Hotel Alpin

The Legend of the Lake

by scottishvisitor

This is a magical location and what's a bit of magic without a bit of mythical folklore. Many years ago where the lake now stands two cocky, wealthy but arrogant farmers once lived they wanted for nothing and even made their bowling balls out of butter to show off to each other. When an underground stream was discovered a furious argument developed between them over who had the right to own the stream. The argument raged on for ages until the Holy holiday of Corpus Christi which both ignored in favour of the argument. After the Holy day a milkmade passed by near to where the farmers lived, she had been here often to collect the morning milk from the cows. She could not find the cows in their usual pasture, eventually finding them huddled together in a nearby valley. On her return home she saw a pool of water which hadn't been there before but curiously no farmhouses. As she scanned the lake she saw a tiny part of one of the roofs slowly sink into the new lake.
A warning maybe to keep the faith.

Take along some sunscreen wipes

by scottishvisitor

Although I always applied sun screen before going out for a day trip in the morning. I also took along some sunscreen wipes. These are lighter to carry than a bottle of sunscreen and leave you feeling refreshed on a hot day. I also always have some baby wipes too - handy for cleaning up your hands and face and they too have a cooling effect. Make sure your camera is fully charged or carry spare batteries and an extra memory chip. There are no shops here in the great outdoors. As you pass so many beautiful spots along the lake shore you will be tempted to have a quick dip so bring a small towel and your swim suit. Walking in hot weather is hard work so make sure you have some bottled water with you.

Scheffau, the special place of the Wilden Kaiser

by steevie_wanders

"Chalet Waldrand, my work, my home!"

My first visit to Austria was a very flying visit during a 2 week Inter-Rail holiday in 1994. I spent only 1 or 2 days in Vienna, then had to train off all the way to Switzerland!

My second visit lasted a little longer: July to September 1996! Fresh out of University, I worked in a chalet in Kitzbuhel for one week, before moving on to the village of Scheffau Am Wilden Kaiser. My role was simple: assist the chef (who cooked the meals for the 40+ guests), run the bar, and clean rooms :)

The work was hard at times but my chalet mates were always fun, so no job was too dull. Most of the guests were there for walking holidays, and generally very nice too! In my precious free time I walked, went mountain biking, swam in the Hintersteiner See and ate big fat cakes along with lovely glasses of Dunkel Weissbier (dark wheat beer).

My schoolboy german language slowly came back to me, and I soon got into the swing of working hard and then cycling up into the Wilden Kaiser's before zooming back down, sometimes in the dark! My reward was a glass or two of dark wheat beer (the nearest thing to british ale, which i drank at the time). Yum!

My 3 months passed quickly, and I think if I hadn't got a French ski-season to look forward to, I would have been much sadder to say goodbye to the Tirol. My last day was very memorable, involving a side trip to the Oktoberfest on my way to salzburg airport. See Germany Travelogue!

Austria! I miss you! One day I will return! xx ps I loved the cows too. They had fantastic bells clanging across the mountainsides, and once I saw them wearing flowers in their hair (horns).