Our holiday to Europe and Austria was for 8 days skiing for Sanna and snowboarding for me along with the parents and our good Austrian friends the Mosbuger family.
Here we are in the lovely soft snow, we arrive in the tiny village where we were staying in a valley called Donnasbach

Ahhh lovely snowy walks in the snowy countryside

Sanna and I inside the parents hut warming up and just about to start breakfast before we goto the slopes.

Some Austrian salami and smoked ham, some of the meats they have for breakfast.

Some nice faces being pulled:
Vici Mosburger

Sanna

and mum

Franz Mosburger in the huts kitchen, cooking up a Austrian Feast like he always does well

Dad having a paddy cos he spilt Red wine on his tablecloth

Mr Alex Mosberger

The Mosburgers getting off the main chairlift of Donnasbach, Vici, Alex and Bridgete

Everybody having lunch together at the top of the mountain in a alcoholic hut

Looking down to the small Donnasbach vald village from halfway up the mountain

Sanna having some fun in the deep snow as we explored off-piste into a valley making our way through the tree’s down the valley.

I found this hunters lookout whilst exploring off-piste in a valley. I climbed up to have a good look around to see where we were. It was all made of just roughly cut down tree’s and some nails

The dreaded (well for dad) night time sleigh ride. Right at the bottom on the really fast bit Dad came off the back, hit the back of his head knocking him for six. He spent the following 2 days in Schladming’s hospital.

These are the huts that we stayed at in the village. We kept warm with log fires from the -5 to -10 that was outside at night.

and our snow covered cars that we would often find covered in a fresh layer of snow from overnight.

A nice close-up of some of the fresh morning snow and ice on the branches of a tree.

We visited poor dad in hospital where he was for 2 days the doctors wouldn’t let him leave. He had a sign over his bed for 24 hours to say NO FOOD, haha that was hard work for Dad 🙂

Nearer the end of the trip we went the massive Austrian ski resort of Schladming. These are the 4 turbo Gondolas that go really quickly from near the bottom to the top of the main mountain. On the left you can see in the distance down below the old town of Schladming.

Yummy lunchtime food up the mountain, this was baked potatoes with bits of chicken breast in spices with sourcream and garlic and chives sauce yummy.

We shared for pudding a local dessert made up of thick cooked pancakes chopped up and covered in icing sugar with a bowl of stewed plum that you dip it in, really nice!

The big hut at the top of Schladming, one of the biggest I’ve found before, the outside balcony was huge and had a super cheesy live bad playing all kinds of weird and cheesy versions of pop songs, we heard ‘Bob Sinclar – Love Generation’ Austrian cheesy style.

The steepest and hardest piste we found all 8 days skiing. It was a very steep Black that ended a long Red run and it was covered in just ice. Austrians were going everywhere into barriers and fences it was so funny but we both managed to get down without a single fall. This was right at the end of the last day of skiing.

I was only in England for 1 day as I was passing from Hong Kong onto Austria but I tracked down Dom, Rich W & Leo in the pub, yes Dom still needs a hair cut.

Our trip to Hong Kong for 4 days was a stopover on our way to Austria for our skiing and snowboarding holiday. Sanna and I had never been to Kong Kong before, the closest example to a city like this was Singapore so we were eager to see in which ways it was different.
Here we are crazy Hong Kong, The mist is not low cloud that day but pollution, it’s thick pollution all the time with this haze all over the city

We arrived off the plane and we went for a walk around the harbour and Star Walk which is a tribute to all of Hong Kong and China’s film star’s. Here’s Bruce Lee and Bruce Hasan

Here is my favourite martial artist Jackie Chan’s spot

The view from our hotel on Kimberly St in Kowloon, signs hanging over every street, how big do they need them! 🙂

Crazy streets but still Western influences

Instead of metal scaffolding they use bamboo! It is cheap, plentiful and bends nicely into shape. Even the most modern buildings skyscrapers e.t.c they still sue bamboo

Some lovely meat hanging on the side of the street, lovely!

One of the many large skyscrapers, this one caught my attention as it made me think of Lego pieces stuck it.

A good shot of Hong Kong city looking down from Victoria peak which is the highest part of the island. You get to it from a short but VERY steep tram ride up the hill to the peak

This is Repulse bay on the South side of Hong Kong Island. It is totally artificial, all the sand has been laid here to make a large beach that in the Summer is I heard very very busy.

A nice photo of Sanna at Repulse bay

This looks very much we are in Hong Kong now huh, lots of buddas and temples on the shoreline

Old in front and modern behind

Ah and where you have temples and buddas you have Joss sticks of course!

The bring of longevity at Repulse bay. They say if you walk over this your life is made longer by 3 days. They didn’t say if you could keep walking over it though 🙂

Murray house in Stanley on the South East side of Honk Kong island. Interesting story about this house, I’ll let wikipedia explain:

Once a government building in Central, it was dismantled in 1982 to make way for new buildings. The facade was stored in a warehouse after the building was dismantled, and the facade was rebuilt in Stanley in 1998. It was open to the public in 1999. It houses several restaurants and the Hong Kong Maritime Museum (see below). When it was rebuilt, the ink used to label the pieces had washed off, and when they had finished constructing the building, they had six columns left over. These columns now stand outside the building.

Day 3 we visited the remote Fishing village of Tai O. Most of the houses are built on stilts over the water.

You could buy as much dried

and fresh fish you could ever want, yum!

a very poor village this place was, this was the main street with all the houses backing onto it.

A large temple complex where the largest budda in China is on top of a hill, this is the view from the budda on the hill down to the temples below

The largest budda in China!

and the largest pick ‘n’ mix selection in the gift shop too

Joss sticks the size of missiles!

Back in central Hong Kong, how could people live like this I really don’t know

We met up for a night with Sanna’s old friend Alvin who she met in Southampton England when she doing her degree there.

More yummy looking food on the side of the road, at least this lot is cooked, but with its heads on

The tallest building in all of Honk Kong, for now of course

Just like the people in the city, the turtles in the park are all fighting for space.

Im quite happy with this waterfall shot I got the exposure just right here

Hong Kongs famous trams. The only double decker trams in the world.

Alvin, Sanna and me take a walk along the waterfront of the island, Alvin joins us from work, he’s a funds trader in the city.

The lovely dark Green Rolls Royce, specially customised for the 5 star hotel Peninsular in Hong Kong. They are made in my home town of Chichester, 2 are owned by the hotel to pick up there most distinguished guests from the airport.

Afternoon tea for two, this was the best tea and cakes I’ve ever had I have to say

Inside the beautiful hotel Peninsular Hong Kong

2007, Chinese year of the pig you know 😉

Our final night and meal with Alvin. He took us to a place that only locals would go to, it was a very interesting meal, we were the only non Chinese there and I think probably ever would be I guess.