The Hills are Alive with the Sound of Soljey & Consort
Posted: Friday, 05 January 2007 |
Carrying on with catching up with what has happened to Soljey & Consort in the latter part of 2006鈥.
(Very) early morning we鈥檇 to catch a plane at Birmingham for Innsbruck. I鈥檇 hunted for ages for places to go to in the summer - on the internet frequently while trying to keep it a secret from Consort. Frantic logging off of internet whenever she appeared.
鈥淲hat鈥檙e you looking at?鈥 would often be the question.
鈥淓h, nothing!鈥
Well, you can imagine what was going through her mind!!
While looking, every time I saw the mention of 鈥渟izzling night life鈥 or something similar 鈥 that was a complete turn off. Neither of us are into clubbing, etc. We prefer the more simple pleasures. (Let鈥檚 have no naughty comments from you, Muness Views!!)
鈥淭he Sound of Music鈥 is also one of Consort鈥檚 favourite movies. So she had to visit the Alps. There was also the added advantage that Consort can speak very good German.
Flying in to Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian Tirol, the airport is in a spectacular location 鈥 the bottom of the Inn Valley with towering mountains on either side. An hour & a half in a coach, then transferring to a minibus brought us to our hotel in a small farming village of Schwendau. The hotel was a family run business. Our room was lovely, and the view from our balcony was just stunning. Great at the end of the day just sitting out there, taking off our boots and putting our feet up before going down to dinner.
One of the things that really struck us about being in Austria was just how neat and clean the place was - including the toilets!!! The only piece of graffiti we saw was in an Innsbruck toilet - & it had obviously been written by a Brit.
In the Tirol, each village has its own Fire Brigade which puts on its own little beer festival. The first night we were there one was in our village. When we got there a lot of beer had obviously been consumed, but there was none of the people falling over, throwing up or fighting that we get back in the UK on a Saturday night.
(Very) early morning we鈥檇 to catch a plane at Birmingham for Innsbruck. I鈥檇 hunted for ages for places to go to in the summer - on the internet frequently while trying to keep it a secret from Consort. Frantic logging off of internet whenever she appeared.
鈥淲hat鈥檙e you looking at?鈥 would often be the question.
鈥淓h, nothing!鈥
Well, you can imagine what was going through her mind!!
While looking, every time I saw the mention of 鈥渟izzling night life鈥 or something similar 鈥 that was a complete turn off. Neither of us are into clubbing, etc. We prefer the more simple pleasures. (Let鈥檚 have no naughty comments from you, Muness Views!!)
鈥淭he Sound of Music鈥 is also one of Consort鈥檚 favourite movies. So she had to visit the Alps. There was also the added advantage that Consort can speak very good German.
Flying in to Innsbruck, the capital of the Austrian Tirol, the airport is in a spectacular location 鈥 the bottom of the Inn Valley with towering mountains on either side. An hour & a half in a coach, then transferring to a minibus brought us to our hotel in a small farming village of Schwendau. The hotel was a family run business. Our room was lovely, and the view from our balcony was just stunning. Great at the end of the day just sitting out there, taking off our boots and putting our feet up before going down to dinner.
One of the things that really struck us about being in Austria was just how neat and clean the place was - including the toilets!!! The only piece of graffiti we saw was in an Innsbruck toilet - & it had obviously been written by a Brit.
In the Tirol, each village has its own Fire Brigade which puts on its own little beer festival. The first night we were there one was in our village. When we got there a lot of beer had obviously been consumed, but there was none of the people falling over, throwing up or fighting that we get back in the UK on a Saturday night.
Posted on soljey at 18:06
Climb Every Mountain
Posted: Wednesday, 10 January 2007 |
Looked out of the kitchen window this morning - when there was eventually enough light! The hill at Fitful was totally covered in snow!! Pity I had to go to work.
The last time I played in the snow was in August believe it or not. Consort & I were 10 or 11 thousand feet up on a glacier in the Alps, making snowballs. Loved the cable cars, felt a bit like flying - especially when you shot out over a huge precipice, catching a glimpse of 2 eagles flying by us just several feet away.
Many of the mountain roads were not for the faint-hearted as they wound their way up to little Austrian alpine villages.
We also took an 100 year old steam engine up to a beautiful lake at Achensee. The train had open carriages & the conductor went from carriage to carriage by walking along boards on the OUTSIDE of the carriages. On the lake we took a boat that acted as a bus around the different lakeside villages.
On 1 evening we went to an outdoor concert of a local youth orchestra. As they played, 2 girls in Tirolean custome came around dishing out helpins of Schnapps. Very welcome!
The last time I played in the snow was in August believe it or not. Consort & I were 10 or 11 thousand feet up on a glacier in the Alps, making snowballs. Loved the cable cars, felt a bit like flying - especially when you shot out over a huge precipice, catching a glimpse of 2 eagles flying by us just several feet away.
Many of the mountain roads were not for the faint-hearted as they wound their way up to little Austrian alpine villages.
We also took an 100 year old steam engine up to a beautiful lake at Achensee. The train had open carriages & the conductor went from carriage to carriage by walking along boards on the OUTSIDE of the carriages. On the lake we took a boat that acted as a bus around the different lakeside villages.
On 1 evening we went to an outdoor concert of a local youth orchestra. As they played, 2 girls in Tirolean custome came around dishing out helpins of Schnapps. Very welcome!
Posted on soljey at 12:22