Summertime on Kristberg

Hello dear Kristberg friends!

I am Charlotte and would like to show you around Kristberg in the summertime a little bit. A few girlfriends and I always spend our vacation here with the Zudrells' and we never fail to have a really great time.

We always arrive on foot, but of course you can get here very easily within 5 minutes via the Kristberg cable car. You can even come by car – up a narrow, winding mountain road.

We tried arriving by car once, but all those turns made us feel really queasy, so now we just enjoy a good walk over Innerberg.

After the greeting, Adolf shows us to our nice big room and then we can already have our first meal. The food is always excellent here, by the way, and some healthy herbs grow for us in this fresh air.

Adolf, who looks after us throughout our entire Kristberg vacation, visits us every morning to have a little chat with us or take our milk.

So, do you know what I am yet?

The guests are always greeted nicely, too, of course (perhaps by Adolf on his flute). They pick up your luggage at the end of the cable car line, but since we don't have much luggage with us, we don't really need that.

In the morning there's a wonderful breakfast buffet with muesli, fresh fruit, different cheeses and meats and bacon and Roswitha pampers you with the works.

Adolf takes us to the barn around 6 a.m. every morning, so that the milk is at the inn in time for breakfast (from 8 a.m.). Then Egon, the rooster, let's off his wake-up call and when the bells of St. Agatha ring at 8 a.m. a new day has begun in the wonderful countryside.

We get out of the barn around 9 a.m. and then Adolf gets ready for a hike with the guests. Chino, the house dog, goes along, too, to make sure everyone follows the path.

They go on mythical walks or Adolf tells wonderful stories about the miners and you can even visit a real mining tunnel in Bartholomäberg!

But I'll let Adolf tell you about that, because we've never gone along on the tour, as we have to eat all day in order to give good milk for butter and cheese.

The inn is the starting point for many walks and hikes with beautiful vistas of countless mountain tops and offers the nature-lover unique alpine plant life and a wonderful variety of animal life.

You can also visit some pastures, in which our children (calves) are kept. There you can try Montafon sour cheese, fresh milk and butter.

After the walks, the guests return to the inn and sometimes they come and see us and the piggys in the barn. But I think they just come to check whether we've been eating well all day. Some of them are really nice though and especially the children like to stroke us or watch us being milked.

Half of the milk is then fed to the goats (Hanni, Arabelle, Lisl, Greta and Paulinchen), because they can still be bottle-fed by the children.

The guests then sit on the terrace in the sun or play a few games, drink coffee and get really comfortable, or they take a little ride on a mountainbike. And we have the milking stress!

Dinner is from 6 p.m. and the guests really get pampered by Günter, Jepi and Klaudia (the kitchen team). We can see this through the window, because at dinner time we're allowed to wander around on the mountain a bit. The chickens (Helga, Sophi, Lore, Inge and Klara) roam around, too, looking for scraps. And the ducks (Hermann and Hermine) and the bunnies (Baby and Puzzy, who's about to have little ones again) can really enjoy the evening sun.

It's really great when the guests have a barbeque, because then we get to see everything up-close. Adolf doesn't let us at the salad buffet, though. He seems to think we would make too much of a mess, but actually we can already eat quite nicely.

After dinner there's a leisurely digestive stroll, a visit to a chapel, a game in the games room (table-tennis, -football, darts) or a cosy get-together in the lounge.

For the children there's a great playground with a slide, swings, a carrousel and a jungle-gym. We have loads of space to play football or badminton. Just don't let the balls roll down the mountain, or else we have to go fetch them again in Silbertal.

Football isn't our strong point so we prefer to settle down in front of the chapel and listen to the wonderful sounds of the mountain.

There's also a cat – it belongs to Roswitha (the lady of the house) and is called Kika. But we don't see her in the barn much. I think she had kittens and doesn't go out as much anymore because of that.

The junior manager is named Jürgen and he is always doing everything he can to offer the guests a relaxing vacation. You can go to him with any questions, complaints – and of course with praise. He's always open to ideas for events, parties or whatever else the guests think up.

Günter (also a junior manager) is responsible for the menu and he too is always available for ideas or constructive criticism.

The manager, Roswitha, does the rooms and the laundry and can usually be found in the ironing room. Only we cows find it impossible to get into this ironing room, as the doorway is just too narrow and we can't get our behinds through it.

And then there's Roland, who works at the Kristberg cable car. His girlfriend's name is Andrea and the two of them sometimes take our milk when Adolf doesn't have time to. But it's not that difficult with the new milking machines, is it?

Why don't you come by and try it out yourself!

When the weather is bad, there's always the indoor pool, the Silbertal mining museum, the Schruns local museum, a stroll around Bludenz or Dornbirn, or just curl up in bed and really enjoy the peace and quiet of the mountains!

How does that sound to you? Have we whet your appetite for a rainy day in the mountains?

The Zudrells, along with the Kristberg Panorama Inn team and us Kristberg animals would be thrilled to have you visit us and we promise you an enjoyable, relaxing vacation, surrounded by pure nature!

So we'll see you soon here on our little mountain!

Your Charlotte