Thursday July 6
We left Freiburg early (8:30am) for the 4+ hour drive to St Anton. It was a good drive with only a couple of quick stops - we went over the Arlberg pass (the tunnel was closed) - we arrived before 1pm and were able to check into our amazing 3-bedroom apartment right in the center of town.
We had a quick lunch at the bistro in our building then unpacked and did a bit of grocery shopping - the selection was more limited than in Freiburg and more expensive. We stayed home for pasta and salad.
Friday July 7
We did our first walk today departing from the village - worked out at 2.5 hours with lots of ascents. We ended up at a lovely lodge for lunch from where you could take the bus back to town.
We went out for dinner - most places along the main street seemed quite empty but we picked one with a menu which appealed - it was excellent - Dieter had carpaccio and I had a salad for entry then we shared a massive pizza.
Saturday July 8
We went out early to do some grocery shopping to stock up as all shops are closed on Sundays. Then we headed up one of the main gondolas (Galzigbahn) which connects to a cable car which connects to the world’s smallest cable car finally arriving at the summit (2811m) - beautiful vistas all around with plenty of patches of snow around. We went back down to the top of the first gondola and did a scenic surround walk - which was described as flat and easy - clearly the Austrian definition of “flat” is not the same as mine - it was a bit of a slog in places but not rough. Back at the gondola we had an excellent lunch sitting outdoors even though it was breezy and cool (about 10C) - we shared Kase Spaetzle and a small salad. Then it was back home for showers and a walk around town - Dieter snagged a trekking shirt. We had dinner at home followed by some Wimbledon viewing.
Sunday July 9
The fine weather continued - with even a heat warning - historical average high for this date is 20C
We drove about 5k’s up the road to walk up the Schnann Klamm (gorge) and walked (climbed) to the top - there were a few hairy bits (open metal steps) but I made it. We then drove a bit further up the road to walk to a waterfall but proved to be a ‘fog-dam’ so we went home for lunch (sambos at home) then lazed about for the afternoon - some tennis viewing and a bit of boutique shopping (Dieter got a much needed trekking shirt).
We had pasta and salad at home for dinner.
Monday July 10
We took 2 chairlifts to another peak and walked down to mid-station where we had lunch at a lovely mountain restaurant (shared spaetzle). I took the chairlift back to the village but Dieter walked home (about 1 hour) and stopped to see a bunch of funny looking long-legged sheep.
We watched some exciting tennis matches before going out for an excellent dinner at the “best” restaurant in town - sort of a birthday kickoff.
Tuesday July 11
The hot weather continued - off to Lech and Zeus (Zürs) today - a 25 minute drive over mountain passes and through a few tunnels. It was a hot and sunny day. On arrival we found you could not buy a day-pass for the lifts unless you were staying locally so we had to pay individually for the lift. The first combo (a cable car followed by a chairlift) turned out to be very poor value - we wanted to hike to a lake but it turned out the lake was empty. So next we went to the summit on a huge cablecar where we had a quick lunch then did a shortish hike - then back down for a walk through the village then a drive back to St Anton with a stop for some grocery shopping.
We had dinner at home - sambos and some more tennis viewing. Around 9:30pm a huge storm hit - thunder and lightening with torrential rain and even hail - it passed quite quickly.
Wednesday July 12
Well the hot and sunny weather was over (for now) - it was raining with clouds down to the village when we got up. The day alternated between cool (high of 18C) and sunny and stormy. We decided to walk / hike to a mountain restaurant (about 40 minutes uphill from the village) - it was sunny when we left home but drizzling when we arrived at the restaurant. We had a nice lunch then walked home (the weather had cleared) stopping at the museum on the way. After returning home there was another violent storm - thunder, lightening, high winds, hail and driving rain - this lasted for about 20 minutes then turned to steady rain/drizzle. We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening watching tennis - the match of the day was Eubanks (an American who came up from qualifying) and Medvedev - totally exciting - went to 5 sets with Medvedev the winner.
We stayed home for dinner of pasta and salad (good luck this is an all-time holiday favourite).
At midnight we were awoken by another violent thunderstorm - the thunder was “explosive” - took a while to get back to sleep.
Thursday July 13
Well weather-wise it looked to be repeat of the previous day. We managed a walk followed by lunch out and dinner at home (steak, veggies and spaetzle).
Friday July 14
The sun was back on deck - a sunny and warm day. We hiked up to a waterfall then had lunch in town - followed by sambos for dinner.
Saturday July 15
The start of my birthday party - since we’ll be on the road on Sunday we decided to have the party today. We did a hike from the village with lunch at a mountain hut. Back at home we did some pre-packing organising / cleaning then watch the Wimbledon ladies final - poor Ons Jabeur was the runner up for the second year in a row. We had an excellent dinner at a great restaurant - the village festival was in full swing with live music from a bandstand just opposite our restaurant.
Sunday July 16 - my 75th birthday
We had breakfast and packed up and were on the road before 10am. There was an issue with paying our bill as Galzig’s credit machine was playing up (we left anyway and a couple of days later received an e-mail requesting a bank transfer within a month - how trustworthy).
We drove the Friedricshafer - about 2.5 hours. We had planned to drive to our hotel in the center of town, drop our luggage then drive to the airport to return our hire car. Alas this plan was thwarted as the whole city center was closed for a 5 day festival So we turned around and drove the airport only a few k’s away - the Sixt office had closed but we found some staff and really just did a key drop. Getting a taxi back to the city required a call to a taxi company - the airport was deserted as it’s very small with only a few flights per day. We finally got to our “hotel”, Aika which is just a few rooms/studios managed by a cafe of the same name (fortunately the taxi could drive on the otherwise closed streets). We had a free welcome drink and a quick lunch at the cafe then went to our studio - which overlooked Lake Constance and all the action of the festival. All in all our hotel was very overpriced for what you got - but it was a prefect location for catching the ferry the next morning.
We walked around the festival - it was essentially a huge (temporary) amusement park spread around the city center - with plenty of food stalls and beer gardens. We also visited the Zeppelin museum (as Friedricshafer is the home of the Zeppelin). After showers - we picked the best looking of one of the lake front restaurants for a so-so dinner of a shared salad and shared pizza.
Monday July 17 - off to Grindelwald
We left Friedricshafen on the 10:20am ferry to the Swiss side of the lake where we caught the train to Interlacken with a short change to Grindelwald,