Hi … I am currently somewhere in the Silvretta, a part of the Austrian Alpes. I will be back next week and then this blog will hopefully get more updates again …
Enjoy spring!
UPDATE: This post should have gone live on Saturday. I am back again and will increase my postings again!
Filed under random pictures from great places
I picked this picture as it was taken 2007 when ski touring from Ischgl in Tyrol to the Bielerhöhe in Vorarlberg: We will do this next week again (Thursday to Sunday) and I am really looking forward to this. Its one of the greatest things to go skitouring in spring, when it is still cold in the mornings (when you go touring) but after arriving on your hut (which is normally at lunch time) it is really warm and you can enjoy the Spring sun!
+ Perfect spring skiing (obviously)
Filed under random pictures from great places
In response to my ski resort article I added some “Reality Check” articles, in which I wrote about skiing in some of this resorts in the 2011/12 skiing season. Yesterday I had my last day on skis for this season (I will still do some ski-touring though) and I can finish this mini-series for this year with a real highlight. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me yesterday, as this was a hardcore-skiing day with some pals, but one of my friends took some pictures, so I might add them another time.
Galzig (St. Anton am Arlberg, Tyrol, Austria), view from north. Deutsch: Galzig (St. Anton am Arlberg, Tirol, Österreich), Ansicht von Norden. Italiano: Galzig (St. Anton am Arlberg, Tirolo, Austria), vista dal nord. Lietuvių: Galzig (St. Anton am Arlberg, Tirolis, Austrija), nuo šiaurės. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Arlberg is one of the most famous skiing resorts in Austria and in the Alps. This it the place where Alpine Skiing was developed – hence their claim “Arlberg – the cradle of alpine skiing”. The Arlberg is a mountain pass between Tyrol and Vorarlberg (which name means “before the Arlberg”) and the Arlberg ski-resort is divided into two parts: Zürs-Lech and St. Anton. We did our skiing in the St. Anton part of the resort, which lays mainly on the Tyrollean side of the Arlberg. Overall the resort consists of 86 lifts, 276 km of pistes and 180km of powder runs. Continue reading
Filed under Traveling in Europe, Winter
Yesterday I decided to take a day off and my wife, a friend and I went to the Brandnertal for some spring skiing. Skiing in April is tricky, as the snow will get very wet during the day. Therefore we really appreciated their offer to start the day early. The last weeks of the skiing season the lifts run from 7.30, which allows people to enjoy the sunset on the Piste and also have perfect snow conditions.
We did a lot of runs as there were only some people skiing that early. At about 10, when the pistes got more crowded, we went to the “Palüd-Hütte” for some lovely breakfast. After that, the sun disappeared and it got chilly on the mountain. Therefore we decided to call it a day and head home.
Palued-Huette
I used to work in that region as a destination manager and it is hard to be objective for me. But I still love to go there for skiing as it is perfectly fitted for me. It can be reached rather easily, the people are really nice and the skiing resort is good and others great money for value. I am a rather good skier and I would perhaps not stay there for a week long skiing holiday, but if you are not too experienced or are looking for a place to go for just one or two days the Brandnertal might be perfectly suited for you.
If you want to go on skiing holidays with your family its probably one of the best resorts in Alps, as they really are targeting families and have a lot to offer for kids and parents!
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Filed under Spring
Another busy month is over and Spring is going strong here in Austria.
You might have recognized that I slowed down a little bit on posting, but I will try to maintain about 5 posts a week. With new features like the “Austrian Cuisine” Category, where I write a new article every thursday, I want to add some spice to this blog. I will also try to invite guest authors again, as they add a lot of great insights into beautiful places, that make Europe so worth visiting.
Business-wise this month was quite busy – I attended the ITB in Berlin and the Tourismusforum Alpenregionen in Zell am See and met a lot of new and interesting people – hopefully some good business relations will develop out of this. My article writing and editing (in german) for my PR Agency also started rather well and I am happy that I am already that occupied.
This month will not include any major trips – but at the end of April I will do a three days ski touring trip, where we hike from Ischgl in Tyrol to St. Gallenkirch in Vorarlberg on our skiers. I am really looking forward to this.
I would also like to apologize – I managed to delete some comments, that were put into the Spam Filter by mistake – sorry, I mis-clicked and did not manage to get them back 😦
To finalise my March review, I want to add some blog posts I especially liked in March:
The Riverside Rock Quarry, by the Climbing Bum
Into Grizzly Country, by Off the beaten Path
Barga – the most scottish town in Italy, by Bagna di Luca and beyond
I wish everyone a very nice April, some pleasant easter holidays and a great start into spring
Filed under Background
In last weeks food post about the Austrian Cuisine I talked about the “Big Four” and none of them offered an alternative for Vegetarians or people who want to reduce their meat consumption. Today I want to offer you with some great alternatives, which are not sweet. Austria is famous for its Sweet dishes and I will come to them later on …
Here are my four nominations for Vegetarians:
Krautfleckerl:
This is a traditional dish from Vienna, which came to Vienna through Bohemia. It is some sort of Austrian Pasta (the Fleckerl) with white cabbage. Krautfleckerl are not really a posh meal, but I like them and they are great after a day of hiking or walking through a city. Be aware that you might sometime get a version with minced meat and Cheese, so ask if you want to avoid meat at all cost.
Filed under Austrian Cuisine
Spring is in the air and as I reflected on Winter in my last “Random Picture Post” I will look forward to Summer today. This is a picture taken on a alpine meadow in the Bregenzer Wald region of Vorarlberg. It shows a little chapel, planned by the Vorarlberg Architects Crukrowicz Nachbaur. In the background you can see Lake Constance.
Filed under random pictures from great places
After visiting a lot of Blogging and social media Events yesterday at the ITB I went to the networking restaurant of Austria Tourism to meet up with a friend. I was a little bit early and got into a very interesting discussion with the head of marketing at Vorarlberg Tourism, Brigitte.
After this ITB was officially over for me – Sepp, my appointment, and I decided to go to Potsdamer Platz. There we took a peek at some minor parts of the Berlin Wall that stand there and walked on towards Brandenburger Tor. We passed by the Holocaust memorial, but it was to dark, to really see something. I will visit this place today.
Brandenburger Tor was very nice and I thought it was a lot bigger, as I expected. On the other hand, the Bundestagsgebäude looks way smaller …
I had no camera with me, but I am going to visit the Bundestag today and make sure I will get some pictures from this great places.
After that we were done sightseeing, we treated ourselfes with a rather expensive drink at Hotel Adlon – but the great athmosphere and the very good live bar music, made it a worthwhile investment. To balance things out, we went to a “normal” bar afterwards – at FC Magnet Bar, we had a beer and watched a boring draw between Stuttgart and Kaiserslautern.
Filed under Traveling in Europe
The weather is momentarily just great, and this is why I do not write too long postings at the moment. Today I did a nice ski-tour and I thought it would be a nice change to show something personal for a change, as I did a lot of postings about Cities or holiday tipps in the last weeks. As the sun was pretty strong we had to get up, rather early and we started our skitour at 7.30 – reaching the top at about 10.00 … I have no photos of the way down – but the snow got pretty wet, in the last third and I was very knackered, when I arrived back home.
Filed under Winter
Heartland Europe 