Alpine summer in Kitzbuhel

Continuing on the theme of work travel, I spent a week in the beautiful alpine village of Kitzbuhel in Austria. Its more popular as a skiing location, and the last time I had visited Kitzbuhel, it was snowed over. Therefore this trip was a wonderful surprise - it was just so picturesque and breathtaking in the summer, that I felt that if we ever buy a vacation home, Austria it would be:).

Also, thankfully this time I had more time to explore the area, unlike the last time, or the recent trip to Mallorca, so enjoyed it a lot more:). Even though we were on a training, we got a couple of free hours almost everyday and I made full use of them.

Alpine villages

I was staying at the Grand Hotel and the view outside was of light green trees and grass all around in the mountains, hints of colour from the abundant wildflowers in bloom everywhere and alpine wooden houses dotting the landscape - isn't this heavenly?

It was in this view all around us, with the sun shining bright and warm temperatures around, I had to sit in the training rooms, trying to concentrate on the discussions, while all the time waiting to go out and explore another new trail or walk next to a stream or lake! I must tell you it was quite tough - waking up to such a view every morning, and looking forward to the time of the day when I could go out. It's all very tough to explain....

There is not much that I can write about what I did and experienced over the whole week - the freshness, the energy and the total upliftment of the mood! All I can say is you need to be there to experience the freshness and heavenliness of being in the mountains!

Lake Schwarzee

As I mentioned, most of the days I went out for short walks in the area. One of the days, I went to the local lake, the Schwarzee. It was a nice walk through the greens. The lake is good to swim in too, as some of my colleagues did. Or you can just walk around it in a couple of hours.

Kitzbuhel village

Then one day I just walked along the local stream up to the village of Aurach. And a couple of times, just trekked up the mountain behind the hotel. The village is also worth a quick walk, just window shop a bit, visit the church and of course, admire its colourful houses.

The weather was perfect too - though the forecast was for rain every day, it was sunny and hot (touching 25-30 degrees often). I had no idea it could be so hot in the Alps, and summer hadn't even started!!
Even though the village is small, the variety of eating places is huge. We ate at Hotel Saint Theresa one day in the city which was a typical hotel restaurant.

View from Einsiedelei

One of the days, for dinner we went to a restaurant called Waldwirtschaft Einsiedelei supposedly 20 mins away from the hotel, up the mountain behind. It finally turned out to be an hour of uphill walk, but was totally worth it for the views of the valley it offered, as well as the outdoor seating. The last day we went to hauswirth in the village of Aurach. All these places were pretty: wooden Austrian houses offering typical Austrian fare and pretty views outside. It was a bit tough to find vegetarian options though.

Overall, I loved my time there, and have a feeling got fitter too:). Its a place I would like to go back often, to be able to cycle, paraglide and do other things it offers which I did not get time to do this time around.

Till the next time!

Mallorcan sunshine

I recently spent 4 days in the Spanish island of Mallorca on work. On the one hand, being able to travel on work sounds cool as it is cool to travel without paying for it or having to take leave! But on the other hand, work trips turn out to be so hectic that you don't really get a chance to explore the place and so end up feeling it was a total waste of a great location. I think it makes sense to always stay back a couple of days after finishing work to get the best out of a place, else its not as fun.

Tranquility

It was the same in my trip to Mallorca. We stayed at a beautiful beach resort called Melia de Mar near the capital city of Palma, and the first time I got a chance to sit in the sun, go to the pool or the sea was on the day we were leaving!! I still feel I don't really know much about the island and all it has to offer - will have to make another trip there to do that.

Nassau beach

Mallorca is an island off the coast of Spain, close to Africa. Its part of the Balearic archipelago, the most famous of which is the island of Ibiza. Mallorca is relatively huge and offers a wide variety of experiences - pretty beaches; sailing and other water sports in the sea; cycling and trekking in its many mountain ranges; or just partying in its capital city of Palma. The weather was great when I was there, sunny and warm. And the whole island had a very relaxed feel to it making it the ideal vacation spot.

One of the evenings, we took a catamaran ride in the bay of Palma which was fun. We were on a big boat for a couple of hours, with music and food to relax and enjoy. The sun decided to vanish just during those two hours which did not help at all and it turned out to be cooler than expected. At some point, the catamaran was parked in the sea and everyone started jumping into the sea to swim! I did resist the temptation for some time but then couldn't. I also jumped in, and realised the water was warmer than expected. Was very very refreshing, swimming in the open seas!

Palma cathedral

Another evening we took a 2 hour walking tour to explore the city of Palma which was a revelation, I wasn't expecting to see much as its a small island and would have expected the city to be quite small. But it was a very pretty old town, still existing in its original state as it was never bombed! The cathedral was the high point of the tour - imposing, majestic and visible from afar.

Streets of Palma

We walked around the town, crossing multiple churches along the narrow streets, stopping by speciality shops, walking on its very own Las Ramblas (like Barcelona), observing the typical Mallorcan houses of stone and spacious courtyards, visiting the guild buildings and just admiring the old architecture. It was a pleasure just to walk in the streets and appreciate how strong and robust buildings were made in the past.


Other that the city walk, the whole island felt like a typical beach resort kind of location, with lot of tourists enjoying the sun, small shops selling trinkets and so on. I heard the locations on the island away from Palma are more private, natural and pristine - maybe thats what I would explore on the next visit:).

Melia de Mar

We stayed at Melia Del Mar in the San Augustin area. It was a nice hotel with beautiful sea facing rooms, there were three pools within the hotel, plus of course the sea to swim in. I did go out in the sea one day; was exhilarating to just swim out in the open seas, to some flags buoys which were floating some way off.

Most of our meals were within the hotel. We went out to Palma once to the Nassau Beach (boathouse) for dinner and once to Mont Blanc. Both were located on the water and had pretty views. The food was usual so not much to write about.

On the whole I had a nice sunny and relaxed vacation but felt like I did not explore Mallorca at all. This nice little island deserves a lot more time than that:)