Tuesday 29 January 2002. We are swanning around the Austrian Alps on a Leger Holidays coach tour. We have left a rather solid lake at Zell-am-See behind and are heading for Kitzbühel.
It's a glorious day, if somewhat parky (cold... my editor - that's me aswell - has just told me not to assume everyone knows my northwest English!) We arrive at Kitzbühel and Jock parks the coach in a part of the town we don't remember.
We head off to look for the cable car as we all fancy a look at the ski slopes. First we stop for a bite of lunch at a cafe and then find a cable car that, from the bottom station, seems to go a very long way up. Count us in!
Miss Franny and Sheila ignore any feelings of vertigo as we climb rapidly up the side of the mountain. They are facing backwards to the direction of travel and the mountain we are going up is in shadow.
We keep going up and the town becomes a toy in the distance below us. To the side the view is glorious.
We approach the top and somebody decides we would have to jump out quick because the car wouldn't stop so we all dive out like silly beggars, killing ourselves laughing and setting the car rocking away! There are a couple of shops for skiers and presumably some equipment for hire too. People are sunbathing on the bar terrace. To the right of the photo a tiny fence with just one or two cross bars stands between the level ground and a lo-o-o-ong drop. I wondered why it was so small but when I looked there were another three cross bars under the snow...
Photo for posterity - look folks, we are here! Me with Sheila and Diane. A constant stream of skiers came up and poled away. A couple of snowboarders were trying the gentler slopes. I was quite content to stand and watch.
It does look an exhilarating way of spending an afternoon, though up here at the top you don't see the ones who come to grief halfway down, spread-eagled with their ski tracks one each side of a careless tree...
Here James Bond makes a break for it, whilst an Eastern Bloc border guard chases him. Just to the front of us a snowboarder is tentatively falling down a gentle three-foot high slope towards the shops and bar complex. He slithers to a halt where a passing yeti dusts him off and takes him for lunch...
The view facing away from the bar and shops. The sun flares through clouds of ice crystals. Despite the height and all the snow it feels quite warm.
We watch the skiers for quite a while and then head back towards the cable car for the journey back down. They've done it again! Fran and Sheila get in a car that is just about to disappear throught the barrier and Diane and I have to run and dive in at the last moment! There's a real feeling of regret on starting the journey downwards. This afternoon would be thought the best of the holiday by most people on the coach.
Well, here we are at the bottom again. It cost us €14 (euros) for the round trip, each way taking approx ten minutes. The euro had only been adopted at the begnining of January and there was still a lot of confusion amongst the Austrians and Germans, never mind us Brits!
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