DAY 2 – Saturday 22nd December, 2012
(To the tune of My Favourite Things – Sound of Music) – Alarm calls and Snowploughs and Schnitzel – no noodles! Or “The case of the missing bag”
After a wonderful sleep- that bed was just SO comfortable – we are awakened by an Arooga! Aroooga! sound. I think the hotel is on fire and grab my “baggies”, hastily putting them on whilst shouting to Darrin to get up. The klaxon continues. We then realise the 6:30 alarm call is actually on the TV and not on the phone. It’s then a case of working out what turns it off. After several frantic stabs at various buttons, it turns out to be the “OK” button. Well, we are certainly wide awake.
Breakfast is really extensive – there is bacon, scrambled eggs and little Weiner sausages if you want them but there is also fruit, fruit salad, yoghurts, cereals. Ham, cheese, beautiful bread rolls, croissants, Danish pastries…..et al. We are totally replete when Sean, one of the coach drivers appears to tell us there is no porterage. When you use Leger, bags are always taken up to your room on arrival. When you depart, you leave your bags outside your room. They are collected and taken to the coach where their specific labels are checked off on a list.
I just want to mention one of the several Christmas trees that the hotel had. Very chique – lots of gold crowns. They represent the 3 Kings that come to the stable.
At breakfast everybody discusses the nuclear warning system that woke us in our rooms!
So back to porterage. We have to go back to our floors and grab our bags to take to the coach. The men rally round and take bags down for the more mature ladies in our group. Sean and Gary check them off and we board the coach. Gary appears and asks if anybody has left a bag behind? When they loaded at Dover there were 36 items. Now there are only 35. They check the list again. Gary asks again if anybody has left behind anything. It’s only then that somebody realises that they have put their overnight bag into a case. Mystery solved. Cancel Poirot and Miss Marple!
We set off 20 minutes behind schedule. It’s cloudy but no rain. Darrin and I make use of the lounge area at the rear of the coach. You’re not supposed to hog it and an hour is considered fair so everybody can use it.
We start heading East taking the A2 which leads through a little bit of Holland and the town of Maaastricht (famous to Europeans for its blasted Treaty!) Onwards through Aachen and then skirting Cologne, Germany (famous for its “Eau de”). We steer South East and pass by Koblenz and on to Stuttgart. We do call at services along the way for diesel refills and calls of nature.
Now, pray, let me explain the intricacies of European facilities restaurant meals, souvenirs, sweets, magazines, postcards, travelling paraphernalia – anything! (We. To get in you must pay 70 cents. As you insert the coins to the full value a coupon appears. The machine has charged you 20 cents but the coupon has a value of 50 cents which can be used as part payment for anything at this service station or any other service station in Germany or Austria – and I do mean anything. Food, drinks, used ours to buy Schnitzels for lunch (Schnitzel is a breaded pork cutlet dish made with boneless meat thinned with a hammer (escalope-style preparation), coated in bread crumbs and fried.) Wiener Schnitzel is veal.
Back to the coupon. What a brilliant idea. It means the many 20 cents pay for an attendant who keeps the place spotless and the 50 cents encourages you to buy other things. Talking of spotless- watch this. We stood in amazement when we saw it happen. The wonders of technology. This is courtesy of YouTube although Darrin did film it on his phone. It led to a 20 minute discussion on the coach!
I have to mention another maybe unsavoury item. As we pulled into one of the services we called at, Darrin whispered to me: “Why are we pulling over at a brothel?” “What?” I shriek. “The sign said Brothel” repeats Darrin. I look at the signs. It says “Brohital – you idiot!” I rebuff.
On through Munich and almost to Salzburg(E52 / A10). German and Austrian skiiers apparently don’t set off to the slopes on a Friday night nor on Saturday morning. They wait until Saturday night and cause horrendous jams on the Autobahn. We detour and have to drive 100 kilometres (68 miles) out of our way via Innsbruck to get where we are going. It’s raining down in the valley as we pass through. As we star to climb the rain turns to light snow and by the time we reach Nauders Am Reschenpass, the village where we will be staying it’s coming down heavily. We follow a snowplough up the winding road to 9,000 feet above sea level. Now, think about that.
In London we get one inch of snow and the whole place grinds to a halt. In Austria they have snow laden mountains and using roads, cable cars and chair lifts they can get you to 12,0000 feet! We must use the wrong type of grit over here.
As we pull up in front of our hotel, the Margarethe Maultasch everybody gets teary eyes at the scene before us. We are in the midst of a Christmas card – snow and ice laid everywhere and swirling flakes of snow…………………………………………..
