September Holiday - Seventh Day

After breakfast on our seventh day (the 14th of September), we packed up, checked out and drove off to where we were to spend the next two days, 50 km away in the village of St. Daniel, at the "Daberer". The original idea had been to remain at the same place for longer, but our first hotel did not have a room available for as long as we wanted to stay, and so we moved to another hotel for the last part of our time in Austria.

View from our room towards the lake at 20 past 7

Yes, it is what it says - a Beer Hotel (in-house brewery). We stopped here on the way to our next hotel to buy some souvenirs.

The Daberer is much larger than our first hotel, and it has always been a hotel, unlike the first one which was and still is a working farm. O.K. had been to the Daberer before, but it has been considerably enlarged since his last stay five years ago.
Our room was in the older part of the hotel and still had very much a 1990s look and feel about it (which we didn't mind at all); it was spacious and clean.
You can look at more pictures and info about the hotel on their website (in English, too).

We arrived around lunch time but of course were not in need for lunch after the sumptuous breakfast at the former hotel. While our room was made ready, we were offered a free glass of prosecco on the hotel's sunlit terrace. A small gesture for a hotel but one that can make a real difference to how welcome you feel as a guest, I find.

After unpacking, O.K. showed me round the place; the hotel is located above the actual village on the edge of the forest, and a path leads to a pond that belongs to the hotel.

View from the hotel's terrace

The indoor swimming pool is underneath this cupola.

On the way to the dining room.

Our room.

View from our room across the flat roof of the spa extension.

The hotel's own woodland pond.

Can you see what I was trying to photograph here?

View of the hotel. Our room was in the far left section, hardly visible here.

St. Daniel

We then turned around and walked down through the village to the river Gail and a bit further on until we came across a settlement called Weidenburg, not more than a handful of houses, and this 16th century castle. It was in the middle of extensive renovation, and we were wondering at who would take on such a huge job - it was obviously lived in, with children's toys scattered in the back garden, a few open windows and other signs of life.

By now, it was mid-afternoon, and we were ready to explore the spa of our hotel. We remained there until it was time to get dressed for dinner. Excellent food, not unlike what we had been served for the past seven evenings, but a tad more sophisticated.

How were we going to spend our last full day tomorrow?

Read in 2019 - 20, 21, 22

Once again, I have a backlog of book reviews to write and am therefore posting three in one post.


# 20: Wild Grows the Heather in Devon
Michael Phillips 

A family story with a twist - the twist being that the husband "finds God", and along with him, the family fully embrace a new life based on Christian principles and their newfound faith, with the exception of one daughter. Amanda rebels against the drastic changes in how her parents now educate their children, and questions all that has been (and still is) good in her life.

The story is set in rural England and starts in 1896, at a time of great change in all aspects of society; science was taking quantum leaps, and new thoughts and ideas were constantly introduced. Debates and discussions were a popular pastime, and logical-minded Charles Rutherford has never given much thought to religion, seeing it more as an outdated tradition held up by backward country folk than as something that could influence his own life.

A chance encounter in the streets of London on his way to parliament turns out to be life-changing; not only for him, but also for his wife and their three children.

A well written book that works on many different layers - there is even an old family secret lurking in the background plus a political mystery as an undercurrent, and whether one is religiously enclined or not, readers can really care for the characters and want to know what is going to happen to them. This is #1 of a series, and when I finished this one (a freebie from the Kindle shop), I thought about getting the others (but have not done anything about it yet).


# 21: Nachts am Paragon Walk
Anne Perry

I have read several books by Anne Perry before. Her crime stories are usually set in Victorian London (therefore tying in nicely with my previous read) and center around Inspector Thomas Pitt and his wife Charlotte, who together manage to solve crimes.

One review I posted here in 2011; I must say I did not notice what I criticised back then this time around. 

Paragon Walk is a London street lined with the houses of wealthy citizens, many of them living there only "for the season". When a young lady is raped and murdered, it is clear that only one of those respectable citizens can be guilty. But who had a motive? And whose alibi is shaky?
The higher classes are reluctant talking to a humble Inspector, and so his wife infiltrates the closed circles of Paragon Walk (helped by her sister living there, too). Of course they solve the crime in the end, but unfortunately, two more inhabitants of Paragon Walk lose their lives until all is revealed.


I enjoyed this, and did not guess the solution until it was laid open at the end of the book.



# 22: The Case of the Hidden Flame
by Alison Golden

Another freebie from the Kindle shop, and one I read with particular interest as it is set on the island of Jersey, where O.K. and I spent our first holiday together back in May 2016.

It is subtitled "An Inspector David Graham Cozy Mystery" and # 2 in a series, but it was no problem that I have not (yet?) read # 1.

David Graham arrives at his new assignment on Jersey, and before he even has a chance to unpack, a dead woman is found on the beach - murdered! Now, murders have been a rarity on the peaceful island over the last decades, making the police force just a little complacent. But the new inspector manages to make his small team work harder than they have ever done, and of course in the end, they catch the murderer.

The solution is not obvious (at least not to me); the characters are well portrayed and mostly credible in their actions, the setting is described as I remember it, and the extra information about the inspector make it clear that there is enough material for more stories. Also, there are no unnecessary lengths, but it is not too fast-paced to feel rushed, either. A definite thumbs-up.

September Holiday - Sixth Day

Looks like most of you are sick and tired by now of my seemingly endless mountains-and-lake-pictures, and understandably so; I am going to post more such pictures today nonetheless, as my personal diary and to keep the photos I would otherwise delete at some stage.

Anyway, here is what Friday, the 13th of September was like.
It was the warmest day of our holiday so far, definitely warm enough to be out and about in shorts and t-shirt, even on the mountains and in the woods.

We had a specific mountain in mind we wanted to hike to, on "our" side of the lake again. As mentioned before, we did not have a very detailed map, only the free one from the hotel, but so far, sign posts had usually been very clear, and we were confident to find our way around. 
Well, we did - but at some stage we must have taken the wrong path, which meant a few extra kilometers of walking. Not unpleasantly so, as it was near the lake, but it lengthened our hike until we were on the right path again, and in the end it meant we were half an hour late for coffee and cake :-)

On the way home.

Our hotel is already in view.

Zoomed in on our hotel: The red ellipse marks our balcony, the quadrangle is the window where every morning I took the first picture from. The larger house to the right is the main building. Closer to the lake are the boathouse and the sauna.

There was still enough cake left for us to have a piece each, and coffee, but we had to pay for it; something we found slightly unnecessary. After all, it was not as if we had been day tourists sneaking in at the last minute, insisting on a free piece of cake - we were staying and paying guest for 7 nights (and not in the cheapest room, or being stingy about ordering drinks at dinner). But the waiter who brought us our coffees billed them, and we certainly didn't find it worth arguing about.

We had time for a very quick trip to the sauna, and then dinner.
It had been our last day at this hotel; tomorrow, we were going to leave here - not yet heading home, only to another hotel for two more nights.

Our original plan had been to stay at this place the entire time, but they didn't have a room available after the 14th, and so we split our time in Austria between two hotels.
I really liked this one, but was also looking forward to the other one, which O.K. knew from previous stays.

September Holiday - Fifth Day

Thursday, the 12th of September, was the fifth day of our holiday, and we chose a rather relaxed, slow pace for it. We had booked massages for the afternoon and therefore had to make sure to be back at the hotel in time.

Morning light over the lake, as seen from our window.

Like on our first day, we borrowed bikes, but this time cycled in the opposite direction. It was market day in Techendorf, the biggest community on Lake Weissensee, and we strolled around the stalls offering anything from hand-made baskets to bacon, jewellery to soaps. There had been hope to find a specific souvenir O.K. was looking for, but that particular stall wasn't there that day.

Back to the hotel to leave the bikes, and the same route back again on foot, to the chair lift that had been closed on Monday. I love chairlifts, especially the open kind where you are not enclosed in a cabin. This one takes you from Techendorf up to the height of Naggler Alm in 12 minutes.

We walked along the rim for a while and then back down to Naggl, where we had got off the ship the other day. Today, we boarded the ship there, and crossed the lake to "our" side. Coffee and cake was ready when we arrived at the hotel, and we had time for a rest in the sun before our massage appointments.

Afterwards, we met at the sauna, then dinner.
Another lovely day, and the most relaxing so far, with only about 11 km of walking, and good weather throughout.