Our Austrian Holiday so far!

On Saturday forty of us met up at Zurich Airport having travelled from Manchester, Heathrow or Birmingham and, on schedule, arrived within half an hour of each other. All was going so well until our transfer coach was delayed for 1 ½ hours due to an accident on the motorway which caused massive delays. So we, that’s myself and my two fellow holiday guides, looked after everyone’s luggage and we sent all our guests off shopping in the airport! The coach eventually arrived, everyone was wonderful and no one moaned once. Brilliant!

When we arrived in Lech in the Arlberg region of Austria, some two and a half hours later, a welcome drink of champagne awaited us literally as we stepped off the coach. What a welcome!

The views from the hotel are unbelievable. Beautiful mountains topped with snow, meadows blanketed with glorious flowers of every colour and description. Just imagine the scenes in the Sound of Music and that’s what we are looking at!

We have organised this holiday in the same hotel for 23 years. We have a packed programme and yesterday we enjoyed watching the Lech Town Band play in the town square, with the local residents dressed in traditional Austrian costume. It is a lovely sight. Last night, after an exquisitely presented four course dinner (all low fat of course) we watched a show of photographs of Lech in summer and winter. Everyone is relaxed and having a whale of a time.

But there is a serious side to this holiday. People come to eat healthily, take lots of exercise and learn about adopting a healthy lifestyle. Some are also serious about losing weight and we have seen some significant weight losses in previous years. To this end everyone who wanted to be was weighed in yesterday morning and each day, at 8 am, after the early morning brisk walk of 45 minutes, I weigh them again. This isn’t something I would normally recommend but unless they are monitored on a daily basis those drinks at the bar, the large and varied portions served to themselves each morning at breakfast can ruin their good intentions. And that’s not to mention the surreptitious apple strudel that might be consumed when no-one’s looking!

So today was the first day of monitoring. Despite generous portions of food and alcohol, because many had been on a couple of walks yesterday and some had even had a swim in the open air pool, most of them had lost weight this morning but some hadn’t. I’ve just finished giving them a talk on how to lose weight and portion sizes being crucial so I’m hoping the gainers will be losers tomorrow.

We are getting ready now to go trout fishing. It is an hour’s walk to the trout lake and we have to catch our own lunch. It is the most delicious trout I have ever eaten so I always feel it is worth the effort.
Some may go swimming afterwards and at 5 pm I will be teaching them aerobics in the school gym. This evening it’s quiz night so there will be lots of fun and laughter guaranteed.

Let’s hope it doesn’t rain for the trout fishing!