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Scots football garnish in Garmisch

13th May 202413th May 2024 funtime65

They’re more used to winter sports and skiers but there will be some Scots football garnish in Garmisch this summer.

The Bavarian town, Garmisch-Partenkirchen to give it its full name, has become the location of choice for the Scotland football team.

For Euro 24 where they will take on hosts Germany, Switzerland and Hungary.

Boogie Scottishland: Scotland’s football team

The Germans, as I discovered on my recce there last month, are ready to put on quite the show for football fans this summer.

Including a monster set of goalposts the breadth of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin.

Which, of course, Scotland’s Tartan Army will see for themselves when they get to the final.

Go with the snow

What they and the team will find in Garmisch before then is a valley town where the beer flows even when it doesn’t snow.

I visited Garmisch out of season although to be fair the peaks are always white.

And the townsfolk proudly display their winter sports successes and the occasion when they invited the world to their town.

That was back in 1936 when they put on a dress rehearsal for another more infamous Games in Berlin in the summer.

The champions of those Winter Games are adorned on the walls of the restaurant bar where we clink steins.

And sample the best Bratwurst sausages, Wiener Schnitzel, Black Forest Gateaux and Augustiner lager.

Part of Kirchen

At the heart of the scenic town is its ski jump… not for the faint-hearted.

Particularly when you’re at best a blue/red run skier.

Steve Clarke and his players, and the fans, may want to take in the excellent Garmisch-Partenkirchen historical walking tour.

The imposing Neuschwanstein Castle, the inspiration for the Disney Castle, is a short drive away.

Germany’s highest hill Zugspitze dominates the skyscape and hikers, including our Top Flight party, happily scurried up to enjoy the views.

Tartan party

Scotland’s footballers will have an even bigger mountain to scale when they face Germany in the competition opener on June 14 in Munich.

But win lose or draw there will be plenty of Scots football garnish in Garmisch next month.

Countries, Europe

Why hiking is all Isere

3rd July 20233rd July 2023 funtime65

Why hiking is all Isere out of ski season and why I’m on slightly safer ground when it’s not all slippery underfoot.

The hills and the mountains call us not just in the winter for the thrills of Val D’Isere when the peaks are snow-capped.

But in the summer and the fall when the greenery and brownery give the landscape another hue.

When the Alps transform into a pleasure ground for hikers.

Although tread carefully if the walker coming up behind has a worn-down sole and comes flying towards you on limestone rock.

With my Top Flight party in Ehrwald telling me I ought to have given them a safe word when I passed by.

Now if you’ve been honing up on your fitness over the spring then you’ll be ready for any of those treks over 9,000 km of trails.

There are all sorts of walks – from a chilled stroll with a donkey to downright gnarly routes.

Nice and easy

Escape into the Wild & Unusual This itinerary in the Chartreuse offers a beautiful and easily accessible route (medium level of hiking) for a timeless six-day journey.

The “Escaping into the wild and unusual” tour introduces hikers to the secrets of the Chartreuse with a qualified guide.

Expect unique landscapes, traces of history, tales of life in the past and a visit to the recently renovated Grande Chartreuse Museum.

And explore the Echelles caves, seeing the Sardinian Way and more.

The hike is suitable from 12 years old, for those travelling solo, or as a family / with friends.

Book the Comfort Trip and the accommodation providers will organise transport for the luggage. Six nights/seven days from €855 / £735 pp

Tour de force

Grand tour du Vercors and the Traversée des Hauts Plateaux

And if you want to stretch your legs a bit more then what about a 410 km hiking trail and all its subsidiaries.

The GTV has been slightly modified and is now divided into 22 stages.

The complete hike lasts about three weeks but it can be broken up into smaller sections.

From one day on one stage, a weekend, a week, we’re told this is a majestic limestone citadel if we can keep our feet.

The classic three-day Traversée des Hauts-Plateaux is 52.5 km.

From Corrençon to Châtillon-en-Diois with wild camping. https://rando.parc-du-vercors.fr/en

And your little donkey

Does my ass look good in this? Lots of fun on a donkey ride

Donkey hiking is an immersive nature experience with a panoramic view of the Trièves plateau and the Dévoluy mountains,

Where you’ll be crossing the picturesque village of Mens.

Donkeys carry the equipment, or the youngest children, on this guided hike with overnight camping.

Reflections: Val D’Isere through the seasons

This trip includes one night in a tent at the foot of the Châtel mountain, a guide, donkeys, sleeping equipment and organic meals.

Available until 15 October and costs from €150 / £129 per adult and from €100 / £86 per child (under 15 years old).

Alternatively, a family (two adults, two children) costs from €450 / £387.

And so while we glory in the skiing of Val D’Isere, why hiking is all Isere too.

Countries, Europe

Walk around the Glock

26th March 202326th March 2023 funtime65

Tiroleans think nothing of crossing the border by foot to shop and today we’re taking a walk around the Glock.

All of which I found on my Top Flight for Schools hiking trip out to the Austrian Alps.

When our guide did just that for a quick hop into Bavaria.

While the rest of us were gasping for breath having climbed up (some of us on our hands and knees).

To the gated border crossing.

Open and hut case

Our Alpine friends, of course, think nothing of hiking from one mountain post to another.

Which is why huts and diners are set up along the way.

And watering holes where water is the most in-demand commodity.

And they charge a pretty Euro or five for the luxury, more a necessity, of a glass of spring water.

Of course these being the Alps then there are new hiking routes being carved out all the time.

All with wonderfully expressive names.

In peak form

And today we bring you The Glocknerkrone.

The Glocknerkrone in East Tirol traverses the most impressive peaks of the Glockner’s southern flanks on a six-stage tour.

Hikers come into close contact with the mountain landscape.

And the Hohe Tauern National Park with its unspoilt peaks.

Over a route length of 65.6kms and elevation differences of 3,737 metres.

The tour, classified as moderately difficult, starts in Matrei in East Tirol and leads in six stages to Kals am Großglockner.

Overnight stays are made in some of Kals’ finest mountain huts.

Group together: Trek with Top Flight friends

Such as the Sudetendeutsche Hut, Kalser Tauernhaus or the Luckner-Hut. www.glocknerkrone.at

They tell us that in addition to the Edelweißwiese and the Spinevitrol power place, extensive alpine pastures await you.

Jewels in the sun

Friendly invasion: Our crossing into Bavaria

The five jewels of the Glocknerkrone include:

The Sudetendeutsche Hütte , the Kalser Tauernhaus , the Lucknerhütte , the Glorerhütte and the Alpengasthof Glödis Refugium .

And on the Höhenweg Glocknerweg you will also meet:

The Äußere Steiner Alm , theBergeralm , the Stüdlhütte and the Salmhütte , where you can strengthen yourself during your hike.

So go out, take a walk around the Glock and climb every Austrian mountain.

And maybe carve out a new track for yourself.

Countries, Europe, Skiing

Aussie beer games and Tirol

3rd May 2022 funtime65

It’s probably a more restrained affair than the carnage of Aussie beer games and Tirol that I got caught up in back in the day.

But heck, Kitzbuhel in Austria has it all.

Our friends in Tirol have alerted us to the news that they have made it easier for English-speakers to learn about their picture-postcard resort.

Through the Museum Kitzbühel and its free audio guide.

In 33 chapters, it takes you through the areas of town history, winter sports and Alfongs Walde.

And from now on, English is also available to our visitors in addition to German.

All you need is a smartphone and the Hearonymus app, which can be downloaded free of charge from the App Store and Google Play Store.

Whether the Topdeck passengers of circa 1985 and 1986 make it into the annals (more likely anals) of Kitzbuhel, or its neighbour, Kirchberg history is another matter.

Das boot

Boot-iful: The Glass Boot. http://www.hopculture.com

Centred around the festivity in the party chalet was a beer game.

It involved a glass boot filled with best Austrian beer.

Among the rules was to keep the toe centred, pass in the correct direction.

And, of course, not to regurgitate when you turn the heel and hit the bubble.

Of course just to keep you lubricated between shots was the Hexengeist schnapps which you set fire to to before downing.

Schnapps to it

A strong chocolatey taste from what I can remember it was known among our circles as an F*** because that’s what you do when you drink it.

Search for ”Museum Kitzbühel” in the app and the voices of Wido Sieberer, museum director, Michael Berger-Walde, actor and grandson of Alfongs Walde, Melanie Preston and Nevena Lukic will accompany you.

Through all the exhibition areas and onto the spectacular roof terrace.

Visitors simply listen to the background, stories and anecdotes via the smartphone speakers or the headphones they have brought along.

The Museum Kitzbühel

The museum is situated in the Hinterstadt of Kitzbühel and it was first mentioned by name in the 16^th century.

Only the southwest tower dates from the time of the town’s founding around 1271.

Now, of course, when you’re in Kitzbuhel and Kirchberg you need to take part in the outdoorsy activities too.

We did, even though it was the autumn and we were moving on from the Oktoberfest.

Slip slidin’ away

Heart and Soll: With The Scary One in Soll

And that meant the tobogganing which, of course, I took an alternative way of negotiating…

On my back, sans my board…

And, yes, once the beer and schnapps and whisky wore off, it hurt like hell.

Particularly writhing around the bunk bend of the booze bus which also accommodated a kitchen downstairs.

I have, of course, been back since those days of Aussie beer games and Tirol.

With the Scary One skiing and sliding in Soll in the wintertime.

And on a walking trek in Ehrwald with the speedy superannuated.

And still on my back

With Top Flight for Schools where tobogganing was again on the schedule.

And despite the roll-on of years, yes, you guessed it.

I went down on my back and side, and went back again for more.

America, Countries, Europe, Skiing, Sport

A broom to sweep the Alpine bar

10th February 202210th February 2022 funtime65

You trudge the peaks to the top of Europe only to be handed a broom to sweep the Alpine bar.

This broom though is a curling accessory, you have a stone in hand and a circle on the ice rink to target.

It’s not what you’d expect when you are escorted through the curtain of the Ice Bar.

At the top of the Jungfraujoch in Switzerland.

But you’ve got a Swiss dram (yes, really) at the bar.

To warm and energise you for your initiation in the ancient Scottish game.

Ice bowls

Aye, ice bowls, as it is sometimes dismissively referred, was invented (as everything is) in Scotland.

When an ice skating religious minister glided across Duddingston Loch…

Well, that can’t be proved definitively.

But do check out the Henry Raeburn painting at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh.

Curling has us in our grip every four years when Scots Olympians take over Britain and our curlers swap their Saltires for Union Jacks.

Alas, just like golf which we also gave to the world, the world learned to do it better.

As evidenced in Beijing just now.

A Scottish gift to America

And we’ve struggled recently to replicate the success of Golden Girl Rhona Martin from the Salt Lake City Games in 2002.

Unsurprisingly as the Scottish footprint is all over the States the Americans are among the world’s leading curling nations.

And news comes to us from winter sports centre Lake Tahoe of how much more they put into the game and all winter sports.

With 17 of the US team calling the base in the Nevada/California border calling Lake Tahoe its home.

Learn to curl

Dark Destroyer: Curltime Jimmy in Switzerland

Helpfully the good folk of Lake Tahoe are offering help to curl and saying you’ll be able to show off on the next Zoom meet.

The rest (to get out there) you’ll have to ask your friendly neighbouring travel agents about.

Drams are made of this: Whisky in the Alps

Now, if you’re lucky enough to live in Scotland then you will be able to take your first baby steps in winter sports.

I’ve done it myself and yes with my old friends in Ireland Topflight for Schools, it has led me to the Winter Olympics.

Bavarian Games

Get your skis on: Channeling the 1936 Games

Albeit Hitler’s 1936 Games at Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Bavaria.

Where pictures of the winners adorn the walls of the showpiece restaurant in the town.

A page in history: German Olympic winner

And the centrepiece is the ski jump.

Maybe better sticking on firm ground (or ice).

Hand me a broom to sweep the Alpine bar.

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Wunderbar Germany is open again

4th January 20224th January 2022 funtime65

Ja beauty Wunderbar Germany is open again. Neujahr!

In the best booster of all, the UK has been recategorised as a ‘high-risk area by Germany’.

It sounds scary but it is in fact one down from ‘an area of Covid concern’ which meant temporary banned entry.

A high risk worth taking

Over to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office who gave us all a late-night pep.

They said: ‘From 23:00 GMT on 3 January 2022 the UK is designated a high-risk area.

‘You may enter Germany from the UK for any travel purpose if you are fully vaccinated.’

Right, if you’re not why not (and I need a note signed by a parent)?

And you rightly won’t be treated like the rest of the staff.

Jab, jab, jab

Our prayers are answered: The Bavarian town

They go on: ‘This means that travellers arriving from the UK, who are not fully vaccinated, are subject to 10-day quarantine, and test and release is available after 5 days.

“Fully vaccinated and recovered individuals are exempt from this requirement, once they have uploaded their proof of status on the pre-departure digital registration portal.

Yes, it’s not untrammelled entry but der baby steps.

And we’ll need a negative PCR test result that is no more than 48 hours old at the point of departure, if travelling to Germany via plane, train, bus or ferry.

Our prayers are answered

It sounds as if our Christmas prayers have been answered.

And I think I know who has been behind this.

Yes, the most connected man in Travel only got in touch with Jesus himself last year.

And I asked him if he would get the show back on.

Jesus prophecy

By Jesus, of course, I mean Frederik Mayet who I interviewed last year ahead of the renewal of the Oberammergau Passionsspiele this year.

I had, of course, done my prep work in the Bavarian town on my Top Flight For Schools trip to Ehrwald in the Austrian Tyrol.

And Frederik assured me that he has been growing his beard assiduously since the lockdown in preparation for his big part.

All of which I recognise as the mark of a holy man as I’d done.

By growing a beardie on the same on the Camino to Santiago.

Oberammergau

And so you can plan for your Oberammergau either independently.

Or as we discovered on a quick browse through agents McCabe Pilgrimages.

They are offering a one-week, two-centre holiday combining a choice of Austrian resort hotels with the 2020 Oberammergau Passion Play.

With prices starting at £1,670.

Germany, here we come

Jesus won’t be the only Second Coming to Germany in 2022.

We aim to be back too having kept in touch right through 2021 with our German friends.

While Daddy’s Little Girl aims to fulfil her trip to Berlin (we might just follow on).

Ja, it’s a beauty, and Ja Wunderbar Germany is open again.

And we’re open to clink steins, look into our pals’ eyes and bark Prost.

Just like I’ve been doing since I first fell in love with Germany 37 years ago.

And yes, if it’s good enough for our Teuton pals, then what’s keeping notre amis en France?

Countries, Europe, Pilgrimage

Growing your beardie for Obeardammergau

15th April 202115th April 2021 funtime65

So I HAVE been using my time productively in the last year… growing my beardie for the rescheduled Oberammergau, or Obeardammergau, for next year!

In a world of imitations and accessories the ten-yearly Oberammergau Passion Play keeps it real.

And they require of their participants to grow their hair and beards from a year out of the Passion Play.

Our friends at Der Passionspiele have been updating us on their preparations for next year’s renewal of the world-famous spectacle.

The Spanish Flu

Giddy up: Always a showpiece in Oberammergau

And our Bavarian friends have experience and precedence in these matters having been down this route 100 years ago.

When the Spanish Flu ravaged the world in 1920 the organisers gave themselves another two years before putting on the Passion Play.

Such prescience should come as little surprise to us.

Because as we all know the Passion Play itself was born out of The Black Death.

The Lord is a listening Lord

Giddie up: Always an occasion in Oberammergau

The villagers had promised to put on a tribute to Our Lord in their village if they were rid of the plague.

And God being a listening God, it worked.

Fast forward to today and Passion Play Oberammergau 2020 was in full flight when an all too familiar intruder knocked.

And only eight weeks out of Jesus taking his first steps they had to rearrange their plans.

All of which means that Oberammergau 2022 will be even better for the organisers having had two more years to plan.

Der youth

Oberammergau 2022 will be putting the emphasis on the youth of today and tomorrow.

And they have special offers for tickets for the spectacle.

Oberammergau truly is a spectacle, in and out of Passion Play.

I saw for myself on my Top Flight trip out there on how it wears its history on the side of its buildings.

While the locals like nothing better than dressing up.

Whether it be in the fashions of Palestine 2,000 years ago or in liederhosen.

And, of course, it’ll put a smile on your face to be sat opposite historical figures and be able to clink steins and say Prost, at the end of the day.

We’ll be keeping you up to date on all that’s going on as the year progresses.

But now that I’ve no place to go thanks to our politicians…

I just think I’ll sit here and watch my hair grow and dream of Germany.

Uncategorized

Moanday Morning – Electioneering

25th November 201925th November 2019 funtime65

Holidays are coming and so is electioneering. In fact where you are it may already be here.

All over Britain people are drawing curtains and turning down their televisions for fear of encouraging the doorsteppers.

Our time will come in Ireland in the New Year.

When election posters will go up on every available pole.

No electioneering here: In Tirol, Austria

It’s like being gatecrashed by the annoying people down the pub.

It’s not just that they have an opinion on everything and promise you the Earth with no intention of delivering.

Or eat into your time when you’re watching I’m A Celebrity.

But those damned posters are so distracting in your eyeline when you’re driving.

At Thiepval, Belgium where they honour my Great-Uncle

I’ve seen how they do it in other countries and although, of course, I’ve not been in the tinpot dictatorships of the world.

I’ve found other people do do it better.

For example in Ehrwald in Tirol in Austria https://www.tyrol.com.

Where they were holding a general election when we visited with https://topflightforschools.ie.

You wouldn’t have known it as nothing cluttered the pure white vista.

And Daniella, our Italian hotel host, seemed pretty non-plussed on Election Day when I’d asked who’d won.

In other European countries too they make sure politicians don’t become a blot on the landscape.

Like in Belgium where they make sure half of their government is French-Belgian and the other half Flemish.

They know from history that compromise is the only way to peace… A pilgrim’s prayer and https://www.visitflanders.com/en/?country=en_GB.

You may have caught on that screen in the corner of your room that the Americans are ratcheting up their Presidential race.

But when we visited New York as a family back in November 2008 it was all low-key on the street.

Yes, you could get buttons (or pins as we like to call them).

And I recall wearing a We’re With The Duke button when I was working in Boston in 1988.

I can always be depended on to pick a loser.

Back to Obama and that election race and it being Halloween when we visited I was particularly taken by the Obama pumpkins.

While even better are the Trumpkins… New Yorkers https://www.nycvb.com can be guaranteed to give you your (not their) opinion too.

And have been since the days of Hamilton…

Vote this way

Of course for all our ennui with politicians and elections there are some countries for whim true democracy is still nascent.

Which our South African hosts shared tales of queueing from the early hours to vote Nelson Mandela in in the Nineties.

When I visited Port Elizabeth http://www.visiteasterncape.co.za and the Eastern Cape with https://www.southafrica.net/uk/en/.

I’m putting my cross next to the Monster Raving Looney Party.