Monday 28 January 2002. We woke early at the Mariasteinerhof, it was still fairly dark outside and a bit foggy. "What's it look like?" asked Miss Franny from the warmth of bed and duvet. "Cold..."
Two glowing eyes loomed out of the gloom, revealing themselves as the headlights of a snowplough coming down the hill towards the hotel.
Even once it got light, it was still so misty the castle couldn't be seen from the hotel. Never-the-less, it's onto the coach and we set off for the day's excursion.
Our first stop was Westendorf for a pony and trap ride through the forest. The trap had both sleigh runners and wheels and whilst it was described as a sleigh ride, most of the journey was reliant on the wheels. There had been less snow this year than ever before - a warning that Global Warming was real...
The traps were quite large but even so it took three traps each with three long bench seats seating three abreast, plus one seated next to the driver to take us through the forest. We were in the second sleigh middle row of seats with Sheila. The guys at the back had the following horses' noses right up close! "I think this horse is in love with me!" one said. "No, he's frothing at the mouth, you're making him ill..." came a swift response!
Steve, sitting next to the driver, had a different worry as a tail just in front kept lifting... "Never mind," I said, "Take some home for the roses..." The road or track may have had so little snow that the wheels were kept turning, but under the trees there was a bit more.
Once we had returned to Westendorf we passed a queue of people with skis at the bus stop. Once on the coach it became obvious why!
After the carriage ride we went on to Schwaz, where this hole in the wall leads to a silver mine. With half of us singing "Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, It's off to work we go!" and the other half singing "Bob the Builder" we were kitted out with thermal coats and hard hats.
We would be taken into the mine on a narrow guage train we were told. We get to a platform next to a set of rails and look a bit aghast at the tiny size of the opening in the wall of solid rock before us. In the end we were right... there were no carriages, we sit in single file astride a bench seat, the bench going from front to back. "Stay behind the person in front!" we were warned. Of course, someone had to lean out to see past the helmet of the person in front. There was a sharp clonk of plastic on rock and an anguished "Ow!"...
I won't spoil it for any future visitors, but at one point there's a taped commentary that is obviously tailored for whatever language is native to a coachload. The English one was hilarious, whether intentional or not. Worth a visit just for that!
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments must be passed by moderator before appearing on this post.