Archive for » March, 2011 «

Koblenz

Well we organised someone to look after the kids, so Jane and I could explore a little of the neighbouring cities and decided Koblenz was a decent shout for a visit. Old, pretty, near on the Rhine and Mosel rivers, decent shops etc. We headed on down from Düsseldorf on the Saturday morning having booked a nice hotel on the Rhine overlooking the town and one of the many historic buildings. Koblenz
We wandered the streets for a while, did some shopping, and visited the Deutsches Eck, where the Mosel meets Rhine, statue there etc, Koblenz
It was a nice town, lots of churches, squares and narrow streets, and what seemed to be a statue of Super Mario of Nintendo fame, though I’m sure it wasn’t; never did read the plaque. Koblenz

Koblenz

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On the way home on we took a detour to Königswinter, a beautiful town on the Rhine with a castle and Schloss Drachenburg. We took the cable train up to the top of the hill overlooking the town, to see the castle. Way too steep to walk up, but we walked back down. The castle wasn’t the best to look at to be honest, not much left of it. No doubt my youngest, Jamie, would say “it’s just a pile of bricks”, which I suppose it was. But we walked down anyway and planned on taking some photos of the Schloss, but that cost extra, so we had to make do with this photo taken through the railings at the back. Drachenburg in Königswinter It’s a beautiful building by all accounts, and from photo’s we’ve seen elsewhere. Never mind. But I did manage to get to play with my camera on an old building we found on the way back and play around with it afterwards. Drachenburg in Königswinter

Walked around the village a while, coffee, ice cream etc. Nice place, recommended to visit.

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Austria

So, school Ski Week came, or half term as everywhere else seems to call it, so 13 of us all piled on down to Austria for the week. By thirteen of us I mean us lot, the Mathias-Ball’s family, Jools Sillito and family and her friends, total 13.

We had booked a nice chalet near Kaprun, sleeping 14, which on arrival was very nice, better than expected, lots of space, nice big log fire and a wonderful view out from the back garden. Took a photo the first morning just as the sun came up. Austria - Kaprun

First days skiing wasn’t the best, snow was starting to melt, Jamie lost a glove from a new pair he’d had for a grand total of 3 hours, and the last run of the day ended in an uphill walk. So, the next day Jamie, myself and the girls (Jools excepted) went to Salzburg for the day instead. Not been there before, very nice town, and very cold that day, but sunny. Austria - Salzburg

Walked past Mozart’s birthplace Austria - Salzburg and down the many narrow streets and small squares. Found a shop that only sold eggs, (easter type) and christmas decorations. Never seen to many eggs in one place, massive shop. Austria - Salzburg

Rest of the week was spent on the glacier in Kaprun. The peak being 3km up. But plenty of runs down the glacier, many red and blue runs and fair few blacks. Tom found himself doing the black runs by the end of the week. The first day up there I managed to burn my face, I think from spending too long sitting outside at the bottom of a quite steep red run, drinking beer and coffee. Austria - Kaprun

Dewi, dressed in black turned out to be a very good boarder. Jay said he looked like ‘Evil Stig’ from Topgear. Austria - Kaprun . So after a couple of days skiing I swapped my ski’s for a snowboard and Andy and Dewi gave me some tips as I’d not done more than 6 hours snowboarding before.

Took the ski lift one day up to the very top, 3000 metres up, and skiied down, took a while but worth it. And on the second last day we got a bit of snow up there. Arrived when the lift opened at 8am, got to the top and it was blowing a gale up there, snowing lightly, very cold. But the sun soon came out and we found ourselves just on top of the cloud, a very pretty site with the cloud making it feel like crystals were falling. Photo doesn’t do it justice. Austria - Kaprun

So a good week was had by all, the non-skiers spent most of the time at the wellness spa, getting massages, swimming etc. In fact on the last day Andy and I both got massages to try and get rid of those aches – didn’t work, but the masseur was very nice, about 20, blond, female of course, I could go on, but won’t……. will only get me into trouble.

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