great too! However this time we were visiting at the end of summer, and rather than arriving by plane into Innsbruck we were arriving by car from Germany across the border. Well, at least the imaginary border as they don’t seem to monitor them, there is obviously a high level of trust between these countries, so no passport stamp for us! We caught an overnight train from Ljubljana to Munich in Germany to collect our hire car, which we had for a week or so as we were due back to Munich for Oktoberfest and our first German wedding in Meersburg. We had booked a Renault Megane but
were very happy to be upgraded and driving away in a near new BMW 320i. So off to Austria we went, via the autobahn, the only way to really experience Germany!
We were headed for the Zillertal Valley which is only a couple of hours from Munich, and I must say, the scenery along the way was pretty impressive...from the incredibly green flat pastures of Germany to the mountain ranges of Austria. Soon enough we arrived in Mayrhofen and our boutique hotel fully loaded with a gym, various saunas and a very comfy room – we had decided to treat ourselves...again. There are endless hiking and biking trails in the valley to keep the active ones amused during summer, and at the end of the valley there is also a glacier that you can ski on 365 days a year!
We explored the small village of Mayrhofen which is full of restaurants, cafes, delicatessens, expensive boutique shops and much more. On either side of the village the mountains go straight up along with gondolas and cable cars to get you directly to the top where all the action is - this is what is missing in Hobart!! The
weather was not the greatest while we were there and our plans to trek high in the mountains were off, so we decided instead to trek from the village up towards the Ahorn - not intending to reach the top at 2300m, but we did make it half way! We stopped at a restaurant which served of all sorts of Austrian delights...such as supersized schnitzel and various yummy desserts...but we settled for just a hot chocolate and returned to Mayrhofen via a different route making a nice 4 hour walking circuit – a bit of practice for Nepal!
We managed to fit in a bit of a shopping trip as well, as, in preparation for the wedding, we desperately needed to make a few upgrades from our dishevelled backpacking clothes! So we took the old beamer to Innsbruck, which was only a short drive away. I also managed to arrange a haircut with a few English words and some unofficial sign language - we are pretty good at that now! On the same day we took the cable car to the top of the Ahorn to enjoy Austria’s famous dessert in a lovely lodge restaurant. Kaiserschmarrn - Best. Dessert.
Mayrhofen
There were cows everywhere with their little bells tinkling as they moved! Beautiful sound... Ever. Sarah was not going to be content with a trip to Austria that did not involve Kaiserschmarrn. Don’t have a photo to show you though sorry folks...we inhaled it too quickly. As a bit of trivia, the Ahorn cable car is the largest in Austria and will express 160 people to the top in under 8 minutes!
Our time in Austria was drawing to a close and on our last day we couldn’t resist a day of skiing on the Hintertux Glacier. It’s a different experience skiing in the summer. We caught the gondola at the bottom of the mountain at around 1300m above sea level where the grass is green with no sight of even a dusting of snow. We reached the first station at around 2000m above sea level where the snow line begins. Here we hired the gear, both of us deciding to go for skis, and took the next gondola up to around 2600m above sea level where it starts looking like a winter in Australia. The final gondola takes you up as high as 3200m above sea level where it was below zero and with more than enough snow to enjoy a bit
Mayrhofen
The little restaurant we walked to of summer skiing - we were on the glacier! What a great day it was with great snow conditions, the occasional white out (although less and less of that as the day went on), and by the afternoon we were having some great sunny spells with amazing views. Not bad, especially for something we certainly didn’t plan on doing.
After our unique visit to the glacier we had to drive to the location of the wedding in Germany that our whole trip had been planned around - Meersburg - 4 hours away. Driving through Austria is a little bit distracting, with giant mountains rising up either side of the highway, a lazy 130km/ph plus being the norm, and the general impressiveness of the infrastructure, with several long tunnels cut straight through mountains and the highway itself smooth as a babies bum and perfect in every way possible.
Adios.
Ben and Sarah
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