It was an early start for us as we had a busy day planned, firstly we did a shortish walk, 8km, we took the cable car to the top of Galtzig and Helen had suggested a nice walk down avoiding the usual route. We followed the path to St Cristhof then turned back to St Anton.
Firstly we had to buy 2 passes for the cable cars, they are 34 euros each but if you consider the average cost of a trip is 10 euros it’ll not take long to make it pay. The dogs get free!
This is a really big and new car, very like the Falkirk wheel, you get in and it takes you up and over a huge wheel before you head off up the mountain, quite a feat of engineering.
The dogs are getting used to the cable cars now, they just sit and watch the view.
This is the view of St Anton from the car, about half way up. It was a little cloudy at the top so we expected to get cold but the sun was strong and it was still warm.
We nicked some bog roll from the toilet at the main station, we’ve run out and the shops are closed. Then we set off down hill, it’s very steep and going down hill can be quite sore on the calves, we’ll have strong legs after this holiday.
On the first bit of the path, this was actually a landrover track, we could have brought the car up!
We walked down, passed a few German women carrying big packs, they must be staying out the night. We found the lake that Helen had mentioned where they sat and had lunch last week.
Eventually we entered the forest and the walk was shaded, there are a few benches to rest on. It’s quite high up here so it is sometimes harder work than in Scotland.
We stumbled across this church just off the path, it was open which I found strange and it only had room for about 9 people.
As we walked back into town we spotted these huge snow making machines, they are all plumbed into the water supply and controlled by computer from the town. Sensors in the hill measure the snow levels and of it drops then these machines kick on and deliver snow to the areas where it is needed. There are over 100 of them spaced about the hillsides.
The big building on the right is the cable car station for this end of town, it’s a modern glass building.
We rushed back to the house as we had arranged to meet Helen in Samnaun, a little part of Switzerland, just across the border. Things are cheaper in Switzerland so Helen runs a bus to the town every week and people pay to be taken there. We had to follow along in the car as dogs are not allowed on the bus. We were running late so we had quick showers and then headed off for the drive of an hour.
It’s a lovely town, the sun was shining and it was very warm. We met up with Helen outside the post hotel, we were served by a very gay waiter, I had a huge ice cream for lunch!
Helen had to go and do work things so we wandered round the town a little, Susan bought a watch, I bought a swiss army knife – exciting ehh. We drove back and are meeting Helen and Anne for dinner in the restaurant down stairs later.
We’ve decided to stay here a little longer as we really like it. We now plan to leave on Tuesday 12th.
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