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Our cross-country trippers Ray, Sabine, Yvonne and Caroline also received their equipment quite early in the morning and explored some of the 77 km of loipes with their amazing New Zealand cross-country teacher.
To make sure that everybody was happy and enjoying themselves, we arranged to meet for lunch around 13h at the Berggasthof Tenn, an old traditional mountain farmhouse with fabulous food. We were very glad to see Daniela again who went astray in the course of the morning since she took a wrong turn on the piste. TC Sybille arrived a little late, too, because she also got lost on the way there - luckily she got everything else co-ordinated! With outside temperatures of -20°C (!) quite a few of the trippers decided so stay a little longer in the cosy hut, others tried to get their normal body temperature back at the Après-Ski place Rundell at the bottom of the Hopfgarten gondola or in the hotel sauna prior to dinner. Thanks John, the “Tequila shot” in the sauna certainly also helped to get the body temperatures back to normal! Was this the reason, why we saw this (almost) naked family (6-7 people, 3 generations) sitting at a table in front of the sauna being served dinner and playing cards? No, it wasn’t! They were real – and the situation very weird!
After a lovely dinner, Kelvin initiated a “Schnaps” tasting at one of our tables to familiarize us with the local specialities. To your health, Kelvin! We enjoyed it to the utmost!
Then we mingled with the locals at their “Schützenfest” (Austrian Rifles Party),
a festival which takes places once a year in that particular hotel. Traditional “Lederhosen” and “Dirndl” as well as a typical Tyrolean music band was only part of the fun! We wonder why this event reminded Brian of the German TV programme “Bauer sucht Frau”! We also bought lots for the raffle to support the village clubs of fire-fighters and riflemen – everybody drew blanks except lucky Joel who won a typical Austrian “Vesper” with Sausage and Schnapps.
