An Alpine adventure for the ages
‘YOUR father’s waiting at the top,’ a Lycra-clad Austrian, descending from the summit, tells me and my son, as we push our bicycles up the final steep stretch of the road climbing the Falkenstein mountain.
Dad, 88, Lucas, 15, and I (somewhere in between) are on an activity holiday in the Austrian Lakes, staying in the Hotel Bergrose on the outskirts of the elegant town of Strobl.
On the shore of Lake Wolfgang, it’s a perfect base with a pool, table tennis and watersports, and we are given bikes and cycling routes, all beginning and ending at the hotel. Cyclists are so well catered for, there are inner-tube vending machines beside the traffic-free trails.
Locals told us the pilgrim trail over the Falkenstein mountain to St Wolfgang, where a hermit lived in the 10th Century, would be too much for Dad.
But off we went, with Dad leading the way while we lagged behind without the advantage of his electric bike – or attitude! Then we notched up more calories than miles after cycling to the renowned Zauner Cafe in Bad Ischl for their awesome pastries.
Leaving the bikes behind, on another day we took the Victorian cog railway up a precipitous track to the Schafberg summit, with its spectacular views of the other peaks and the lake below.
At St Gilgen, we visited the birthplace of Mozart’s mother and home of his sister Maria. The house is now a museum dedicated to Maria, ‘a gifted musician who lived in the shadow of her brother’. We were overshadowed here by the Zwölferhorn Mountain with its 50-year-old cable car, rising up through the clouds.
Five-course dinners awaited us at the hotel each night, devised by father and son chefs and served by the owner’s grandchildren.
Proof, in the white cheese dumpling and cherry pudding, that multi-generational endeavours are the way to go.
Headwater Holidays (headwater. com) offers week-long Austrian Lakes Activities holidays from €1,410pp including half-board, bike hire with GPS and flights.