The next stop on our agenda was Hintertux, Austria. The oldest nephew was taking part in a summer ski camp. Yes, you can ski all year long on this glacier in Austria, although the official winter season starts October 1st.
We were staying in the nearby village of Tux. We really liked our accommodations at the Hochhaus. Monika was great and started us off with a shot of hazelnut schnapps. How can you go wrong? Monika recommended a local pizza place for dinner a short walk from our B&B. Everyone got pizza and I got the grilled 3 meat with vegetables. Filets of beef, chicken, and pork, quite tasty.
Alyssa and I wanted to visit the ice cave on the glacier. So, we drove up the road and picked up Margaret and the middle nephew, Jojo. Will and his mom volunteered to babysit the little Si. Three gondola rides later, we finally reached the glacier. The ice cave tour was pretty cool. We were up and down ladders, trying not to loose our footing and trying to understand what our guide was telling us. He sounded like he learned English in a Scottish pub somewhere and apparently it was also hard to understand his German. Part of the tour included a boat ride on a glacial lake. That part of the tour was probably the least impressive. There may be a lake, but the rubber boat just fits into a tunnel. The boat to the end (maybe 50ft) and back. On the glacier there were also snow tubes, which my nephew got to enjoy as well.
The views from the observation platform were amazing. By that time we were all starving, so down 1 gondola ride to enjoy lunch. The restaurant was reasonably priced, which was quite surprising. Down another gondola and there was a playground and some 4 wheeled carts to ride around. Jojo enjoyed playing there as well and Margaret even found him a stuffed Luis. The mascot of this ski area is a glacial flea.
While those guys continued ski camp, the four of us took off for Bolzano, Italy. It was only a 2 1/2 hour drive from where we were. Having been to Italy last year Bolzano was more German than Italian. Being so close to the Austrian border all the signs are in both German and Italian. And if you don’t understand Italian, they immediately start speaking to you in German. I guess, we didn’t stand out as Americans. Our first stop was the Tyrol Anthropophagy Museum. It’s a museum just dedicated to Ötzi, the Iceman. He was found frozen in the Alps back in the early 90’s and is about 5,300 years old. There is a viewing window to the mummy in the cold chamber. They have analyzed everything about him including his last meal, his clothes, and even determining that he had been murdered.
Many of the restaurants in Bolzano seem to have a mixture of Asian inspired German food. So, dinner that night was no exception as we found a restaurant that had a number of stir fry options. I got what was supposed to be a very spicy dish. Yep, spicy in Europe is quite different than NM spicy. We stopped to watch an outdoor play that we found along the way. Well, since it was all in Italian, we only stayed 20 minutes as we didn’t understand what was going on. The next morning we were headed back to Germany’s Berchtesgaden. But first we stopped at the Runkelstein (Roncolo) Castle. It’s a medieval castle in Bolzano. They are famous for the numerous frescos both painted inside and outside the castle.
