Hochgurgl – Around the world with Evie Bean

Jan 2024; having asked Bean of her preference of a hot holiday or a ski trip, and the fact that in Europe the snow was falling heavily, we cancelled a holiday of hot sunshine and booked one for snow in Solden and, we hoped, cold sunshine!! And we got lucky.

We are off – day one and this girl can’t wait to get up that mountain.

Tickets collected – it’s so easy now. Pay online, go to the machine and out they pop. Even better – for a 5 year old it is only 2 Euros a day!

First mountain image as we head up the mountain on day one.

Mummy, daddy and Bean about to head down.

Day one ski down

The difference between last year at Mayrhofen and this year at Solden was that only ‘full’ days were offered for ski school – 10am – 3pm in Solden. Both we and Bean felt that this was too long for a 5 year old. We all missed skiing together as a family in the afternoons. And by the time she was done the slopes were all cut up and we were all ready to finish for the day.

You can do night skiing at Obergurgl, Solden and Hochgurgl, on 3 different evenings each week. This was really fabulous fun and something about it made the Bean fly. By the second night it was official – I can no longer keep up with the Bean!

The slopes at Hochgurgl were great, wide and cruisy, so we ended up going back twice even though we stayed in Solden.

On a good day from the top cafe you can see over the border dropping dramatically into Italy.

Cheeky top cafe drinks looking down into Italy. Stunning.

There were some great fun slopes At Hochgurgl to.

Tunnels to go through, hands to high five and even a car to jump over!

Tobogganing was something else that we did. Great fun as Grandma could join in, and also a great activity for keeping the smiles on faces the morning when there was a complete white out.

A visit to the Motor Cycle museum at the top of the Timmelsjoch pass is a must if you are up at Hochgurgl. And you don’t need to drive there – you can ski in! it has an awesome cafe to.

The other place that is a must is the James Bond installation, built into the mountainside at 3080m (the very top).

The building for one of the scenes in James Bond – Spectre (the cafe!)

After a visit to the installation there’s nothing for it but for a drink in the cafe after (which has remarkably similar prices to the other mountain restaurants).

Time for our final descent. Was an icy last one, but Bean took it in her stride, and we got from the very top of the mountain back down to Solden in one long run.

What a holiday it was. We found as a family the runs at Hochgurgl better than those based out of Solden (wider and shallower, better fun slopes), but the extent of the lift passes it was hard to get everywhere in a week, especially taking ski school into the equation. We also had a pass to the local pool in Solden which was a great pool.

We had a break in the beautiful old city of Heidelberg on the way home, to visit the castle there and see the enormous wine barrels.

The castle houses the biggest wine barrel in the world. It has the capacity for 219,000 litres of wine!!! you can even walk on top of it.

There’s a splendid view over the city from the castles balcony.

There’s also a museum of pharmacists and, randomly, a huge Playmobil exhibition!

A small part of the Playmobil exhibition, which took up many large rooms.

Thankfully we stayed just late enough to catch this spectacular sunset before continuing the long drive back to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam

Due to catching the ferry from Ijmuiden, our trips often end with a day in Amsterdam. We enjoyed a boat tour on the canals, and then a visit to the Mouse Mansion- nothing short of a feat in craft, the the most intricate enormous dolls house for toy mice. it never fails to blow my mind.