Sorry… I just couldn’t resist using the AI image today. That’s wild– and pretty inaccurate!
I’m sharing this video I made a couple of days ago. It’s the story of how Bill and I went on a beer spa/Fucking themed tour in Austria. Now… it’s not what you might be thinking. In Austria, there are/were a couple of places that have names with the word “fuck” in them. One of those places, “Fucking”, has since changed the spelling of its name to Fugging because of tourists.
Anyway… that trip included a visit to the Starkenberger Beer Pool and Hotel Moorhof, where there is a beer spa. We also visited “Fuckersberg”, which is basically a big field. And then, I had a profound, peaceful experience in a random Italian restaurant, when I ran into a Buddhist monk. I wrote about these experiences in 2015, but I notice a lot of people are interested… especially in Fuckersberg. So, I’m sharing the video, which includes some photos. Enjoy!
This was a pretty great trip…
And… just as an afterthought, here’s a video I made in which I talk about going to a nude spa for the first time. That is another popular topic on this blog. The video was inspired by one I made about “the right to be ugly”, which I feel like I’ve earned at my age. 😉
We got word yesterday that Noyzi is booked at the Hundepension from September 30 until October 10. That allowed me to book the last hotel for our big Czech tour after we see the dentist. This dental discovery excursion is definitely the most ambitious one we’ve done yet. Just to recap, we’re planning:
I was actually planning to book the Aria Hotel in Prague, having seen Samantha Brown’s Passport to Europe episode about Prague. She made that hotel look like it would be such a fun place to stay! But, I changed my mind last night, when I did a search on Booking.com and noticed that Hotel Nerudova was listed first, and it had great reviews. I was dazzled by the photos, but what really gave me pause were the consistently glowing comments about how friendly the service was. It’s also a family run place.
I decided to check other sites and noticed that on Expedia.com, Google, and TripAdvisor, Hotel Nerudova got similarly great reviews. But they didn’t have a lot of reviews, which made me wonder if they’re new. I see now that the hotel was closed during the pandemic and had fallen into disrepair until it was bought by Jan and Sarah, the husband and wife who now own it. I did read that the hotel was fully renovated in August 2022, and they only have ten rooms/suites.
According to their story, the hotel used to be known as Hotel Santini until the pandemic. The building dates to the 1500s, although the original house was destroyed in a fire. It was rebuilt in the 1700s, and renovated starting in 2002. That must have been a very exciting undertaking, as they found original features such as frescoes, wooden ceilings, and an original porcelain cocklestove.
The only thing making me hesitate was the parking situation. The hotel’s website said there was off site parking available at 15 euros per day. I worried a little about that, and would prefer a secure parking garage. There was another highly rated hotel that offered a garage, and I almost booked the other hotel for that reason. However, I just couldn’t shake the desire to try Hotel Nerudova 211. It was in my head. So, I took the plunge, and I think I booked this room.
Immediately after booking, I got a welcome message from the hotel which included information about parking. That was reassuring. I wrote back to let them know we’d be driving, and they told us to send them our license plate number and they’d put us in a registry to allow us to park near the hotel on the street. I asked if they needed the information now, or closer to October. They quickly responded that we could do it at the reception. Such quick responses are a really good sign. We had a great time when we stayed at the Old Town Hilton in 2008, but I think Hotel Nerudova will definitely be more charming, memorable, and personal, which I definitely love!
Hotel Nerudova appears to be at a very good location. It’s very close to the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, and Prague Castle. As an added bonus, Bill also spotted a sex machines museum nearby. I’m sure we’ll make a point of stopping by, if it’s open while we’re in town. 😉 Or maybe we won’t, since there’s a lot to do in Prague, and it doesn’t look like that museum gets the best ratings. It looks like people think it’s overpriced for what it is. I’ll probably want to visit it anyway, though. I love weird museums.
We will probably visit one of the beer/wine spas for treatments. I haven’t had a good beer spa visit in ages, and we have never been to one in Prague. When we visited in 2008, the spas in Prague didn’t exist. We went to Chodovar Beer Wellness Land for our first beer spa experience. Actually, looking at the link I shared, it appears to be the same system used at Hotel Moorhof and Hotel Diana in Austria.
There’s another beer spa in Prague that offers a wine spa treatment. We might do that one for a change of pace. I doubt the ones in Prague can hold a candle to the beer pools of Starkenberger Brewery. Unfortunately, I think the beer pools have stopped operating in the wake of the pandemic. I’m so glad we had a chance to have that experience when they were still working. Swimming in a vat of warm beer wort is an experience I will never forget!
Anyway… even if we end up doing things that are less sinful in Prague, we’re sure to have a great time. Prague is a fabulous city on so many levels. I especially look forward to buying some new art for the house!
I think this trip is going to be so much fun! I’m really looking forward to it, probably more so than I usually look forward to travel. We always have a great time when we visit the Czech Republic, and we’re long overdue for another visit.
As for the rest of the summer, I’m not sure if or when we’ll go anywhere. I’d kind of like to go to Austria for a few days, but I don’t know if we’ll manage it. For the next three months, it looks like Bill will be doing a new temporary duty involving finance. The good news is that he won’t have to travel when he’s doing the finance job. The bad news is, he’ll probably be pretty busy. Or maybe not… He’s a multi-skilled, multi-talented man, though. Case in point, below is the breakfast he made us this morning, minus the made from scratch biscuits that were still in the oven when I took this photo.
In fairness, I did kind of teach him how to make cheese souffles. The orange juice is fresh squeezed!
Today, it’s raining a bit, so I don’t know if we’ll venture out. We’ll see. Anyway, it’s time to write a post for my main blog, so I’ll check y’all later. 😉 I’m excited about this trip, though, and I think we’re going to have a blast!
The featured photo is a screenshot from Expedia of the room I booked.
This morning, one of Bill’s friends posted a picture of their cute little girls enjoying an indoor swimming pool. The girls are absolutely adorable, so they alone should have been enough to capture my attention. What I actually noticed first, though, were the walls around the pool. I could only see two of them, but they were heavily adorned with huge warning signs.
The first sign says in huge, bold letters:
WARNING: NO LIFEGUARD ON DUTY. No swimming alone. Children under 14 years of age and non-swimmers shall not use the pool unless accompanied by a responsible adult.
The next sign says…
MAXIMUM POOL BATHER LOAD 15. Another sign says… WARNING! NO DIVING! I’m sure the “no diving” sign is posted because the water is probably only four feet deep or so… It’s hard to find an “old school” deep pool in America anymore. Luckily, they are everywhere in Europe.
Easily visible in the photo, there is also a long list of pool rules in type too small for me to make out, but I guess they cover everything not already covered in the big signs. I see another sign that looks like a crude picture of food and beverage crossed out.
Now, had Bill and I not recently gone swimming alone in an Austrian beer pool, maybe these signs wouldn’t seem so over the top to me. When I lived in the United States, I saw these kinds of anti-litigation signs everywhere and never thought much of them. Now that I live in Europe again and have walked along the sides of ponds with no protective fencing and observed children walking and riding their bikes alone in our neighborhood, the signs seem strange. At some point, Americans surrendered their common sense and businesses and insurance companies became hyperaware of the need for warnings. Seems like this wasn’t the case when I was growing up in the 70s and 80s.
Before anyone mentions it, I don’t think Stella Liebeck, the lady who spilled hot coffee from McDonald’s, is necessarily to blame for this hyperwarning society we have right now. For one thing, Stella Liebeck was well within her rights to sue McDonald’s. They sold her coffee that was way hotter than the industry standard. Yes, she stupidly put it between her thighs so she could add cream and sugar, but the coffee was so hot that it gave her serious burns that affected her for the rest of her life. Moreover, she had originally only asked McDonald’s for about $10,000 to cover her medical bills. They offered $800. She sued and a jury awarded her big money, most of which she never got.
On the other hand, it does seem like since the big 90s era McDonald’s hot coffee case, Americans have gotten a lot more interested in disclaimers that cover every possible scenario that could come up and lead to a lawsuit. I would expect a similar attitude in Germany, where people seem similarly prone to litigation. And yet, when I go swimming at the Mineraltherme, I don’t see humongous signs posted warning about what’s not allowed or what could happen while floating in the pools full of many peeing patrons and face suckers (sorry, but it’s the truth). I don’t even see signs warning me that I might see nudity, not that that’s dangerous per se, but what will the children think? 😉
I contrast the sight of those signs in the American pool with what was on the walls at the Starkenberger Beer Pools in Austria. There, we saw many murals, many of which were very bawdy and probably not suitable for audiences under age 13. Bill and I were left alone to bathe to our hearts’ content, drinking as much beer as we wanted. There were no lifeguards on duty and no one was there to check our ages or tell us not to dive. Fortunately, we were smart enough to survive the experience. I’m proud to say that we lived by our wits that night! And what memories we have! It was one of the most fabulous evenings we’ve had since our move back to Europe.
The only sign at the Starkenberger Beer Pool…
A magical experience!
I wonder if those signs really do prevent drownings or other tragedies… Somehow, I doubt it. What they do is make it somewhat harder for people to be sued. At the same time, they also kind of curb the ambiance and remind everyone that there are dumb people out there who have to be explicitly warned not to do dumb things. It’s a little depressing. I’m a big fan of Darwinism, but that’s probably because I’m nobody’s mother.
I have spent the whole holiday weekend holed up at home. Perhaps later today, we will go out and try a new restaurant. But for now, I will think about how lucky I was to get to swim in beer with no lifeguard on duty and no warning signs protecting me from my own negligence.
Now that Bill and I have experienced three different European beer spas, I think it’s time to compare them. Although we’ll probably visit other beer spas while we’re living in Germany, the three we’ve done so far have been sufficiently different that it makes sense to write about them now.
I know a lot of people wonder what possible benefit one could get from soaking in beer or a beer/water mix. Having now done it three times, I can honestly say that after each soak, I have had soft, shiny hair and smooth skin. In fact, I have a sore on my back that was slow to heal and I have noticed that it seems to have finally scarred over after this weekend. Was it really the beer that did it or just a coincidence? I don’t know. The main reason I like to go to beer spas is because I am a hedonist and I love beer. And hell, it’s just a lot of fun!
The first beer spa we went to was Chodovar in Chodova Plana, Czech Republic. Our visit was over Presidents Day weekend 2009, which also happened to be Valentine’s weekend. We were very lucky to be able to book the beer baths there. If I recall correctly, we managed to snag the last available appointment. At that point, Chodovar had only been in the beer spa business for three years, though the brewery has been making suds for centuries.
Chodovar’s beer spa was the cheapest of the three we’ve attended and that’s probably still true today. However, I noticed some differences between the experience in Chodovar and the experiences we had at the Landhotel Moorhof and the Starkenberg Brewery. First off, the Chodovar experience is less private, though you’re supposed to bathe in the buff.
There are several pewter tubs in a room and sheets are drawn around them for privacy. That makes it practical for the proprietors, who can offer beer baths to several people at the same time. However, the mood is markedly different, since you hear people giggling and splashing in their tubs as they drink beer. It’s more of a fun experience than a relaxing spa experience. Also, after twenty minutes in the tub, the water cools down a bit and you’re ready to get out. Then you go rest in a quiet room, swaddled in a thick blanket as you drink another beer.
After we had beer baths, Bill and I had massages. I had a “complete” massage, which was about an hour’s worth of kneading and rubbing done by a young Czech man who spoke no English and actually watched me undress. Ultimately, he did a very good job and was professional, but it was a little weird and awkward. Bill had a partial massage on his back done by a woman who spoke a little German, but no English. Again, a good massage, but a little awkward.
When Bill and I did this in 2009, we each had our own tub, though they were located side by side. There is one double tub at Chodovar, but it was booked. In a way, I think maybe I might prefer having a separate tub. Younger, hornier folks might beg to differ. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera when we went to the Czech Republic for our spa trip, so I didn’t get any photos. Suffice to say that I’d happily visit Chodovar again, though I think I’d rank it third in my list of beer spa experiences thus far. I do see that they’ve expanded since our last visit, adding a pool and wellness area that looks very inviting. Maybe it’s time to book another trip! For a picture of the beer baths, click here.
Our second beer spa experience was at the Landhotel Moorhof near Franking, Austria. The Moorhof’s beer spa is very different than Chodovar’s. First off, the Moorhof’s beer spa doesn’t seem to be a focus of the hotel’s marketing. Yes, they advertise it and even offer beer cosmetics for sale, but it doesn’t seem to be the main reason people stay there. I was surprised by that, since the Moorhof is in a rural area that isn’t saturated with touristy activities.
The Moorhof beer spa experience is more private and seems more health focused than Chodovar’s. There is one room with three beer baths and one that has just one bath, making it perfect for couples. At the Moorhof, we wore bathing suits, although if we hadn’t wanted to wear them, we probably could have gone without them. I think I would have preferred not wearing the suit, since the hops mixture used in the spa gets all over it and it’s not so easy to rinse out. I liked that the spa tub was more like a hot tub than a regular bathtub. The jacuzzi action was noisier, but at Chodovar, you hear cheesy pop music and giggles from other people. At the Moorhof, you hear the motor of the spa and your sweet one’s loving words. Or maybe you hear dirty jokes, as it was in my case.
After the beer bath, we rested in a straw bed for a half hour. That was pretty nice, more comfortable than I expected it to be, and I preferred it to the communal experience at Chodovar, where several people were resting in the same room at the same time.
The beer spa was a little more expensive at the Moorhof and I wish we’d had our massages around the time of the beer bath rather than hours earlier. However, I will comment that the massage therapist was a little less awkward than the one at Chodovar. She spoke some English and was very competent. She also seemed a little more conscious of modesty.
Our third beer spa experience was at the Starkenberger brewery in Tarrenz, Austria. This experience was my favorite because it was pure hedonism. Basically, it consisted of Bill and me frolicking in a big vat that was once used for fermenting beer and is now a “pool”. There were no massages offered at this experience (at least not professional ones), but we were allowed to soak for up to five hours and drink all the beer we wanted. In fairness to the other beer spa experiences, I can pretty much say that this was not really a health promoting activity. However, it was a whole lot of fun!
Of the three beer spa experiences, Starkenberger’s was the most expensive. It was also the most memorable and unique. And, to be honest, for what you get over five hours in the beer bath, it may have even been the most cost effective, especially if there are four people (the maximum allowed) in your group. That being said, I do want to comment that the Starkenberger experience may be the most risky. There is a danger of drowning because you are pretty much left to yourself. Remember, you’re drinking as much beer as you want and hanging out in hot water deep enough to swim in. The beer is pretty potent and if you’re not careful, you could find yourself in real trouble. Practice the buddy system!
Bill and I were actually talking about this last night… how amazing it is that you can go to a beer bath in Europe and be trusted not to either damage the property or drown yourself. In the United States, you surely would have been asked to sign a waiver before jumping in the beer pool and/or there would have certainly been an employee there to supervise. In Europe, it seems like people are expected to be responsible for themselves and not do stupid things. Frankly, I find it a very refreshing attitude.
I don’t know when our next beer spa appointment will be, but I am always on the lookout for new spas to try. And I see that since our last tour in Germany, there have been quite a few more that have popped up. I am sure this won’t be the last time I write about bathing in beer or any other exotic substance. For now, Starkenberger wins the prize as my favorite of the beer spas we’ve been to.
Edited to add: We have now been to four beer spas, having visited the one at Hotel Diana in Seefeld (much like the one at the Moorhof). Starkenberger remains my favorite of all four experiences so far!
Sometime during or after Bill’s last tour of duty in Germany, I found out about the Starkenberger Beer Pools, basically big stainless steel vats rendered obsolete by the modernization of beer making. Someone involved with the brewery in Tarrenz, Austria had the bright idea to turn the huge vats into “swimming pools” for paying customers. Given that I love beer tourism with all my heart, and we have a lot more money now than we did last time we lived here, I easily convinced Bill that this was an experience worth paying 250 euros for. So in August, Bill sent an email to the brewery asking to reserve a pool for last night.
When Bill inquired about reserving the pool, he got a pleasant response letting him know the pools were available. He wrote back asking them to expect us and figured they had penciled us in, even though he never got a confirmation. The email advised that we could reserve the pool for after 5:00, which, as it turns out, is when the tours end. At 10:00, we’d have to vacate. And we were allowed to drink all the beer we wanted. We were limited to four people using the pool.
Starkenberger Brewery also has a restaurant (which was closed for ruhetag yesterday) and a “Biermythos” museum. I think the grounds are also beautiful, though due to the weather, we didn’t get to see much of them. I wanted to see the museum, so I told Bill we should go to the brewery right after we were done at Highline 179. It turned out that it was a lucky thing I’d suggested that.
Front of the brewery and the museum.
After stopping in a nearby town to get some cash (not sure if you have to pay in cash, but Bill wanted to be prepared), we showed up at the brewery. There was… you guessed it… a large tourbus group there. The tour guide went to speak to the lady running the shop before Bill had a chance to ask her about the beer pool. When he did, the lady looked confused, then a little panicked. She was not expecting us.
First, she said that the pool had to be reserved in advance and costs 250 euros. Bill said he knew and he had reserved it. And he had the cash in hand. Then she asked if he had the email. He had to turn roaming on his cell phone because although he had printed the emails, he had forgotten to bring them. Then, the lady said she needed to prepare the pool, so we might not be able to go in right at five. That was fine with us. I asked if we could see the museum. She said yes and handed us a packet of information in English, which basically told us what we were looking at.
The brewery tour costs 7 euros per person, but since we were paying to use the beer pool, we didn’t have to pay for the tour. It’s entirely self-guided and you go at your own pace. Don’t be surprised if you run into a beer maker as you make your way through.
Entrance to the museum.
The tour was very interesting, but I really needed to use the ladies room because my lunchtime beer had processed and, truthfully, I was there for the pool! I rushed through the exhibits a bit. We finally got to the big hall where we could taste some of the products made at the brewery. The tour group was there and they were all drinking beer. The tour guide who had spoken to the shopkeeper ahead of us told us the beer was one euro each. Bill paid it, even though he didn’t have to. I think she got a kick out of getting tipped by the clueless Americans.
While we were exploring the museum, the shopkeeper found the email Bill sent. She later explained that she’d been on holiday during that time, so her assistant had been the one who had answered Bill. For some reason, she never saw the follow up email Bill sent. She presented us with a bottle of beer liqueur and Starkenberger single malt liqueur for our troubles (yes, they do make whiskey and liqueurs, too– whiskey is basically made the same way beer is). That was a very nice and totally unnecessary, but much appreciated, gesture.
It was lucky that we got there early. If we hadn’t, we might have been disappointed. If this post makes you want to reserve a pool at the Starkenberger brewery, make sure you get a confirmation from them. Also, print out the emails you send and have them with you when you show up.
After the rowdy tour group cleared out, the shopkeeper found us and said it was no problem to use the beer pool at 5:00. She prepared it for us and offered us robes, slippers, and towels. We had our own towels and I had a robe, but we did use the slippers. Then, at 5:00, we went to her, paid 250 euros, and she invited us to the beer pool. She said she’d be back at 10:00 and we were welcome to use the infrared sauna and showers and drink as much beer as we wanted. There was a tap with lager in the beer pool room or we could go back to the tasting room and get the biologic or dark beer from there. I’d already had a few from the tasting room and I was itching to try the pool.
She set up a couple of lounge chairs for us and told us to have a good time. Then she left us completely alone to enjoy the pool at our leisure! Let me just say, it was awesome. We had a wonderful time! And honestly, after the beer pool experience, other beer spas will probably pale in comparison. One of the things I loved most about the beer pool was all the cool art on the walls. Whoever painted in there had a great, raunchy sense of humor! I noticed all the people in the murals were naked and had hilarious expressions on their faces.
Cool exhibit in beer pool room showing how beer ferments.
Beer tap. All you can drink. Plastic cups for safety.
Sauna.
Showers.
Yes, you can do this… or, at least we could. The naughty murals were inspiring.
Someone’s gloves on a beam. We thought they might be trunks.
I liked the panorama room, with its beautiful mural and scene of the surrounding countryside.
One of many empty glasses.
This was the information about what we were seeing. The museum has information in several languages.
The last room in the museum.
The way the pool looked before we got in.
At the beginning of our dip in the pool.
Check out the art!
We took a short break on the loungers because we needed to de-wrinkle a bit.
Bill was loving it!
Toward the end of our adventure.
A funny poem in the bathroom.
There is a special bathroom for patrons of the beer pool not to be used by employees or regular visitors.
Last look at the pool before we left…
I am about 5’2″ tall. The warm water and beer mixture came up to my chin. It was deeper than the pool we had in our backyard in Texas and, yes, you really can swim in it. We got in the pool, swam around, drank lots of beer, and eventually ditched our swimsuits. We stayed until about 8:00, then decided we’d had enough of our decadent beer pool adventure. One thing we didn’t bring but should have is soap and shampoo. But the shower worked fine for hosing off the beer aroma.
Gift!
We had an unforgettable time at the beer pool. Yes, it was absolutely worth paying 250 euros to do it, especially after hiking up a mountain. The hot beer water did nice things for my sore muscles. Would we do it again? Maybe, if we had the opportunity and the extra money. One thing I will mention is that I had forgotten that the Tirol region is full of curvy, two lane roads. If we did go to the beer pool again, I think we would stay in a hotel closer to Tarrenz than Lermoos because driving on dark, wet, curvy mountain roads after enjoying beer is not the safest idea. Fortunately, Bill was very careful about not drinking much. I have noticed that after my dips at the beer spas, my skin and hair is looking great!
Dinner last night at the hotel. I was gushing about the beer pool! And I was also a bit tipsy.
A video about the Starkenberger beer pool. Here, I see they didn’t fill it as high and they served beer in glass.
We checked out of the hotel this morning. The innkeepers had put a little goodbye card in the menu holder on our table. It was a very nice gesture. We said goodbye to the tour group and got on the road, experiencing no issues at the border. We got home at about 11:45am, after making a stop at that same exit where I ran into the pooping, farting lady. I think I speak for Bill when I say that our Beer and Fucking tour is sure to go down as one of our best trips. We had a marvelous time. I can’t wait to start planning our next adventure!
That’s what I’m calling our next planned trip. And no, it’s not because we’re planning to do a lot of boots knocking during our travels.
Since we’ve been back in Germany, Bill and I have been determined to try to see more. The last time we lived here, we didn’t travel very much during the first year of our stay. We thought we were going to get the standard three years. We ended up with just barely two years. Since Bill is now a contractor, we have decided not to take living in Germany for granted. It’s entirely possible that we’ll have to move again a year from now.
Bill has been wanting to visit Gruyeres, Switzerland since we lived here last time. We meant to go in 2008, but circumstances did not line up for us to make it to the land of chocolate, cheese, and weird museums. On Sunday afternoon, I was trying to come up with a plan for a weekend in Switzerland next month. Once again, the cards of fate seemed stacked against me. I had a hard time figuring out exactly where we should go. Then my attention shifted to Austria.
There is a hotel in a small town about twenty miles from Salzburg that offers a beer spa. I have been wanting to go to that hotel since our last long term stay in Europe. During our five years living in the States after our first Germany tour, I thought about how we could get there so I could take another beer bath. I wondered how I’d justify visiting Franking, Austria when we’d have to travel thousands of miles to get to Europe and there were so many other, bigger, more exciting cities we hadn’t yet seen. Salzburg itself is a great town and Bill and I were only there for a day back in 2012.
Anyway, I was looking at the hotel in Franking and noticed on the map that close to Franking, there is another town called Fucking (pronounced Fooking). Naturally, that tickled me, since I have a filthy sense of humor. I looked it up and discovered that this tiny little town has become the subject of much mockery from English speakers. Town officials have had to put up theft proof signs and closed circuit television in order to discourage tourists from stealing the signs and/or having intercourse in front of them. The town has been so rattled by tourists disturbing them that they even tried to get the name changed. It was not allowed.
Well, that piqued my interest. I told Bill about it and he agreed, Fucking is a town we need to visit, if only so I can get a photo of the theft proof signs. Maybe we’ll just drive through. Maybe we’ll stop for lunch. And it’s not far from Franking, where we can take beer baths and relax in a country atmosphere.
Then I started thinking about Austria’s famed Starkenberger beer pools. They are located at the Starkenberger brewery in Tarrenz, Austria. Looking around the Web site, I see that Tarrenz is a very picturesque area. Though a dip in the beer pool will be very costly, it’s the kind of thing that is often on a beer lover’s bucket list. Having already enjoyed a weekend at Chodovar’s beer wellness land in the Czech Republic, this is just the kind of activity for people like Bill and me. And it definitely fits in with the beer baths we hope to enjoy in Franking.
I started looking for lodging in Tarrenz and found there were slim pickings there. However, the area is well saturated with lodging in other towns. I chose a hotel in Lermoos that looks pretty damn awesome. Lermoos is about ten miles from Tarrenz. Better yet, because it’s not ski season time, the hotels are reasonably priced.
We have been to the Tyrol area of Austria, but in the past, we’ve always stayed in Garmisch-Partenkirchen at the Edelweiss Lodge. Garmisch-Partenkirchen, as we all know, is in Germany, and the Edelweiss Lodge is not exactly authentically European style accommodation. The only reason we went down to Garmisch-Partenkirchen was because Bill had conferences at the Edelweiss Lodge. I’d go with him and take day tours with other bored housewives. Now that Bill doesn’t go down there for work, it’s time we visited the area as tourists and checked it out more thoroughly. It will be nice to stay in Austria instead of Germany, too.
I have to admit, my first impressions of Austria back in 1997 were not all that positive. I thought it was a very pretty country with little soul. I was wrong about Austria. Every time I’ve been back, I’ve found more to like about it.
As for Switzerland, we are still planning a trip. I think maybe we’ll try to go to Gruyeres in October. Or maybe we’ll finally get to Ireland, which is another place we’ve been wanting to visit. These plans are, of course, not in line with our usual champagne bucket method of choosing places to go. The champagne bucket method should really be used in times when you can’t decide where to travel. This time, we know we want beer and Fucking, so there’s no need to involve fate.
Hopefully, this beer and Fucking tour will turn out beautifully. I look forward to blogging about it. Incidentally, I have also written about this on my main blog, but that post was composed before we made up our mind to actually visit this fabled part of Austria.
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