Champagne and Fresh Air

It’s Day 5 of our Austrian Activity Holiday and the sun is trying to shine. Our holiday guests are getting fitter by the day and the weight losses are mounting up.

Yesterday all of the guests went to Bregenz, a beautiful town situated on Lake Constance in Austria. Bregenz is famous for its open air theatre with the stage being suspended actually on the lake. It is a magnificent sight and the stage makes an appearance in the latest James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, as the location for one of the big fight scenes.

Our group spent the day either taking a boat trip for lunch, shopping or just wondering around this beautiful town and by 5 o’clock everyone was back safely, positively buzzing after their enjoyable day.

Then it was time for our champagne cable car ride. The Lech tourist office have created a charming activity by converting one of the cable cars into a bar. Guests can sip champagne as the cable car slowly ascends the large mountain Rufikopf, enabling us to gaze in amazement at the magnificent views across the snow-capped mountain ranges, the beautiful summer meadows and enjoy an aerial view of our hotel and the small town of Lech. It is a charming way to enjoy the evening and the sun shone which made it even more spectacular. When we reached the top of the mountain we were able to get out and wander around in the cool, fresh evening air which is a tonic in itself. No wonder so many of our guests return year after year.

After the champagne it was time for dinner which is always exquisitely presented and totally delicious. We do feel very spoiled and it is hard to believe that the food is all low-fat and specially prepared for our group.

As we relaxed into the evening the nerves were beginning to emerge as Thursday evening is Concert Night! My colleague, Mary, is Concert organiser and she has managed to engage some 14 acts to perform from our group! I am getting nervous too as I still don’t know the words to the song that I am supposed to be singing (miming) in the finale!

Over the years our Concert has gained something of a reputation and many English guests, not in our group, deliberately book their holiday to coincide with our week so that they can come to our concert. No pressure then! The other guests (non English) who are also staying in the hotel find us all rather strange as we are having such a very happy time. We create so much laughter and activity. I wonder what they will think of us after tonight?

To think that last Saturday only a handful of our 37 guests knew each other and now they are all great buddies, having the holiday of a lifetime together. That’s why we keep on organising this trip. It really is too good to miss.

Fresh air and champagne? You just can’t beat it!