The last leg of our summer vacation was the best. Me and Gabriele had a great time in Austria. Our hotel was in the state of Carinthia, more specifically at Katschberg, in Spittal. It is a little mountain village with a few hotels specialized in summer and winter vacation packages for families with kids. It is a definite paradise for families really. All the hotels have animation for kids during the day and in the evening, plus special menu at their restaurants, family rooms equipped with kitchen stuff to prepare food for babies etc. There are ski-schools and ski-kindergartens for the winter season as well. We are thinking of returning there one winter with our kids.
In addition to all the kid oriented stuff each hotel has some kind of spa, with swimming pools and whirlpools, different kinds of baths, beauty treatments and massages. The weekly package that we have bought included some massages and treatments, too: hot-chocolate massage, classical upper-body massage, 10 minutes of solarium and half an hour in the hay-bed. We did them all and added some others to the list: hot stone massage, lymph drainage, facial treatment and, the best of all, lomi lomi nui. Lomi lomi nui was a great experience that lasted 1,5 hours with Hawaiian music in the background, relaxing smell of the massage oil and the able hands of the masseur. I would definitely recommend it to people that want absolute relaxation.
Apart from spending a lot of time in the swimming pool and the spa (I miss the hammam and sauna, and lying down on the rocking beds in the silent relaxation areas, sipping my green tea and reading a stupid magazine) we went for long walks every day either at Katschberg, on the hills, or nearby locations. It was extremely green everywhere we went. The forests were full of all kinds of berries. I have no idea how much I ate everyday during our walks. I just couldn't help myself from stopping to get nearly each and every berry around the walking tracks.
One day we went to St.Michael, down the ski tracks of Katschberg, a little village with its typical wooden houses all covered with colorful flowers hanging down the balconies. The park in the photo below was in St. Michael.
On a rainy day we went to Spittal, just for an hour or so. On our way to Spittal we stopped at Gmünd to visit a private museum: Porsche Automuseum of Helmut Pfeifhofer. Did you know that although Porsche GmbH was founded in Stuttgart in 1931 it was building cars in Gmünd during the 2° World War and moved back to Stuttgart later in the early 1950s?We even tried something new in Austria, for the very first time in our lives: golf. There was one hour of free golf lesson at the nearby golf club on our first day and we decided to give it a try. Watch the video below and see how it went for me :-P I did enjoy it, but I should warn you, I couldn't feel my arms that evening. It was tough :-)
It was a wonderful week in Austria. We came to the conclusion that we have to repeat these vacations-for-two whenever we get the chance.. to keep our sanity ;-)
Soon I will write about our 10 days in France. Keep checking this page ;-)
