Saturday August 30
We set out as planned at 10am to drive to Kitzbuhel - only 150k’s but it took over 2 and a half hours. We checked into our hotel, a Best Western called Kaiserhof - a 4* which certainly deserves it’s rating. We had booked a suite which was quite excellent. Unfortunately the weather had taken a turn for the worse and it was drizzling. After unpacking and eating a couple of sambos I had packed, we walked around the town checking out all the local glitteratti. Kitzbuhel is bit like “Double Bay” compared to the homey crowd at Garmisch. I was feeling quite under the weather with my cold hanging on. We had a really excellent dinner at the hotel - the menu included an amazing antipasti and salad bar - 10 out of 10 - I did not need a main course but ate one anyway.
Sunday August 31
It was supposed to be the best day weather-wise so we headed up the Hanhnenkamm gondola - just meters from our hotel - up to the most famous downhill ski run in the world. Each gondola car is named after one of the previous race winners - we saw 4 Canadians but no Aussies or Kiwis. The day was very cloudy but quite clear so we set out on a walk - after about 30 minutes the rain set in - we slogged on for a while but returned to the top of the gondola looking like drowned rats (why or why didn’t I pack the waterproof over pants?). We had a quick refreshment at the top restaurant, which was booming with the Sunday lunch crowd, so we could dry out. We then called it a day and headed back to our hotel and into the village for some lunch. We spent the rest of the afternoon taking long spa baths and relaxing. My cold was still dragging me down.
We had an amazing dinner at the Hotel Tenne (one of the 5* joints)
Monday September 1
As predicted, a rainy day - ho hum. We went shopping for wet-weather pants but could not find any in our size - end of season !!
We had lunch at a trendy wine bar then dagged about for the rest of the arvo We had dinner at the hotel which was not quite as good as the first evening.
Tuesday September 2
Off to Cortina today - cloudy and drizzly again. We set out and decided to drive via the Grossglockner pass in spite of the weather. At the toll gate where you pay 34€ per car the attendant warned of poor conditions, snow, fog and cold winds - on we went via many hairpin turns to 2500m - we stopped at a mountain restaurant where we had a very mediocre lunch but saw many marmots up close and personal - made it all worth while. From the top of the pass the drive to Cortina was very slow due to the windy mountain road and pretty heavy traffic. We finally reached our hotel, the Franceschi Park Hotel around 3:30pm - while highly recommended on TA we both felt it was a bit of a dump - this was exacerbated by the unfriendly front desk clerk. We dropped our luggage and went to the center of town, only 5 minutes walk away, and visited the tourist information center to ask about hiking options, the agent was almost as “friendly” as the front desk clerk. It was very cool and cloudy (with a very occasionally patch of blue) - we walked around the very picturesque town, surrounded by the towering Dolomites, checking out the high end boutiques and restaurants. We stopped for a drink then headed back to the hotel. For dinner we went to a local pizza/pasta cheap eats for dinner - it was packed; we had 2 salads, wine, and a shared pizza and one ice cream and one additional glass of wine all for 50€ - deal of the trip since it was all pretty good.
Wednesday September 3
Our only full day in Cortina, it turned out to be a pretty good day - partly sunny which was an excellent change. After a pretty crummy breakfast (3.5 / 10), we drove up to the Falzarego Pass some 15k’s away and up a windy road to 2200m (from 1600m at Cortina). We took the gondola to the top and hiked back down - some 2+ hours of a steep (in parts) and rocky path which was something of an outdoor museum to the WW1 Austrian troops who defended the pass from the Italians. We could not find anything to eat at the bottom of the gondola (only souvenir shops) so we drove most of the way back to Cortina and stopped in a mountain restaurant for an excellent lunch sitting on a sunny terrace with wonderful views of the surrounding Dolomites which seem to glow pink in the sunshine. Back at our hotel in Cortina we showered had a drink the hotel bar and went out to a “gourmet” restaurant for dinner which was about a 3 out of 10 - we only had pasta so it was not too exxy. The waiter was “Italian (un-)friendly” - ah dear take me back to Austria.
Thursday September 4
Up and on the road again - this time only 55 k’s to Val Gardena - across 3 mountain passes - a 2 hour journey with spectacular scenery, unfortunately it was drizzling. The road was “bumper to bumper” with bikes and motor bikes - what an effort for them. We drove through a couple of ski resorts which looked pretty amazing - lots of interconnected lifts over wide areas. We arrived at our hotel (Hotel Sporting) in Val Gardena (actual village is called Selva Wolkinstein) around 12:15pm to be told our room was not yet ready so we walked around town and had some lunch at Bistro Nives which so impressed us we decided to return to their fine dining restaurant for dinner. What a difference 55 k’s and a few mountain passes make - clearly German is the first language in the Italian Tyrollean area with Italian a close second where as in Cortina Italian was petty much the only language.
Dieter was now coming down with my cold which was finally improving.
We checked into our junior suite at Hotel Sporting after lunch - the suite was excellent - a vast improvement over the Franschesci Pack Hotel - our only issue was that our room was 1 level below reception opening onto a grassy lawn (very nice) but the area has a common hot tub and sun beds which were in full use later in the day - not at all private.
We went for a 2 hour (easy) walk in the PM - the sun had come out and it felt warmer than it probably was (around 20℃). After stopping at a road side pub for the best-ever value drinks - 1 large beer (0.5l) and a 1/4 l of vino for 5.20€ accompanied by a few crudités, (one nice feature of Italian bars is that you always get a few snacks when you order a drink - e.g. chips, olives, peanuts, mini-sambos etc).
For dinner we returned to the restaurant at Nives Boutique Hotel for an excellent dinner - surprisingly it was not very busy. The waiter was very friendly and service was also excellent - so different from Cortina.
Friday September 5
We got up a bit late for us (8:15am) to "yet another cool, cloudy and drizzly day” (YAC&C Day for short) - seems to be recurring theme on this trip. Breakfast at the hotel was pretty good - about a 7 out of 10 - lots of fruit at least but no berries. On the advice of the front desk clerk we took the main gondola from the center to town to the Ciampioni at 2250m and started hiking from there. The weather turned out to be pretty much OK - cloudy but no rain. We trekked over to Passo Sella pretty much at the same altitude but with lot of ups and downs. There we found a brand new hotel where we had the best meal ever in Italy. After lunch we trekked all the way back home to Selva Wolkenstein, our village in Val Gardena - pretty much the center of the action. We arrived back at the hotel around 4:30pm so after resting and showers we set out looking for somewhere for dinner. The very friendly waitress at lunch had recommended a few places which we checked out - after selecting La Bula, a pizzeria, we found we could not get in as they were packed out - very surprising considering all the other restaurants in town seemed to be mostly empty. So not really having any alternative we went back to Nives and had a good but not as good dinner as the previous night - mainly because of what we ordered and the fact the place was all but empty so rather lacking in atmosphere.
Saturday September 6
Yippee - a mainly sunny day - high around 20℃. On the advice of the hotel we walked over to the Col Raiser gondola - in theory only 1k away but it was closer to 3k. This was on the opposite side of the valley to where we hiked on Friday - the sunny side. The gondola took us up to 2106m from where there are seemingly endless walking tracks and Gasthauses - we trekked to Secuda at 2500m where a tramway comes up from another village. Here we had a quick bite to eat - 2 soups, then trekked to Regensburg Hutte at 2000m. Along the way we saw a small herd of donkeys - basically right on the path - there was one very young one which was so cute. Further along the track there was a group of horses grazing. The Regensburg Hutte was hip hop and happening but after a toilet stop we continued on to Selva Wolkinstein - our village at 1500m - reaching home at 4:00pm - we stopped at a cafe for a drink to celebrate the end of our last walk and to our amazement part way through it started to rain so it was on with the jackets.
Later we went to La Bula (where, after the previous evenings experience, we had booked a table) the most popular pizzeria in town for an excellent meal of a shared bressiola salad plate and a shared pizza washed down with a few glasses of house wine - all excellent and great value at 50€.
Sunday September 7
We got up around 7:30am to a totally sunny day - best yet. But after brekkie it was off to Innsbruck for us. We took the toll road via the Brenner Pass and so did everyone else - we spent an hour in a traffic jam caused by an accident followed by a broken down truck but we reached our hotel, the Hilton, around 12:30pm. As we could not check-in immediately we dropped our bags and walked to the old town (less than 10 minutes away) for lunch at a tourist cafe in the pedestrian area - it was pretty good. The sunny weather had followed us all the way but around 3pm it started to cloud over - after a short bit of drizzle it cleared up again.
Back at the hotel we took it easy before showering and eating at the hotel. The dinner was excellent but the atmosphere only a 6 out of 10 - the Hilton public areas could do with a bit of a facelift. We tried to stay up to watch the ladies final of the US Open but alas the 11pm start was too late for us weary old tourists.
Monday September 8
We got up early (6:30am) and headed straight to breakfast as we needed to get on the road by 8am. To our surprise the restaurant which only opened at 6:30am was bustling - clearly with tour groups who needed to be away early as well. After a quick breakfast we packed and left - on the road by 7:50am - off to Munich airport some 180k’s away. It was another glorious sunny and warm day - mid-20’s - pretty soon we can crack out the shorts which have been languishing at the bottom of the suitcase. Our “trusty” GPS led us on a wild goose chase but fortunately Dieter had checked the map and the signage was excellent. In spite of some heavy traffic we dropped the car off around 10:00am - even with a refuelling stop. The check-in agent noted a small scratch on the passenger door - so it’s yet to be seen if a charge will come through for this. We hopped the S-bahn for the 45 minute ride to the HBF (main train station) and arrived 2 hours before our ICE (fast) train to Stuttgart. We had a discount first class ticket so we could not change to an earlier train without a 40€ charge so we spent the money on lunch at a station restaurant.
We arrived in Stuttgart about 4pm and were met by Maggie and Helmut who decided we needed “help” getting to our hotel, the Schlossgarten, immediately opposite due to the major construction work going on. They also gave us a bottle of excellent sparkling wine and 2 S-bahn tickets - so very thoughtful. They left us at the hotel and as arranged previously we agreed to meet again on Tuesday at their house for afternoon tea followed by dinner.
We settled into our suite at the “best” hotel in Stuttgart which was pretty good but probably not a 10 out of 10. After showering and changing (it was a sunny and warm afternoon - 25+℃ we strolled along the pedestrian area which was as busy as Circular Quay on a long weekend. After a day of travelling we opted for a light dinner at one of the Italian eateries on Stuttgart’s “eat street" then it was off to bed very early.
Tuesday September 9
We got up at 7am as we had a full day ahead - the day was overcast and a bit cool but this changed into a warm and sunny day - much like the previous day. We had a pretty reasonable brekkie at the hotel, a 7 out of 10, then took the train out to see Rolf and Lori. We also dropped a load of laundry at a nearby laundry - a mear 45€ for a bunch of stuff (undies, t-shirts, jeans, shirts, blouses etc). Rolf met us at the train and drove us to his place for a chit-chat - Lori (as we had only found out the previous day was in hospital with complications related to her breast cancer some years earlier). We had lunch at a local pub then visited Lori in the hospital for an hour then went back to Rolf’s for a glass of sparkler (which we had brought with us compliments of Helmut and Maggie). We arrived back at the hotel around 6pm and decided to delay showers until the AM.
A bit of a side note on the S-bahn service - it cost us 19€ (for 2) for an “all day” ticket to visit R&L - only 20 minutes away - seemed pretty exxy to me (Dieter disagreed as our ticket covered 5 persons in spite of the fact we were only 2 and as many rides within the zones we paid for but really 😩) - to add insult to injury when we put a 20€ note in the ticket machine it gave us our change as 10*10¢ - cripes ⚒.
Back at the hotel we decided to eat at the hotel’s Schlossgarten cafe - while somewhat exxy and with a limited menu we had an excellent meal.
Wednesday September 10
It was another nice sunny day and pretty warm (low 20’s). We did a bit of a boutique crawl in the morning but did not buy anything. As arranged we took the S-bahn to Helmut and Maggie’s at 3pm. Helmut met us and drove us a very short distance to their apartment in Oberaechen (a suburb near the airport). We started the afternoon with champagne, coffee and a local plum tart (homemade by Maggie) - we spent much time reviewing and discussing their trip to NZ and OZ in Feb/March 2015. The afternoon rolled on into an amazing long slow dinner prepared by Helmut (see menu) - around 11pm we took a taxi back to our hotel (costing 32€) - all in all pleasant.
Thursday September 11
Another pretty good day weather-wise - partly sunny and warm. As arranged we took the S-bahn and bus to Rolf’s place where he had organised a lunch at the “Canadian log house” a besen wirtschaft (temporary gasthouse selling local wine and food) in Absatt - a 20 minute drive away. Rolf & Dieter's cousin, Heinz, drove us there and we met with 2 other cousins (Heide and Gertraut) and their respective husbands for lunch and lots and lots of German gas bagging. Needless to say I was bored off my brain. Lori could not join in as she had just that morning been released from hospital. We finally got back to our hotel at 4pm with enough time to shower and get ready for dinner with Manfred and his wife Katarina - some other friends also joined the dinner (Jurgen and Christa). It was a great night - we only got to bed at 1:00 AM.
Friday September 12
Time to move on - it was a cold and rainy day in Stuttgart - the rain followed us to Munich. We took the train to Munich where we overnighted at the Kempinski at MUC airport - ready for our flight to Portugal on Saturday AM. Due to the cold and rainy weather we ditched our plan to stop in the city for dinner and continued on to the airport - the change from first class on the ICE (German high-speed) train to the local S-bahn for the final 50 minutes ride to the airport was a real downgrade - it was the S-bahn ride from hell - packed out - SRO (Standing Room Only) with suitcases all over the place. We stayed at the hotel for dinner - it was very nice except for a run in the maitre'd over the table he tried to assign us.