Kössen, revisited

For the past three days (if we count Tuesday, when we drove the 140 kilometers from Freising south across the border into Tirol), Sabine, Martha, Alan, and I have been vacationing in Kössen. We had hatched this trip after Sabine and I had cross-country skied here last year and thought that our good friends would enjoy this place just as we did. Sabine had made our B&B reservations, and together we piled into her Skoda for the two-hour trip. We were greeted by fabulous snow, brilliant sunshine, and accommodations that are simply perfect.

Ferienhaus Landegger in Kössen, Austria

The picture shows our domicile for our stay here. We have two apartments, each consisting of a living room (the three windows right and left behind the balcony), a fully equipped kitchen, a bedroom , and a bathroom. We went for this spacious arrangement to be able to prepare our evening meals at home and be able to sit together over a bottle of wine or three. Each apartment costs 68 euros a night (for two people), which we think is dirt-cheap. The landlady is very nice, and we have a place for our XC skis.

You can tell how much snow there is. It was last week that Kössen received something like three feet of snow, and that was on top of a healthy base layer. The snow conditions are really, really good, even though a thawing trend today (with even a few sprinkles of rain) put a slight damper on things. But tomorrow it's supposed to be sunny again. The trails are amazing: Kössen alone has something like 140 kilometers of groomed trails, and there is no cost to use them. Our ski rentals (skis and boots) run 25 euros a person for three full days. It doesn't get much cheaper or more spectacular.

Why pay for Alpine skiing when Nordic is free?

Martha is starting to get the hang of the XC thing, and today we completed a 10-mile loop that ended up in a restaurant that served, among other things, smoked trout. Yesterday, Sabine and I shared a big helping of Spätzle that were topped with cheese and herbs. Weizenbier is our usual choice of drink, although the local swill, Stigl, seems to be preferred by most, judging by the number of urine-like beverages on the tables.

Our B&B has a sauna, and after today's heavy exercise we're about to use it. Seems as if Martha is going to hold out and nurse her sore limbs by means of a power nap. After the sauna we'll once again feast on local cheeses, cold cuts, and the fabulous bread that comes in a never-ending variety of flavors and consistencies. It's awfully cool that M&A's travel style is so compatible with ours as there are never any big discussions about our plans for dinner or what to do. Ah, I love my friends!

Jürgen