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  • Day 14

    A Chalet girl at last.

    September 6, 2016 in Austria ⋅ 🌧 10 °C

    I'm sitting in the lounge at the Hotel Post in Pertisau as I write this. A lot has gone into getting here and its all my Mum's fault. She bought me my first Chalet School book but I digress.

    I started the day at the Museum of Tirolean Regional Heritage. I had thought it was the Tirolean Folk Museum but it was still very interesting. It had a lot of examples of objects and crafts used throughout the years. It was nice to see objects I'd read about and visualised completely wrong, such as stoves that were in the corner of a room and used for heating it. Nothing like what I imagined.

    Next door is the Hofkirche (Court Church). The museum is in a former Abbey. It is a beautiful church dominated by the Cenotaph of Maximilian I.

    After returning to the hotel to check out I made my way to the train station. The next part of the journey had been stressing me a bit as it wasn't prebooked like all my other travel plans. It was simple though, I went to the OBB (Austrian railways) office and told the clerk where I wanted to go and €11 later I had my ticket. I took a Euro City train to Jenbach, bus to Maurach, then another bus to Pertisau.
    My mobile hasn't worked in Austria, I assume Telstra doesn't provide service here so I have been relying on wifi. Innsbruck has great free wifi throughout the city, Pertisau not so much. Apart from knowing the hotel was by the lake I didn't really know where it was. Google maps works enough without internet to show me where I am but didn't provide detail. Eventually I wandered around a bit, found the Information service (it was closed but had maps outside) and realised if I'd stayed on for one more stop the bus would have stopped right outside the hotel door.

    The Hotel Post is lovely. It dates back well over 100 years. I am in a new part of the building and the room is spacious with a king single bed, small dressing table, arm chair and coffee table. I have a balcony which has both lake and meadow views. This is their basic single room!

    After unpacking I went for a walk.
    I found the information service again and bought my Achensee card which will give me free access to the boats, achenseebahn and cablecars. I also saw the EBD plaque.

    A sidenote: The Chalet School series is a series of books written by Elinor Brent-Dyer (EBD) from the 1920s with the last being published in 1970. The first 12 are set in Pertisau. There are many fans worldwide and I am not the first to come here in the footsteps of the Chalet School (and I won't be the last).
    From my balcony I can see the Alpenhof, a deserted hotel thought to be the fictional site of the school. My mum bought me four books in the series (there are over 50) when I was about 10 and had given her $10 of birthday money to buy me second hand books in Getaldton. It was the start of a lifelong interest.

    Anyway...
    I missed lunch so stopped at a cafe for something to eat. The menu had no english translation and the waiter didn't speak english. iTranslate was no help either. I ordered Germknodel which from the allergy ingormation I deduced it was made of flour, milk, eggs and nuts.
    I still have no idea what it was. My best guess is a warm dumpling with apple and jam inside sitting in custard. I'll include a photo and someone maybe able to identify it.

    It was a mistake though. I've booked half-board at the hotel which means breakfast and dinner (dinner is €10!).
    For dinner I had:
    A plate of self serve salad, they even had beetroot!
    Soup: bouillion with profiteroles. I ordered it because I wanted to see the profiteroles (thinking it was a mis-translation) but it had baby profiteroles floating on the top.
    Tirolean ravioli (just one)
    Beef stroganoff, for those ex Dellahale-ites who think I was brave, it was delicious and nothing like what we endured.
    Dessert was an egg liquor cream which as far as I could tell was a mousse like cream on the bottem and a berry liquor reduction on top.
    I declined cheese to finish.

    After hot weather for my entire trip It has turned cold and wet. Pertisau is about 900m above sea level, tomorrow will also be wet but Wednesday should fine up.

    Photos:
    Hotel Post
    Bread cutter at the museum
    Cenotaph at the Hofkirche
    Plaque commemerating Elinor Brent Dyer who used Pertisau as the setting for her books.
    My germknodel
    Boat (I want to call it a steamer) that goes to the various hamlets around the lake.
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