Dec 28, 2012 - Seefeld in Tirol

We left Vienna with snow falling and boarded a train for our 4 hour journey to Innsbruck followed by a further 37min train ride from Innsbruck to Seefeld. The scenery on the way to Seefeld was beautiful as there was plenty of snow lying around so the cottages, fields and trees looked spectacular – just like the Christmas cards you see with winter scenes! Seefeld is a pretty little village with everything you need within walking distance, including boutique stores (with very expensive clothes) to smaller stores, lots of cafes, and of course...

Nov 22, 2012 - Innsbruck

Today we visited another Olympic venue, the only winter Olympic venue of the four we visited on this trip. I could not believe how tall the ski jumps were; how do those skiers jump off them and live to tell about it? We stayed at the Hotel Goldener Adler, which cornered the old town. It was built in the late 1400s, and Mozart, Wagner, Sartre, John Glenn and assorted princes, dukes, etc have stayed there. Outside the room was a list of who stayed in each room. Nobody famous stayed in our room, just a few dukes and duchesses! That evening...

Nov 20, 2012 - Reutte

Today was castle day! The first castle (Hohenschwangau) was built by the father and the second (Newasuschwanstein) was built by the son. The one thing they had in common was that we had to do a lot of climbing to get to them! I don't know why these people didn't build on the beautiful flat plains, but they didn't! Both castles were spectacular. The second one was actually the third of four castles the son planned to build. Unfortunately, he went a little crazy while building the third one and was hospitalized. While walking along the lake...

Nov 7, 2012 - Four contries in two days

The only reason why I didn't post sooner is because there was no wifi. We spent all day Tuesday on the bus travelling from Belgium to Switzerland. Needless to say I was very tired hungry and cranky by the time we did reach lucerne at 6:30pm. I made some rude comments while our tour guide was trying to show us a piece of lucerne's history. When I saw my room last night I thought it was a punishment. Last night's room was the complete opposite of Belgium's room. My room or zimmer was literally a revamped closet. The attached bathroom was an...

Aug 27, 2012 - travel via Austria to Italy (map update)

Day of travel. Amassing scenery perfect for the convertible. Departed Brigachtal from Simonas Aunts place travelling along the northern shoreline of lake Constance. A scenic drive which was just as well as the roads were congested with holiday traffic returning from down south. the small town roads really don't cope with the volume of traffic and caravans, I think it took 2 hours to travel 50km. once in Austria we were moving a lot quicker on the motorway limited to 130km unlike Germany. the Tyrol region was quite spectacular, huge...

Jul 21, 2012 - Innsbruck

Wow! Can't say enough about this trip..it's totally awesome and we have really just gotten started. Met new friends from South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. We are the only Canadians,,whoa! The scenery is fantastic..so much to take pics of, We were in Munich,Germany a very busy place, crowds, lots of history. you will see pics of some of the historical buildings, then on to Innsbruck, Austria went on a horse and carriage ride through the most beautiful mountain village, the houses are carved out of wood,,the design, some of the homes...

Jul 20, 2012 - Going back to the Dollenhof

Dad got up early and went for a walk down one of the valleys in Achenkirch. Along the way he found a memorial to someone Mum knew who died in a skiing accident many years ago.  Yesterday we went for a drive to Mayrhofen which is a big ski resort in the Austrian Tirol. We bought two cow bells, one for the Christmas tree and the other to hang up in the house. We also bought some lederhosen for Edward, but he didn't like them so Archie got them. We caught a gondola to the top of one of the mountains and Mum got a bit freaked out by how high we...

Jul 19, 2012 - Going local

Dad took Archie to the playground first thing and Mum and Edward came to join them later. When they arrived,   Dad was rounding up a stray cow. It had escaped from grazing at the bottom of one of the ski runs and was heading into the entrance of the KinderHotel! Although Dad got the cow to the gate and Archie held it open,  The cow just didn't understand where it should be going and ended up going up a road along side the ski run ( and heading to another hotel!). It must have wanted better accommodation.  Later we went for a drive over her...

Jul 18, 2012 - Climb every mountain

Today Dad and Archie got an early start to climb the mountain acdross the road. It is the main ski mountain and Mum told everyone that there would be a book you can sign when you reach the top. Each mountain has a cross on it to mark the top. Mum and Edward met up with Helene and a bunch of kids to climb to the half way point where there is a hut. Helene also asked an old friend, Romana to come along and she bought her kids too. There were 8 kids, plus Archie, making 9. On the way, Jakob decided it would be a good idea to climb directly up...

Jul 17, 2012 - Back to Achenkirch

Today we did a tour of everything Mum knew in Achnkirch. First we walked to the Fischerwirt and hotel Scholastika that are by Lake Achensee. At Scholastika we met a lady that Mum knew. Mum used to work for her parents at hotel Fischerwirt. She updated mum with what everyone is doing now. Later, we went to a brand new playground by the lake that was all made of wood. We drove to the next village called Steinberg. It was a beautiful drive through the mountains. We climbed the main ski mountain just to the half way point. Everyone enjoyed...

Jul 15, 2012 - Cars, trains and busses

Today we left Tuscany for Austria and we made a few errors along the way. Firstly Dad didn't believe the GPS when were needed to find Avis to drop the car off in Florence. We drove around the block a few times and eventually found where we needed to be. Thankfully it was Sunday. Next, we arrived at the train station. We were a little early and discovered that we could get an earlier train. We changed the tickets but didn't notice that the machine had changed the departure station, so we had to race to get to the correct station in time for...

Jun 12, 2012 - Day 12 Travel to Innsbruck

Hi Everyone Well we had a very nerve racking day. We woke up at 6:30 and dropped the apartment keys off at Henry's Bar and decided to have one last cappuccino there. We were on the road by 8:00 am. This journey once again was to take us 4 hours to arrive in Innsbruck, Austria. I guess our first mistake was to take the scenic route and to avoid traveling through Milan, Italy. We did not want to hit the rush hour traffic from 7 to 9 am. Since we were familiar with the route around Lake Como we decided to travel this way. We also wanted to see...