NCC Pertisau Holiday, 23 July

Maurach-am-Achensee, Tirol

The planned excursion for today was a trip up the Gramaialm, in a tractor-trailor outfit called the Huttopia Express, and, while some - a majority, I think - planned to walk back, many of us chose to ride on a vintage coach called the Nostalgiebus.

We had to catch the 09:10 bus to get to Pertisau on time, which meant we were about an hour too early, but there was a coffee-shop so we sat there and the SW and the other Chaletian who is staying in Maurach both had coffee - I had only fairly recently finished my breakfast coffee, and didn't want anything.  Eventually the others turned up - two of our number had hired electric bikes to go up to that and a couple of other alms!  We were asked to buy our tickets in the sports shop rather than from the driver, which was a huge bonus as it meant we could pay by card rather than having to fork out cash.  

It was a slightly dull ride up to the alm, as we couldn't really see out of the trailer. I was in the back trailer, which the driver had recommended those of us who were "less sporty" use - the SW, needless to say, went in the front trailer, which was rather higher.  When we arrived, many people decided to go on the 20-minute hike to see a waterfall; I didn't go, but sat and drank apple juice with some friends, and took a variety of photos.  There was a helicopter which, we discovered, was pulling up a dead cow from a field, and I later saw it being carried on a forklift or similar in front of a tractor into the farmyard. 

Our crowd gradually returned from their various walks, and we had lunch at the restaurant at the top of the alm; the SW and I both chose the Tirolean "Grostli", which was a mixture of onions, bacon and fried potatoes topped with a fried egg, with cabbage salad on the side.  And very good it was, too, even though I couldn't finish half of my potatoes. We washed it down with beer.   

The bus was due to leave at 13:30, and the walkers were going to wait until it had safely gone before they set off.  I enjoyed the bus far more than the trailer - I sat near the front and we could see out of the front windows, although I didn't take any photos.  The bus dropped us near the Karwendelbahn, and I eventually got a bus from there back to Maurach.  I'd meant to go for a swim, but sadly, my insides decided to confirm my suspicion that they really can't cope with pickled cabbage any more.... Grrr!  So I just flopped and read most of the afternoon.  Either that or too many restaurant meals in too few days.... And another one tomorrow at Mayrhofen.

NCC Pertisau holiday, 22 July 2025

Maurach-am-Achensee, 22 July 2205

Today was, for me, a rest day.  Many people were going into Innsbruck, but the Swan Whisperer wanted to do one of his favourite walks, from Achenkirch back down to Pertisau, and I knew I was tired and needed to rest.  Which was justified by the fact that I slept incredibly badly - even with a rug over my duvet (the summer-weight 4.5 tog one) I was cold, and I had cramp.  Which I hope wasn't caused by the wine I'd drunk, as I've just drunk another glass of the same brew, and it was delicious!

So, anyway, I also needed to do a week's worth of washing, but when I went over to do it, the machine was occupied, and it was about 11:00 before I could get the first load on.  Washed that okay, and then put the second load on, but the dryer was in use.  And the man who was using it said crossly that it wasn't drying his clothes at all.  When the Swan Whisperer went to get some more euro coins for us to use it, he was told it was out of order!!! Wouldn't you have thought they would have put a notice on it saying so???

The SW, who is good at that sort of thing, fished out our washing-line and the poor WoMo has been festooned with damp washing ever since! It is beginning to dry, and I'm pretty sure most of it will be dry by morning, but it is annoying not having been able to dry it as tumble-drying does seem to mean we don't need to iron so much, if at all! And no, we are not installing one in our flat - an iron takes up less room and is less damaging to the environment!

I had half thought of going for a swim at the Atoll this afternoon, but when push came to shove I really wasn't feeling it, so spent the afternoon reading and dozing.  I hope I'll sleep tonight - I'll use the heavier rug, I think, and it may not be so chilly.  I don't want to put on the heavier, 10.5 tog, duvet as the lighter one has really been all we've needed during the earlier part of the holiday

.Anyway, the washing festooning the place meant I really couldn't cook without a great deal of inconvenience, so we went to the campsite's restaurant and had a delicious meal - I had beef with onions and rosemary potatoes,

which were utterly delicious, and the SW had Käsespätzle, which also looked lovely, and which came with a small salad that he shared with me.  I had been tempted to choose the same, but knew I wouldn't be able to finish the plateful - as it was, I only just finished my own!  

NCC Pertisau holiday, 21 July 2025

Maurach-am-Achensee, Tirol

The weather took a turn for the worse, but we are not made of sugar, so a considerable number of us boarded the bus to Jenbach - Robert and I were actually quite lucky to get on at Maurach; we squeezed on and spent the journey on the driver's platform - nice of him to let us.

One of these days, I'll see Jenbach in the sunshine, but today was not that day.  Some people went up to the church; others, more sensibly, went and sat in the local café opposite the station. I did try to go to the church, but it was very wet, and very steep, so eventually I gave up and went back to join the sensible ones with a very nice cup of coffee.

Eventually everybody turned up and we foregathered at the station to take the Achenseebahn up to Seespitz.

We had a reserved carriage, and made the most of the journey. The first part is a rack-and-pinion railway, which is fun, but not very scenic as it is mostly in woodland. At Eben, however, the plateau begins and the engine stops pushing the train but runs round to the front to start pulling it the rest of the way, via Maurach and Maurach Mitte to Seespitz.

The boats meet the train, so we all piled off and found our reserved tables on the boat, where we were served coffee and apfelstrudel with squirty cream. Delicious, especially as the apfelstrudel was not too sweet.

The boat took us round the lake, to Gaisalm, Achenkirch and Scholastica, before calling at Gaisalm again on the way back to Pertisau, after which the formal part of the day was at an end. Some people got off, but many stayed on - we went as far as Seespitz where we then caught the train as far as Maurach Mitte to do some shopping before getting the bus back up to our campsite, where we had a couple of hours to relax before the Centenary Gala Dinner.

This was held at one of the big hotels in Pertisau, and was extremely good.  We started with pancake strips in consommé, followed by raviolis with a herb filling.  There was a choice of main courses - we had made our choices earlier.  I had lake trout with new potatoes and almonds, and the Swan Whisperer had spare ribs with potato wedges and coleslaw.  The other choices were wiener schnitzel, which may have been delicious but which smelt of hot fat, and which came with chips, and, for the vegetarians, some kind of spinach dumpling. Pudding was Kaiserschmarrn (chopped up pancakes with, in this case, a scoop of cinnamon ice cream and the most delicious stewed plums).  I had white wine, and the SW had red.  The hotel had printed commemorative menus for us,

and there were speeches, and a presentation to the person who had done 99.9% of the organising - incredibly efficiently! 

We shared a taxi back with someone else who is staying in Maurach, and went straight to bed!

NCC Pertisau Holiday, 20 July 2025

Maurach-am-Achensee, Tirol

The thunderstorm passed, but the rain continued far into the night.  And this morning dawned cool and cloudy - no weather for eating breakfast outside.  When we had had it, we went up to the Achensee Atoll and  were able to convert our visitor passes into holiday cards.  We then came back to the WoMo and the Swan Whisperer had a cup of coffee before we decided to test out our cards by taking the boat across the lake to meet the others, which we did successfully. By which time the sun was out, and has remained so all day! 

A walk round the village followed, with sites of interest to Club members pointed out, and we ended up at the Karwendelbahn, which is a cable-car up the local mountain.  At the top there is a restaurant, or you can walk about half an hour to another one. (resstaurant, not cable car) which some of the party chose to do.  I firmly stayed local, and the Swan Whisperer and I, with some others, had lunch; he and I both had soup, his washed down with beer and mine with Apérol Spritz.  Then he left to go up tp the other mountain, and I stayed down looking at the glorious views over the lake. 

I then went down to use the loo, but when I came back, I wanted to go back to the viewpoint, but didn't see the rather high step (which should really have had a yellow stripe on it), and tripped and fell.  Fortunately my phone wasn't damaged, and nor was I, really, bar a bad scrape on one leg and generally being  shaken up! Someone had a first-aid kit with them and helped mop me up and sprayed me with antiseptic cream, and I sat and drank coffee with others of the party before the Swan Whisperer came back down to escort me down the mountain!

Several of us went into the hotel and had drinks while waiting for it to be 16:00, at which time I had promised to lead a short service, which I duly did.  The hotel was great and let us use a quiet corner, and there were 13 of us gathered - some churches I preach at, I don't have as large a congregation!

After that, the Swan Whisperer and I pottered back through the village, past both the Protestant and Catholic churches, and ended up at the boat landing.  Sadly, the first boat wasn't going to Buchau, so we wandered to the bus stop and found that the next bus left ten minutes before the next boat!  So we decided to catch it, as the SW's phone was almost out of battery and he was trying to clear up some muddle back home.  It turned out to be one of the few buses where you don't have to change, and it dropped us off at the Atoll in good time.  He is now hotting up the hash we had for supper the other night, and I am relaxing and wishing my shin didn't hurt quite so much!

NCC Pertisau Holiday 19/07/2025

Maurach-am-Achense, Tyrol, Austria

We didn't hang about this morning, as we wanted to get here early, and were away by 09:30 - with the result that the SW asked whether it was time to stop for lunch when it was only 11:30!

We had hoped to go the familiar way down as far as Fussen, but the Satnav told us there was a 30 minute holdup just out of Ulm, and we had do better to go via Munich, which we did. And there were a fair amount of holdups there, too, but nothing very major.  And then there was that lovely moment when the motorway swept round a corner and the view opened up - and there, at last, were the Alps!  And, not too long later, the first signs to the Achensee.  We came in from the Northern end, via Achenkirch, and arrived at our campsite at about 13:15 (having stopped for a coffee en route).  Checkin was quick and easy - they recognised us from last time - and apart from a few queries like where do we plug in our electricity, and when were they going to email us our visitor cards, we got settled in very quickly and had a lunch sitting out of doors in the shade - the WoMo was unbearably hot!

After lunch, we pottered for a bit and then headed to the bus stop to catch the bus to Pertisau, where we had a lovely walk pretty much along the lake up to the boat place, where we met up with some of our friends before heading to the Hotel Christina for Kaffee und Kuchen (in my case, tea and an ice-cream!) and meeting the other book club members who were there.  We have not yet got our holiday cards, and are rather annoyed that, had we known it, they are available from the Achensee Atoll Welcome Centre, just a couple of hundred metres away!  We can get them in the morning and perhaps get the boat over to Pertisau tomorrow.  Actually, we couldn't have gone on the boat trip some of the others were going on, even had we had our holiday cards by then, as it wasn't going to Buchau, which is our stop, and we would probably have missed the last bus.

As it was, we had about 20 minutes to wait for the bus - the penultimate one of the day - but it came, and the change at Maurach was as quick and easy as ever.  We got off at the Atoll, as the bus goes in there and one doesn't have to cross the very busy road, as you would at Buchau, and got home just before the rain started!  There is now a massive thunderstorm going on, which is lovely!

NCC Pertisau holiday, 18 July 2025

Neu-Ulm, Bavaria, Germany

It was so lovely this morning eating breakfast out of doors - I thought at first we wouldn't be warm enough, but it was actually warmer outside the WoMo than inside, probably because we had had the shutters closed and the skylights open all night.  So we sat out and enjoyed our fried eggs, fruit juice, toast and pains au chocolat, and by the time we had got "redd up", as my Irish in-laws say, it was already past 11:0 am.

We could have gone via Stuttgart and the motorway, but it is the A8, which is be-roadworked to the hilt, and we didn't fancy spending most of the day in traffic jams, so we told it to go a different route. This was slower (except for the traffic jams), but absolutely lovely, going first through the Black Forest and then the Schwabian Alps.  Small roads, and a few hairpins, but nothing to really worry about - lots of little villages and speed restrictions, though.  But all in all, we agreed, an enjoyable drive, and the Satnav tells us we saved 30 minutes going that way!

When we got to Neu-Ulm, we thought at first it would be a bust. The actual aire was jam-packed solid, as was the one on the other side of the road, and the car park said firmly No Motor homes Beyond This Point. However, a fair few motorhomes had gone beyond that point, so we did, too - but then a very kind man came up and said that he had a space that was far too big for him, and could easily make room for us in it!  So we said Thank You Very Much and moved here - which was slightly more expensive than the main car park, but which has electricity and at least some services (we will be able to empty the loo, anyway, although I'm not sure about the grey tank).  And now we are about to eat the second half of the chicken and rice casserole!

NCC Pertisau Holiday, 17 July 2025

Saverne, Alsace

The funfair finally quietened down at midnight - technically it closed at 23:00, but music went on thumping out until about midnight.  Not too awful, though, and we will certainly return to that aire again - it has far more spaces than the one we usually use, and they won't have funfairs all the time!

The Swan Whisperer went to get croissants in the morning, and we were ready to head on at about 10:00, stopping first for a quick visit to a supermarket.  This was a mistake, as the shop in question was going to be closed tomorrow for stocktaking, and it had obviously not had any deliveries that day, so there were quite a lot of gaps on the shelves.  Still, I got most of what I wanted.

It was a lovely drive today; although we decided not to pay motorway tolls, the route we went was nearly all either non-toll motorway or dual carriageway.  Not very well maintained, mind - you can see the difference between roads one pays to use and roads one doesn't!  The drive took us past many of our favourite places in Northern France - Chalons-en-Champagne, Vitry-le-François, Bar-le-Duc, etc, and also past many places where we have stopped for a night - Toul, Pont-au-Mousson, etc.  We stopped for lunch at the Aire de Toul - not the eponymous motorhome parking, where we have been a couple of times, but this was just a motorway services.  We didn't stop again until we got to this very nice campsite in Alsace, where we are parked up for the night.

After a cup of tea, the Swan Whisperer went for a walk and I read and crocheted until it was time to start getting supper, which was a sort of hash with lardons, potatoes, onions, mushrooms and tomatoes, topped with grated cheese!  Delicious!  Followed by yoghurt with peach compôte.

It is a lovely evening, and many people are still sitting out, although it has cooled down now.  We did eat supper outside, but have come in now, as it really wasn't quite warm enough.