WAS IST LOS AM "HOCHALMSPITZE"? A diary of events and special occasions at our Gasthof

2010-07-23T08:22:00.006+02:00

Dear Readers - I had no intention of interfering in the flow of Jane's adventures, but have broken my vow of silence to extol the virtues of this - http://www.shakespeare-in-styria.eu/ - which I went to see last night. I really wasn't expecting much - living close to the RSC spoils you - but can only say I was astounded and delighted by the quality of these productions (Midsummer Night's Dream & King Lear in a double bill) and very impressed by the professionalism and enthusiasm of the production team and their myriad helpers. The whole thing was even more amazing given that most of the cast were young, inexperienced non-English native speakers and that they had come together for rehearsals only 10 days previously!

Although there was barely a weak performance amongst them, some special mentions must be made. In 'Dream' - seen first to allow the German friends accompanying me to their first live Shakespearian experience to get the feel of the language and style - we were especially impressed by Josephine Mayer (DE) playing Helena & Katharina Paul (DE) as Hermia who gave us what was the best 'girl fight' we have ever seen staged! Nikola Nastoki as Puck was superb and the Macedonian accent added to, rather than distracted from, the characterisation. But the star of the show was undoubtedly Fred Stewart (UK) as Bottom - versatile, funny and

absolutely the best expression of stunned bewilderment I have ever seen. A star in the making I feel!

Lear is obviously a very difficult kettle of fish - both to stage and to watch - especially for a mainly German-speaking audience. It was to the company's great credit, therefore, that they held us all spellbound throughout. Certainly the setting helped - Schloss Murau is beautiful and the director had used the available environment to great effect - but again some wonderful performances made the play. In particular Anna Thierney (A) as Regan, Hanna Taylor Gordon (UK) as Goneril (do not cross these ladies!) and Damien Molony(IR) as a beautifully evil Edmund. John Harwood (UK) put all his obvious experience into Lear. But the star of the show was undoubtedly Diana Kashlan (CZ) playing the dual roles of Cordelia and the Fool and managing also to do the required introductory explanation for the largely Austrian audience in flawless German. We were more than impressed! Finally we should mention here the musicians and their technicians who did a wonderful job and almost had us reaching for our umbrellas during the storm scene, despite the actual 28 degrees!

All in all a perfect afternoon/evening's entertainment - you have converted my friends to Shakespeare and given me a truly great experience and we all thank you. We will be back next year - with friends and guests in tow, we promise!

2010-07-20T17:22:00.007+02:00

Chapter 2 – Back to Basics and Moving On

OK, well the website will give you details like numbers of rooms etc but more basic information is always good. Rooms are excellent, doubles are singles put together and mattresses are excellent, as is the bed-making (Pauline is Queen of The Bedchambers and does fantastic hospital corners on the (crisp cotton) sheets. Not sure how she gets those on the inside angles of the mattresses which are pushed together……but I am going to follow her round and get tips). En suites have excellent (I use the word a lot, but that is because it’s the best word to use) showers – don’t you just hate a dribbly shower?!

The Gasthof proper is one side of the road and is owned by Ros and John. Besides the 22 bedrooms on 3 floors, it has a cellar space running the length of the building with a large garage space for bikes (cycles for guests’ use are hung there as well) which leads to a guest lounge with TV, then into a laundry area with all mod cons and a separate drying area which in turn leads into space which John and Ros use to hibernate in during the winter months. This place is BIG.

The whole thing is set on a plot of land with parking space for about 8 cars or lots of bikes at the front and a grassed garden area with patio/terrace area and a washing line off to one side.

Ros and John almost didn’t view this place because the agent’s description said something along the lines of “Gasthof with possible use of kitchen over the road” and, as zou do, they had visions of crossing the road and asking a little old woman if they could make a cup of tea on her stove. Fortunately they were passing anyway so stopped off for a look.

Unsurprisingly, they not only liked it but made such a hit with the owner (Adolf) that he offered to rent them the “kitchen”. This turned out to be the whole of the ground floor of the building immediately opposite and has a large reception area with big dining/bar area and residents’ snug (for those old enough to remember such a thing or to have seen early Coronation Street with Ena, Martha and Minnie – Google it the rest of zou!) big kitchen, prep room with store room off, further prep room, freezer/storage room and two walk-in cold rooms. And a terrace along the front for those idle moments at the beginning and end of the day when you are planning the day or recovering from it.

And did I mention the stunning scenerz?!

There are two small shops in the village/hamlet and a bank with a magic money machine (ATM to younger readers). If you want to do a bit more shopping than that, Gmund is about 5 minutes by motorised transport or a 15 minute czcle ride. It’s an old medieval town (small!) with bits of the old wall leading to the local castle which looks incredibly shabby on the outside but apparently has a stunning wedding venue – there is a heart-shaped flower bed outside the castle wall and the names of the lucky couples are displayed on a large banner at the top of that on The Day. Gmünd has a chemist, doctor, couple of tourist-type shops, clothes shop, 4 small supermarkets (apparently their size throughout Austria is standardised – not come across a big one yet), a jewellery shop, couple of clothes shops and bars where you can sit out and watch the world go by. Worth a stroll around the back streets just for the buildings.

And there is no such thing as a cycle lock because no-one takes your bike if you park it up and leave it for hours. Not sure how the Austrians achieve this because, as far as I know, they don’t subscribe to chopping hands off for theft. But if they could bottle whatever it is, they would make a fortune!

If you want more shopping than Gmünd provides, then Spittal is about 30 minutes away by motorised transport and I have no intention of trying to cycle it, so no idea how long that would take. The route is very bendy and scenic and Ros says that the café outside the hotel by the central park in Spittal does some of the best cakes in Austria. Now signed off for driving there, so will investigate, purely in a spirit of scientific research, and let you know.

And moving on………didn’t tell you about the end of last week because not quite sure how it was all going to pan out. But now that I have nowt but good news to report……Mark, one of the two lads from Northern Ireland came off his bike on Friday and first news was that he had broken some vertebrae and done some ligament damage to one of his ankles. Airlifted out to the hospital at Klagenfurt and awaiting tests.

His friend Andy was, as you can imagine, a bit upset by all this but Ros and John were brilliant when he came back from the police station that afternoon. Andy was all for biking to the hospital to see Mark, but it was made very clear to him that he was going to do no such thing. Ros drove him there, sorted things out using her impeccable German, brought him back and all but tucked him into bed.

Mark was a bit out of it on morphine and flat on his back but not much in the way of prognosis at that point, although the consensus was that the ankle might be more of a problem to heal than the back. Fortunately, his parents were in Germany for a Moto GP event and were able to fly here quite easily.

Keith, our Lone Ranger, went to hospital with Andy the next day and Mark was considerably better – off the morphine and bored with staring at the ceiling, although apparently well-able to appreciate the various nursing staff’s attributes. Monday’s visit by a consultant resulted in him being allowed up, with a brace and his foot in a plaster caste.

Keith, bless his cotton socks, took Andy under his wing and they set off for the UK together – Andy having got here simply by following his best mate Mark who had the satnav, maps and knowhow! I hope Adele liked her present, Keith, and, if you are reading this, I found thimbles in Gmünd so next year you can get one of those for her, if she doesn’t come and choose her own. And if Andy’s parents are reading this, your son is a credit to you – a lovely young man, who kept his head and dealt with a tough situation with great presence of mind. I did ask him to tell you that, but I doubt if he has!

Mark and his parents arrived here yesterday to wait for Mark’s next check-up tomorrow. Mark is motoring around well on his crutches and is looking forward to getting back on his bike which Ros and John collected on their low-loader. So all’s well that ends well and Mark is one very lucky lad – and another credit to his parents.

Mike and Ali have gone off to Italy for a few days (I hope the canals are not too smelly guys!) we have been joined by Phil and Wayne and are now a small select band until the next influx.

Oh yes, and Ros had a lovely email from the Gang of Four to say they had got home safely, thanking us for a fantastic week and that brilliant though the roads and scenery in Austria were, it took a super team like ours to make a good holiday great. We love you too guys! It reminded Ros and myself so much of appreciative Warwickshire is of its employees. And Steve, just for the record, the facebook message Ros sent you was not as I worded it – she missed out “typing” – not deliberatelz I am sure.

Enough already for today. For those of you into War & Peace as a way of passing time, there will be more of this in the dazs that follow. In the meantime you will all be pleased to know that the sun is still shining like a good ‘un, the beer has not run out, John’s cooking is still in a class of its own, and all is well in this world.

PS: Almost forgot the local village fete on Sunday! Brass bands, beer tents, strong-men contests involving saws and logs, stalls selling local products, including some fabulous soaps in lovely shapes made with essential oils, home-made schnapps in beautifully packaged bottles and large flat doughnuts dusted with icing sugar and with jam spooned into the middle – made to order while you watched. Tried two just to make sure the first one was not a fluke (it wasn’t!). Then by way of working off some of that, attempted the climbing wall. Ros has a picture of that. I am saying no more except that I loathe heights and I blame it all on the samples of schnapps which were pressed upon us earlier in the proceedings.

The Misadventures of Jane - Chapter One!

2010-07-17T12:57:00.008+02:00

Hi all. It will not have escaped your notice that our blogging has not been very efficient lately - this having been rather a busy time for us plus lots of stuff now going onto our Facebook page - what do you mean what Facebook page??? Who of you out there has not yet signed up?? Good news though - we have a willing(?) volunteer! Our friend Jane - here for a working holiday - has agreed somewhat daringly to write about her adventures in weekly chunks and here comes Part 1. We have made no editorial changes (which hopefully we won't come to regret!) but will try and add some appropriate photos as we go along.

The blog is entitled 'The Misadventures of Jane' - it somehow seemed appropriate but to those of you who are old enough to recognise the reference, tell the younger ones you heard it from your grandparents, and if you are to young to understand - just don't ask us!

THE MISADVENTURES OF JANE
Chapter 1 – Work But Not As You Know It

Ros suggested I keep a blog of mz work experience – which is going to include relearning to touch type using a German keyboard – the z and y keys are reversed which, for a touch-tzpist like wot I woy before I came here, is extraordinarily difficult. The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot that I am working on that, rather than cheating and changing the keyboard settings before I start (but thank zou for the suggestion Chris!).

Arrived last Saturday afternoon, Ros collected me from the airport at Klagenfurt and explained that I would not be starting work until Monday – just settle in and nose around finding out where things were on Sunday. Yeah, right. Got to Malta about 1800 and by 1830 was serving, washing up and generally mucking-in. As learning curves go it was fun.

This place is spectacular, no other word for it. Mountains everywhere you turn, it’s picture postcard heaven. My room has a view down the valley which has to be seen to be believed. And I have my own personal alarm clock right next door in the shape of a very pretty church. The bells are electronic now and, for some wholly unknown reason, chime 60 times at 0600 – no snooze alarm, you just have to wait for it to finish. But I have got so used to it that I don’t hear them anzmore.

John took me halfway up a mountain on my day off (another concept which is not As You Know It……….) and left me there with a map, a compass, a gizmo which has GPS but proved to be wholly beyond my technical capabilities despite the operating booklet (why are they always written by someone who assumes a level of competence which lots of us do not have?), so I kept things

very simple and walked up some more of the mountain and then back down to my starting point. Knees also had something to do with that – like lots of other bits of me, they don’t work quite as well as they used to).

However, I did learn from the booklet that the gizmo has a kezboard if zou can find it and I think, as well as tracking your trip, giving you average speed of movement and all sorts of other interesting information, it allows you to write interesting things about the route as you go. Now, for those of us who still vote Luddite Tendencies, I have a question: why would anyone want to spend time on a walk with fabulous views peering at a very small screen and trying to use even smaller keys to tap in all the things you are missing by………..peering etc).

John didn’t know you could do this, fortunately, or doubtless I would have been doing that instead of just ambling up the hill, admiring the horny-handed sons of the soil (grandpa, dad and son – and grandma) who were using large scythes to cut what I gather is the second crop of hay this year. And the butterflies, wildflowers and did I mention the views and the fantastic sunshine?!

John collected me and then what was undoubtedly the highlight of my week took place. We had several groups of bikers staying here and one of the Gang of Four took me for a ride on his BMW. I am in love! Fantastic ride and thank you Steve for a wonderful memory. You and the rest of the Gang of Four will be a very hard act to follow in the coming weeks.

Thursday I went off for a cycle ride but missed the (according to John) very easz to find cycle route to the Gossfalle and found mzself meandering up and down rather more than I was expecting when I set off but as I was going in the right direction it wasn’t a problem and (have I mentioned this before?) the scenery and views are spectacular. Got to my destination 50 minutes later (took 5 in the car when Ros was showing me around) but as I was the only one there, I didn’t actually throw mzself in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall because getting out would have required clambering over a lot of slippery rocks – those who know and love me will be surprised to hear that I used that much discretion! Beautiful spot though, with a walk around it and lots of “thinking spaces” with benches, none of which have ever seen a vandal in their lives.

Paddled for a bit, got my feet and legs nice and cold and then went back via the main road. This country is very cycle-friendly – everyone overtakes you on the other carriageway rather than trying to clip your handlebars in passing without actually knocking you off the bike. There is also no road rage at all as far as I can see – everyone travels sedately and even those who have been following me on my “L” trips with Ros don’t seem overly concerned about my very slow pace. Mind you, the roads do wind a lot and are frequently bordered by drops into water on one side and sheer rock face on the other. And did I mention the scenery?!

Had mz first staff meeting this morning - a very lively affair in which I took very little part, but there was coffee and exceptionally good chocolate cake! The country is awash with exceptionally good cake of various sorts. Apparently Ros and John had agreed to host a German walking association's 100 anniversary celebrations next Sunday - there will be about 100 people coming to the Hutte at the car park where John dropped me off for my hill walking expedition the other day. A knees-up there on Saturdaz night and then down to us for lunch on Sunday.

The local bank manager's father in law dropped in for a drink last night about 0015 (which will teach us to stay outside drinking till all hours) and casually asked Ros what she was doing about music. News to Ros, although FIL who plays in a local brass band, offered to put her in touch with the band's reserve team. We will be all ledderhosen and accordions bz the sound of it. And run off our feet. But how much fun will it be?! Lots!

Enough alreadz for this week. For those who have got this far, thank you for reading it – for those who have never been here COME! It is the most amazing holiday destination and Ros and John run a fantastic operation – it would be impossible to get anything more guest-friendly. And John is not a bad little chef (sorry John, I meant excellent……….put that knife down…….), it’s pretty much all cooked from scratch and to order – a short and simple menu each day using fresh produce and all done simply and very well.

I hope your coming week is as good as mine will be……….watch this space.

2010-05-22T18:18:00.008+02:00

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.

2010-02-10T15:14:00.012+01:00

I can't quite believe we are into February already, spring is on the horizon although there might be a fair bit of snow to get through before it finally arrives. The weather has been variable - OK so I get this months prize for stating the obvious- what I was trying to say was that the temperatures have been very erratic. A few days mild weather followed by days cold enough to have one worried for the manhood of any brass monkeys unwise enough to be in the valley. We have had a few ice climbers staying but when a warmer spell and a weekend coincide then nobody comes. On a brighter note bookings for the summer continue to come in. We now have more than 400 bed nights booked as a direct result of our stand at the motorcycle show. We have also just taken two bookings from school groups for early summer. As someone who empathises with the man who said" It's not that I don't like children it's just that I can never manage a whole one" they are something of a trial. However I will try to remain positive, at least we limit them to one class. The first year here we had 55 kids at one time, an AK47 would have been very handy!

Just because we have few guests does not mean we don't keep busy, there is always a list of jobs to do. We have also been working on our contacts here. We are working in partnership with a local coach company to enable us to offer all inclusive packages to groups of walkers. The aim is to remove the need for car hire, we collect from the airport and arrange transport to and from the walks. There will be,this summer, a walker's bus shuttle service run by the National Park which will be wonderful for individuals or small groups but would be overwhelmed if for instance a group of 20 arrived from England- you are coming aren't you?

We drove to Salzburg to visit the KTM dealer (to you poor souls who have no idea what a KTM is and why it should have a dealer I extend my deepest sympathy)

We hope that guests who have little time for,or don't want to, travel all the way to us by road will be able to hire a KTM in Salzburg.

Last week we attended a six hour meeting at the local council offices. A brand new building erected last year when the previous building was deemed a total loss following a small fire, it has every modern convenience. Well it would if some of the locals were not convinced that the internet is the work of the devil and is to be resisted at all costs, so no wireless internet facility.

The meeting was to decide the direction to be taken as regards tourism over the next five years. We were pleased to see a good turn out and even more pleased to see people speaking their minds. I found it very hard, six hours of discussion, all in the local accent, I doubt I fully understood more than 25% of what was said.
Ros did very well in understanding most of what was going on and even speaking to the meeting.

We were reasonably pleased with the outcome and hope for better things once some of the changes take effect.

Last Sunday we gave ourselves some time off and went walking in the snow. We went with our friend Andrea (mad as a box of frogs) and her dog(ditto) from her place at Pflugelhof up the valley to see the ice tree. It was great to be outdoors after several days inside, yes it was cold, but properly dressed the cold did not matter. We walked along the cycle track that runs up the valley, the views are great and the ice formations stunning. Photos can't do them justice as in real life the colours change with the light and with viewing angle. You just have to come and see for yourself.

Whar have we been up to?

2010-01-24T11:32:00.004+01:00

Strange how when things are quiet, it's always more difficult to find time to update the blog? Must be a mindset I suppose. Anyway have decided that today is the day it gets to the top of the 'to-do' list, (one of those lists that never seems to get any shorter however many things you cross off!). Since John's last entry the ice climbing season has really got under way and the Eis Total festival 2010 was a very successful weekend. 160 people officially registered but many more came - there were cars parked up the mountain from all over Europe. Although we were full we did have time, once they had all left on the Sunday morning, to go up to the main practice area and take some photos as you can see. We plan to once again send a report to the UK climbing press asking why no British interest in this ever more popular event. Come on guys - what about 2011?

Now that the main event is over, there is a little more time for other things. There is a lot going on at the Gemeinde (council) at the moment. My friend Andrea and I went to a meeting last week to learn about a new community project for Malta called 'Dorf Service'. It's basically a self help approach to community issues and the meeting was led by a very professional community worker. Within minutes I felt on very familiar ground and the social worker in me was working overtime! I am hoping that some involvement in this project may well serve towards the training and development time I need to retain my registration next year - do the GSCC read German do you think?

We have also found time to follow up on a promise we made to the guys who provide the music for our coach tours and visit their home town,Tamsweg. Expecting a brief visit, we were astonished to be taken on a full scale tour of the area for 5 hours, lunch, coffee stops and finally cider punch and doughnuts all thrown in! They took us to some really lovely places - Preber Lake being one - as well as to their home village where the family had owned the inn on the erstwhile border between Salzburg (then Bavaria) and Austria. Fascinating historical insights! The fact that it has a steam railway as well was an added incentive and John also enjoyed the impromptu visit ot the brand new state of the art Fire Station (although we had to smile when we learned that the super duper computerised system for mapping calls transmitted route information to the fire engines by fax!)

We are currently working on our staffing for the summer and are looking for someone who fancies a summer in Austria working for bed, board and a pittance in exchange for a chance to improve their German and enjoy this wonderful area. Any offers?

In a couple of weeks we are making a flying visit back to the UK for my Mum's 80th birthday party - sadly it will mean missing the Fasching procession here this year but we know our friends at Soisses will be doing a live broadcast again which we will be able to watch. The back here for a few last minute skiers before retuning home for a few weeks to celebrate another birthday - one John is trying to ignore but can't! Hope to catch up with UK friends and contacts then!

2010-01-16T18:25:00.008+01:00

No we have not gone into hibernation! Just been a bit busy and got out of the habit of updating this blog.

We had a bit of a quite patch after new year but this weekend is the Ice Climbing Festival here in Malta so the place is nearly full. The weather is perfect for such a crazy activity, that is bloody cold!

Today we had an unexpected invitation to go up to the Fredo Kordon Hutte (1700 m) and try the "taxi" service for tobogganing. We got a phone call early on an overcast afternoon-"the sun is shinning on Stubeck- do you want to try tobogganing?" Silly question, Ros would probably have preferred to stay in the warm but we had been invited and it would have been rude......

The drive up to the hutte was interesting, minus 4 in the valley, minus 10 when we got up there. Right from the start we were driving on compacted snow, if you haven't tried driving on winter tyres you would not imagine it possible. Almost takes the fun out of it The only " moment" was when we met people tobogganing down the road!

We had seen the "taxi" service advertised, seen the vehicle parked when we were last at the Hutte, but never seen it in action. A sort of giant tractor with the widest tracks I have ever seen. The deal is 3 Euros to hire a toboggan 5 Euros for the ride up, a bargain. All the toboggans are tied on behind the tractor, everybody climbs onto the back of the tractor and up the mountain you go. I should have got my camera out before we started as I needed both hands to hold on once we were underway. For the first few minutes we were in cloud and then suddenly in bright sunshine. A sky of the deepest blue and one of the most amazing views I have ever been lucky enough to see. A 360 degree panorama of snow capped mountians floating above the clouds. For once the words "awe inspiring" meant something, it was hard to take in the scale of the scene before us. I could have stayed there for hours but we had guests to feed that evening so we had to get back. Ros took the tractor back down and was offered a seat in the (warm) cab. I regressed to childhood and tried a toboggan. I think the last time was 1963! well ,we don't get much chance in the UK.

Despite no obvious means of steering let alone braking it was great fun. I only crashed twice before gaining some sort of control. To give you some idea of how long the run is it took me about 20 mins to get down and I nearly caught up with the tractor. Not wearing waterproof trousers was a mistake though, a wet behind and minus 10 is not a good combination. Next time I will be prepared and there will be a next time- soon.

John

We wish you a merry......

2009-12-20T19:23:00.005+01:00

Welcome to the Gasthof Hochalmspitze equivalent of the Queen's Speech! Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking and all that. I know it's not actually Christmas until Friday but we are likely to be a little busy over the next few days and I didn't want to miss the opportunity to wish all our readers/Twitter followers/Facebook Fans the very best of Christmas fun and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

We are slowing getting some organisation into our own Christmas arrangements. We have had a guest here to ski already this weekend and he reported good snow and still quite quiet slopes but everyone gearing up for the rush of the festive season. Certainly the temperatures have been helpful: -19 at the top of Tschiernock yesterday! Our guest list for Christmas itself is still quite small - which does mean that we will be able to enjoy a few hours of celebrations with the friends that wil be here at least - but from the 27th we will be welcoming guests from Britain, Holland, the Czech Republic, Italy, Romania and, very excitingly, Japan! Still a few rooms left for New Year, but not many, so get in touch if you think you can join us!

Tomorrow is last minute shopping day (brought the mincemeat for the pies from the UK - forget the pie tin to cook them in!) before Andi & Paula arrive on Tuesday, leaving us Wednesday to show them a bit of the valley in full Christmas mode before everyone hunkers down for the great eating and drinking festival of the year, starting at noon on Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile we continue to get biker bookings for next summer at an amazing rate, both those returning after meeting us last summer and those we met at the Bike Show - the first group of 12 will be here on May 15th, which means we will be able to do some riding with them we hope. Seems very strange to be planning next year's biking when you look out of the window, but it IS the shortest day tomorrow, so Spring is really only just around the corner!

Still plenty of time to contemplate the next season once this one is a bit further under our belt. I hope to be able to post some photos as we go through the next week or so, but in the meantime from me, John, Pauline, Christl and Elfriede (not to mention the cats!)
'Frohe Weihnachten und Alles Gute für 2010!'
Ros x

And the winners are.....

2009-12-12T11:43:00.003+01:00

Just a quick post to let everyone know we are now back in Malta and starting to work through the 4 pages of our 'before Xmas To Do' list! The journey back was uneventful - although it rained continuously from Dover to just the other side of the Katschberg Tunnel. Carinthia at least had no rain - but also far less snow than we had expected - apparently it came and went again! Today is sunny and warmish!

We have been in touch with our 3 Free Draw winners and are pleased to be able to tell you that Jakki Francis from Rugby, Andy Cooke from Totton, Hants and Nick Lappage from Leicester are all hoping to take up their prizes next summer. Looking forward to meeting you all!

Also just wanted to share withyou a little Anglo/German Xmas culture - sent to us from some German biker guests we are looking forward to seeing again in 2010. They are in LA for Xmas and thought we would enjoy this!

When the snow falls wunderbar
And the children happy are,
When is Glatteis on the street,
And we all a Glühwein need,
Then you know, es ist soweit:
She is here, the Weihnachtszeit

Every Parkhaus ist besetzt,
Weil die people fahren jetzt
All to Kaufhof, Media-Markt,
Kriegen nearly Herzinfarkt.
Shopping hirnverbrannte things
And the Christmasglocke rings.

Mother in the kitchen bakes
Schoko-, Nuss- and Mandelkeks
Daddy in the Nebenraum
Schmücks a Riesen-Weihnachtsbaum
He is hanging auf the balls, (<- Christbaumkugeln!)
Then he from the Leiter falls...

Finally the Kinderlein
To the Zimmer kommen rein
And es sings the family
Schauerlich: "Oh, Chistmastree!"
And the jeder in the house
Is packing die Geschenke aus.

Mama finds unter the Tanne
Eine brandnew Teflon-Pfanne,
Papa gets a Schlips and Socken,
Everybody does frohlocken.
President speaks in TV,
All around is Harmonie.

Bis mother in the kitchen runs:
Im Ofen burns the Weihnachtsgans.
And so comes die Feuerwehr
With Tatü, tata daher,
And they bring a long, long Schlauch
An a long, long Leiter auch.

And they schrei loud - "Wasser marsch!"
,Christmas is - now im - Eimer...
Merry Christmas, merry Christmas,
Hear the music, see the lights,F
rohe Weihnacht, Frohe Weihnacht,
Merry Christmas allerseits...

Hope you enjoy it too!

12 Days at the NEC Bike Show - and still standing!

2009-12-06T15:23:00.002+01:00

Yes, we have survived! 12 days after the opening day and what seems like several thousand visitors laterand the show is in its last few hours and slowly starting to wind down. Thought I should write something before the final whistle blows - especially as we then have until midnight to take down the stand and collect up all our goods and chattels! Not that we have much left - the interest has been tremendous and we have given away all but a few of what had seemed to us to be a rather optimistic array of brochures, cards and giveaways.

One of the highlights has been the great partnership we have bult up with our Irish Tour Organiser colleague, Michael (www.motorcycletouring.ie) Being able to offer something to suit just about every level and experience of biking is a definite plus point for us. Also being able to accommodate groups - we have been able to offer packages for a whole range of organised (and not so organised) clubs, groups and just gangs of mates. The National Park Card is a very popular extra - the women particularly are keen NOT to be on the bike 24/7 - and there is so much you can do with the card for free. But the MOST important thing has been our personal knowledge and experience of the area and being able to answer just about any question that is thrown at us. Other people here are just acting as agents for the various accommodation providers and just don't have that ability.

Any way so far we have had confirmed bookings for nearly 100 bed nights (according to the other more experienced exhibitors this is practically unheard of!) plus serious enquiries for many more. We have made contact with a whole range of organisations who are looking for large group accommodation - from the Swansea Hells Angels to the Gay & Lesbian Riders of Europe and the Civil Service Motorbike Association - diverse or what! We have also made links with a number of other tour operators who will be sending people to try us out for their 2011 tours and have, in between, found other non bikers who want to walk, ski or just bring the family out to visit us.

Over 430 people have entered our free draw to date and so we have decided to add an additional 2 prizes of 2 days free B & B, in addition to the first prize of 5 days for 2. Winners names will be announced here, on Facebook and Twitter after 6pm tonight.

All in all coming to the show has been a real success and we are looking forward to reaping the benefits over the coming months and introducing a lot more British people to our lovely area of Austria. Definitely planning on coming back next year.

Thanks to Matt, Becky and Sam and Michael for all their help.

(sorry no photos today - uploader will just not work! Will try again later).

Bike Show Day One

2009-11-26T20:38:00.004+01:00

Press and Preview Day - a ridiculously early start (7.30a.m.!) and a very slow build up - the press being mainly interested in scantily clad young women and bikes (in that order) and we having neither of these on our stand! However we were cheered to see a friendly face quite early on - our first ever UK based biker guest from 2008 - who called in to say 'hi' and tell us about his plans to increase the touring side of his business (peakridertraining.com) and to include stays at our place in his plans. Nice start to the day!

Once the wider public were allowed in at 12.00, things got a bit busier and we had quite a few interested visitors to the stand - including a couple sent over to us from the Goldwing Owners Club who John and Matt had visited earlier in the day with greetings from our German Goldwing Rider friends Schmidti & Co. Several people have already entered our free draw, which is nice and we gave away quite a few info packs.

Because it was reasonably quiet John was able to do quite a bit of meeting and greeting with other exhibitors while Matt and I watched the Stand - with some potentially super results. A Honda dealer who is looking for an Austrian based partner to set up a Honda Hire base with and a tour company looking for a hotel to send groups of up to 50 bikers to! Early days yet but all fingers crossed! And to finish the day, a free glass of champagne and a chocolate from our neighbours with the wonderful trikes

We have been told press day is usually very quiet (ONLY 4500 visitors!) and to expect things to hot up tomorrow and especially Saturday. We will keep you posted!

Just a quick one

2009-11-21T15:41:00.004+01:00

Just a very few minutes to say 'hi' to all our readers! We are currently in the UK on the run up to our 12 day stint at the NEC Bike Show. We have been 'squatting' in our house near Redditch with furniture on loan from friends and family and enjoying catching up with all the goings on here. It's been great being able to spend a decent amount of time with our kids and grandkids and have been very touched by the numbers of friends who have wanted to see us and have offered us meals and overnight accommodation.

Not that we have left the hotel behind completely. Thanks to modern technology we continue to access our E Mails and booking system daily and have been excited to have a number of Xmas and New Year bookings as well as the first summer bookings for 2010. We are also VERY pleased to have secured Chris Eichberger from Vienna as our musician for New Year's Eve - he is a great guitarist/singer and also a really nice guy - and as he is bringing his girlfriend with him, we are looking forward to meeting her for the first time too.

Our plans for the Bike Show Stand have been taking form - John has been busy making stand furniture and we have been able to borrow some as well, so should have more than enough space to show off the piles of photos and brochures we have brought with us. The printing company have delivered 5000 brochures and as many business cards and the posters we designed have also arrived and look really immpressive (even tho' we say so ourselves!). Today we got the sign up sheets for the free draw organised (5 nights B & B this summer for 2 people with a guided bike tour and a daY's walking) and look forward to seeing how many people sign up for that. Our nephew Matt is once again joining the Hochalmspitze team for the show and we are also getting help for John's daughter Becky and her partner Sam and my friend Jo uring the fortnight (nothing like a bit of young glamour on the stand to attract the punters!). For the second week we will be joined by colleague Michael Ganley from motorcycletours.ie who hopes to drum up some business for the 3 tours he plans to bring to us next summer. All in all we should have abusy and interesting stand. Hope to see some of you there!

Return of Autumn Sunshine

2009-10-26T11:36:00.004+01:00

This will be our last blog before leaving for our return trip to the UK, but we could not leave here without just one more opportunity to show you the beauty of our valley in the Autumn. After a week and a bit of unseasonal coldness, the sun has returned - temps are up to high teens, low twenties again and the sky is the purest form of blue imaginable. For walkers this is the perfect time to be here - the air quality is so amazingly clear that the views are unsurpassed. The photos speak for themselves, we think.

On Saturday we set off - stopping for 2 nights with friends in Germany and arriving back at our home in GB late on Monday/early Tuesday. It will be a bit like camping, as we have very little furniture there, but the kids will have turned on the heating and put the essentials of life (wine and beer) in the fridge at least! Then we have 3 weeks in which to sort out all the jobs on the house, catch up with friends and relations and get prepared for the start of the Motorbike Show. Sounds like loads of time but I bet we end up running round like headless chickens nonetheless. We are hoping that by the time we leave on Dec 9th, Andi & Mandy and the kids will be on the verge of moving into the house, so that the building and garden do not have time to deteriorate again!

By virtue of a clever little gadget called (apparently) a dongle (!!) we will have access to the internet throughout our stay, so plan to keep up-to-date with blogs, tweets and facebook entries as much as possible, so you will still have some instalments of this little soap to keep up with. Hope to catch up with as many people, - friends, relations and all UK biking contacts, - as poss, but meanwhile watch this space for news of the Bike Show events and plans for Christmas, New Year and the winter months - skiing season has started early here and Ryanair have put on extra flights - so we would love to see you all out on the slopes! Take care - see you on the other side of the Channel! Ros & John

See us at the Bike Show

2009-10-23T17:37:00.002+02:00

Just in case you are one of the minority of our readers and followers who I haven't managed to contact another way - John and I are really excited to be going to exhibit at the 2009 NEC Carole Nash Motorbike and Scooter Show (to give it its VERY long full name!) Hall 1, Stand 14, right on the edge of the Touring and Adventure Zone is where you will find us representing Gasthof Hochalmspitze and the Malta Valley from November 26th to Dec 6th. We have lots of information, brochures and photos, copies of our Maltahochalmstraße video plus some other videos of the delights of Carinthia, some giveaways and a chance to win 5 nights free accommodation with us next summer - we must be worth a visit! Looking forward to seeing all friends old and new and to being able to demonstrate why a trip on a motorbike to our valley will be next year's perfect holiday treat. See you there!
http://www.motorcycleshow.co.uk/mci2009/exhibitor-details.html?exhibitor_id=4503

Only 2 days later...

2009-10-15T12:29:00.005+02:00

Look at the difference in the weather! Snow arrived in the valley just 24 hours after we had been up the trees in glorious sunshine and by Tuesday there was enough snow on the mountain for there to be much talk about an early start to the ski season. It took everybody a bit by surprise but now everyone has their winter woollies on!

In the meantime we have made great progress with our building and renovation work and have managed to move back into our little studio flat at last. There are still a few bits and pieces in the main room to sort out (aren't there always?) but basically we are no longer homeless and the work on the other areas of the basement level has also started, so that eventually - thanks to our wonderful insurance company - we will be in far more comfortable surroundings and should have added considerable value to our investment, we hope!

Because of the sudden change in the weather our next major task will be the bringing in of the plants and terrace furniture, as well as putting the winter tyres on the car. By next week we should be in full winter mode and looking forward to seeing our first wintersports guests when we get back from the UK in mid December. We will be trying to keep the blog up while we are in Britain and will hopefully have some news about our plans for the trip shortly.

Apple Picking Time

2009-10-11T15:19:00.008+02:00

Happily the weather defied the forecasters today and we have had another dose of Carinthian Autumn sunshine instead of the promised rain. However, the luck may be about to run out as temperatures are due to fall from a very pleasant 20 to a rather less exciting 12 over the next week - so today had to be the day to pick the apples. The exercise is always a bit daunting as neither of us are particularly good with heights - but as the pictures will tell you, we were brave little soldiers (and had moral support from the cat who was quite happy up the tree!) and the results, although not a patch on last year's bumper harvest, will nevertheless keep us in Apple Crumble for a good few months!

Meanwhile the rcreation of our living space has continued, with the floor in there just about complete and all the additional heating, painting, re-organising also well underway. With luck our next blog will include photos of us no longer homeless! Our plans for our Autumn trip back to the UK are also just about sorted and we should be able to spend about 5 weeks catching up with friends and family before returning here for the Christmas/New Year party season. This time we are driving and will be able to stop overnight with friends in Stuttgart on the way which is an added bonus and something we are really looking forward to. While we are away the remainder of the renovation work will take place, so coming back will also be exciting. We are also waiting to hear about some possible grant support for small businesses which will allow us to update some of our equipment as well as potentially expanding our Wi-Fi coverage to the guesthouse. We will keep you posted of course!

2009-10-04T15:31:00.004+02:00

This is scary but if you would like to see me 'live' click on this link! http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2279411 This brief interview was recorded today at the Trebesing Harvest Festival event - carnival processions (and silly dressing up) are clearly not just the preserve of British seaside towns!

Time is still flying

2009-10-03T18:12:00.009+02:00

We can't believe a whole fortnight has gone by since the last posting! Our last Onka group (more dancing and a celebration of Arthur's Day!) and the school group from Vienna (lots of noise, shoes everywhere and an Austrian convert to HP sauce) have come and gone, the Almcamp proved a great success (see www.soisses.at for all the details), our insurance agent turned out to be an angel in disguise (yes I did say that!) and the repairs to our flat are finally underway. The weather has been really wonderful with almost every day seeing afternoon temperatures in the low to mid 20's and Autumn is slowly turning the valley from green to gold.

October is a quiet month here - although we can never understand why as it is perfect weather for walking and cycling. We have a date with our mayor next week to discuss marketing strategies (more of this in a minute) and we shall be raising with him again the importance of getting the message out to potential visitors that the season does NOT have to end on September 1st!

Our biggest effort though will be to seek the support of the Gemeinde to generate enough materials to take to the NEC Motorbike and Scooter Show at the end of November. To our amazement the cost of a stand there for small businesses is subsidised, which means with some practical support from some of our colleagues in tourism and the business world, we could actually be there! The chance of raising awareness of the merits of biking in Carithia to 130,000 British bikers is rather too good to miss! We already have the first contributions so watch this space.

New things!

2009-09-21T11:54:00.007+02:00

As the summer season finally draws to an end and the weather is reminding us that Autumn is really coming (although today is glorious!), we have been looking at things to do to encourage a few more off-season visitors. For a bit of fun we have bought an electronic dartboard (help for the mathematically challenged!) and have already enjoyed introducing our friends to this very British pastime. (Also introduced them to Marmite with cheese at the same time!). We're hoping we will soon be home to the first Malta Darts Team!

The next big event in the valley is the amusingly named First Malta Valley 'Vertical Feet Contest' - a specialist climbing/bouldering event to be held on October 3rd with award presentation party afterwards, DJ'd by our very own Mayor, Klaus Rüscher!

To celebrate the event we have a special offer - 2 nights for €55 to include a large Guinness, foot plasters and muscle rub! It would be great to see some English speaking competitors there but for the German speakers amongst you, here is the information again!

“1. Maltataler vertical feet contest”

Am 3. Oktober findet im Maltatal der “1. Maltataler vertical feet contest” statt.

Der Teamgedanke und Spass steht im Vordergrund, ein faires Punktesystem sorgt für Chancengleichheit.

Geklettert wird in 2er Seilschaften, Mandl und Weibl, oder gemischt. Das Kletterkönnen spielt natürlich eine gewisse Rolle, aber auch Taktik und Organisation stehen mit im Vordergrund des Wettbewerbes. So kann man sich durch viele Begehungen, auch leichter Routen, ein fettes Punktekonto holen. Und man kann dieses auch mit einer schnellen Teambegehung am Wasserfall Klettersteig aufbessern.

- bitte meldet Euch alle vorher an

- nehmt die € 20.- Startgeld mit und bezahlt direkt am Veranstaltungsort

- füllt das Anmeldeformular aus und gebt dieses bei der Anmeldung ab

los geht es um 9.15 Uhr mit dem “briefing” der Teilnehmer, um 10.00 Uhr erfolgt der Start des Bewerbes selbst!

Die genauen Infos und ein Anmeldeformular gibt es auf www.gerhardschaar.com

Read more: http://www.soisses.at/2009/09/19/1-maltataler-vertical-feet-contest/#ixzz0Rjbu0wkd

Will report on the event when it happens.

Also next weekend is the first ever 'Almcamp' -

www.barcamp.at/AlmCamp_09. Sadly we have a house full of bus group this week so couldn't help out with accommodation for this event, but are helping to sponsor it and will be acting as the meeting point for guests arriving by public transport on Friday. We are looking forward to meeting some of our Facebook 'friends' in the flesh and sharing a Guinness or two!

We are also looking forward next week to the return of our favourite Viennese schoolteacher - a fellow Star Trek and Doctor Who fan, with a talent for music (Reveille at 6.00am!), near perfect English and a great sense of humour! He is bringing 28 pupils with him, but we won't hold it against him!

Our new National Park Authority

2009-09-13T19:28:00.003+02:00

September 13th 2009 – the launch of the new Hohe Tauern National Park Regional Authority.

Political leaders from Kärnten, Osttirol and Salzburg joined together to launch the new combined Hohe Tauern National Park Region incorporating the former National Park Holiday Region, The National Park Region, Kärnten, the Osttirol Tourist Authority and the Grossglockner High Alpine Road. The new Authority will work across regional boundaries to promote the area as the ‘Yellowstone Park’ of Europe, advertising the largest protected area in the alps and Austria’s biggest National Park to a worldwide audience and establishing the double aim of nature protection and accessibility.

The invited audience of local dignitaries, National Park employees and accommodation owners were told that this new co-operation was something ’the whole of Austria should take notice of’. At a time of falling tourist numbers generally, the Grossglocknerstrasse has seen a rise in visitor numbers of between 7% & 8 % this year, due, it is believed, to its international status and excellent reputation. The new Authority aims to raise awareness internationally of the whole of the National Park area by creating a new ‘Hohe Tauern’ brand. To achieve this the Authority has identified 5 main areas that typify the National Park – driving the Großglockner, winter sports, waterfalls, park ranger activities and life on the alms – and has made a short introductory film which it is releasing to highlight these. In so doing the Authority hopes to establish mental pictures for tourists that they can associate with the area – much as a picture of the Campanile reminds people of Venice, or the picture of the Yellowstone Geyser immediately identifies that particular area of the world in people’s minds.

Certainly the speakers at today’s event came across as enthusiastic and committed to this new joint venture. It remains to be seen whether the methods used to promote the new Region will reach the international audience it needs to. Hopefully the introductory film will soon be available to download – a first but important step – and if so, we too will be adding it to our website! Watch out too for a TV programme on Dec 8^th called ‘Nutzung & Schönheit – Hohe Tauern National Park’ – a documentary on what the National Park has to offer to visitors and to those who live there.

Another group dances!

2009-09-11T10:50:00.009+02:00

Another of our bus groups has found the holiday spirit and amazed the locals by conga-ing in the street! (Not to mention through the hotel, taking the staff with them as they went!). Even Matt ended up in the line! I, too, was 'forced' to dance with one of the male guests who proved very light on his feet for an 84 year old and John joined in the rock and roll while pulling a few glasses of Guinness (not all for the staff, honest!). Lovely to see them all having a good time. This is the penultimate bus group of the season but the largest so far. Our last one comes in 2 weeks time and then we will finally have to accept that the summer is over and start planning for our winter customers. Ski brochures are starting to appear and requests for bookings for New Year are also coming through. Summer is just never long enough! Check our our new Facebook Fan Page http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Maltaberg-Austria/Gasthof-Hochalmspitze/155646895759?ref=ts for updates too!

The Aftermath

2009-09-05T13:18:00.004+02:00

One week on and the wheels of the Insurance Company vehicle turn slowly! After an initially encouraging response, everything reverted to type. Nothing happened at all until after the weekend. The drying machines finally arrived on Friday afternoon following an assessment visit on Tuesday and only after we had had to take up the wet lino (very well stuck down many years ago!) ourselves! The dryers will have to be in for a week to 10 days at least and then we have to have a new floor laid before we can even think about moving back in. Meanwhile our insurance agent has gone on holiday! One positive though - the drying machine in the laundry is also very affective at drying the wet clothes and bedding - and the insurance company is paying for the electricity!

Next week and 2 weeks later we are full with bus groups, so the insurance company will be paying additional accommodation costs as well I guess. In the meantime some stuff has gone to the laundry and other stuff to the tip and we are running around getting quotes for replacements so that when the insurance man comes back with his tan, we can try and get everything sorted as soon as possible. Interestingly a German guest, Dieter, who we know from last year, and who is himself an insurance agent, told us that in Germany the dryers would have been in within 12 hours of the report to reduce the long term cost. Oh, for some German efficiency here!

Autumn has also begun to arrive. Although the sun is still shinig the temperatures are no longer in the high twenties/thirties. Rather a relief really! Rain last night turned to snow on the tops until the sun warmed up this morning. Against the clear blue sky it looked wonderful (but we didn't get round to getting a photo - sorry!). As you will see from the photo - we also have Matt back - he was a really welcome sight! We also have my Uncle & Aunt here visiting, so we are pleased the weather has perked up for them. Still the change of temperatures has reminded us that we need to start planning our winter program - skiing season is only just around the corner!

And from our Roving Reporter.....

2009-08-30T12:11:00.002+02:00

http://www.soisses.at/2009/08/30/unwetter-in-malta/

Here is a link to more pictures of the Great Flood of Malta and its impact! R x

It never rains but......

2009-08-30T11:17:00.006+02:00

Life is like a box of chocolates; you never know what you are going to get! Forrest Gump was a great philosopher eh? So, you plan a Latin American evening in the middle of the best heat wave of the summer and you get..... the great flood of Malta!

Before I get on to the main story, let me at least say that the Latin American evening was good fun - the musician was fabulous, the food and drink great and those friends and customers who braved the early weather and then found themselves temporarily stranded here, had a really nice time! There is, of course, enough food left to feed a Mexican army but somehow we will at least struggle through the remaining Rum Punch! And I do like avocados.

The rain began as usual a bit on and off and then came a rather threatening black cloud. Czaba, the musician, carried on for a while under the gazebo and the customers sat under the umbrellas and all seemed Okish. Then about 9.00pm the rain started to get heavier. To protect his equipment, Czaba decided to move inside and most of the audience came with him (although some continued, in a very English manner, to eat and drink outside). Even then we thought it was just an ordinary bit of 'Gewitter' - until about 30 miutes later the wind started to get up the rain doubled and more in strength and suddenly the world went mad! The umbellas and the gazebo flew, a river started flowing down the Maltaberg and, after a few vain attempts by some of the guys to rescue what they could, the rest of us were trapped in the restaurant for about an hour while the elements took over. The town's emergency sirens went off at about 11.30, so we knew things were getting serious.
When it finally calmed down enough for people to go home, Andrea, Czaba, Pauline, Elfriede, John and I cleared up the restaurant and kitchen and decided we couldn't do much outside till the morning. Andrea and I went over to the flat to collect some stuff she had left there and noticed that the lights had tripped. John went upstairs to the fusebox to turn them back on and I went in in darkness - immediately noticing there was water on the floor in the entrance. Bugger, I thought, the rain has got in! Ha! A bit of an understatement! When the lights went on and we realised that the whole flat was under about 2-3 centimetres of water we were just stunned. The water had cascaded down the entrance, pushed open the doors, swept the doormat 10 metres into the room and spread out into the workshop and the laundry on either side. What a mess! It doesn't sound much water, but it certainly made its presence felt!

So instead or crashing out after a very long day, we spent the next hour raising what furniture we could out of the water, moving other things and finally taking what we needed up to a hotel room (thankfully we don't have another full week until the 7th September!) and fell into bed about 2.30. The storm carried on all night, the emergency sirens went off again about 4.30 and no-one (apart from one of our biker guets who slept through the whole thing!) got much sleep!

The weather hadn't improved much next morning - we got breakfast for our few guests but there was no way the guys were going anywhere on their bikes. which was a blessing for us, because, having established that our insurance would cover things, we were told to get on with clearing up and, bless them, Grahame and Nick, were golden - helped us clear the flat, re-stack everything in the other cellar, dry out what we could, throw out what we couldn't etc etc. They were just fabulous! We were also consoled greatly by our friends Monika and Achim who turned up ready to offer us a temporary home in their guest suite if need be - don't think we will need to but it was lovely of them to offer!

Happily very little apart from the carpet and the kitchen cabinet were totalled. Several things need to get properly cleaned, but most of it is salvageable. And as with every cloud there is also a small silver lining, as we will be able to install the pipes for the radiators we planned to put in before winter, before the furniture goes back in! Our biggest problem is getting it back into use before the 7th, but friends tell us that insurance claims here go through very quickly so we are hoping that, together with the dozens of photos we took, the insurance visit tomorrow will be enough to allow us to go ahead and get a new carpet down as soon as poss. In the meantime we are back in Room 11, and at least after after months of only showers, we can again have a bath!

Thanks to all those who responded to my Facebook photo with messages of support - as you can see all is reasonably well and we have survived yet another adventure in Austria! Take care! R & J

2009-08-26T14:51:00.005+02:00

Getting out and About

Now that the bike is legal here we are taking some time to explore our surroundings. When we have coach groups in we can get away for a few hours on the day we have the barbecue as we can get everything prepared in advance. When we don't have groups in we have some time on Mondays because it is the one day we do not open for lunch. So last week we had a coach group and took advantage of our free time to ride over the Nockalmstrasse. As it is me writing this and not her you get a picture of interesting cars we saw on our trip! A pair of ACs both RHD and both registered in Vienna, and made a fantastic noise when they drove off.

This Monday we got up early to ride to Berchtesgaden, around 150 kms away. And what a road, it has got to be my favourite route so far, a fantastic mix of tight bends and open sweeping curves. The B99 over Obertauern a road made for motorcycles. We stopped for coffee a Werfen ( where the castle featured in "Where Eagles Dare") before crossing into Germany on a single track road. The sign for Germany was smaller than most English village nameboards. We wanted to visit the "Eagles Nest" which we knew was just outside Berchtesgaden. What we didn't know is that the Germans call in the "Kehlsteinhaus" so it took a little finding.

But as you can see find it we did, it was an amazing experience walking in the footsteps of the perpetrators of some of the greatest acts of evil the world has known. I find it incomprehensible that the Nazi leaders could have come to this beautiful place on a regular basis and still wished harm to their fellow men. That is is now full of visitors of all nationalities and creeds is of some comfort. As Ros said maybe they should erect a Star of David next to the cross.

The ride back was a little quicker than on the way, we rode in company with a German biker who's reg plate proclaimed him as GOD! He did not ride like one however and we left him behind after a while.

Just so you don't get the wrong idea today we have chopped 10Kgs of carrots to make soup for 45 people, made more Turkey Schnitzels than I care to think about, and cooked lunch for three Germans. We are also busy organising our Latin American evening ( this Friday) which I am sure will be the subject of the next exciting episode of this blog.

John (for a change)

And so it goes on...

2009-08-20T11:42:00.008+02:00

Already seems like ages since our Czech group left - although in reality only a few days. But we are now halfway through the next week and have got to know another group, so time moves on. We have had some great feedback from the Czechs though and both several individuals in the group and the group itself hope to see us again, plus the agency in Prague have said they hope to use our services in the future, so we feel justifiably pleased with the outcome of the week and know that the Czech words we learned will certainly come in useful again!

In between we had some surprise visitors - some of the biker group that was with us in June turned up for lunch on Saturday, which was really nice. Just a shame that we couldn't accommodate them this time, but they plan to return next Spring anyway. We have also had a return visit from another previous guest, who came for a business trip earlier in the year and brought his wife with him this time. He is back on business in September and at various times throughout the year, so could turn out to be our first proper 'Stammgast'.

John and I managed a few hours out on the bike again yesterday so went over the Nockalm - the signs of the damage caused by the storms 3 weeks ago are still very much there, even though the road is passable again. Mother Nature can be vicious! The Nockalm was really busy with bikes and cars from all over the world. We passed the aftermath of an accident with a car totally inverted and on its roof - luckily both passengers out and reasonably OK by the look of things, but a reminder that the glorious weather and the holiday atmosphere can take your eye off the ball sometimes! We also grabbed enough time to see the Dutch Porsche meet in Gmünd and have a rather wonderful Nußbaumer ice cream!
We also had our first guest illness this week - one of our latest group was taken quite suddenly ill one evening. I have to say we were very impressed with the response of the emergency services and the doctor, and the guest, who was thankfully recovered enough the next day to be collected from the hospital in Spittal, was full of praise for the standards in the hospital. She has been fine since and I think quite enjoyed being the star of the group for a while!

Next week appears to be going to be quieter - which is a good thing as we are sadly losing Matt for a couple of weeks while he visits his Grandad. We hope to have him back on September 3rd all being well and I think we will be very pleased to see him by then.

Our busy week

2009-08-14T10:09:00.007+02:00

The Czech group have been here 6 days already - time has flown! They have been great fun to have and hopefully will go away with a positive experience of us and the area despite the weather having been very mixed for them.

Yesterday was a day of mixed experiences. John and I got away on the bike for a few hours at last and went to the Franz-Josefs-Höhe on the Großglockner. We failed miserably to meet up with the friends who were supposed to be there but had a good day anyway - especially loved the marmots! More pics as usual on my Facebook page.

It was BBQ evening - started off well and then the heavens opened! In true Brit style we carried on serving for a while but eventually the elements won and we had to move the whole thing including the music inside - by now most of us were saturated! Anyway the group took it all very well and managed to find some room to dance a bit as well - the conga line was particularly popular!

Some interesting visitors!

2009-08-09T09:06:00.003+02:00

Our Czech guests have arrived - and are a very lively and friendly bunch, so that bodes well for a good week. I am sure there will be some photos to put up here soon. Meanwhile we had some other surprise visitors yesterday. A grass snake decided to visit our terrace - very unusual for this area and luckily not dangerous, but he took some persuading to find a more appropriate sleeping place!

We are pleased to have our American friend Peter Benjamin back in the valley for a few days. He has brought his friend Debs with him - her first experience of Austria, but one she seems to be enjoying.

Most excitingly our friend Balazs - only a few weeks ago a guest - arrived for a visit this weekend and promptly dived in to serving at tables and behind the bar! A definitely positive addition to our staff team (as vouched for by all our ladies!). Sadly we couldn't persuade him to stay the week - and locking a Hungarian policeman in the cellar seemed a little extreme! But he promised to return again soon and next year will bring his parents and other members of his family too!

Busy Times

2009-08-08T13:08:00.006+02:00

Can' believe its nearly a week since I last put anything on here! We have had a very busy week - family, friends and guests have kept us all on the go, but nicely so and we have enjoyed having everybody here. Lots of photos already on my facebook page (www.facebook.com/rosgowers) but a few more here as well. A highlight was our Wednesday evening Hungarian barbecue - authentic Hungarian Goulash cooked as it was meant to be - over an open fire. Lots of fun and tasty too! Think we might try some other dishes this way. Also enjoyed eating Gez's personally caught trout but somehow John managed to lose the photo of that! (Sorry Gez!)

Currently we are preparing for the arrival of 48 Czech walkers who will be with us for the next week - we have introduced a new concept to the local tourist office, making use of a good opportunity. Thanks to John's efforts (all in German!) they have put together an info pack for each guest to take home with them to show their friends which will hopefully attract other walkers to our area. Our friends Steve and Julia have been very pleased with what they found here and will be writing us up for the UK Alpine Club so that should help too. All goes towards bringing more people to our wonderful part of the world.

The other big news of the week is that John finally managed to get his bike registered here, so with a bit of luck we will be off on some rides soon, starting next week with a quick run to meet some friends on the Grossglockner. John is sooooo pleased! We have had several bikers stay overnight this week, so our marketing is clearly having an impact in that area too. Time for another internet blitz I think!

We here the weather in the Uk has perked up, so we hope you are all finally having a good summer. Temps here are still high, but Monday and Tuesday don't look so bright. Still it will improve again afterwards and the sun should stay with us through till the end of October - still time to book folks!!

Take care!

A new update!

2009-08-02T11:39:00.010+02:00

Apologies to our regular readers (well I know at least Debs looks every week - and maybe a few others?) for the break in communication. We are having a really busy few weeks here (that is NOT a complaint!) but it does mean time to do the blogging is short. Still been taking a lot of photos though, so am adding a few today to give you a flavour. Some interesting weather - heatwave temps and amazing storms - 9 bridges out in the next valley last Thursday for instance. We have had lots of friends and family visiting so the place has been quite a little UK enclave for this last week too. We had a late birthday celebration for Matt and the Town Band played for our guests and others while John & Matt staffed the BBQ for all comers. Yesterday I managed to grab a few hours to go into Villach with the family to see what goes on at the town carnival. So enjoy the photos - more on my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/rosgowers) too.

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

2009-07-25T15:05:00.003+02:00

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

2009-07-20T11:23:00.003+02:00

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!

2009-07-17T15:25:00.008+02:00

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

2009-07-16T07:47:00.005+02:00

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

2009-07-11T11:26:00.004+02:00

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

2009-07-05T23:08:00.007+02:00

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!

2009-07-02T12:22:00.004+02:00

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!

Our latest guests

2009-06-28T11:11:00.005+02:00

Another bus group has come and gone! And despite really very disappointing weather (apart from one day when proper Carinthian summer weather finally showed its face for them) they were a jolly lot who enjoyed everything and were very appreciative to us and the staff. A couple even said they were going straight back to book up for the September trip to see if the weather would be better for them then!

Our next arrivals are a group of Irish bikers who have travelled all the way from Dublin, including spending tonight on the car-rail service from Düsseldorf to Villach and so will be arriving for full English breakfast at 9.00a.m. tomorrow! The weather looks to be at least a little better for next week although the risk of thunderstorms continues across the whole of central Europe. Can't believe in Wimbledon fortnight the UK gets better weather than here!

I am definitely suffering Wimbledon withdrawal - this would be my year to go normally - so we are holding our own little event next weekend - showing both finals on the TV and offering guests strawberries and cream and champagne (or Guinness). If Andy Murray wins, we have agreed to give all those here at the time a free drink - will be worth it just to have a British winner after all these years!

Also next week the annual motorbike blessing at the dam. http://www.soisses.at/2009/06/27/motorradsegnung-auf-der-staumauer/#more-6235 We will have a couple from Grimsby here to represent the UK at that event. In fact Saturday night will be truly international with guests from Sweden, Turkey and Italy as well! That will be an interesting night.

Also looking forward to the arrival on Tuesday of our nephew Matt who is joining us for the summer. Hopefully plenty of work for him to do, plus a chance to experience a bit of a different environment before finally getting a proper job!

Sad Goodbyes

2009-06-19T18:28:00.004+02:00

Our children have gone and our friends from Hungary have gone and the storms are back to reflect the mood! Its strange how you can become really good friends with people so quickly in this holiday atmosphere. The children were particularly touching, so many of them saying how they didn't want to go home. It appears they have been telling everyone they meet what a great place it is here and how much they like John's cooking and speaking English with us - much to the surprise of the locals according to the two teachers! The teachers, Inge & Traudee, also felt at home here, and we hope to meet up with them again later in the year.

John managed a short ride out with the 3 guys before the left this morning, which was a treat for him - they too have promised to recommend us to their friends and colleagues (especially the police motorbike clubs!) so we are really looking forward to meeting some more great fun people from Hungary and Spain.

We have a quiet weekend ahead we think - weather forecast is not favourable and the camping place is also not busy so not a lot of passing restaurant trade either. But Monday our next coach group arrives, so much preparation on the kitchen to keep us busy ahead. Sad about the weather as so many events are on this weekend in the region. Still we might get a chance to pop over to Mallnitz to see the newly arrived English residents, Katy & John - we hear they have brought some real ale with them!

Some great photos

2009-06-18T17:20:00.003+02:00

But not ours! Still had to share with you some photos taken in the local area recently and posted to the web. Such clever stuff - all 360 Panoramas. Thanks to soisses.at for identifying the link.

http://www.panotopia.org/?m=200906

Had some great guests this week - 2 friends from the UK, a Dutch/Belgian couple who came to walk and climb, 3 Hungarian bikers (one of whom turned out to be Spanish - our first Spaniard!) and 17 delightful children (and their 2 equally delightful teachers) from a school in Salzburg who have just been a pleasure to have around. That's when this job is really good fun! Next week another bus group and then a group of bikers from Ireland. That should be a good craic!

John has had his bike tested to see if we can register it here finally. We have to change the headlight and - horror - he has to re-fit the standard exhaust. What will he do whe he can't make that noise when he pulls off? Turns out the cheapest way to get the European headlight is to have it imported from the UK. Seems they sell an awful lot to ex-pat bikers who can't afford mainland prices. Should arrive next week so hopefully on the road soon after!

Always nice to have a celebration!

2009-06-14T14:54:00.006+02:00

One of our bikers had a birthday! Seemed a good excuse so we made a bit of a fuss and he seemed quite touched. We started out by having a free beer ready (and a rose in a glass) when they got back from their ride around 3 countries, but it turned out he didn't like beer and only drank wine. So we did it all again and put a candle in his Apple Strudel for good measure. The party went on till 2.00am!

Sadly they had to go home this morning (I hate that part!) but they all said they would be back soon and we have our Hungarian bikers to look forward to plus my friend Charlotte and her husband AND a Dutch couple later today and 18 schoolchildren and 2 teachers tomorrow! Other bookings coming in thick and fast from Booking.com (today Swedes and Belgians) as well PLUS its 30 degrees again. Much cheerier!

More and more bikes

2009-06-13T13:08:00.005+02:00

Excellent barbie evening last night - 4 more bikers saw us and joined in and the weather stayed warm enough for the party to carry on outside until quite late. Except for the whisky tasters that is, who came inside to deal with the very serious issue of getting through a whistle stop tour of Scottish single malt production! This was all after they had introduced us to a little tradition in their club - when one of them needs to do some work on their bike the others have to sit and watch, offering both (occasionally) useful advice and other less helpful comments to their more industrious colleague! Hence for a short while there were more chairs on our car park than on our terrace! Today they have borrowed our Sat Nav and gone off on our 3 countries tour. Good job we tested that one a couple of weeks ago then!

After the group left this morning John and took advantage of another interesting activity - open morning at the local hairdressers. Free beer and prosecco plus nibbles, haircut for him and hand massage or eye make up for her - English hairdressers take note, the place was packed! But the staff did a good job on John's unruly mop and my hand massage was a welcome 10 minutes of relaxation. Plus they seemed genuinely happy to see us and I have €5 off my next appointment! The only downside was the 15 minute rant from the stylists's husband about all Italians being mafiosi - obviously someone from across the border had upset him somewhere but the generalisation is sadly all too typical. No wonder our Italian guests (and others) so often complain of a poor reception in this area. All the better for those of us who try hard to be nice to everyone then!

Religious Festivals et al

2009-06-12T16:07:00.010+02:00

Once again Malta has come up with a religious festival that is steeped in tradition and history in which the Gasthof Hochalmspitze has to play its long-established part (despite the clear atheist convictions of its current management!) Here they call it Fronleichnam, in Holland it is apparently Sacrementdag and in the UK, I am reliably informed by those who know, it is Corpus Christi. As is always the case in Kärnten, the band, the choir and the local children were all involved and we have lots of photos showing the costumes and the ceremony which you can find at http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/johnlgowers/Fronleichnam2009?feat=directlink but here are a view to begin with! I think this is the first time that the local priest has been confronted with a Guinness poster when he approached the altar though! The highlight of the whole thing was definitely the ladies choir who sang both the religious elements of the service plus, as you can see in the photos, a rather wonderful gospel number. They sounded as good as they looked!

On another note, our 15 German bikers have arrived and already started on a mission to drink us dry! We will NOT be defeated! Tonight they are having a barbecue - sun has been out ALL day - followed by a whisky tasting session. Not an early night then! We were sorry to have to say goodbye to our Hungarian couple this morning, but how lovely that they decide to write on our blog directly (assuming it says something nice!). Hope to catch up with the both in Budapest later in the year.

Kedvezö tapasztalatok

2009-06-12T09:58:00.002+02:00

Sziasztok ismeretlen magyar motorosok!

Ez a szälläs lenyegesen többnek bizonyult szämunkra, mint egy hely, ahol eszünk es alszunk. A häziak ugy tudtak kedvesek lenni, hogy közben egyältalän nem voltak tolakodoak, egyszerüen "csak" figyelmesek. A häzigazda kisebb technikai segitseget is adott nekünk, nem volt nehez, mert 30 evig szerelökent dolgozott.
A szoba "k." hideg volt , de aludni tökeletesen megfelelt. az ellätäs a helyi viszonyoknak megfelelo, de egyeni igenyekre, neha a ki nem mondottakra is pozitivan reagältak. pl. elmondtuk, hogy szeretjük az olasz konyhät es mäsnap este a föetel es az edesseg olasz volt.
Egyaltalan nem lebecsülendö az a karintia kärtya, amit kaptunk. Sok helyen ingyen järtunk vele es a Glocknerre is kaptunk egy vouchert ami (ezt pontosan nem sikerült a gyatra nemettel megallapitani) lehet hogy meg toväbbi 10 napra szolo jegyet jelentett kedvezmenyes äron. Azt sejtjük, hogy ha jobb a nemet nyelvismeretünk es több idönk is van, akkor sokkal jobban ki tudtuk volna hasznälni.
Az idöjäräs nekünk nem kedvezett, de minden mäs, amit a häziaktol kaptunk, ellensulyozta azt.

Jo szivvel ajänlom mindenkinek ezt a helyet.

Malta, 2009. junius 8-12.

Szeles utat kivän Nektek

Spitzer Läszlo
UCM 220

Ui.: Az jo lenne, ha a sajat tapasztalataitokkal kiegeszitenetek az ältalam irottakat.

I have no idea what this says - but I trust these two to have said something nice. (Fingers crossed!). Ros

From the sublime....

2009-06-11T09:59:00.004+02:00

Who says direct marketing is not effective? We have been delighted this week with the outcome of our targeted marketing aimed at attracting more bikers to our place. Meet our two new friends (above) Lazslo and Czilla from Budapest who have been with us since Monday - such lovely people with whom we really hope to keep in touch. Then last night 2 amazing trikes turn up (Rent-A-Trike, Austria would you believe?). We just about got both in the garage! Tonight 13 more bikes from Germany and then on Monday 3 more from Hungary. John is in 7th heaven! Thankfully the weather looks to be improving - 30 degrees again forecast by the end of the weekend, so they should all leave happy. And currently we are getting more hits on the website from the UKGS website than almost any other, so hopefully some British bikers will be on their way soon (already have bookings next month from Ireland and Grimsby!) Even Adolf is impressed.

Newsflash - John fails to take photos of a single 'train'

2009-06-04T13:11:00.006+02:00

Wednesday June 3rd - John, Ros and Andrea, as guests of the Tourismus Verbund - the tourist arm of the hydro-electric power generation company that owns the dams and power stations locally - visit the Reißeck Mountain Railway - and John takes no pictures at all of the vehicles - a real shock for all who know him. So you will just have to visit their website to see them. http://www.tauerntouristik.at/de/reisseck/index.php.

Having said that we did take plenty of photos of the scenary, our companions on the tour (a very

international group consisting of us, Andrea (Hungarian) 2 young dutch people and one Kärntnerin!)

Andrea in true Hungarian style had the head of the tourist company dancing inside 10 minutes of their meeting.

Having not expected the 'short guided tour' we had been promised to include hiking across as yet unmelted snow,

we were a little unprepared, but in true Brit style, we did the tour in open sandals (Ros) and T shirt (John)

much to the guide's amazement and chagrin, thus confirming their view of us as totally mad! Our guide. Günter,

spoke perfect English (and Italian) - working for a private company they all have to! - and thus enabled us to have a really

interesting visit and tour. Plus we felt we had earned our goulash soup at the end of it!

We are converts and will recommend this trip to all our guests - using the National park card they all get, its even free!

Other photos on http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/johnlgowers/ReiEckBergbahnTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCL-P-t-W9MmmCA&feat=directlink

All this getting out and about!

2009-06-02T14:20:00.011+02:00

As May turns into June, we know our days of getting out and about are numbered now. So we had one last long trip to Slovenia yesterday, following our '3 countries' tour route and sorting out the bugs. The route took us through the Triglavski National park - a place of breathtaking beauty - and over no less than 4 mountain passes, the first (Würzenpass) from Austria into Slovenia, next in the National Park itself the Vrsic Pass, on over the Predil Pass (Slovenia into Italy, ending in the wonderful Predil Lake) and finally the Nassfeld (or Pramolo) Pass from Italy back to Austria. Even for the dedicated biker that's a five hour plus ride and for us stopping and taking photos it was over 8 hours. On the way we made a new contact, Milan Crnigoj, who owns a great little hostelry in Slovenia, speaks 5 languages (including excellent English, having studied in the UK and previously been married to an Englishwoman) and loves bikers. So we can heartily recommend his place as a lunch stop! Hopefully some of the photos will do it all justice.

Also forgot to mention this week we helped our friend Andrea celebrate her birthday - I promised she would go onto the blog, so here she is! Thanks to her our Hungarian bookings are increasing each week, so we are glad we found her!

A busy week

2009-05-31T17:10:00.007+02:00

Our first bus group of the year has come and gone. 42 people, mostly elderly as usual, but a very pleasant bunch and very happy with their stay here. Many left saying they would come back with their families which was lovely. The week went very smoothly, which shocked us all I think - we were all expecting something to go wrong! We had extra help this week from Elfriede who last year just did the washing up and this year has more hours to give us and has turned out to be an absolute revelation - just so easy to work with and almost always one step ahead of what you want her to do. The others were all great too - its a good team! We converted the bus driver (who turned out to be a master barbecuer - see photo!) to proper single malt and a couple of the old men to Guinness too and added a music evening to the programme which meant some of them actually sat in the bar later than 8.30pm!

Yesterday we visited another local hostelry, the Pflügelhof, in a little hamlet of the same name just up the valley. It used to be a royal hunting lodge in its heyday and yesterday hosted the 10th anniversary celebration of the local hunting horn group - a good excuse for a party! Later in the day a couple from Canada turned up to stay and guess what - her name was Pfluegel and her ancestors came from that very same hamlet! How weird was that! They have gone off to Croatia now on the next stage of their month long trip round Europe but hope to call back in on their return journey and have promised to keep up with the blog from home.

Tomorrow we get a day off and will be testing out another of our 'tour routes'. Our next group (bikers again) comes next week and then we are pretty much all systems go for the summer. Nephew Matt joins us at the end of June - really looking forward to having him here to help out. Already got several offers from the local youngsters to take him out and about a bit, so hopefully he will have some fun as well as helping with the work!

Another outing!

2009-05-24T13:45:00.004+02:00

One of the 'perks' of having family to stay is that we have an excuse to do a bit of sightseeing ourselves. Today, as our group of Goldwingers left early to avoid the post Bank Holiday traffic jams in Germany, we had a couple of hours free to take cousin Sue to see our nearest lake, the Millstäter See. Perfect timing, as it turned out, to jump on the pleasure boat and take a little trip on the water - something we have never managed to do before. Its very warm again here (27 degrees on our terrace at midday) and the morning was a little muggy but the photos still show how pleasant it was to see this lovely little town, and its neighbour Seeboden, from a different perspective. Thanks Sue!

P.S. Schmidti obviously didn't ask more than €5 'cos he brought me back!

Ros kidnapped by biker!!!

2009-05-23T17:06:00.003+02:00

STOP PRESS ROS KIDNAPPED

Ros was last seen on the back of a Goldwing. I am waiting for the ransom note. If it's for more than 5 Euros they will have to keep her.

Problem is what do I do with the biker's wife?

First trip up to the Dam in 2009

2009-05-23T15:46:00.007+02:00

Grabbed 2 hours this morning to take John's cousin Sue up to the Dam - 20+ degrees in the valley, 13 degrees up the top but feeling warm in the sun. Still enough snow about though for there to be a cross country skiing event going on. Looks like they ski over the mountain from the Mölltal side and then when the snow runs out put the skis on their back and walk back to where their transport is. Quite amazing to see the skiers walking through the tourists wearing shorts and tee shirts! Had to include a photo of my favourite waterfall too - the snow melt is really lasting a long while and all the rivers and waterfalls are really magical. The 'Valley of the Tumbling Waters' is living up to it's name.

The Gold Wings Cometh!

2009-05-22T11:24:00.007+02:00

Our first motorcycle group of the year - and how impressive. 8 bikes, 7 of them Gold Wings and 2 of those trikes! It all looked (and sounded) very impressive yesterday when they arrived and this morning when they set off for their day's ride to Lienz and back. The trikes are both driven by ladies and I have to admit they looked like a lot of fun - so comfy AND enough luggage space for several pairs of shoes. What more could a woman want?

What's more, as we have come to expect from our biking guests, they are a great group to have. They especially endeared themselves by asking for seconds of our Caramel Croissant Pudding! We were hoping to have our first barbeque of the season tonight as well, but sadly looks like the weather is against us as, after the high temperatures of the last few days, they are forcasting thunderstorms later. Still tomorrow again looks set fair and hot, hot, hot, so we might get that barbie going yet!

John's cousin Sue is also here enjoying her first trip abroad without her family and being able to just sit! Always nice to have family to visit. Next week our first bus group arrives - 42 elderly Germans from Dresden. Hope the weather holds for them too.

There's no place like home!

2009-05-17T18:56:00.006+02:00

So what if it is a bit 'bijou' - it's ours and it's private! And there is not far to go in the mornings to get to work! The flat is just about finished now (do DIY projects ever really get finished?) and we have moved in and tried to make it feel a bit like home. We only have a few days left until the groups start arriving so not much else will get done now. The focus has to be on preparing for the guests - especially out motorbiking guests who will need as much room as possible for garaging their beloved machines. With help from our friend Andrea who speaks at least 5 languages (I am so envious!) we have been doing some direct marketing with biking groups in Hungary, France and Spain. Already a couple of bookings have come in so it looks like it is a good strategy. We will also look at Belgium and French & German speaking Switzerland next I think. There is certainly a big market out there. I might have to learn Italian!

April showers bring....

2009-05-11T17:53:00.005+02:00

....... lots and lots of May flowers! The meadows are full of them and, in this setting, even the dandelions take on an unexpected beauty. We have been loath (as you see) to cut the grass and destroy the beauty, although the time is coming when we will have to. Still our reluctance proved useful to one of our neighbours yesterday who, having forgotten it was Austria's Mother's Day, was able to pick his Mum a lovely wildflower bouquet! The lilac too is in full bloom and smells divine - a real treat if you are sitting on our terrace. The weather is being very kind this week so far and temperatures are up in the high twenties. All in all a perfect start to the summer season. It's just such a shame that more people don't take advantage of this time of the year - the panorama roads are open, most of the tourist attractions are in full swing, all the local bands and choirs are having their Spring concerts and the views are wonderful. Why wait till July???

Summer is here!!

2009-05-07T13:13:00.003+02:00

What is the first sign of summer? Leaves on the trees? Swallows in the air? Turning off the heating? No it's when the Grossglockner Hochalpstrasse re opens. Just had the message to say tomorrow is therefore the first day of summer. In the best interests of our future guests I feel compelled to get on my bike and check it out - a tough job but someone has to do it! The Nockalmstrasse also opens this week-on Saturday. Just wish I had the time to get out on the bike all day. Ros is in England for a few days and when she comes back on Saturday I hope we can move into our own accommodation. In England an estate agent would call it "easily managed", it's not large but it is our own space. Anyway there is plenty still to do to make it habitable so the motorcycling will have to wait. A great shame considering the weather, yesterday started OK, a bit grey with some showers but by afternoon the sun was out, by evening it was warm! Today is fantastic and the forecast is good for the weekend-just need afew more guests please

John

Back from the UK and doing some background research!

2009-05-04T18:34:00.007+02:00

After a bit of a break, during which we spent some pre-season time in theUK and caught up with friends and family, we are now back in Malta and making preparations for the summer season. First some spring cleaning, then into the kitchen. We are still finding there is much to learn, especially abou Austrian cuinary requirements. It seems we just do not use enough seasoning in our food in the UK! So John is undertaking cookery lessons from our Irmgard and we are endeavouring to keep the salt content down to something not too life threatening!

At the same time we are getting a good response to our marketing with motorcycle groups and John has developed a range of pre-planned routes around Carinthia to keep them amused and hungry for more! Today we tried one route out to find out where the pitfalls are. (We discovered last month that a road we had put into a Slovenian tour was in fact no more than a dirt track and quite impossible for anything other than an off-road bike - can't let that happen again!). Our route today took us to Friesach - a new destination for us and a wonderful surpise. A real mediaeval treasure with so much to see and do we could have stayed a weekend there. We have attached a couple of photos and there are more on my Facebook page.

Tomorrow I have to fly back to the UK briefly (my son has had an accident - thankfully not as serious as it might have been but nonetheless worrying) and meantime John will continue with his cooking lessons and stocking up the freezer for our first big group of the season (40 people) in 3 weeks time. Time is already flying!

Easter Sunday starts early in Malta

2009-04-12T12:12:00.005+02:00

Actually it starts at 5:00 am! Its called the 'Weckruf'' and is a combination of the church bells for 10 minutes followed by the brass band! Thankfully the wall to wall blue skies and sunshine make up for the rude awakening and the wonderful brass band plays after church too, at a far more civilised hour!

We hear it continues to rain in Spain and that the temperatures in California are lower than here - our hearts go out to all those unfortunates who did NOT spend Easter in Carinthia! My sunburn is testament to how wonderful it has been. Hope it lasts all summer.

Tonight I have given in to spousal pressure and agreed to have Moto GP live on the TV - wonder if we can attract some extra bar guests? There are certainly motorbikes by the hundreds out and about - a welcome early start to the biking season and boding well for the next few months, especially once the scenic routes like the Grossglockner open at the end of May. Our biker bookings are slowly creeping up, as are the bookings from friends and acquaintances from the UK. We are looking forward to seeing some much missed faces!

Happy Easter everyone from John and Ros ! xx

It just gets better and better!

2009-04-10T16:25:00.002+02:00

28 C today - no need for any further words!

One day - 2 seasons!

2009-04-09T21:54:00.004+02:00

Morning on the mountain playing in the snow, afternoon in the valley walking by the waterfalls. Where else but Malta? We are all getting suntanned and he kids love the sun and snow mixture! Temperatures around 25 C predicted again for tomorrow so I think a trip to the lake is in store. So much fun to have, so little time........

Springtime fun in Austria

2009-04-07T20:59:00.007+02:00

What a change in the weather! From sub zero only a short while ago to 24 C on the terrace this lunchtime! But the snow is still on the mountains so our visiting grandchildren can enjoy sledging in the sunshine without getting cold. What fun! Of course the parents have to have a go too!

And so do the grandparents!

Meanwhile our terrace is back in action and some visitors have defintely been seen in the valley so everybody is looking forward to Easter weekend in the sun!

Spring is Sprung!

2009-04-04T18:26:00.006+02:00

Hurrah! Hurrah! Temperatures up in the high 'teens', sunshine, flowers out, blue skies and guests on the terrace. Spring is here at last! Our first lunchtime guests of the season prompted us to begin getting the outside area to look inviting again so the terrace furniture has started to come out of the garage and the garden has been set a bit to rights - thank you Andrea for your help with that!

The population of Malta and the areas around have been out and about enjoying the good weather and lots of people have stopped and read our menus for next weekend. One person has already ordered 'fish & chips' for Good Friday. Lets hope its all a good sign!

Tomorrow Andi, Mandy & the kids arrive - can't wait! It will be lovely to have them here and its supposed to be 22 degrees! Lots of photos coming up!

Green Thursday?

2009-03-31T15:46:00.005+02:00

Some musings about menus! These are interesting to plan here to say the least. We are told (and have experienced) that locally people are very conservatve in their tastes. But then there are some who are willing to try new things and, of course, in the summer we are catering for more 'outsiders' than we are locals. Also, try as I do, I can't get terribly excited about Austrian food, which is certainly satisfying but rarely stimulating.

Now we are planning some menus for Easter weekend - starting with Green (Maundy) Thursday - a meat free day. So a 'green' menu looks a good idea - something like Caldo Verde (Portuguese Green Soup), Spinach Pie with a Green Salad, Kiwi Mousse. Luckily the favorite local white wine is called 'Grüner Veltleiner' so a glass of that can go with!!

Good Friday (Karfreitag here) is fish day - so fish & chips will be on the menu definitely, and perhaps a prawn salad and something with salmon. Can't get Hot Cross Buns though - pity, they would be very popular I think!

Any ideas out there?

Birthday Time!

2009-03-30T10:01:00.005+02:00

Party time at the Hochalmspitze! We celebrated John's birthday yesterday with an international group of friends from Austria, Germany and Hungary. John was let out of the cellar and the DIY for the day and instead prepared some super new recipes which we tried out on our very willing 'Versuchskaninchen' (my German word of the day - 'Guinea Pigs' for the uninitiated!). More pictures on my facebook site.

The weather isn't in very celebratory mood though. It rained all day yesterday and overnight the rain turned again to snow! And this after the clocks have changed? The snow is again rapidly melting but Spring is forecast for later this week, so we remain optimistic.

Our next big event is Easter. We learned last night that what we know as Maundy Thursday is Green Thursday here (not sure why), so we are busy preparing a (meat-free) green menu for that evening! Friday has to be fish day - British Fish and Chips for an Austrian clientele? We also learned of an event called 'Kugelwerfen' which seems to be a form of mobile petanque which winds its way through the whole village with very competetive teams taking part. Apparently the tradition is to stop at every pub on the way where the current losers have to buy the current winners a round - as you can imagine the incentive to be in the winning position is high! So at least this time we will be prepared for the influx of guests, not like our total ignorance at Fasching! The event takes place on 2 days, Sunday and Monday - hopefully another blog in the making.

Meanwhile we look forward to visits next week from my two sons and their partners, and especially the 2 grandchildren. Just hope the weather improves for them!

The trouble with DIY....

2009-03-25T10:54:00.005+01:00

... is that it just goes on and on and on! And things never happen as quickly as you think they will. And things get a lot worse before they get better. Hence the pictures of what was just a week ago a reasonably organised office cum living space now transformed into total chaos! Still a shower room, however small, will be an improvement and the guys have been working hard as well as coming to terms with the very unexpected differences between the plumbing and wiring here in Austria compared to the UK. The cavalry, in the form of the local plumber, (known to all as Charly Wasser!) and his son, meant that not too many English swear words have echoed across the Malta valley. Thanks Charly!

Meanwhile the weather continues to fool everybody. We have had a few glorious spring days with temps in the mid teens and loads of sunshine but then back comes winter! The sun is still shining so from inside you can be fooled. But outside the wind is blowing a hooley and its cold again! Still apparently yet again Carinthia is doing much better than the rest of Austria where snowfall has been a regular feature again for the last week. Good for the skiing industry of course, who are hoping to hang on to the snow for the Easter holidays at least. The rest of us just want Spring to get here and stay please!

DIY and all that

2009-03-21T17:49:00.002+01:00

Greetings blog readers.

John and I are back from the UK where we spent a hectic few days seeing friends and relations and celebrating Steffi's 21st birthday. Now its time for real work! John's friend Andi is here helping as we begin the long list of updating, renovating, repairing and preparing for the summer season. First big task - create a small studio flat in the cellar where we can live while the hotel is full of coach tourists. Not a straight forward task as anyone who has ever been into DIY will guess, especially as the plumbing and wiring systems here are very different from what we are used to. Still progress is being made and hopefully some pictures soon!

Then there is repair and renovation in the hotel and restaurant and all the summer patio furniture to get into shape. Plus just a little bit (not) of gardening - and all this while working at trying to persuade some nice people to come and stay with us this Spring. There is real untapped potential in this area for Spring and Autumn visitors, particularly anyone who likes walking and cycling.

Spring is definitely here now - flowers are appearing and the sun does not go down till quite late. Midday temperatures are in double figures most days and everybody seems more cheerful.

We are pleased to say that our colleague Klaus Rüscher is now mayor of Malta, having won the 'play-offs' with a convincing 59.9%, so we have higher hopes for the tourist office in the town. Our summer staff are looking forward to getting back into the swing of things too.

We are also looking forward to visits this Spring from most, if not all, of our offspring, and especially looking forward to having our grandchildren here for the first time. Can't wait really! Lots of photos for the blog then, I am guessing. Also John's birthday next week to plan. No rest for the wicked then!

Winners, losers and not quite sure yet!

2009-03-02T18:11:00.005+01:00

So last nights's post election party didn't quite go to plan! As expected polls closed about 4pm and by 5.30 first results in the regional elections were in and Carinthia had voted overwhelmingly for the BZÖ - not the result we wanted to hear. But locally no news from the counting in Malta. At 7pm people began to arrive for the party - still no results from Malta. Everyone stood in reception watching the computer screen and the numerous IPhones and other mobiles intently. 8pm - the regional results are in. Malta too has gone for the BZÖ - despondency! But still no local council or mayoral results and our candidate had now joined us here to wait. The regional government website showed Malta and one other are the only two areas not to have returned. Tension mounts - the drink orders increase! One of the party goes down to ask what is happening - 100 votes left to count and the 3 candidates for mayor are neck and neck! More tension! Finally Klaus's phone rings! Everyone gathers round - first the council - a close thing - the BZÖ have the greatest percentage of votes but no overall majority. Our group are the second highest and will be able to link up with the socialists to make a majority. Then the mayor's votes - the votes are 469, 479 and 495 and our man has won! Initial jubiliation! Then reality dawns - as no-one has more than a 50% share of the vote there has to be a re-run between the 2 highest candidates in 2 weeks time - we have to go through all this again! Undaunted the champagne is uncorked, the celebration cake is eaten, the outgoing mayor gives a speech of encouragement and Klaus thanks everyone for their support and they carry on drinking! Good for business but not for the nerves! Sadly the next vote is while we are in the UK but we have already applied for our postal vote and Klaus has promised to text us with the result. Fingers will remain crossed until then.

European Democracy in Action

2009-03-01T12:32:00.002+01:00

Just got back from casting our first vote outside the UK. Our membership of the EU and documented residency in Austria allow us to vote in the local (Gemeinde) and Mayoral elections although not those for the Regional Government (interesting distinction?). So along with our fellow Maltingers, we queued patiently this morning to cast our vote and to have what influence we may on the way the local council spends out hard earned taxes! Politics is taken very seriously here - there has been a constant stream of people going past on their way to the polling station. Votes are counted as things go along and after the polls shut at 4pm, a result will be announced within 2 hours! Then we shall see whether tonight's in-house event is a celebration or a wake!

Meanwhile Spring has definitely come to Carinthia (although the weathermen are warning of a fightback from winter in a few days) and the sun is shining warmly, so, as our guests have either paid up and left or gone skiing, its not really a time to be sitting in here! Till next time!

Back to The Basics!

2009-02-27T12:12:00.003+01:00

After all the Fasching excitement, we are back down to earth today - installing a new glass washer behind the bar. Like all DIY jobs, nothing is simple. The new dishwasher is a) bigger, b) heavier and c) a different shape to the old one, so shelves have to be cut out, glasses and stock re-arranged and John's growing frustration with tools that don't do what he wants (and not having enough space to move) calmed! And all this before the next groups of guests from the UK, the Czech Republic, Austria and Romania arrive for dinner this evening!

We are not sure why a non-descript weekend in February has turned into our busiest few days since New Year but it has. As well as the surprising number of guests staying with us we are hosting the post election party for the 'Liste für Malta' (the local independent politicians group, whose mayoral candidate we support because he shares our ideas and expectations on tourism for the area). we are not sure yet whether it will be a celebration or a wake, but either way we supect the drink will flow! I think we will all be glad when this election is over, not least because we presume that the hundreds (literally) of political posters showing smiling faces with impossibly white teeth will finally be removed and stop blotting the landscape!

Pancake Recipe

2009-02-26T19:07:00.003+01:00

In response to the many requests via www.soisses.at!

English Pancakes - makes about 12

110 grams flour
pinch of salt
2 large eggs
200ml milk mixed with 75 ml water
2 tablespoons melted butter

Sift flour & salt into a large bowl, Mix in eggs with whisk. Add milk & water mixture gradually. Whisk until smooth.

Add melted butter JUST BEFORE cooking. Melt more butter (or oil if preferred) in a frying pan and when it is REALLY hot add a small amount of the mixture, tipping the pan to get the pancake thinner and round. When one side is cooked toss (or turn with a spatula!) and cook the other side. Simple!

Possible fillings include:

Fresh Lemon or Orange Juice & sugar
Jam
Apple puree
Chocolate (with or without banana!)
Cheese
Cheese & ham
Anything you fancy really.

Enjoy!!

And on it goes....

2009-02-25T13:35:00.005+01:00

So now it is Shrove Tuesday and in the UK thousands of families tuck into their pancakes with gusto. And in Gmünd, Austria.......

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/johnlgowers/FaschingParadeInGmund2009#

Just too many pictures to upload and we can't choose which ones to share, so best to share the whole album! This normally quiet little town takes on a whole different persona at Fasching time and everyone joins in, from the tiniest tot to the oldest grandparent. Hours of planning and preparation go into the costumes and the floats and the party goes on till dawn.....

This event is also recorded on www.soisses.at/live if you want to find out more.

The next few weeks are a little quieter (they tell us!). We are changing our car, which has also been a learningcurve. Second hand cars are absolutely exorbitant here compared to the Uk so it has really been difficult to accept paying so much money. Still needs must... We will be back in the UK briefly for daughter Stephanie's 21st birthday, but keep up to date here with what goes on throughout the Spring at the Hochalmspitze and in the local area. Austria has lots to share!!

Our online debut

2009-02-25T13:20:00.007+01:00

Above - Some satisfied tasters!
Opposite - the camera cannot lie!

Below - The 'Krapfen Queen' in action (and delightful Fasching wig!)

More Fasching events to report on today! The 'online special' proved to be great fun - don't forget to check out the recording on www.soisses.at/live. The UK pancakes came a creditable second but the honours went to the local delicacy, krapfen, made to perfection by Heidi who certainly earned her title of 'Krapfen Queen 2009'! We had up to 60 watchers from around the world and were able to 'chat' online as we wnt along which added to the interest. Isn't technology great! We are still working out what our next 'appearance' will consist of - watch this space!

Fasching comes to town

2009-02-22T07:55:00.007+01:00

Greetings readers! For those of you who don't know (count us in that group until yesterday really!) Fasching is the period before Lent when it is traditional to use up all the things you can't have during the fast in as creative a way as possible. In the UK we get Shrove Tuesday - here its a 3 week party! Yesterday was party time in Malta! Started in the afternoon with the annual 'Umzug' (Parade) and was still going when we went to bed! We have got some pictures of the parade for you to see, but the evenings events sadly were not recorded - mainly because we were taken completely by surprise. Nobody told us it was tradition that groups of costumed locals take it upon themselves to go from Gasthof to Gasthof attempting to drink them dry! Our floor is still covered with discarded bits of straw and glitter from deteriorating costumes and the alcohol stock is looking somewhat depleted! Still thanks to our friend Andrea who realised we were blithely unaware of what was likely to hit us and jumped behind the bar to help, the evening went well and everybody went on to the next party happy.

Tomorrow another first - Rose Monday (??) and a competition between the Fasching delicacies of Austria (Krapfen - I kid you not!), Cologne (Mutzen), Hungary (something I can't prounounce or spell but will be delicious I am sure) and the UK (pancakes). All streamed live online at www.soisses.at/live - starting 6pm our time (5pm UK time) and available as a video later. And on Tuesday the really big party with the largest local parade in Gmünd. More piccies then!

BIG-KO Hauptsammlung

2009-02-08T17:42:00.002+01:00

We were very pleased today to be able to host the annual general meeting of the local BIG-KO (farmers co-operative). This group supports local farmers by ensuring they can work together to achieve the best results and the fairest prices both for what they sell and what they buy. The group meet here monthly and have been excellent customers! Our photo shows the local committee with their counterparts from the regional group relaxing after the business of the day was finished! Thank you for choosing the Hochalmspitze guys!

The Landeshauptmann cometh - through the snow!

2009-02-04T14:32:00.009+01:00

Today we hosted a breakfast 'meet the voters' session for their local branch of the BZÖ led by the local candidate for mayor and attended and supported by the Regional President, Gerhard Dörfler. Apparently our place was chosen for its political neutrality!! Those who know John and I well will understand the funny side of that.

Anyway from a business perspective it was very successful and certainly the group were pleased with the turnout - 65 instead of the expected 30 something. Lots of the local stalwarts were there and the pictures show how busy it was for us.

Let's hope the other parties want to use our venue too!

As promised - ice climbing action shots!

2009-01-22T22:27:00.005+01:00

Many thanks to Achim and Monika Meurer for taking these photos - see their great website (just won an award for being the 3rd best website in Carinthia!) for more goodies like this! http://www.soisses.at/. Not for the faint hearted is ice climbing! Especially after nearly drinking us out of Guinness and Kilkenny!

New Years Eve

2009-01-01T17:24:00.004+01:00

Happy New Year to all our readers!! Just a quick post with some of the photos from last night's international festivities - highlight of the night?? Maybe the rendition of Waltzing Mathilda - never before heard in Malta and certainly not sung by a genuine Aussie! Maybe Wolfgang showing up all dressed to kill? Maybe the sky lanterns taking everybody's wishes for 2009 heaven-wards (watch out for video of this once we have got the technicalities worked out!). See for yourselves! And today we did British breakfast brunch for a few hardy souls although other even hardier ones were already on the ski slopes!

The Great Christmas Speciality Contest

2008-12-29T14:03:00.005+01:00

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

2008-12-26T21:54:00.006+01:00

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

2008-12-20T19:03:00.003+01:00

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

2008-12-12T18:47:00.003+01:00

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.....

2008-12-11T11:07:00.006+01:00

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

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

2008-12-05T19:11:00.006+01:00

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!

2008-12-03T10:36:00.007+01:00

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??

2008-12-02T18:50:00.005+01:00

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!

2008-11-30T13:02:00.007+01:00

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!)

2008-11-06T19:58:00.003+01:00

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.

2008-10-29T17:40:00.002+01:00

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