Salzburger Skiwelt, St Veit im Pongau, St Johann Alpendorf, Wagrain and Flachau

 Back again in Austria, Ski Amade (https://www.skiamade.com/en) for some skiing and messing with the Visually Impaired and Blind ski gang. Another excellent trip. ok conditions were poor on tuesday and especially wednesday when it was a complete white out, but excellent weather and conditions on Monday and Friday particularly.  The Metzgerwirt hotel (https://www.hotel-metzgerwirt.com/en/) treated us well as did Cafe Platzhirsch - St. Veit aka Theresas  bar on the Market square, we had some nice evenings singing and playing music, some good chats and craic as ever.  

Thanks to Chef de Mission Dave and the guys for organising it, and Siegi Tours(https://siegitours.com/) Irene, Kirsten and Michael for helping put together such a great trip again. Til Next year... #SkiAmade #SaltburgerSkiWelt (https://www.salzburgersportwelt.com/)

St Veit im Pongau - Ski Amade 2023

Back again for more punishment. Now with living with COVID and no real restrictions to speak of, it was a different experience than 2022. As a result we had a few more attending including some new to the group which is nice. Weather and conditions despite the doom and gloom over christmas was excellent, and the snow under foot or ski held up quite well, one whiteout morning on the thursday, we gambled and went out in it and stayed in a cabin until it cleared or we were above the cloud. Only once went over to Flachau on the G-link but excellent skiing over there. Again 2 excellent sing song nights in theresas bar, otherwise the St Veit Market square area is very quiet. As ever the week went so fast, and was back in a cold rainy Dublin before you knew it.

St. Veit im Pongau - Ski Amade - Snowspace St. Johann-Alpendorf, Wagrain and Flachau

Another great trip with the specker gang to the salzburger skiwelt. First trip after the COVID-19 restrictions have been lifted, harder to organise and a few old heads didnt make it this year sadly. I still wear a mask on the flight and buses and on the G-Link gondola. A different hotel this year the hotel metzgerwirt in st veit, not as central to the train station as the Post Hotel in Schwarzach, but ok. Skiing with Mark and a few days with Terry and Corina, made some km ok. The ususal sing son in Theresas bar across the square very helpful. Roll on next year.

Lagos, Portgual, Surf Trip

Having attempted surfing on a number of occasions in the west of Ireland, my associates Ivan and Lee convinced me to go to Portugal and have a few days surfing as compensation for us being unable to coordinate a ski trip this year.  

Lagos, Portugal was where we stayed and with Filsurf (www.filsurf.com) we booked a couple of days surfing. I must say it worked out well, after trying a couple of locations on the south coast, and then one on the west coast on Wednesday we concluded that conditions were not suitable for us, and it would be better based on the weather reports to try Thursday and Saturday. Praia de Cordoama was where we chose to dip our toes into the water. The instructor was excellent with his guidance, personally, I struggled on Thursday, too many bad habits, the instructor was very patient with me but had a much better Saturday.

Our bodies felt the effects on Friday, and a walk 5km about along the cliffs emphasized this.
Overall it was a great trip and reasonably priced. It was a good time of the year not too busy and nice weather, the resort had a real calm before the summer storm, feel with everyone we met in good form. I would recommend it and eagerly go again.


First time in Portugal so add it to the map.


visited 24 states (10.6%)

Ski Amade, Alpendorf and Flachau

My annual ski trip, this year again with the Specker Gang, and for the 5th time in Ski Amade. A great trip as usual, good skiing, good friends, good laughs, sing songs, bit of a walk, a jog, games of cards and schock dice the normal bag of tricks. I skied with Mark, we had 5 days of excellent conditions and one leisurely snow day. Three of the days were vigourous, one day we skied over to Flachau via the G-Link and did many good runs, two of the days were more pedestrian with coffee and hot chocolate breaks, and socialising with others on the trip. The day over in Flachau, we were down in the valley when a storm hit, so we hand lunch, the storm cleared the resort, the group had headed back to the hotel so we went to ski back to base, by the time we got back up to the top we were above the cloud and missed, champagne skiing we skiied back with empty runs, new powder covered runs, no lift queues (no one to crash into) so we took perhaps too much advantage of it, missed the late bus back to our hotel, but managed to cajole another bus going near it to drop us off(one of the best ski days ever). I was happy my recently broken and repaired foot held up (a skiboot is very like a cast anyways), the rest of my body perhaps feels the aches and pains a lot still, but well earned. I did have three falls, one due to an uncontrolled beginner clipping my skis, the two others were due to my messing so perhaps karma! but no damage done although my salopettes have seen better days.
As ever it was well organised by Dave and co, and thanks to Siegi Tours, and the Hotel Post for looking after us all.

Ski Trip - Ski Amade 2018 - Alpendorf, Wagrain, and Flachau

The sixth ski trip with the Specker gang for me, and the fourth time we went to Ski Amade. Again a wonderful trip, which was nearly prevented by snow in Dublin. Somehow with care and adventure, I drove to the airport amidst the snow, picked up Mick and despite the conditions and flight delays we made it. Arriving in Salzburg and meeting a few others there we made our way to Schwarzach im Pongau, and the Post Hotel. Skiing with Peter this year was fine a combination of leading and skiing behind him calling turns worked out well. Sunday and Monday were nice fine days, but Tuesday was a tough day weather wise and visibility wise. Wednesday was ok and better in the afternoon, and thursday and friday were excellent weather, ok we over did it and missed the bus because we were having too much fun. The usual fun and games with the group, guitars and sing songs, youtube and some naff musical tastes displayed, schock dice for those who part take  in that sort of thing. A great trip again, roll on next years..

Lithuania and Latvia

After a short visit to Estonia a few years ago via Finland, we decided to visit the other Baltic states so we went to Vilnius, Lithuania, and Riga, Latvia, two new countries for me to visit. We flew into Kaunas, and headed to Vilnius which I liked, the old town, the three crosses on the Hill, and the Tower on the hill above the town. The architecture is a blend of baltic sea, Germanic and Scandinavian, as well as some relics of the Soviet era. Some quirky art stuff, as well as the Frank Zappa bust (still not sure why it is there) we visited, the museums like the museum of genocide had a native bias perhaps. Onwards we went, driving the Toyota Yaris, going to Riga, kinda Zig-Zagging it to the Hill of Crosses, which was amazing to see, but also the countryside which is quite flat. On to Riga, which seems bigger a bit grubbier but with some amazing architecture, monuments and public spaces in the city, very similar to many Baltic cities, but with a noticeable Russian feel, from the Language especially, I heard more Russian than Latvian. We went to visit the Rundale Pils (Palace and Gardens) about an hour or so outside Riga, which was very nice on a sunny September day. On the way back to Riga, we took a detour to visit the Salaspils Concentration Camp, which was hard to find and quite hidden in a lovely forrest parkland, not much there and not given the reverence it deserves in my book. A night out in Riga was lively but thankfully not infested with UK Stag parties as it is at other times of the year. A quick visit to Jurmala forrest and beach area, and a paddle in the baltic, before heading to town to see the All-Ireland. Overall I found it quite interesting and easy enough to navigate with one of the guys on google maps assisting. I would recommend both Riga and Vilnius, and if you can on a longer stay work in Tallinn, but get out of the cities and see some of the countryside.


visited 23 states (10.2%)
Create your own visited map of The World