We have been back here for over a month and this is the first chance I have had to add to our blog. We rushed back here to attend a tourism meeting which was then cancelled at short! notice when we got back. Still, there was lots to do to get ready for the summer season. Our friend, Andi Nethercoat, arrived a week after we got back and is planning to stay for the whole summer. He is this years "Manuel", he has almost no German so we need to find him a nice Austrian woman to teach him a thing or two.

We had three weeks to get the place ready and we just made it. The middle weekend in May is a holiday here, or rather the holiday is on the Thursday so everyone takes the Friday off as well to make a four day weekend. We had two biker groups, one from Austria and one from Germany leaving us just one free room all weekend. Despite the weather (bank holiday weather in the same everywhere) they all had a good time. Most nights we managed to close the bar by 3am. only to find most of the enthusiastic drinkers were up and about a few hours later, ready to ride. Our German group (who were on a return visit) proved very knowledgeable about Malt Whiskey. We stock 13 malts at the moment and hope to extend our range soon. After a tasting session one of the guests told us a joke (in English) that I can't possibly repeat here.

Our next guests were two bikers from England and five guys who had ridden all the way from Northern Ireland. I'm sure they were good riders but as drinkers they have a way to go to catch up with the German group! Their group was called the Flying Dicks, which is strange because none of them was called Richard. We also had another visit from Earl. Earl is what you might call a mature rider, he travels alone but has a knack for engaging with people wherever he goes and therefore has a treasure trove of stories to tell. He also has the distinction of being our first biker guest to abandon his bike on a mountain top. They dug it out of the snow the next day, bike and rider were unharmed although Earl fretted whilst separated from his beloved bike.

On Monday our first bus group of the season arrives and will fill the place until Saturday. We are hoping that our new employee, Gertraud, will be able to breath some life into them. Maybe we can even persuade them to say up beyond 9pm! Still, they don't get in the way of other guests, they have breakfast early and are on the coach by 8.30am. They have their evening meal at 6.30pm, push the boat out with a small Radler (Shandy) and stagger off to bed.

On Friday we attended a tourism meeting in Gmünd which became quite lively. The guy running the local organisation is rapidly losing favour- not before time- and the knives were out. Even Andi, who did not understand a word, got the idea that he was yesterdays man.In true Austrian style the meeting ended with food and drink and then we decamped to the local wine bar. Nice to be a customer for a change!

On Saturday, as a special treat, Andi and I went to ride in a steam train. I tried to volunteer to help in the off season, November perhaps, but was reminded that it's bloody cold here in winter! The station is at 1100 metres, that's around 3,500 ft. and minus 20C is normal in winter. What they do is drain all the water and leave everything until next spring. So all I can do is tell our guests about it and hope they visit. It was good fun and,as my anorak was showing, I got to get on the footplate. The railway starts from Mauterndorf which is about 45 mins away on an impossibly scenic route. The town is very pleasant, the Burg (castle) interesting and the railway trip which last for twenty minutes each way is great fun. All in all an good day out without too much driving/riding.