Jagdhof Dreams

At some early point in the drive from Melk to Neustift, we picked up the foothills of the Austrian Alps.  And the foothills turned into mountains.  The A1 runs along the plains of Austria, but the Alps are to the South and grow closer and closer as we near Salzburg.  By Salzburg you are surrounded by the Alps.  The road to Innsbruck (home of the 1976 Winter Olympics -- and 1964, but that was before my time) is amazing, and then from Innsbruck to Neustift is breath-taking, as we climbed out of the town in the lower valley and went into the higher valley. 

As aforementioned, we like the Jagdhof right away.  The girls fell in love with the place -- their room is in another building, quite far from ours.  We have a view up the valley -- mountains on both sides, the mountain river running fast just outside our hotel, and at the end is a snow-capped mountain with rocky peaks.

(By the way, in an earlier post, I had complained about our travel agent's handling of our arrival in Vienna.  Now, she deserves major kudos.  My original vision for this trip was to stay in Salzburg during these days -- but apparently the Music Festival sells the place out.  We were offered two rooms for one night for approximately $1,000 per room outside of Salzburg.  Um, no thanks.  Our travel agent recommended something different -- Hotel Jagdhof.  Definitely a great hotel, with amazing service and in a beautiful setting.  They don't get many American tourists here.)

So, for Carol's birthday, one of the last things she would want to do is go hiking.  So, of course, I took us all hiking.  First, I did let everyone sleep in -- I had been up till 12:30 on a series of conference calls, and, after the lengthy drive, I was tired.  So I slept in till 7:30, and in honor of Carol's birthday, let her and the girls sleep till 9:20!  (Yes, I'm getting soft in my old age.)  After a very good breakfast. . .best of the trip. . .we started off to the Elfer lift that takes us partway up the mountain. 

Unfortunately, the desk clerk did not speak great English, and my German is VERY limited, so she pointed us in the wrong direction.  We walked to the next town (it wasn't too far), and I stopped in a bar to ask directions.  "Wo ist Elfer" implied to the woman working the bar that I sprechen Deutsch.  So, we had a lengthy conversation where she switched from German to English and back to German, and I looked confused.  However, she did communicate the key point, which was that it is in the other direction.  So we walked to the river path and followed it back past Hotel Jagdhof and into town.  At that point we could see the gondolas going up the mountain (remember, we're hemmed by mountains on three sides, so it was hard to see around the mountains!).

No biggie - the walk to the next town and then back was quite nice.  We went up the Elfer lift up Elfer Mountain and hiked to Elfer Hut.  You can never have too many Elfers in your life.  The hike was not long, but it was very, very steep.  We zig-zagged our way up to the hut, which sounds small, but it is actually a three story building that has a cafeteria-style restaurant on the first level, and hotel rooms on the next two.  We enjoyed our lunch at a picnic table on the side of the mountain, which was approximately 7200 feet up, with commanding views of the Stubaital region all the way down 16 miles to Innsbruck and the mountains that tower over that town.  Clouds were moving in a bit, but the sun was beautiful.

Before the climb, we had stopped to watch the paragliders taking off from the ski slope.  It was beautiful to watch, and Torie successfully talked me into signing four of us (Carol rationally declined) for tandem rides the next morning.

After hiking back to the lift -- which was nearly as strenous, not because of breathing, but because of the thigh muscle burn because of the steepness, we gondola'd back down to Neustift.  Walking back the mile or so to the hotel, Carol and I stopped at the weekly farmers' market and purchased some delicious fruit of an undeterminable kind strudel that we ate on our drive to Switzerland the next day. 

Given that it was Carol's birthday, I had booked a couple's massage in the spa, and that was quite relaxing.  Then we all went swimming in the indoor-outdoor pool and sat on the lounge chairs on the lawn, reading, enjoying some wine (well, that was just Carol and I) and soaking up the views.  I can't say we were soaking up the sun, because it was cool enough that we had to cover ourselves with towels. 

Dinner was quite good again, and they brought  a cake to the table in honor of Carol's birthday.  It had a candle-like thing that approximated contained fireworks -- we need to be able to buy these candles in the states!

It was going to be hard to leave Jagdhof and the Stubaital region of Austria.