"Scheffau, the special place of the Wilden Kaiser" Scheffau am Wilden Kaiser by steevie_wanders

My first visit to Austria was a very flying visit during a 2 week Inter-Rail holiday in 1994. I spent only 1 or 2 days in Vienna, then had to train off all the way to Switzerland!

My second visit lasted a little longer: July to September 1996! Fresh out of University, I worked in a chalet in Kitzbuhel for one week, before moving on to the village of Scheffau Am Wilden Kaiser. My role was simple: assist the chef (who cooked the meals for the 40+ guests), run the bar, and clean rooms :)

The work was hard at times but my chalet mates were always fun, so no job was too dull. Most of the guests were there for walking holidays, and generally very nice too! In my precious free time I walked, went mountain biking, swam in the Hintersteiner See and ate big fat cakes along with lovely glasses of Dunkel Weissbier (dark wheat beer).

My schoolboy german language slowly came back to me, and I soon got into the swing of working hard and then cycling up into the Wilden Kaiser's before zooming back down, sometimes in the dark! My reward was a glass or two of dark wheat beer (the nearest thing to british ale, which i drank at the time). Yum!

My 3 months passed quickly, and I think if I hadn't got a French ski-season to look forward to, I would have been much sadder to say goodbye to the Tirol. My last day was very memorable, involving a side trip to the Oktoberfest on my way to salzburg airport. See Germany Travelogue!

Austria! I miss you! One day I will return! xx ps I loved the cows too. They had fantastic bells clanging across the mountainsides, and once I saw them wearing flowers in their hair (horns).

• Pros:Beautiful scenery, beautiful cows, lovely ales and foods
• Cons:A bit expensive? (for a young person in 1996)
• In a nutshell:Mountains, lakes, cows, beer, cake!