Take a hat

View from the Amoseralm towards Dorfgastein Bread making on the mountain Towards the Hochkonig Take the cycle path from Dorfgastein towards Unterberg and then follow the signs and climb uphill to the Amoseralm. These are the views to enjoy as you savour your beer and local produce.

Blue Sky Riding - October 2011 The wide and sunny Gastein Valley We were walking up the Stubnerkogel the other day and somehow managed to find ourselves in two feet of snow on the steepest piste on the mountain. My companion thought it appropriate to mention the old song, ‘mad dogs and Englishmen’. “Oh well, as you are Welsh you must be the mad dog then”. Today there was nobody else to point the finger at but the song somehow came into my head again. Circular Tour in Gastein 44km Turn Right on the Gastein Radweg It was a beautiful sunny day again and ideal for a spin on the bike. The morning frost was being burned off by the sun on the Western side of the Gastein Valley. I headed for that sunshine and cycled through Anger and joined the cycle route. After cycling past farms and pastures this eventually took me back to the Riverside to continue a gentle ride upstream. The locals were out in force clearing the trees brought down by the recent storm and sawing them up for

Late season walking on the Hohenweg Kotschachtal - towards the Bocksteinkogel A lunchtime picnic in the Kotschachtal, a side valley near Bad Gastein, and a leisurely walk home along the Gasteiner Hohenweg was the plan for today. Sheep fields in the Valley Going downstream to Grunen Baum Level Walking on the Hohenweg It costs one Euro on the bus from home to get to the up-market Hotel complex at the entrance of the Kotschachtal Valley. The Grunen Baum Hotel is like a small village and, amongst other things, plays host to posh weddings. We like to walk on a little further up the valley to near where sheep gently graze and some comfortable sun-soaked seats. The views are stunning and it’s so quiet. The walk home takes about 2 hours and is on a mainly level path, the Gasteiner Hohenweg, high up on the side of the Gastein Valley. Being on the Eastern side it stays in the sunshine until quite late. The recent early snow and bad weather has brought down quite a numb

Taking the lift to the top can 'Fast Forward' you through the seasons....... On top of the world 2050m After slipping and sliding in the slushy snow around the Lake at the top of the Schlossalm II Lift we took a ride down to the Middle Station and then walked back down to the village. Slipping and sliding at over 2000m Mountain Lake - ready to to feed  the snow-makers Snow Bull at 1200m   The thermals were needed at the top but it was tee shirt weather at the bottom. All in a leisurely day’s walk in Gastein. Greener and Warmer Pastures - 1000m The reward at 850m Coffee and cake on the balcony

Journeys End in Austria - Autumn Leaves Over the last few years we've used budget airlines Ryanair and EasyJet countless times. The reason we usually fly ‘budget’ is purely price – low price. Of course it’s not just the airline fare - there are all the other travel costs that need to be considered when choosing who to fly with. You could argue that that the recent low fares have been subsidising all the other services like, for example long term parking at Stansted, and has also been compensating us for the inconvenient flight times. Parking for 3 weeks will cost over £100 even if you book in advance. Flying at 6:30am means getting up at 3 in the morning and writing off the day.  The price gap to Flag Carriers has now narrowed Today, because of punitive taxes and budget airline fare increases, the price differential between budget airlines and the so-called flag carriers has reduced markedly. It can be now more cost-effective to fly BA or Lufthansa to Austria. Well, Nor

Tales of the Riverbank Thanks for raising the bridge! Mill End Surprisingly, it’s easier to cycle in the Big City than our small town in Bucks. Of course, when we take a Thameside cycle near home we can use our local tow-paths. However, in our small town we have no cycle paths and have to brave the school run mums, the commuters and the trucks. That’s not the case in London. Being simple country folk it was quite a surprise to find ourselves on a Cycle Superhighway along the Thames as we approached Westminster for the Tour of Britain racing. The ‘thick blue line’ made for safe and easy cycling so we vowed to use it again later in the week. London in the sun We parked for free in a quiet residential street in Wandsworth just off the A3 and headed downhill into town to pick up CS 8 (Cycle Superhighway 8) to take us into the City. As the route signs are painted on the street it’s simple, even for us, to navigate and we soon found our way to Battersea where we crossed the r