Last Full Day in CS Land

Perhaps not the ideal day to embark on a full day tour to Germany to visit Neuschwanstein Castle and Oberammergau, but it really was the most suitable day of the whole visit.  It was also the earliest start of the whole holiday, which didn't please Mr Grumpy, who hates early mornings, just like Snoopy.

King Ludwig's Folly

It was quite a long journey, no stops. We had the same guide we had for Krimml Falls, Charlotte, which was good because she was an excellent guide. We were just over two hours on the road. There's a very precise ticketing system on arrival. When you buy your entrance passes, you have an hour to get up to the castle, as the tickets have a number, and should you not be at the entrance when the number comes up on the board you've missed your slot.

You can walk up (allegedly about 45 minutes), take a shuttle bus (€2.60 return pp), horse drawn cart (rather more expensive). As Dave was suffering still a bit from the leg "wound" and I'd promised him no more difficult walking (what do I know, I've never been there!!), we took the shuttle bus. This, however, only took you to within a further ten minutes to walk to the Castle !! Not for the fainthearted.  Having said (or should I say moaned) all that, it was well worth the effort. Built in the 19th century by King Ludwig (The Mad), who had a fetish for the works of Wagner. Unfortunately, he insisted on designing and building rooms and towers long after his money (and sanity) ran out which meant that although a lot of the rooms were painted with themes from Wagner's operas, most of them (and, indeed, whole floors) remain unfinished to these days. Still, if it takes a mad man to create what's in this picture, then . . .

Our final stop before our last meal at the Post was Oberammergau. It is famous for holding the Passion Play every ten years; a day-long theatre of the life of Christ performed entirely by the village in return for saving them from the plague centuries ago. It also has a well-recommended ice cream parlour. This may be a bit crass but the last photograph of this blog is less of the religious and more of the material . . .



The Walkers' Reward!

Penultimate Full Day in Chalet School Land

The Alpenhof: possible site of the Chalet School?

Started off the day by doing some "little things" that weren't going to take much time, but were quite important to me. The first was the location of the Chalet School. It is generally agreed that the Alpenhof Hotel is the SITE of the Chalet School. Having been here and conducted my own experiments, I'm not so convinced. However, when I'm back home and have access to all the books, I'll read up all possible mentions before I stick my neck out!!

I also "trespassed" and took a couple of photos of the Alpenhof. And spookily, just after having taken the photos I bumped into the owner of the Hotel Post and obtained an update on the current status of the building, which I'll be sharing with FOCS in due course. As it was a hot day (in the high 20's!) and our week's travel pass had run out and we were still suffering from the aftereffects of our hike up the Feilalm, we decided to have day of rest in the hotel's swimming pool and sun lounger area. Wish we'd tried that earlier . . .

Chalet School Weekend

The ferry arrives at Scholastika

Saturday is the last day for using our Achensee Discovery Card, so last journey on the Lake.  Went up to Scholastika via Gaisalm.  When you know where to look, it's obvious where Dripping Rock is, but we couldn't work it out on our first trip on the Lake.  Went back to the little cafe where we sat before in Scholastika so I could do some work on the blog. It was a hot sunny day again, the weather has distinctly warmed up!! Then back on the ferry to Pertisau. As we were walking out to the Vitalberg Bar for a pre-dinner drink, we heard the Ave Maria playing. All the fields were being mown like mad - not with scythes as per CS, but with modern tractors. By Sunday, all the grass had been rolled up into rounds and covered with plastic - again, not exactly CS, but a modern take on something that has been going on for decades.



The Fellalm on the road from Pertisau

Sunday was promised as another nice day, so we decided on another CS walk up the Feilalm, site of the Mondscheinspitz, where Madge's birthday picnic took place.  All the girls including the "babies" went on that walk. Coincidentally, the daily pamphlet on our table at breakfast suggested this as an easy walk to do, so we thought "what the heck..."

I have never been so deceived in my life !!! However, that probably has something to do with the fact that instead of staying on the road to walk up, we turned off into the forest where there was a sign saying Feilalm. This was my fault as I freely admit, since School at the Chalet talks about being shaded by the trees. Biggest mistake ever!!!!!!!!! Thought I was going to pass out/collapse/have a heart attack/die before we got to the top. How I didn't is still a mystery to me. Having reached the Gasthaus, I have to say the struggle was entirely worth the view. It was fabulous. The temperatures were very high 20's by now which probably had much to do with my problems, dehydration being one of them. Having gulped down water, I did feel somewhat better and ready to face the descent. Which is where Dave discovered a problem with his leg and was in a lot of pain, poor thing.



Pertisau from the Fellalm restaurant

We struggled on, stopping every now and again to break the trek by sitting on one of the many benches set by the side of the trail for just that purpose. At one such bench, we started talking to an Italian couple, who were really nice, exchanging views on the state of the world, our countries and how nice Austria was. We stopped at the Gasthaus on the Pletzalchalm for more water and I decided to test my luck and ask the lovely waitress if she could phone us a taxi, even though we'd been warned there was no such thing easily obtained on the Achensee. No problem, out came father/grandfather/uncle in his car and drove us back to the Hotel Post.

CHalet School Land Day Six

Basilica church interior

Today is Innsbruck, very much Chalet School linked. It was a baking hot day and brought to mind the outing to Innsbruck to buy Madge's birthday present in School.

On the way into Innsbruck, I spent my time checking the roadsigns, looking for the names Kolsass and Weer. In 1985, we went skiing over Christmas and New Year for the first time with a group of friends to Kolsasses-Weer as it was called then. It was a wonderful Christmas Card Land experience, which included midnight Mass on Christmas Eve in the beautiful little church, singing "Stille Nacht" and walking back to our hotel in the gently-falling snow - perfect Chalet School! As an after note, I didn't find them on the way in, but was successful on the way back to Pertisau.



View from the River Inn

The tour began on entry to Innsbruck at Berg Isel (the Olympic ski jump site - our driver grabbed the mike from the guide at this point to say "Eddie the Eagle") and the Wilten Basilica church with its beautiful ceiling.  On from there to be dropped at the old city. What was advertised as "a walking tour of the old city" started - and ended -  with being taken to the Goldener Dachl and left then to wander around under our own steam - black mark against Thomson under Trade Descriptions' Act, as far as I'm concerned! - for nearly five hours. It wasn't too bad. I'd come prepared with a list of things to do, which we proceeded to do in so far as we could. We were somewhat constrained by building works at times. I'd discovered that there was an exhibition by the Austrian Alpine Club in the  Hofburg, but that was one of the areas under building works unfortunately. We managed most of the other things on my list - the Inn River, the Triumphal Arch ........ We also managed some really wonderful ice cream - mine with strawberries, Dave's with pineapples. Mmm mmm!!!! Dave was brave enough to climb the Stadtturm for the views over the city - my calves were still so painful from the Krimml Waterfall descent, that I couldn't face climbing the many stairs.

Golden Roof, Innsbruck

Must share the final joke of the day from our coach driver. As we were leaving the city, he took the mike to tell us to look to the right to see the American Embassy. Like Pavlov dogs, we all eagerly looked to see - MacDonalds !!!!!!!

To end the day appropriately in CS fashion, we were entertained by harpist while working our way through another delicious five course dinner at the Post. She was rather older than Frieda Mensch, but nothing's perfect!

Interlude: Excerpts from the "other one"



IT Support having a break

Hello, Obedient Husband here. If Linda is the supreme Tour Director on this Pertisau Pilgrimage, then I must be the IT Support guy; the one who sets up the blog and make the pictures prettier. On that subject, if anyone is finding that the blog takes a long time to load it's because all the pictures are in high resolution. Just have patience and if you want to download any just right click and "Save As". Anyway, having lived on a diet of technological science fiction for the last half century, reading The School At The Chalet came as a bit of culture shock!

A homestead in Scholastika

So, having read only a single Chalet book, how does the reality compare to a newcomer? The last time I came to Austria it was during a schnapps-fuelled Christmas skiing holiday with my then-newish wife Linda and some inebriated mates, nearly 30 years ago. Apart from the snow, it hasn't really changed much. As part of Linda's Pilgrimage on the first day we took the ferry from Pertisau to Scholastika, at the most northern point of the 9km-long Lake Achensee,walking a couple of kilometres inland to Achenkirk. I was struck by how this was such a gentle countryside: beautifully maintained houses, the sun reflecting off carved varnished wooden balconies onto well-manicured gardens, a handful of cows in fields as far as the eye can see covered in yellow, white and purple wild flowers, chewing contentedly, occasionally setting off a ding-dong of cow bells. Passing an occasional local inhabitant, but rarely being passed by a car (but being passed by plenty of enthusiastic bicyclists), exchanging a politely reserved "Guten Morgen", while all around is the imposing solidity of the foothills and mountains of the Tyrol. For me, the atmosphere here brings to mind the tendency for the English to hanker back to a simpler, more peaceful age. Or to emigrate to a less-stressful, more pleasant environment like, say, New Zealand's South Island. It strikes me that, with a certain vision, this little portion of Austria is more like an idealised vision of England than England ever was!


Pertisau from the lake

To an outsider, Austria seems curiously isolated. We spoke with a barman in the Post Hotel who reckoned that the Germans and the Swiss accounted for 98% of the tourism in the Pertisau area. Why the Swiss would travel to a neighbouring mountainous country for a holiday was explained: while the price of a beer was the English-equivalent of £3 a pint in Austria; it was around £10 in neighbouring Switzerland! So, only 2% of their custom was taken up by Brits or, at least, English speaking customers. Whether true or not, it does explain why English is rarely spoken or written here. Not a problem, really, as everyone is unfailingly polite in that sort of idealised English manner and you can normally get what you need without exasperation.



Pertisau from the mountains

Our guide on our trip to the Krimml Waterfall explained Austria's social/political situation. Austria is divided up into nine provinces, each having its own Austro-German dialect. All the children, however, go to school to learn "proper German", which proves to be a problem when they go home to a family who habitually speak a substantially distant version. None of the provinces are unduly large or crowded, the biggest being Innsbruck and Salzburg whose capitals are impressively old and beautiful but hardly the size of an inner-city Birmingham, Manchester or London! With that in mind, the trip back over the Gerlos Pass from Krimml down into the Ziller valley brought further considerations. Why was the whole valley so damned neat, for example? The hillsides either side were dotted with pristine farm houses surrounded by manicured, green fields. Not a piece of wild land or an unruly weed-infested field in sight! Is there a law that all acres of greenery must be mown and tended or that the whole valley must adhere to a sort of austrian disneyland code? Either way, I can see the attraction that this place had for EBD nearly 100 years ago to be used as a background for her stories. To the uninitiated, however, Pertisau stands on its own as a holiday destination.

Chalet School Land Day Five

View from the very top of the Krimml waterfalls

Apologies for the lapses in posting, but there have been two days' worth of excursions which have been exhausting/finished late, and blogging has been the last thing on my mind!

Thursday was an excursion to the Krimml Waterfalls. I didn't originally think of this as qualifying as Chalet School, but I've changed my mind. Firstly, water-based events are a regular occurrence in the series. Secondly, waterfalls also feature. Thirdly (and I'm ashamed to confess that I didn't realise this!), Krimml Falls are in the Gerlos Pass in the Zillerthal, which is a CS connection. This was described by our tour company, Thomson/Crystal as a half day tour. As we started at 10.30 am and got back to the Hotel Post at 6.45 pm, that doesn't quite qualify as "half day"!!


Rainbow from the spray

The run down through to Mayerhofen and Zell-am-Ziller was really scenic. We had a wonderful local guide, Charlotte, from whom we received lots of information. The Gerlos pass is 1628m high and the Krimml Waterfalls are the highest in Europe. you CAN walk all the way up them, but you really would have to be fit to do that. There are combinations of taxis to the middle station or the top and then back down; or you can choose to walk back down.



Bravely (we thought!), we decided to taxi to the top and walk down - approximately one and a half to one and three quarters of an hour. We managed it in an hour and ten minutes and felt really proud of ourselves. Mind, at times we were almost running down the path, it was so steep!! Was it worth it? Yes, it most emphatically was !! The views of the Falls were amazing and at times you could get close enough to breathe in the spray (which Charlotte told us was very health-giving). Lots of rainbows too. And the noise - couldn't hear whether the shutter had clicked on the camera. There was a perfectly situated gasthof at the bottom, where we could reward ourselves with a beer and a view of the lower part of the falls.

Chalet School Land Day Four

The little work horse that . . .

Today's a highlight Chalet day for me. We're going on the Achenseebahn to Jenbach (real name Spartz for we CS fans!) It's the 125th anniversary of the railway this year and it's the oldest steam cog railway in Europe. It figures hugely in the first twelve books when the School is situated in Austria and pops up now and again during its last location in Switzerland.



, , , pushes our carriages back up to Seespitz . .

We catch the ferry from Pertisau to Seespitz where the train starts its journey to Jenbach. It's quite busy but we manage to get seats in the open carriage, which is a disadvantage as far as Dave is concerned because one of the embers from the smoke land on his hand and give him a nasty burn. However, like a true Chalet School boy, there's very little fuss. There's plenty of opportunity for gazing at wildflowers on this trip. I hadn't expected there still to be so many around and I'm ashamed to say that my knowledge is pretty minimal, so I'll be looking all those up when I get back.




. . . in time to meet the ferry to Pertisau

The views on the way down (and back up) are wonderful. I spent some time trying to work out whether the occasional visible road was the one taken by the School but couldn't decide. I certainly wondered how on earth the School managed to get all the girls up (and down!) in the winter, especially when you consider how small some of the "Babies" were!

We arrived in Jenbach to discover that we either had to catch a train back up to the Achensee in fifteen minutes or wait two hours for the next return. We opted for return in fifteen minutes and I was quite relieved to see we weren't the only ones. When we reached Seespitz, we walked back to Pertisau to atone for dipping out in Jenbach.

Day Three in Chalet School Land

Leaving the Hotel Post by ferry to Buchau

Today was the day for the Rofanseilbahn up to what is considered the Sonnalpe of the CS series where Jem Russell built his Sanatorium.  As that lies on the other side of the Lake, we took the ferry to Buchau and walked through to the cable car - a little bit of a hike.  We didn't mind it too much though, as we went by some beautiful chalets, the carving on some of the balconies was amazing.





Lake Achensee from the Sonnalpe

Flashed the wonderful Achensee card again for the ride up. Wonderful views back down but not worth taking any photos from inside a diry-windowed cable car!! By the time we arrived the weather had changed, so we contented ourselves with admiring the marvellous views until the clouds socked in. Oh, and also with a shared piece of delicious Sachertorte and a cup of lovely hot chocolate.  Salved my conscience again with refusing cream on top of my chocolate, although since we were sharing the Sachertorte I didn't feel I could refuse it for the cake. Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it!! Dreading the weigh-in on 14th at Slimming World, but so grateful for the nearly three stones lost and the hours suffered in the Totton Leisure Centre's gym!


Catching the little train back to Seespitz in the rain

The plan was originally to go down to Spartz (Jenbach for the non-Chalets) from here on the Achensee cog railway, but we missed one by about a minute, thought about walking back to Seespitz but looking at the clouds, decided to take the next train back to Seespitz as it was due in a few minutes.  Extremely glad we did as the heavens opened and we would have been drowned - even in our wet weather gear! The ferry was waiting at Seespitz ( they normally do time these things well) and, as the weather was still iffy, we decided to take the ferry to Gaisalm and walk back to Dripping Rock (of much fame in the Chalet School).



Linda under the Dripping Rock

A word or two about the weather here. Whatever else Elinor may have manipulated/changed completely or partially, I have to give it to her when it comes to her weather situations.  It really can change in the blink of an eye!


It was still raining when we disembarked at Gaisalm, but off we trotted like good little Chalet School girls - what's a bit of rain! Once again, I was to be proved to be at fault regarding my interpretation of the books. I had always thought Dripping Rock to be closer to Gaisalm than the School - how wrong can you be ? Very wrong, actually. It is much closer to Pertisau, so if you only want to see Dripping Rock approach from Pertisau. The way is also much easier, although it is a little bit hairy just before you reach Dripping Rock. The way between Dripping Rock and Gaisalm does require a degree of agility. Because it had been raining, there was a bit of a flow, which certainly made the trek worthwhile.

Day Three ended with another lovely five course dinner at the Post and we were in bed asleep by 9pm!

Day Two in Chalet School Land

Lake Achensee from the Barenbad

Today's jaunt is the Barenbad.  Showers are predicted later, so it's a (relatively) early brekker so that we can get on the road early.  It's a short walk up to the Karwendelbahn and a flourish of the wonderful Achensee Pass for the ride up.  The view from the top is amazing and alone worth the ride. We decided, since this is partly an explore/walking/Chalet School emulation holiday to do the circular walk to the Barenbadalm and onward back to the Gasthaus at the top of the Karwendelbahn where we would suitably reward ourselves. Having walked it, I would suggest doing it in reverse to what we did as there's a lot of uphill the way we did it, which becomes downhill if you walk it in reverse. Glad we did the walk though it was worth it, even though it started to rain when we were at the Barenbadalm Gasthaus.  Only a shower. There were some foolhardy cyclists cycling up on part of the circular walk - the look on one woman's face did say it all!! How on earth the babies of the CS walked to the top is utterly beyond me!!! We puffed our way up the last steep slope to the Gasthaus at the Karwendelbahn with a real sense of achievement and headed straight in.



View of the Alpenhof Hotel from the cable car

Dave rewarded himself with a beer and I was going to be good and just have a coffee, but there was a delicious-looking Apfelstrudel just begging to be eaten, so Dave and I shared a piece (that made me feel slightly less guilty) and it was worth every last calorie. Sudden panic when the Gasthaus lady came out to say that it would be raining in five minutes (wonder if she was Marie the weatherwise?) and that it would be best to move inside. As we'd finished, we decided to make a run for the cable car before it started and just made it.  Took some photos of the Alpenhof in the trees (for non-Chalet people, this is the chalet reputed to be the site Elinor chose for her school). From the side balcony of our bedroom, I actually look right down on the Alpenhof.

By the time we reached the bottom of the lift, the rain was coming down in stair-rods so out came the wet weather gear (stored in my rucksack in all the best CS traditions). We waited a minute or so just to see if it would ease off.  No sign of that, so we ventured forth. Since we'd only paid £18 for the two coats we had our moneys worth in one shot!

Ventured out for a pre-dinner drink when the sun came out and found a really nice little bar called the Vittalberg above a little museum. We basked in the sun before returning to the Post for another excellent dinner.

Day One in Chalet School Land

After a much needed sleep, we were downstairs for breakfast as I wanted to be out and doing - we only have ten days and we had already prebooked three excursions - Neuschwanstein Castle, Krimml Waterfalls, and Innsbruck.  Thought it was only fair, as Dave isn't a CS fan, that we do some non-Chalet things. First stop was Reception for the Achensee Discovery Card - a great deal for 59 euros for a week's free travel on cable cars, Jenbach cog railway and ferries. Second stop was the Kron Prinz Karl Hotel jetty for the Achensee ferry and travel up to St Schokastika via Gaisalm (saving Dripping Rock for another day).



A typical chalet in Scholastika

We disembarked for a gentle stroll along the road to Achenkirk and a stop for a beer in the lovely sunshine. Having just missed a ferry back from Scholastika, we decided to stroll back to Achenseehof (walks were always going to be a central part of this holiday) to catch a ferry and here's where I began to get some firsthand experience of EBD's poetic licence when it comes to geography, distance and time! Also that sometimes things aren't adequately signposted when you've never actually been somewhere before and only have the knowledge from the story. There was a long wait at Achenseehof for the next ferry, so we decided to stroll on to Buchau. In my mind Buchau was always much further up the lake from all the stories I'd read, so that I didn't realise how far it really was. Having (finally!) arrived at what we thought should be Buchau jetty, there was no sign to say that it was. What to do? Walk on, of course, to Seespitz, because we'd seen where the ferry landed there on our stroll down the lakeside.  By now, given it was the first day, I'm beginning to feel seriously cream-crackered! So, onward to the ferry at Seespitz. Remembering that on the first arrival of Madge, Joey and Grizel at Seespitz in School, that Dick suggested they catch the ferry to Briesau as they might be tired, I felt fully justified that we did the same thing. Two very tired people arrived back at the Hotel Post much later than originally intended. Pretty sure we'd walked over 7 miles!

 A hot soaking bath followed by some of Matey's brilliant linament was the preferred option but not possible as we only had three quarters of an hour before meeting our rep to sort out the prebooked excursions. A quick shower had to do and then the rep was three quarters of an hour late! So annoying! Sorted all our questions out before enjoying another delicious dinner, my choice being very Chalet as I had the grilled lake perch.

We're Here!

Hotel Post, Pertisau

After a bit of an issue at Gatwick (no handling staff to unload and load the luggage on the plane - as the captain remarked, he assumed we wanted our luggage loaded in the plane!), we arrived in Chalet School Land about 7.30 pm on Saturday night.  We had a warm welcome at Hotel Post Reception for our check in and then hotfooted it up to our room to dump the bags before heading off to the Speisesaal for a well-deserved beer and a five-course meal. I say "room" but we actually have a suite really - a bathroom, loo, sitting-room and bedroom, on the fifth floor, with two balconies (one looks to the mountains at the back and the other on the side to the lake - best of both worlds!) The food was excellent and the service good, although English isn't widely spoken and my German isn't even basic!

The Beginning



This is what began it all - my lifetime love of and devotion to the writings of Elinor Brent-Dyer (fondly known to her fans as EBD), in particular the Chalet School Series and especially the first twelve books which are set in Pertisau-am-Achensee - renamed Briesau-am-Tiernsee -  in the books. For those who are not devotees, EBD visited this beautiful area on holiday in the early 1920s and it gave her the idea to set a school story here. Unknowingly, nearly thirty years ago, I was almost here when, with my husband and a group of friends, I went to a small place called Kolsasses-Weer on my first skiing trip.  Kolsasses-Weer lies halfway between Innsbruck and the Achensee.  Visiting the Achensee is a long-held dream which is shortly to become reality - can't wait !!