I was thinking of heading this post “the hills are….” but then I thought everyone would have that little tune stuck in their head all day…..oops there you go – I can hear you singing it already.
alive with the sound of cows mooing
We still get a giggle when we hear them having a good mooing session out in the shed. The cows are tucked away nice and warm for winter, fed 5 times a day & milked 3 times. We’re also in the company of celebrity here at Farm Holzmann, being the home of the “Lady of Salzburg” a prize winning cow has been awarded many blue ribbons, which are stuck tall & proud on the barn wall. Also twin baby cows where born on 18Dec….they are soooo cute for words and love a good tickle under the chin.
This “white winter wonderland” is spectacular! We didn’t know if we would get use to the ‘snow’ driveway…aka the 4km road down to the village…but alas we are pelting up & down every day just like Herr Holzmann & his tractor full of milk & get a real kick out of it every time.
On the night of our arrival, not use to driving in the snow, we started slipping & stopped half way up to put on snow chains. Stupid us stopped in the middle of the road thus holding up a few cars, only to find our chains didn’t fit…bloody dumb ozzies! A tad embarrassing and perhaps something we should have checked before arrival??? Anyway a local guy came to our rescue with some valuable advice “drive on the soft fluffy stuff, not on the icey tracks of other cars” ….VIOLA we where on our way again no chains required. We have winter tyres on the car, which makes this possible & now carry the correct chains.
As you can imagine the Austrian Alps are SMAZING! High moutnain passes, snow covered peaks, frozen lakes & waterfalls….views abound in every direction. Everyday we catch ourselves saying WOW….it’s certainly a memorable winter. Since we’re “in da hood”, we’ve checked out the beautiful city of Salzburg (40mins) and a day trip to Munich (1.5hrs) & a few other locations around the area.
It’s unseasonably wet in this part of Austria & many of the Austrian’s we have met keep apologizing for the weather. Our Ski pass gives us access to 22 ski regions in Salzburg area so we can always find powder or excellent snow conditions, even if we wake up in the morning to rain & green grass on the hills outside our bedroom window.
Skiing this year is a totally different experience than that of last year. As our snow pass was only for Alpe d’Huez (and a few bonus days in neighbouring resorts) we got to know the mountain really well. This year with 22 resorts to choose from…I’ve found myself sighting seeing, taking pics and enjoying the view a little too much. Unfortunatly I’m not really sure if my skiing ability is going to improve this year (Paul’s is – must take leaf out of his book) as I’m spending so much time exploring and not enough time on technique.
Our favorite ski resorts thus far are: Obertauren as it always has amazing conditions, Hochkönig for its nice long runs with views (aka königs) & black run no.14 at Zell am See (rest of Zell is too busy).
Yesterday was a tad exciting as we saw someone get taken off the slopes in a Helicopter at Zell am See (well maybe not for them), it was a very spectacular rescue for a broken leg. It’s been snowing quite a bit the last 2 days, so I think we’ll head out & do the königstour again today….hopefully we don’t break a leg!
Bischofshofen was over flowing with an extra 35,000 people who had come from all over Europe to view the final stage of the 4 Hills ski jumping Tournament on 6Jan. Awesome event and once in a life time opportunity for us to see it. The rian unfortunately didn’t ease up but the Austrians don’t let a bit of rain dampen their spirits. They know how to party & keep warm by making good use of hot mulled wine & beer. By the end of the night most where soaked through, muddy & taking 3 steps left and 1 step right, signing away to sweet Caroline – it was hilarious.
Here’s some footage of the jumping:
They have all gone home now so its quite and we once again have the slopes all to ourselves. Its just under 2 weeks before we head off to Thailand for Nicky & Tony’s wedding so we are making the most of it plus the weather gods have been kind to us are we are being treated with fresh dumps these past few days so the conditions are just perfect.
I got a quick glance of my naked body in the mirror the other day and it’s safe to say the Greek tan is certainly fading. It’s remained well hidden under all these layers in Austria and the wonderful summer spent in our togs seems like a summer time ago….funny that! My pimply bum still glows like a Scottish neon light bulb & unfortunately the rest of the body is fast catching up…..Bring on the sun in Thailand. My camera hasn’t recovered well after dropping it in Hungary so the photos I’ve taken thus far are not really that great….but I’ll post a few anyway. Can’t wait to get my new camera (Canon SX50HS) in a few weeks so I can then spam facebook to make up for it.
….with the sound of…….MOOOOOOOOO
More Travel Blogs:
DAY 643 – Konigstour @ Hochkonig Ski fields
DAY 618 – the mighty Danube & everything in between
DAY 604 – our winter home (sneak peak)
DAY 596 – I’ll have a Yiros please…Efxaristo
