Geisterberg "Ghost Village" Mountaintop Play Paradise

Our second stop on our first day in Austria was to Geisterberg "Ghost Village," which was a mountain top play paradise for kids. The gondola left from the town we stayed in, but this was the last day it was operational. I'm so glad we made it up! After an ear-popping gondola ride to 5,100 feet, you hike 15 minutes uphill to the bottom of the adventure park, where we waited for the ghost bus, which would bring us to the top of the mountain to begin our fun. We had beers from our German hotel, which hit the spot in the sunshine. The Ghost Village is basically an outdoor area dotted with playgrounds and stations, spread up and down the mountain. It got us all hiking with minimal complaints from the kids. There were something like 13 play areas and at each one, the kids used the decoder they were given to figure out which stop it was and get the corresponding sticker. Good motivation! 

The playground at the parking lot for the gondola was also very impressive. I imagined we'd spend every day there, but were too busy exploring all of the other areas!

Our home for the week

Snow!

Poppin' the second beer of the day

Conquering her fears!

Decoding

Times like these, I wonder why we live in a flat country... and then I remember how much I like to bike everywhere! 

The perfect end to the day

We would have stayed all evening, but the mountain was shutting down. We sadly took the gondola back down and then checked into our hotel. We were given a brand new renovated suite with two rooms connected by a lounge with a kitchenette. The views over the next-door construction site disappointed, but everything else about the hotel was great. Thank you Oma and Opa!
 

Keltenblitz Toboggan Run

As was the case in the Dolomites two years ago, late October is low season in the mountain areas, where they are resting up before ski season begins. Two fun, kid things that I wanted to do were ending the weekend we arrived. So our first day in Austria was jam-packed! We had a gorgeous fall day to enjoy being in the mountains.

First stop: Keltenblitz Toboggan Run outside of Salzburg. We were the first to arrive before opening time, but they let us take the chair lift up to the top while we waited for the toboggan run to dry. Jude could go on his own and I thought it would be best to have him between us. We should have let him go first. I got rammed into once (while trying to take a photo of him-opps!). Pete rode with Maeve and she was loving it! You used a lever to start and stop. There were a few turns where we marveled that we stayed on the track! Would have loved to do it again, but there were more adventures to be had. 

Toboggan Run Video!

Great first Austrian adventure! 

Fall break road trip to Austria!

I am so happy to report that we got to go away this October break! This was the first week-long school holiday where we weren't confined to the NL since February break 2020. We had in mind to fly to Manchester and visit the lake district but didn't want to deal with the expense of England's testing requirements. Oma and Opa's timeshare exchange has a property in Austria, south of Salzburg, that had a 2 bedroom suite available for the week so we booked it and then held our breath that we'd get to go. It seemed better to have road trip plans that are more flexible than flights. Traveling planning in the time of COVID should be its own special blog post (spoiler: lots of anxiety). 

We had a 12-hour drive ahead of us to get to St. Johann im Pongau. We did 10 hours the first day, staying near the Austrian border in Bavaria for the night. We were on the road just after 5am, wanting to beat any traffic. It was dark all the way until we reached Germany. 

Gas station soft pretzel- I'll take it! 

Amsterdam friends moved back to Germany last year so we made plans to stop and see them to break up our trip. They took us to a lovely park with a little petting zoo (furry pigs!?) and playgrounds. Then we went to a local bakery for lunch (how many soft pretzels a day is too much?!). 

So good to see Esra, Hormoz, Nurray and Anis!

Back on the road, I got my turn to drive, reveling in flying down the autobahn with beautiful scenery all around! I don't know where the other traffic was that day, but it was not heading to Austria and that was wonderful! 

When we made it Bavaria and the mountains came into view, we were super pumped (the grownups that is, the kids couldn't take their eyes off their tablet!)

We stopped at a playground along lake Chiemsee near where we stayed.

I booked a hotel very last minute in a Bavarian town called Inzell. It was really charming. We had a hearty German dinner at a happening spot in town, listening to the bells ringing. Walking back to the hotel, we passed two men dressed in lederhosen carrying instruments. If only we could have gone back out to find the party! 

Slap happy! We'd thought they'd sleep a lot in the car, but they didn't, though they didn't complain at all either! 

We woke up to a brisk fall day. We had passed a farm selling pumpkins on our way into Inzell, so we made a stop on our way out of town.

The farm also sold boxes of peppers and since we didn't have exact change, we bought a box. The kids ate those things like apples almost every day! 

Barcelona Beach Day

We just had daylight savings here in the Netherlands and the dark, winter days are coming. I will hold on to these memories of our beautifully sunny final day in Barcelona. We had a late afternoon flight home so we had breakfast and soaked up the sun on the beach before we left. We are so grateful that we got to return!