8th July 2012
Debs:
Breakfast was tasty and plentiful, so nursing full tummies and Steve with his itchy mozzy bites beginning to become infected we packed and rode off towards Innsbruck.
A short ride today of just 2.5 hours, and my true focus for coming to Austria was the Olympic ski-jumping hill - the Begesil. Named after the mountain on which it was erected and the site of a fierce battle back in Austrian history.
Our hotel was on the edge of the city, so we hoped it would be nice and quiet, and our first impressions were excellent. It was a full suite with lounge, bedroom, huge bathroom (and a deep bath - Yeah!) and two huge 50” TV’s.. but unfortunately no tea/coffee making facilities or air-con, and the real downer was a church tower so close you could chuck a stone at it, and it had truly discordant bells! Every 15 mins we were treated to the campanologists nightmare with the grand finale on the hour..
Before setting off for the Begesil we had to go in search of a pharmacy to get Steve some anti-histamine pills to try and ease the itching from his many bites, but as at home the pharmacies shut at 12 on a Saturday, but we were given the address of a duty pharmacy and managed to get some relief for the poor lamb..
At Begesil we located the car park quickly but found that they wanted an absolute mortgage to park, so in true Vienna style we rode round the barrier and parked beside the bins before making our way up to the stadium. I dashed off to the gift shop to try and find something with the Gold Medal winning team of the 2012 world cup, but despite my best efforts all I could find was their picture on a label attached to a woolly hat. The shop assistant explained that their picture was not permitted on anything, but then smiled at me and cut the tag off the hat and slipped it into our bag.. A really nice lady, thank you.
Then it was up to the top of the world, first on the little tramway to the bottom of the tower and then the lift to the viewing platform on the very top. The view was awesome!
When the ski-jumpers hurtle down the in-run and leap off the end of the ramp this is the view they get - the ornate and well populated cemetery just below the stadium!
After a coffee and huge slab of apple strudel we took a slow walk down the many steps taking photos of all my heroes on the way - all the various gold medal winners spanning many years of the sport, and we were really pleased to see that amongst them was a picture of our very own ‘Eddie the Eagle’ who apparently was very highly regarded.
Just before we got down to the exit gates we stumbled on a room showing a film of the history of ski jumping as first an Olympic sport then up to the present day with various photos adorning the walls.. strangely there was no sign to say this room even existed but I would have been sad to have missed it. So very happy and satisfied with our visit we headed back to our hotel.
Breakfast was tasty and plentiful, so nursing full tummies and Steve with his itchy mozzy bites beginning to become infected we packed and rode off towards Innsbruck.
A short ride today of just 2.5 hours, and my true focus for coming to Austria was the Olympic ski-jumping hill - the Begesil. Named after the mountain on which it was erected and the site of a fierce battle back in Austrian history.
Our hotel was on the edge of the city, so we hoped it would be nice and quiet, and our first impressions were excellent. It was a full suite with lounge, bedroom, huge bathroom (and a deep bath - Yeah!) and two huge 50” TV’s.. but unfortunately no tea/coffee making facilities or air-con, and the real downer was a church tower so close you could chuck a stone at it, and it had truly discordant bells! Every 15 mins we were treated to the campanologists nightmare with the grand finale on the hour..
Before setting off for the Begesil we had to go in search of a pharmacy to get Steve some anti-histamine pills to try and ease the itching from his many bites, but as at home the pharmacies shut at 12 on a Saturday, but we were given the address of a duty pharmacy and managed to get some relief for the poor lamb..
At Begesil we located the car park quickly but found that they wanted an absolute mortgage to park, so in true Vienna style we rode round the barrier and parked beside the bins before making our way up to the stadium. I dashed off to the gift shop to try and find something with the Gold Medal winning team of the 2012 world cup, but despite my best efforts all I could find was their picture on a label attached to a woolly hat. The shop assistant explained that their picture was not permitted on anything, but then smiled at me and cut the tag off the hat and slipped it into our bag.. A really nice lady, thank you.
Then it was up to the top of the world, first on the little tramway to the bottom of the tower and then the lift to the viewing platform on the very top. The view was awesome!
 |
| The dead centre of town... (sorry) |
When the ski-jumpers hurtle down the in-run and leap off the end of the ramp this is the view they get - the ornate and well populated cemetery just below the stadium!
After a coffee and huge slab of apple strudel we took a slow walk down the many steps taking photos of all my heroes on the way - all the various gold medal winners spanning many years of the sport, and we were really pleased to see that amongst them was a picture of our very own ‘Eddie the Eagle’ who apparently was very highly regarded.
Just before we got down to the exit gates we stumbled on a room showing a film of the history of ski jumping as first an Olympic sport then up to the present day with various photos adorning the walls.. strangely there was no sign to say this room even existed but I would have been sad to have missed it. So very happy and satisfied with our visit we headed back to our hotel.
Steve: After dinner at a local restaurant and several glasses of wine we checked the weather for the next few days on the internet, and to our disappointment saw that there was heavy rain and thunder forecast throughout Germany and France for the remaining 4 days of our trip. We came to the conclusion that our vision of relaxing and swimming in the lakes in Germany and then cruising up through the Lorraine on sun dappled French back roads was pretty unlikely to happen, so made the decision to cancel the remaining hotel booking, change our Eurotunnel ticket and plan for an early return home.
We'd been very lucky throughout our trip and it just wasn't worth sticking to a plan that involved us riding through rain and storm just to get to hotel after hotel in order to complete our route, we were already in France and on the final lap so let's just head for home, dogs and a comfy bed!
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