And in between all that…..

 

 

It hasn’t been all overseas visitors and trips around Europe…we’ve been able to grab some time in St Johann and surrounds here and there throughout the summer, with the pressure to see as much as we can and soak up the mountain environment before we head back to where the grass is, well, a lot more yellow!

 

The hike to Metzgeralm

A favourite part of the hike, feeding the goats

Hike to Metzgeralm

We did this hike about a month before Peta came to visit, and it’s the site of our well timed lucky family shot which is now my facebook profile pic.  The first time we did it, there wasn’t so much muddy sludge and cow poo stench about (unlucky Pete!), and we didn’t discover the ‘extreme dunny’ on the first round (you can always trust Peta to stumble across stuff like that!).  I remember saying to Maciek as we stomped along the rugged highlands, dodging rocks and tree stumps, and negotiating our way down narrow mud tracks crossed with tree roots, that it felt like we were the only people in the world.  So it was quite funny to finally reach the alm only to bump into Amelia’s friend from kindergarten and her mum, of all the people we could have bumped into.  That was the time we bought our 1L bottle of homemade schnapps from the old lady owner, and joined our friends on the descent, during which we found out about certain leaves and flowers you can actually eat.  Wouldn’t remember them now if my life depended on it (Bear Grylls would not be impressed!), but I do remember some tasted of honey, and others had a nutty taste, which you wouldn’t expect from a plain old leaf!

crossing the water to metzgeralm

 

 

Hexenwasser

trudging through the mud

hexenwasser: amelia and olivia

This is a water playground which follows a walking trail at the top of a mountain in Soll, at 1100m, where we met my friend Emma from the kindergarten with her two girls.  It consists of various pools of ice cold water (refreshing after a hike and on a hot day) some of which allow children to experiment with different things such as pumps and building dams, other areas along the track are ‘sensorial experiences for your feet’ which consist of rectangular lengths of  pebbles/pine cones/ sand/ icy water/ little rocks etc and after experiencing this once before I think they should strike out ‘sensorial’ and replace it with ‘torturial’!  In one area you can walk through a trough of disgusting mud up to your knees, meant to be therapeutic, I’ll take their word for it!  At the end near the playground is a little bee house, where you can go in and watch bees behind the safety of a glass wall, go about their business in their hives.  And then the kids can make their very own candle by rolling up a rectangle of honeycombed beeswax straight from the hive.

 

 

 

Hintersteinersee

swimming on a warm one

hiking on a cool day

This is the place where my current facebook cover photo was taken!  A stunning natural lake surrounded by mountains.  Ahh the serenity!  There’s even a little hut selling beer and coffee (all that’s required!), and icecream for the kids.  We visited on another day when the weather was cooler and hiked around it, thinking it would take 1 hour, but of course, took almost 2 and half!  Kids not so happy for the last half of it!  If I remember rightly Noah fell asleep, again, on Macieks shoulders, and I had to rattle my brains for ideas to inspire Amelia to alleviate the constant complaining!

 

 

Steinplatte



Cliffhanger!

This is a mountain steeped (pardon the pun!) in a bit of history.  Millions of years ago it was under the ocean.  Now it stands 2000m above sea level, and is full of fossils and vegetation completely different to any found at the top of the other mountains we’ve seen, with a small exhibition centre and interactive activities all put together creating ‘Triassic Park’. 


Stepping stones

There are two little pools at the top with wooden rafts the kids can try to push themselves along on like Huckleberry Fin, or pull along on a rope from one side of the pool to the other, stepping stones,  lifesize models of dinosaurs, a kids climbing wall, a huge sandpit where they’ve hidden little gem stones and small gold nuggets that you can dig up and keep, and a large viewing platform overhanging the cliff, with a glass bottom!  Not for the faint hearted!  This gets you a closer view of the actual ‘steinplatte’, the once upon a time coral reef, up which Maciek climbed Via Ferratta style, with our friend Andi!  I almost had a heart attack when Sally, Andi’s wife, with whom I was waiting for the guys to come back, while the kids played, told me they were actually climbing up THAT!!  The Steinplatte has one of the most spectacular views in my opinion, snow caps as far as the eye can see.  BTW, I’ve included a pic of a notice board where a speech bubble is coming out of a Triassic sea snail looking creature saying something we thought was rather funny in a really sadistic heartless kind of way, in reference to the game alongside it, which requires the player to negotiate a metal ring holding a steel ball up a track meant to resemble a mountain climb, by the use of a pulley system.  Along the track are random holes into which the ball can fall.  The ball is meant to resemble a human climber.  Ha ha!

 

Thats funny.  Isn't it?

 

 

 

Fieberbrunn



Fieberbrunn train gondola

Jumping pillow in Fieberbrunn

This is a village about 20 minutes from us and somewhere we considered living when we first came here.  For a start it’s a bit cheaper, and is a fantastic area for snowboarding, but the thought of that drive for the school run twice a day in the winter months was a bit daunting, and with hindsight we chose well to live so close to the town where we are now.  Maciek spent a good bit of time in the winter in Fieberbrunn, but a few weeks ago was our first time visit in the summer. 


Once again, there is a lot to do at the top.  A small roller coaster that winds you a way down the mountain and back up again (needless to say Maciek went twice, once with Amelia and once with Noah, as I’m such a wus!) A kletter park (climbing course) across rope/wooden bridges, flying foxes etc, which tested my core strength to the max and made me realize I actually have none at all!  And a kids ‘find the clue’ circuit in which you make believe you are secretly following poachers through the woods and have to complete a series of tasks to crack the code to complete the activity at the end.  One station takes you through a tunnel under the woods, for which you must solve the morse code combination in order for the tunnel to light up, otherwise it’s pitch black and really scary!

 

Badesee and Kaiserbad



Badesee

Badesee is a manmade lake, with water slides, kids playground, beach volleyball, a kiosk and tons of space to sit in the sun or in the shade.  We’ve spend lots of time here in the warm weather.  It’s inexpensive to get in, and free after 7pm, perfect for those balmy nights when it stays light till 10pm.  Kaiser bad is an outdoor/indoor pool centre.  Massive playground, cool slides, lovely pools.  Unfortunately we’ve only been once and that was on a really hot day in peak holiday season and it was jam packed! 

 

Familienland



Familienland - you missed me!!

Noah calls it ‘AmeliaLand’ and it was for a gift for Noah’s birthday from our friends Petra and Darren (from Melbourne) that we were treated for a day out.  An entry fee gets you in and entitles you to go on all the rides inside as many times as you like.  There’s a water ‘roller coaster’, bounty’s revenge, bumpy slides really steep one which require you sit on a mat, a water play area, a little train that does a circuit of the park, and amongst many other things an indoor centre housing a massive climbing wall, trampolines, bouncy castles and slack lines.  We had a brilliant day, lots of fun, and went there again the day we arrived back from Sardinia for Klara’s birthday party.

 

 

I've said it before, but this a brilliant place for a summer holiday for families, if you don't mind the odd bit of hiking, but even then, there's still the gondolas, the streams and rivers and the water playgrounds and the adventure parks at the top of every mountain.  For anyone living in this part of the world, we would recommend you put it on your list, so long as you like schnitzel and potatoes!

Time flies when you’re having fun!  Noah and Milly are now back at Kindergarten, but far from having a bit of time off to ourselves, we are running around like headless chickens trying to get everything wrapped up before we travel back to Perth in a weeks time….