Holidays in Tyrol

Lindsay and I have just spent four beautiful relaxing and stress-free days in the snow-covered Tyrol in Austria. We went there on Wednesday straight after work. We drove the
approx. 500km in one piece and managed to arrive in our small hotel in the little village of Tumpen at about 11 o'clock at night. The hotel was exactly right for us, with a cosy room, a beautiful view from the balcony and a good breakfast in the morning. We had not planned much and left everything to chance and to our moods. It was our goal to really relax and to forget work for four days. This was absolutely not hard and we managed to do it really well.

We spent the Thursday morning on a snowy meadow at the edge of the forest, with a view over Tumpen and of parts of the mountains (the majority was covered by clouds). There Lindsay built an enormous iglu and I helped him a little with it. It was perfect and remained intact the entire time, as we found out later. In the afternoon we drove into the neighboring village Ötz, where we spent quite a long time in a cafe, reading magazines and eating several courses.

On Friday we hired cross country skis and went around on the Loipen (pre-carved tracks in the snow). It was fun, but I realised how unfit I had gotten, by the fact that my legs got really sore from it. It was a beautiful sunny day and we could now see the 3000m high giants raise into the sky all around us. We drove up a mountain to the village Niederthai, walked up a sled-slope and slit down. At the bottom, we had a big snow fight. I hadn't yelled and laughed this hard for a long time. In the evening we ate in Ötz and then drove to a town which had thermal pools. We spent three hours in the hot springs and in the Saunalandscape. The Saunalandscape was the best. After each visit to the sauna, we cooled down outside in the fresh air and Lindsay even ran through the snow.

On Saturday we visited Lindsay's iglu, which was still in a really good shape, although the snow had melted a little in the surrounding area, because of the nice sunny weather. We went on a trip to the village Kühtai, which is at about 2000m above sealevel and where there is a nice lake. We had a beautiful view of the mountains.

On the last day, we decided to not drive home immediately, but to enjoy the remaining time. We drove to a village, at about 1500m sealevel and walked from there to a mountain hut at 2100m, pulling our sled up with us. The track was quite steep and I could feel my sore muscles, but it was worth it. The hut was completely different from what we are used to in New Zealand. There was electricity, normal toilets and a restaurant with warm meals. We had a Goulash soup and some Fries. The way down was a lot faster than up, because we could slide down most of the way on our sled. It was a great conclusion to our holiday.