| # | through | # | FAQ |
Posted: Tue Jul 10, 2007 11:26 pm| Quote: |
|
Weekend to remember Pertisau is perfectly laundered for our arrival. The transfer from Munich airport, which includes a seamless crossing from Germany to Austria, has taken 90 minutes, and it hasn't stopped snowing; which is what you expect of the Alps in winter but don't always get. As we enter the village the driver points to a big old villa beside the lake: "Our English visitors call this place the Chalet School. I think you know the books? The lady who wrote them used to stay there when it was the Hotel Alpenhof." For literary detectives checking out the inspiration for the Chalet School stories - and devotees old enough to remember them - Pertisau has special significance. Otherwise, this scattered village above the Inn Valley has been largely forgotten by the British tourist industry. Yet it is the oldest resort in the Austrian Tirol. The Emperor Maximilian built a summer chalet here in 1480, and centuries later Sigmund Freud was a seasonal visitor, combining light rambling with heavy thinking. It is also well known to students of the natural-health industry. A Pertisau family, the Albrechts, are the sole producers and patent-holders of a unique local product: Tiroler Steinoil, or "rock oil", distilled from the fossilised remains of 180 million-year-old marine life. Its sulphurous smell is so pungent you feel it must be doing your rheumatics good. Elinor Brent-Dyer, whose series of girls' boarding school adventures outlived others of the genre, first spent a holiday at the Hotel Alpenhof in 1924. The following year The School at the Chalet was published, and 59 books and 46 years later the last story appeared. The series is now out of print, but our affable hosts at the Hotel Weisenhof, Johannes and Alexandra Entner, produce a timeworn edition of The Head Girl of the Chalet School. "Isn't that the Dristenkopf on the cover?" I ask, having been instantly mesmerised by Pertisau's "signature" mountain. It is a perfect cone of vertiginous crags and sombre conifers, and is almost as mysterious as the shuttered windows of the moribund Alpenhof. "Only a few people know the route to the top," says Alexandra, "and you can't ski down it." This is one of the beguiling things about Pertisau. Its alps are there to be admired as much as slid down. There are blue and red runs on the Dristenkopf's neighbours but by the chic, snooty or intimidating standards of many French or Swiss ski resorts it's a kindly, comfortable place, where snowboarding hooligans are thin on the slopes. Which is why I'm here; not to complete the skiing lessons I started 30 years ago but to enjoy its prime position at the gateway to three valleys that reach into the Karwendel Mountains. Pertisau's lake makes it a popular summer resort, but in winter the frosted waters of the Achensee, the shining mountain backdrop and snow-draped chalet roofs turn it into the stuff of Tirolean fairytale. A ragged fringe of icicles overhangs the entrance to the Hotel Weisenhof, which sits in the middle of a snowy meadow in the village. Inside, the hotel smells of pine, log fires and gluh wein. Outside, the air is warmed by the homely fragrance of cows. Like many Tirolean families, the Entners run a herd of dairy cattle, down from the high meadows for the winter and snugly quartered in the village cowshed. In the 1970s the handsome Weisenhof was a farmhouse with guest rooms, and regularly hosted parties of British schoolchildren. Today, no school could afford its expansive comfort, sophisticated kitchen and serious wine cellar; not to mention its magnificent "Wellness" centre, where the spa treatments find inventive things to do with the neighbourhood rock oil. "Forty thousand British children learnt to ski in this village," says Christoph Leithner, whose father founded Schischule Pertisau. Taking to the slopes, I recover my snowplough turn, but I have my sights set on other snowy frolics. Regular falls trim the mighty fir trees of the Karwendel national park, where we are spoilt for choice. Cross-country ski trails meander into the three valleys, and for those who want to wander off-piste there is "Nordic cruising" - a gentler version of the energetic langlauf, using shorter skis - or snow-shoe walking in the silent forest. I try everything, even a two-horse open sleigh ride up the Pletzach valley to the kind of restaurant that Alpine people modestly call a "hut", a rustic chalet dedicated to the provision of warmth, cheer and comfort eating. Our ballast of grostel - a regional hash of potatoes, onion, beef, ham and egg - is easily hauled by the sturdy Haflinger mares. On our last morning Pertisau springs one last treat. "Today," announces Christoph, "we are going snowbiking." Thus I'm introduced to the perfect winter sport for middle-aged persons who have lost their bottle for skiing or never found it in the first place. The Weisenhof is offering free "taster" courses in riding downhill on a bike with a single ski where the wheels should be and miniature skis fixed on your feet. They're quiet, light and don't require costly lessons; if you can ride a bike you can learn to snowbike in under an hour, using your weight to corner and slalom down the pistes. If you do fall off you don't fall far because - and here's the good bit - you are sitting down. I left "the world's first snowbike region" with a personal vision for my Alpine future: climb every mountain on a snowbike, and I'll stay one piste ahead of old age. Pertisau basics Getting there Pertisau is 90 minutes by road from Munich airport, which is served from London Heathrow by Lufthansa (0870 837 7747; www.lufthansa.co.uk) and British Airways (0870 850 9850; www.ba.com). Return flights from £85. If you do not wish to travel independently, Inntravel (01653 617906; www.inntravel.co.uk) offers three-night breaks with half board from £398 per person, including flights and transfers. Staying there The four-star Hotel Weisenhof (0043 5243 52460; www.wiesenhof.at; doubles from £112) is only a few minutes' walk from nursery slopes, ski school, cable-car station, cross-country trails and shops. All rooms have balconies, and the facilities of the Wellness centre (swimming pool, gym, Finnish sauna and range of treatment rooms) are exceptional. What it cost for two Three-night package £796 Skiing £24 Horse-drawn sleigh-ride £40 Meals £37 Drinks £44 Total £941 (Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk) |
I'm excited that CS got a mention in a national newspaper... although
the bit about "devotees old enough to remember them" amuses me. I'm
just 22 (yesterday!), I'm not that old!
output generated using printer-friendly topic mod. All times are GMT