The Great Christmas Speciality Contest

The contestants lined up! German Stollen and English Christmas Pudding with a late entrant of English Christmas Cake to add to the choice! The national juries were asked to taste all 3 and give each 3, 2 or 1 points according to their preference.

The Italian jury found it difficult to choose between the stollen and the pudding. The Russian jury cast their vote in secret! The German jury promised not to be unduly biased towards their compatriot's entry and the Rumanian jury spent a long time deliberating. The final vote was from the Hungarian jury and the result was................ an honourable draw for first place between the Pudding and the Stollen, with the cake coming close behind. No tears and nobody had to do the washing up for losing! Well done the entrants and thank you to the hard working ...er...eating...juries!

Plans well ahead now for our first New Years Eve here in Malta - bookings are coming in thick and fast! More photos to come then!

Christmas Dinner in Malta

We have introduced some of our neighbours and guests to British Christmas dinner. The Christmas pudding has proved especially popular - all home made by John of course. Our Russian guests, Andrei and Dacha and Ben from Wolverhampton also enjoyed their Christmas day meal as part of our extended hotel family - photos attached to prove it!

Went for a trip to the Millstättersee today - looks fabulous under clear blue skies and with the mountains all covered in snow. had Glühwein on a floating platform with an open fire! Really lovely!

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year to all our readers!

Christmas Parties and Advent visitors

The Christmas season has arrived. This week we have had 2 Christmas parties - the local school staff and a dance group (which includes our very own Irmgard) who brough their own ntertainment! Next Monday we are hosting the local council (Gemeinde) too. Here are some photos.

And then today we had another starring role in a local Advent tradition. The village children re-enact the arrival in Bethlehem of Mary and Joseph (complete with donkeys borrowed from Wolfgang, an angel or two and 3 rather premature Kings!) They call at 3 local guesthouses and seek shelter but are turned away, only to end up in a stable in the local woods. Guess who got to play innkeeper and recite the words - in local dialect! "A netter Herr und a schwangere Frau, Ihr braucerts a Unterkunft, i seh's genau. Es tut mir Leid, es ist nichts frei, wann i des g'wußt hätt, o mei, o mei. Doch s'ganze Haus ist voll belegt. Ihr seht mich aber tief bewegt. Ich nehmat euch ja gern, auch ohne Geld - Na, das hätt' mir grade noch gefehlt'.

Kieran wanted me to tell them it was OK - we still had a room free. Business is business after all!

Ros

Ryanair Update

Hi everyone. Thought we ought to let you all know that there are lots of free Ryanair flights going for grabs during January and February - just a tenner each way with the taxes. Look again at our snow pictures and ask yourselves....how can you resist????

We have set up a link to a ski school and equipment hire company in Katschberg - 5% discount for all our customers on everything except private lessons. Have a look at his website - www.schischul.info - for more info. Good English too!

Now this is winter.....

Pictures taken by Klaudia Gollenz after the snowfall last night - and its still snowing!!

It was a cold and snowy night.....

Children and parents gathered outside our door...

Some of them didn't look very friendly!! But when they had sung their Anklöckln song, the children were allowed in to claim their treat!



Only in Malta is the tradition of 'Anklöckeln' celebrated in this particular way. The 'Krampus' mingle in the crowd dishing out punishments to those they believe deserve it (John was 'got'!), whilst St Nicholas protects the 'good' children and leads them in the song which opens doors to treats and sweets. Every child had a bag to fill and after we had given our contribution off they went to call on other guesthouses and hotels around the village. The atmosphere tonight was really improved by the snowfall!

Kindergarten Anklöckeln!

Kindergarten Malta, 'Tante' Elizabeth und der Nikolo besuchen uns!

Today the children from the Kindergarten came 'Anklöckeln' - a very Malteinerisch tradition, somewhere between 'Trick or Treat' and Christmas Carolling! The children visit several traditional 'stations' - the Hochalmspitze is one of these - and must sing a song and then, if St Nickolaus says they have been good, they can have a treat! The main event is on December 5th but the little ones get a 2 day advantage! More pictures of the older children on Friday then.

Sausages for Christmas??

Seems home made sausages are traditinal for Christmas around here, wo with a little help from the Gollenz family the 2009 Hochalmspitze sausage came into being this week! Hope you enjoy the photos and, if you are near enough, the real thing too!

Partytime!

Saturday 29th November 2008

Having spent 2 weeks catching up with friends and relations back in the UK, we arrived back in Austria on the Tuesday 26th to find the whole place transformed into a winter wonderland - the snow has come! This weekend is the first of Advent and heralds both the start of the Christmas shopping season and the opening of many of the ski resorts - guess who is most interested in which?

Last night we held a small party evening for friends and neighbours to say 'thanks' for having us and making us feel so welcome. Live music was provided by both a local father and son duo 'The Turachtaler' , otherwise known as Viktor and Günther from Tamsweg and, more unusually our insurance agent - Rudi - who turned out to be a real star on the keyboard and kept the music coming until 3a.m. Enough people braved the elements to eat, drink and be merry and our upstairs neighbour, Herman, took turns to sweep all the ladies off their feet on the dancefloor - a real 'party animal'! We were surprised that a number of people brought us gifts - lovely Christmas plants, a cake, candles and a very useful German-Carinthian phrasebook so we can brush up on our dialect!

Its now just under a month until Christmas and although, as yet, we are rather quiet on Christmas day itself - it is unusual for peole to go away for Christmas - we do have nearly a full house for New Year - a truly international gathering with guests from the UK, Russia, Romania and Germany. We are busy planning our programe of events and hoping the snow will last so that everyone cn enjoy its beauty (not to mention a little wintersport!)

Irische Nacht in Malta

Samstag 25. November 2008 kam Irisches Essen, Getränke und Musik nach Malta. In dem Gasthof Hochalmspitze genossen mehr als 20 Leute vom Ort und der Umgebung einen Menü von Kartoffel-und-Lauch Suppe, Irisches Stew oder Rind-und-Guinness ‚Pie’ (unter Teig), ‚Champ’ (Kartoffel Puree mit Frühlingszwiebeln gekocht) und Gemüse. Auch war als Nachtisch ‚Apfel Crumble’ da. Mit den Gerichten könnten die Kundschaft natürlich aus irische Getränke wählen – Guinness oder Kilkenny Biere, irische Whiskey oder Baileys Likör und Irischen Kaffee waren zur Verfügung und den ganzen Abend spielten irische Musik von z. B die Dubliners und der Video von ‚Lord of the Dance’ mit Michael Flatley. Immer schwerig mit solchem Musik die Füsse still zu halten!

Die Inhaber des Gasthofs, die Familien Thomas & Gowers aus England, hoffen andere solchen ‚Themenabenden’ zu arrangieren, zuerst eine Franzözische Nacht am 24ten Januar, und laden alle mit Ihnen neuen Geschmacken und Erfahrungen zu genießen ein.

The Little People Come to Malta

On Saturday October 25th Ireland came to Malta! In the Gasthof Hochalmspitze more than 20 people from the area enjoyed an evening of Irish food, drink and music. On the menu were potato and leek Soup, Irish lamb stew or beef and Guinness Pie with Champ and vegetables and apple crumble as dessert. Guests could choose from a range of Irish drinks, Guinness and Kilkenny of course, but also Irish whiskey, bailey’s liqueur and Irish coffee and music from the Dubliners and other Irish favourites was interspersed with the video of ‘Lord of the Dance’ with Michael Flatley – hard to watch and keep your feet still!

The English owners of the Gasthof aim to offer other, similar theme evenings during the winter season, starting with a French Night on January 24th and look forward to sharing new tastes and experiences with you all.

Welcome to the Hochalmspitze Events Blog. Here you will find news of upcoming events and photos of past ones. We hope they will tempt you to join us for one or more of the events.

For more information please call 0043 (0) 4733 211 or E Mail us on info@hochalmspitze.com.

Herzlich willkommen in dem Veranstaltungenblog des Gasthofs Hochalmspitze. Hier werden Sie Nachrichten über zukünftigen Veranstaltungen sowie Fotos von den die schon passiert haben. Wir hoffen daß wir Ihnen versuchen können, zu einer solcher Gelegenheit sich gesellen!

Für mehr Auskünft bitte rufen 0043 (0) 4733 211 oder mailen info@hochalmspitze.com