Summer's here - but then there's Autumn!

This comes of running a hotel - just as summer finally arrives, you start thinking about Autumn! The Autumn months here are glorious - sunny warm days in reds and golds. Perfect for walking and cycling or just sightseeing. And the flights are cheaper. To try and encourage people over we are having an Autumn Special - stay 3 nights or more (ties in with Ryanair flights to Klagenfurt - smart eh?) and get half board for €33 per person per day. We have advertised on the Ramblers website as well and will offer any member of the Ramblers Association a welcome drink on arrival and a free packed lunch. Anybody got any other ideas? - printable please!

Unexpected blessings

One of the best things about running this sort of business is the way things can turn around so unexpectedly. Yesterday was a very quiet Sunday, with not a lot happening and then suddenly we had 2 unexpected events that changed the whole day.

First we had the arrival of unexpected guests - the family Amry. Grandma Marlene from the Philippines, son and daughter born and brought up in Austria but son Rene now living in Venezuela with Colombian wife Claudia and son Diego together with daughter Ditas living and working in Beijing with her Chinese husband Rui (Ray to his western friends and family and born like me on the 20th of September) and daughter Clara plus both families expecting their second child in the next few months. The family had come together for the first time with their new additions to share a holiday and get to know each other better and we were privileged indeed to be part of their adventure. All multi-cultural and multi-lingual and a true example of what is best about our shrinking world - a genuine delight to have as guests. We have made some new friends and have invitations to visit 2 different continents as well as the family home in Vienna.

Our second pleasant surprise came with the addition to our website guestbook of a glowing recommendation left by an unnamed member of our last bus group. What was particularly pleasing was that is was sent on behalf of the WHOLE group, meaning that they must have discussed and agreed to do this on their journey home - a really rewarding result of the efforts we make to ensure our guests have a good time.

We expect a reasonably quiet couple of days now (??) and have plans to finally complete the additional sleeping area for Matt as the next 4 weeks will see us practically 100% occupied and we need his bed! While it would be nice to be able to get the job done uninterrupted we can only hope that any unexpected events measure up to the two from yesterday! Only a week now until the arrival of a good friend of John's, then several family members and 2 days later my best (and much missed) mate Marie Anne. Really some good things to look forward to!

Dancing in the Streets!

Thursday night is party night - or so it seems! Yesterday our regular music evening for our bus group guests took a new turn and Malta saw some of us dancing in the streets - a very new experience! The musicians enjoyed themselves so much they played for an extra 90 minutes and were rewarded by a spontaneous whip round. The guests went happily to bed and nature responded with the most incredible show of power - roaring thunder, tremendous lightening that lit up the whole valley and torrential rain but not until all were safely inside and could watch in awe.

Matt's exciting day

We had a bit of a celebration yesterday - Matt heard he had passed his degree course with a 2:1 - a great success and one that would earn him the much coveted title of 'Magister' here. So out with the champagne! And all this despite having had to rescue him earlier from having driven the lawnmower over the edge of the field!


Our latest bus group are proving to be quite a lively crowd and late nights on the terrace are again a feature - helped by the fabulous weather and very high temperatures this week I think. Very well trained customers too, as they have taken to clearing their own tables and putting away the cushions at the end of the evening - that's the sort of groups we like!

Interesting times

We are currently following closely the debate in the Carinthian press about the state of tourism. The impact of the economic crisis plus some really bad weather is taking its toll on numbers coming here and the politicians are all putting forward their ideas about what should be done. The regional head of tourism appears to have been 'retired' to make way for someone with some fresh ideas. Today I took the (very) bold step of writing to the regional newspaper who have written a new article called 'Carinthia's problems are home made' raising some of the issues which we have been concerned about the whole time we have been here. I wrote it all in German too - so who knows if it reads well - but it will be interesting to see what response we get.
Happily the weather looks like improving next week when we have another bus group - sadly too late for this week's guests. Our lovely Italien family and our 2 bikers from Grimsby had more rain than they deserved and our overnight group from Zellerndorf in northern Austrian were snowed on up by the dam!

Matt and John have been busy updating the music system in the hotel and we now have computer operated entertainment in both eating areas and can even play something different in each one. All very high tec! Next plan is to get the internet access over the other side of the road - a more difficult job I think - but it keeps Matt out of mischief!

An interesting weekend

Our turkish biker guests!

Well what a lot to tell! Our weekend has been a great mixture of meeting new people and interesting events. Our international clientele for Saturday night all conspired to be great guests! Dag & Karin from Göteborg turned out to be social workers so we had loads in common - they have said they will be out to see us again next year! The 2 guys from Turkey were bikers and had come all the way from Istanbul on a couple of BMWs - mostly in the rain! - and despite not getting here until gone midnight were up bright and early today to complete their journey to Innsbruck. Now we think we have to try the trip the other way - Istanbul or bust! Our Italian family are lovely, with 2 of the cutest little dark eyed girls who have stolen John's heart and our bikers from Grimsby? Well I will have to be careful what I say because Deb reads our blog regularly - but seriously she and David are great fun too. We are so blessed with our guests!















Today John, Deb and David went up to the bike blessing (see photos above) and although John was only a spectator, Deb and David went the whole hog and had their bike blessed by the Hungarian biker priest from Gmünd. Deb reckons she will take all the help they can get! Meanwhile Matt and I bit our nails through the best Wimbledon mens final for ages, while Achim and Monika enjoyed the Wimbledon atmosphere on our terrace in the best sunshine for weeks. We were particularly impressed by their dedication to the event in dressing to match the food!

Next excitement is the arrival of 25 guests from another district council in the north of Austria on Friday and then another bus group on Monday. Each day a new adventure! Hopefully the weather will be better for this lot than for the last!

A new staff member and more goodbyes!

Well the Irish bikers left us today having had weather which at times made them feel very at home. Nonetheless they have enjoyed their stay and left for pastures new (Garmisch Partenkirchen and then Lake Garda!) saying they hope to be back next year for a week's stay touring this area properly.

And we have a new staff member - our nephew Matt who arrived on Tuesday and within the first hour was in the kitchen compete with pinny! He is already making himself indispensible and proving to be a very worthwhile addition to our little gang.

This weekend is Wimbledon finals weekend - so don't expect too much communication from me! Hope to have some pictures of strawberries and cream on our terrace to show you next though!