John Edward Cooper’s Notes

[i] Originally arranged for 04:00
[ii] Originally to be 06:55–09:50 Lufthansa LH2505 Manchester–Munich

 

DAY 1 - ARRIVAL IN SEEFELD


Seefeld

On arrival at the airport you should retrieve your cases and proceed through customs to the Arrivals Hall. Please wait here and our Tour Manager or local representative will make contact with you. Please bear in mind that the Tour Manager may be travelling on the same flight, and so could be the last to arrive.

Please remain there until met.

A coach will then transfer you to your hotel, the four-star Hotel Hocheder (transfer time approximately 2 hours), where you stay for seven nights with breakfast and dinner included.

Hotel Details:
The Hocheder Hotel
Klosterstrasse 121, 6100 Seefeld in Tirol, Austria
Tel: 0043 5212 53200

Dinner is included this evening at the hotel. For any clients arriving on a later flight, a light buffet lunch will be served on departure day, in place of dinner on the first night

…I was awoken by my alarm clock, which was set for 1.30am. It went off again, ca.1.40am, for I’d hit the “snooze” button instead of switching off the alarm. Janet usually lies in bed for ¼-hour after being awoken by an alarm; so it was that she got up, ca.1.45am. Looked again on Google Maps at ways to get from “Hotel Hocheder” to “Hotel Restaurant Neuwirt” (02:05–02:11), and found Untermieming on Open Street Map (02:12–02:15). Showered, etc., after Janet vacated the bathroom. Shaved. Continued looking at Untermieming (03:05–03:06). Finding a map scale, which would show in sufficient detail from where the bus would stop in Obermieming to the railway station in Stams, proved impossible; but I found one that showed Untermieming and Stams but omitted some of the way down from Obermieming. When I printed it (two attempts, in fact), however, half of the page was blank. So I made a screen-capture image, and printed that.


Map, printed today, but here presented rather crumpled and a bit ripped from the use it got on 3 July 2023
Click on this, and other images, to enlarge

…Janet… packed my shaver, power supplies, connectors,… etc., in the suitcase that had been left open for last-minute things, and we padlocked it and put multicoloured straps on it. I packed both computers — the “new” Samsung and the Asus — and the WD Elements HDD in my rucksack, along with my camera, a pair of in-ear phones, and the notebook… I wound up the clock, as I’d left myself a note to do, and did this and that, before ceasing activity to await the arrival of G— B—. Janet noted that when “G— collected us… [it was] ‘almost’ light.” Sunrise today would be at 4.34am. I looked out, 3.45am or a minute or two before, and saw his grey van outside; so I opened the door and started carrying stuff out. He loaded the two suitcases in the back. I added my rucksack and I think Janet’s also went there. Janet and I again sat in the front, with Janet in the middle because she is a better conversationalist than I. We went along the usual route without incident.


Google Maps: Home to Manchester Airport

We arrived at Manchester Airport at 6.05am; so it was 4 hours 40 minutes before our scheduled departure. (Nevertheless, the Lufthansa check-in desks were open.) I’d originally planned to set out at 5.30am, for Janet wanted to be there three hours before departure, and I’d ascertained from Google that the journey time would be some 2 hours 10 minutes. But G— B— hadn’t been able to manage 5.30am because of a prior booking for later this morning; so he’d proposed 4am, and later 3.45am. Usually, we find that the three hours disappear seemingly quickly, sometimes almost too quickly; so it was unexpected that an additional 1½ hours today seemed almost interminable.
 It was a different check-in location for Lufthansa from previously: a different hall in the terminal from that for Jet2, and up in a lift. I thought perhaps that having checked in on-line, we’d just have to weigh our baggage on a machine, affix the tags that would be printed on the bags, and load them onto an automated conveyor; but no, we had to queue at a staffed check-in counter. (So prior “check in” was just a waste of my paper and printer-ink.) “We checked in,” Janet wrote, “then headed to Security — damn! my bag was searched. I didn’t realise I had a pair of manicure scissors in my backpack. Why weren’t they detected en route to France and back?! I hate that!” I got to the far side of Security at 6.45am, but because of the wait for Janet’s bag to be selected out of those pulled over, and searched, we weren’t airside till 7.05am.
 I dislike searching in airport catering establishments and frequently (or usually!) become disheartened. Last time, after a bit of a “wobble”, we went to the Upper Crust cafeteria, where I quite enjoyed a toasted “Firecracker Chicken and Chorizo” baguette; but there weren’t any of these there this time, nor was there anything appetising in Pret A Manger. But at W. H. Smith Janet suggested a “Chipotle Chicken Wrap”, with sweet corn, red pepper, mixed leaves and coriander. It did have “chipotle mayonnaise”: as a rule, I dislike the mayonnaise that lathers sandwiches in shops, and refer to it as “ĉuro”; but this was tolerable. I had a bottle of water as well. Janet had a 7Up Free, which she had with two of the bananas she’d brought from home. Then we waited, and waited, and checked the “Departures” monitor for the gate number to come up, and waited—
 I started up the Asus computer to use the Manchester Airport Wi-Fi (08:16). I looked at the Blogger version of the 1971 holiday in Austria (“Holiday in Austria (1)” and “Holiday in Austria (2)”: 08:16–08:17), and also looked again at Untermieming on Open Street Map (08:20–08:21).
 The boarding gate number appeared on the display at perhaps ca.9.45am, and we made our way there. From the waiting area by the gate, I saw the plane arrive. In the photo below, it is on its way to dock with the airbridge that’s visible to the left. The grey rectangles at the bottom of the photo are on the glass wall of a corridor between the grey-framed window and the waiting area.


Friday 30 June 2023 09:59:56
Arrival of our aircraft at Manchester Airport

Alighting passengers started emerging from the airbridge at 10.03am,[iii] turning left along the glass corridor; and they continued to do so, finally in dribs and drabs, till 10.14am. After that, first there was “Priority Group” boarding, ca.10.20am; then “Group 2” (10:23); “Group 3” (10:25); then my “Group 4” (10:31). Although Janet and I were in adjacent seats, her boarding group was “Group 5”, after mine.

[iii] So, if my observations are correct, that was only three minutes after I took the photo.

I saw in the emergency instructions, from the pocket in the back of the seat in front of me, that we were aboard an “Airbus 321neo”. Our seating positions were as shown below. When I sat in “20E”, there was already a young man in the window seat “20F”. There was no conversation. He was reading some printed material in English interspersed with algebraic equations.


Lufthansa Airbus A321neo, with our seats shown in red, highlighted in yellow

After the captain’s greeting came on the loudspeaker, he went on to say that the estimated flight time would be 1 hour 35 minutes, i.e. 20 minutes shorter than scheduled time. Taxiing started, ca.10.50am; and we took off at 10:59. The cabin crew came along, handing out bottles of water and little bars of chocolate; Janet gave me her chocolate. After studying the onboard refreshments menu from the seat pocket in front of me, I declined anything to eat or drink when the trolley came by.


The onboard refreshments menu

One thing puzzled me about the menu (and about the catalogue of luxury items also from the seat pocket): the prices were shown in both euros and something with a symbol like an “M” with a bar on each “leg” of the “M”: ‑M‑ . In the catalogue, e.g., there was one item on sale for “149,00 € | 41,000 ‑M‑”. I thought, “Wow, that’s an inflated currency!”; but, as I write this, I think that the comma in the latter must be a decimal separator as it is in the former, the former being a centesimally divided currency, the latter millesimally divided.[iv]

[iv] It’s to do with the redemption of “air miles” under Lufthansa’s loyalty and frequent flyer programme Miles & More.

We flew above cloud for much of the way, with no ground features visible below. After the aircraft’s descent through much low cloud there was revealed a patchwork of farms, farmhouses and hamlets. We landed at 13:33, and stopped at 13:39. The aircraft started emptying at 13:44. Actually to get to the main terminal we had to board a little train for a journey of two minutes’ duration.


Friday 30 June 2023 13:57:04
About to board the automated people mover at the Munich Airport Terminal 2 Satellite


Friday 30 June 2023 13:59:04
Aboard the Munich Airport people mover, arriving at Terminal 2

Then there were many flights of stairs to the top floor, for Passport Control, and after that we had to go all the way down many flights of other stairs. When I handed my passport over for stamping, I was asked for how long, and where, I would be staying. I wish we were still in the EU!


Friday 30 June 2023 13:59:52
Munich Airport, Terminal 2

I noted when we were at baggage reclaim, perhaps about to leave with our cases — “14:14” — and that we were “on [the] coach, ca.2.30pm.” Before that, in the arrivals hall, the Riviera Travel customers gathered around a man carrying a Riviera sign, who when he’d ticked off all our names on his list, and waited a few minutes for someone who hadn’t arrived yet, led us, dragging our luggage, to the coach. He was “Florian” and the driver was “Luke”, but they weren’t the ones who’d be looking after us this week. Our actual tour manager was occupied with the arrival of the rest of the party elsewhere.


Munich International Airport to Seefeld in Tirol. According to Google Maps, the 107-mile journey should take “1 hr 53 min”, but because of slow-moving traffic it took us nearly 3 hours.

I noted that we were on “Route ‘92’”, with destinations on signs “including Stuttgart [and] Salzburg. [We] hit slow-moving traffic a little before 3pm. [The traffic] speeded up in a tunnel (15:20). [There were] still signs pointing to ‘München’. [We were on the] ‘96’, still signs for ‘München’, 15:30. Back to a crawl, 15:31. [There was a] ‘Landeshauptstadt München’ sign. [We passed buildings with] shuttered windows, [with] fish-scale roofs and little fences on the border [of the roofs].”
 I thought that after an hour of being on the coach we ought to be well clear of Munich by now, but I kept seeing signs saying “München”. (I didn’t have access to maps, whether paper or electronic, which I do now as I’m writing this, and had no idea of the geography of the place.) But, on my description which I’ve just quoted above, on leaving the airport we joined the westbound A92, and skirted around the city on the A99 before turning left onto the eastbound A96 heading towards the city centre.
 At the end of the A96, we turned right, and went along the southbound A95 and out of the city. For this is what I wrote: “[At] 15:43, [we] got faster. [We were on the] ‘95’ [with a sign] ‘Garmisch 66km’. [It] started raining, 15:50. [Our progress was] variably fairly slow. [At] 16:05, [there was] very heavy rain.” I wrote elsewhere about the first part of the journey that the terrain was “all very flat”, with the implication that it didn’t seem possible that we were heading for very mountainous country. However, as I wrote later, “Mountains ahead [and] left and right came into view, 16:15”, and I commented that they were “cloud-shrouded”. Then there was a sign “Garmisch P. 24km”. The road “began to climb with valleys below [and with] Alpine-looking buildings, 16:19.” I also noted “huts in fields”. “[The mountains] would be impressively tall if not shrouded by cloud.” We passed an “entering ‘Zugspitzland’ sign, 16:24.”


Friday 30 June 2023 16:26:22
Much rain and cloud in the Bavarian Alps


Friday 30 June 2023 16:29:16
Much rain and cloud in the Bavarian Alps

We went through “a long tunnel, and again [another one], 16:35.” That was before we entered Garmisch-Partenkirchen.


Friday 30 June 2023 16:43:58
Passing Rathausplatz in Garmisch-Partenkirchen

I noted “ski jump, Garmisch”. Florian didn’t say much en route, but he did mention the ski jump, in the context of “Eddie the Eagle” having been there. I didn’t manage to photograph it.


Friday 30 June 2023 16:59:56
Alpine field and hut

My notes say that we “crossed [the] river to Munich, 17:02, a couple of times.” Actually, as I look at a map, it’s evident that we crossed it more than twice as it meandered this side, that side of the road: it was the Isar, one of the longest rivers of Bavaria, which arises in the Alps, flows through Munich, and is a tributary of the Danube. “[I saw an] ‘Innsbruck’ sign, 17:05. [We] crossed [the] border, 17:09.”


Friday 30 June 2023 17:12:52
Huts in the Alpine fields


Friday 30 June 2023 17:13:08
Huts in the Alpine fields

I wrote that I saw a “‘Seefeld’ sign”, but I didn’t note at what time. I did note when we arrived at the hotel, though: “Arr[ived], 17:22.”
 Our tour manager was there, and he introduced himself: “Bernie”. He told us:

• his phone number “+31□ □□□ □□□ □□” (“+31” because he was from the Netherlands);
• that dinner would be at 7pm this evening (but this time might vary from day to day);
• that we’d be given the menu for each day’s dinner at breakfast time, for us to make our choice of main course (obviously, this evening’s dinner was an exception);
• that breakfast tomorrow would be from 7.30am;
• that we’d meet to go for our guided tour of Innsbruck tomorrow at 9am, and expect to return to the hotel at 4pm.

I noted that there was a “couple from Thornton Cleveleys.” There was no check-in procedure to be undergone, which was welcome. We’ve been on holidays where we’ve had to present passports and fill in forms; but here, as in France last month, all that happened was that we were issued with a little cardboard wallet with a plastic door-key card in it:







We picked up one of their business cards as well at some time.





At some time, Janet also got her own key.







There was one small lift, into which only two couples with their luggage could just about squeeze. Along the corridor leading to our room there were three steps, but that presented little obstacle for me to lift both my suitcase and Janet’s. I noted that we “got in [the] room, ca.17:45.”
 We unstrapped and unzipped the cases, and I got Janet to locate the power supplies for the computers, etc. There were my bathroom bag and shaver as well, and I perhaps had a shave soon after I had access to the latter and to the bathroom. I set the computers up on the desk that was by the wall near my side of the bed (two single beds pushed together), and after delays eventually managed to log in to the hotel Wi-Fi (18:44–18:46).…
 A note says that I got “dreadfully upset when things disappeared”. At home, I know where most of the everyday things that I need are to be found — medications, equipment, documents, etc. — but here I kept forgetting where I’d put things: desk drawer? wardrobe bottom? this bag? that bag?
 Janet wrote: “In our room, which had a balcony (what a view! chalet hotels and houses surrounded by mountains. Beautiful!), I unpacked, and we went for dinner at 7pm.”
 Janet had a diet cola, and I a large Stiegl draught beer, from the bar (not on this occasion served at the table by a waiter). Stiegl is a Salzburg brewery. As we waited, I noticed that there was a bottle of grappa on one of the shelves behind the bar, so I had a glass of “my poison of choice” later as a “digestivo”.


Till receipt for the cola and beer. I didn’t get one for the grappa that I had later. We were paying in cash, not by debit card, so there was no real need for receipts.

There were 48 members of our Riviera Travel party. All but ten of these were accommodated at dinner and breakfast in one room, and these ten (including Janet and me, and the “couple from Thornton Cleveleys”, mentioned earlier) were seated at a long table in a relatively narrow room (narrower than my scribbled illustration, below, suggests) next to the first room.


Bernie the tour manager and Mieszko the driver had a small corner table assigned to them. The numbers 1–10 don’t correspond with the order of the names that I’ve listed below.

The problem with that arrangement was that three of the people (“4”, “6”, “8”) were “trapped” by the wall behind them and by one or two other people beside them. The seating along the walls was on benches. Being thus trapped is loathed and feared by Janet and me, and gives rise to feelings of panic. There was discussion about this arrangement: could the long table be divided? How many tables, in fact, underlay the tablecloth? The first opinion was three, but a repeated palpation revealed two.
 The ten of us were: Janet and I; Bill and Lil, the couple from Thornton Cleveleys (Briar Road, in fact); Val and Mal (so far, easy to remember!); Chris and Patsy (less easy); and a couple whose names we didn’t remember. These last were from Oswaldtwistle, and spoke with a pronounced but easy-on-the-ear (on mine, anyway) mid-Lancashire accent. Or she did. He had a cochlear implant, and his speech was somewhat “thickened” by deafness.
 This was the menu that was on the table. I opted for roast beef.



There were only a young man and a young woman serving, so it took them a long time to get around all 48 of the diners for each course — apart from for the salad course, for which one would get up and serve oneself from a table in the adjoining third room.
 I ate every course, but Janet only wanted the beef, so was sitting there inactive for most of the time. “We went for dinner at 7pm,” she wrote: “a nightmare for me! In the end I left at ca.9.15pm, leaving [John] with his grappa. Until ca.9pm all I’d had was a piece of bread! I had some beef and salad/veg. stuff. I was done. I had a shower, ‘sorted my bits’ and, finally, was in bed at 10.15pm. What a long day! I’d been awake since ca.1.45am and I was knackered!”
 We’d been in conversation with those adjacent to us, so I didn’t feel awkward or uncomfortable when Janet decided to go. There was only the dessert to be served now, anyway. Before we all broke up, Bernie said to us, “Schlafen Sie wohl”, which reminded me of Klara in Untermieming who, when we left the bar one night, said, “Schlafen Sie gut!” (“Holiday in Austria (2): Klara and Vroni”). Back in the room, I transferred 10 photos from the camera’s SD card to the WD Elements HDD (22:00), and copied them from there to “Pictures” on the Samsung computer (22:01). I was in bed, ca.22:30, so not long after Janet went to bed.

[Saturday 1 July 2023]