Harry and his 'young lady'!!
Our view from the stage!
On our final evening our organiser arranged a visit to a traditional Tirol evening in a nearby hotel. Un be known to us he had got everyone seats on the stage!! My poor Harry ( being a fine young man!!) got chosen to join in!! When we got over the shock of being in front of the audience we thoroughly enjoyed the singing and dancing.
While we were in Kitzbuhel we knew that Hansi Hinterseer would be performing that night in the stadium. What we didn't know was that he would be doing a 'fanwandering' at the top of the mountain! When we got out of our cable car it was like being royalty as there were thousands of people, tele cameras etc all lined up waiting for him. It turned out he was two cable cars behind us!! There were 10,000 or so people on the mountain and areas were set up with speakers and he sang to them then led them off across the hills where he sang again. We came back down when they'd gone after we'd taken our photos before all 10,000 arrived back at the cable car to go down. Harry got some video of him but to tell the truth he wasn't that good a singer!! He used to be a skier and is as famous in Austria as David Beckham is in the UK!! He wasn't that bad looking though, for a 54yr old!!
View from the top!
The cafe and museum at the top of the cable car.
Our hotel (in the middle) from the top of the Hahnenkamm!
Brixem in the distance.
Looking down the Streif!
I must get some skis!!
Harry ready for the off!
View from the cable car.
We took the cable car in Kitzbuhel up the Hahnenkamm. This is one of the mountains used in the annual World Cup downhill skiing championships. The course is called The Streif. We were able to stand at the top of the course and look down and in the starting hut. Rather them than me!!
The last day of our holiday in Austria was a free day so we both hopped on the local train in Brixem and travelled to Kitzbuhel - only 15mins and 3 stops down the line!! We pottered about the town - it was so expensive there - shops selling Prada, D & G, Rolex etc- all for the skiing community in the winter!! It was a beautiful place, the buildings in the old part were gorgeous, especially those that were painted. Some of the older houses/hotels have painted decoration around the windows and doors - popular in Austria.
The tunnel entrance.
The view down to Berchtesgaden.
Two mountain views from the top.
View from the monument.
Berchtesgaden Fountain with German soldiers in the 1930's.
On the third day of our trip we were lucky to visit the town of Berchtesgaden in Bavaria, Germany. This is where Adolf Hitler and many of the leading Nazi leaders, Goring, Speer and Bormann had houses. The Obersalzberg, (over Saltzberg) a mountain above the town, is where these houses were situated. After American occupation at the end of the war they were all destroyed, all bar the Kehlsteinhaus, (Eagle's Nest) Hitler's holiday home. He never really used it as he didn't like heights. We went in a local bus to almost the top of the mountain where we had to walk through a tunnel to a lift that ascended up the middle of the mountain to the Eagle's Nest (now a restaurant). This was the actual brass lift used by Hitler which made us feel a little uncomfortable.
Here are a few photos of the waterfalls that we saw on the way back from our first day out in Austria. I can imagine that they would really spectacular in the spring as the snow melts.
