Postcard from Bad Hofgastein in June 2011

Flowers, Marmots and Snow in Summer
TW ready for a hot drink
It’s been an up and down couple of weeks in Gastein.  Apart from all the mountain walks and the cycling, the temperature has been climbing and falling quite a bit. TW was not too impressed with the four inches of snow we found at the top one day. 
Marmot exclusive - in a bit of a hole
Not sure what the marmots think of it all. They hibernate under the ski pistes in winter but have the run of the place now. They don’t take too kindly to my wanderings and let out one helluva shout when they see me approaching. They are pretty elusive, this little groundhog scurried down into its burrow when I tried to take a picture. Have noticed in the shops some form of medicine or ointment that they make from Marmot so don't blame him for being less than welcoming.

The hairy bottomed snow bell?
The mountains look green from a distance but viewed close up there are a myriad of different flowers making up the pastures.  TW has a little book on the Alpenblumen and has been trying to translate the names into English. Some are pretty straightforward others like the Narzissenblutiges Windroschen turn into 'Daffodils Bloody Wind'. We have not seen too many of those fortunately.  Einkopfiges Ferkelkraut she alleges is a 'single headed cat’s ear', not sure that I’ve seen that on a packet of seeds. We have seen plenty of Gentian and Enzian though. The locals use the Enzian roots to make a particularly potent type of schnapps so they make sure that they proliferate!
Empty seats at the Bathing Lake


It looks very nice at our local bathing lake but nobody has turned up yet. Maybe they are all in the bar? So, in the absence of anyone to talk to I had better do my Dr. Doolittle and meet up with some of the local animals.
A Moo with a view.
Like your earrings!

High country blonde - no salons up here
Husky Maiden with nice grey eyes
When you approach an animal its best to show them the back of your hand and they know you are friendly. Tried it on this Husky Guard dog and it worked, just a pussy cat. Sadly it did not like being stroked. Still have all my fingers - just! Happily the doggie was on a chain and I can jump pretty quick when snapped at!

Is it a toad or a frog? Toads have toes so its a toad
Fortunately this big fella can jump as well and didn't get under my cycle wheels as we peddled up to Prossau
Now, you really should come out of your shell.

Could not get a picture of a Marmot, they are far too fast, but this is a really big snail.

Think I'll leave animals to the experts - goats at the Hochalm
Bovine Inspiration
This is cow is the centre-piece of a natural garden. Note the careful arrangement of the Alpenblumen and the rocks. Could be a winner at RHS Chelsea? As long as the cow doesn't eat it all first of course.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Cycling in Southwest England - Bike from Dorchester to Beer (1 of 3)

Image
An afternoon ride across Dorset 70km Dorchester to Beer I passed this way a year ago and really enjoyed the Dorset countryside on NCN 2. It’s a nice quiet route albeit with a few hills particularly on the approach to Devon. Hardy Monument Typical Dorset Countryside Set off down the Weymouth Road in Dorchester for a short distance and then took a right turn to join NCN 2. The City and the traffic were soon left behind and I was into open country. Headwind today! A bit bumpy across a farm track before getting back on the road through Martinstown and heading up the big hill towards the Hardy Monument. Need to be hardy to get up there! This is not a memorial to Thomas Hardy, the local author, but to Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (kiss me Hardy) a distant relation who captained HMS Victory at Trafalgar. It’s closed at the moment but, when open, it provides great views from its chimney top towards Portland. For every uphill there is fortunately a downhill and I cruised down an
Read more

The hills are alive – in Southampton

Image
A long-standing commitment meant a Saturday night visit to the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. The show was about a novice nun who goes to work in the house of a retired Navy man with seven kids. You can guess what happens next, the kids are jumping in and out of bed with her, they do things with goats, the father goes off and the children go wild and are dressed up in curtain material. Should have been in the News of the World, or a case for Social Services, but you guessed it, the Sound of Music on stage! It was quite good actually, should have been Connie Fisher in the Maria role. She won the TV programme to find a Maria for the West End show. At the interval Jacqui asked the lady next to me ‘who is playing Maria’ as it obviously was a stand-in? (we were too tight to buy a programme). “It’s not Connie and I’m cross, in fact I’m very cross, I’m going to tell them I’m cross. I only came to see Connie!” - whoops. I thought it was hilarious, if it was White Hart Lane and Harry making
Read more

Salzburg in the Rain

Image
The Sound of Raindrops on Roses Salzburg still looks pretty good in bad weather and a few raindrops on the roses didn’t dampen our enthusiasm for a wander around the narrow streets and gardens of the old town. The streets were empty as the tourists were forced inside.   We joined them eventually and had a nice delayed birthday meal at St Peters Stiftskeller. This claims to be the oldest restaurant in Central Europe, it’s been serving since 803 AD.   The toilets are much more recent. The cheap end of the menu is pretty reasonable. That’s one of many good things about Austrian restaurants.   The first glance at the menu might cause a sharp intake of breath but they normally have a few simple, standard, dishes that locals can afford.
Read more

London - Royal Albert Hall - Carmina Burana - a view from the Chorus

Image
A seat with the choir - 26th October 2013 In the cheap seats again Royal Albert Hall in October TW likes to make sure we have the occasional dose of Culture, bit like the winter flu jab. Where better to go than the iconic Royal Albert Hall. It is only an hour in the car, parking is easy and it is a keenly priced £18 for a comfy seat. Very reasonable when you have a top Orchestra, The Royal Philharmonic, and 500 singers to entertain you for the evening. I felt a bit under-dressed when we arrived as the seats next to us were occupied by elegant Ladies in posh frocks. When TW pointed out they were the choir and were the hired help for the evening I felt a lot more comfortable. Sitting alongside the choir is actually not too bad, have just to remember not to stand up when they do. Hearing them sing is also not a problem. Take your seats The programme contained familiar tunes. The warm up was the William Tell Overture. He was a Swiss chap he used to sit an Apple on his son'
Read more

New Zealand Holiday - Week 4 - Paraparaumu, Wellington, Blenheim and Motueka - 17th February to 24th February

Image
  Heading for Wellington and the South Island. Seatoun Coastal Tour Highway One took us Southward from Wanganui. The morning's highlight was a coffee break in the lively town of Foxton at the delightful  Robert Harris Cafe  The young lady who took our order, seemingly around ten years old, was remarkably efficient. The patrons were all locals with many wearing sporting gear, giving us the impression that Foxton is a town enthusiastic about sports? Kapiti Coast Next stop, the challenging-to-pronounce Paraparaumu. It was our first time using Airbnb, and our initial experience in Raumati South was extremely positive, thanks to Ngahuia . Our very comfortable property was in the front garden of a house in a quiet residential road. We even extended our stay as it was so nice. We had planned to take a boat to Kapiti Island, but the forecast of rain and gales made us reconsider. This was the first bout of bad weather on our trip. With Wellington just a short drive away, we decided to pay a
Read more

Italy - A postcard from Tuscany

Image
 An Italian Escape With Covid in abeyance and another health issue resolved it was time to head South for a week in Italy. Bologna 17th May 2022 We chose the noble City of Bologna as our starting point and BA from LHR our carrier of choice. We had a shedload of BA credits from all our cancelled flights over the Winter so we even took checked luggage! Really great to be landing in Italy and even better that they did not make us line-up in the 'Other Passport' queue, we were straight through the e-gates onto the Marconi shuttle into the City. Bologna Station is a bit of a maze and we struggled to find our way out. Eventually we found a long overpass that took us to the front of the building and a Taxi to our digs for the first two nights. Coincidentally this was in Via Marconi. I thought the comms pioneer was an adopted Englishman but clearly he is very well remembered over here. Our La Dolla Apartment was really nice and modern, a bit of a contrast to the lobby and stairs but th
Read more

Ski Amade Tour - a day trip to Flachau via Alpendorf and Wagrain

Image
Bad Hofgastein to Flachau - March 2010 Heading for home - above Alpendorf - downhill to the bus stop The Ski Amade lift pass that we buy for the Gastein Valley also covers a large slice of this region of Austria. Today’s tour took us over to Flachau, home village of the Herminator, Hermann Maier. Leaving the Gastein Valley at Dorfgastein we took the lift and skied down to Grossarl. From there the local bus took us on a 15 minute trip down the Grossarl valley to Alpendorf, an alpine village above St. Johann in Pongau. A succession of lifts and ski runs took us over the Gernkogel, Sonntagskogel and Grafenberg summits and down into Wagrain. At Wagrain it was a short shuttle bus ride, soon to be a lift, across town to the Flying Mozart lift and onwards up to the Griessenkareck summit above Flachau. Time out for lunch in the Waldgasthof then down the Hermann Maier World Cup run to Flachau valley station. Have to say I liked the look of Flachau. From what I saw it has wide open sl
Read more

Austria 2022 - Back on the ski slopes after Covid - sort of

Image
Well it started OK Austria opened its border just  in time for a 2022 departure. But, they had put a difficult obstacle in our way. Austria required us to get a negative PCR test within 48 hours of our arrival time in Salzburg. As our flight was on New Years Day it was impossible to get our tests locally. It meant that we had to drive to Heathrow and back on the last day of 2021 to get our Certification. The test centre was in a Tent in the North Perimeter Car Park. Probably a great place to catch the darn bug. Happily we both were deemed to be negative. There was to be no NYE celebration as we had an early start the next day but we did wake up for the local midnight fireworks and the ships hooting from the Harbour!  To keep ourselves Covid safe we really pushed the boat out this time and booked ourselves into Club Class for the short flight to Austria. This, of course,  meant we needed to go the Club lounge in Terminal 5 for a coffee, it would have been rude not to before heading to t
Read more