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!