This morning we woke up expecting a great breakfast because that is what we were promised. I have to say that the breakfast at Haus Lukas is probably the best breakfast you will get anywhere on your trip. I’m happy to say that we received our first breakfast of Bacon & Eggs! Everyone was going crazy. I couldn’t believe that we weren’t having croissants this morning. I piled on the bacon and eggs and enjoyed every single bite. They also had strawberry yogurt, all sorts of cereals, toast, granola and more! For drinks there was orange juice, apple juice, and milk. Ahh, this breakfast was heaven!
After breakfast most people met out front for the Contiki Optional: Mountain Biking tour. It was a guided tour by mountain bike and small BBQ lunch at the end of the ride for around 30 Euro. Bruno, Julieana and I decided not to do the optional but decided that we would rent our own bikes and explore at our own pace. We grabbed our helmets, hopped on our bikes and took off into the valleys of Hopgarten! It was such a great time. We felt that we made a good decision because renting a bike was only 15 Euro, half of what the Contiki guided tour cost. Plus, we grabbed a map of our own and headed off on our own excursion for the day. It was one of the best decisions we’ve made all tour, for sure. We had a ton of fun, got some great photos and went all sorts of places that the guided tour did not. We stopped by the river that runs through Hopfgarten and splashed our faces with the clean, absolutely freezing ice melt water coming straight for the mountains. It was great! We arrived back at the hotel at just about the same time as the contiki crew did, and we must have rode about 20-25 kilometers. Again, renting your own bike is something I would really recommend. It’s cheaper, and you have much more freedom to go wherever you would like for the day. There is nobody telling you what to do, and where to go. Cruising around Hopfgarten is really easy, all you need to do is grab a map from the mountain bike rental company and you’ll be fine!
After biking some people were going on the Contiki optional: Paragliding experience over Hopfgarten. I opted out on this one too due to the fact that I’ve been skydiving twice and all paragliding really is, is a parachute ride. It definitely wasn’t worth the 110 Euro, for me at least. Yes, the scenery would be nice, but I’d rather spend my 110 Euro on another adventure sport, or something later on this summer.
For the rest of the day we pretty much sat around and hung out. Again, you don’t have much of an option when you don’t do some of the optionals. Especially in Hopfgarten! Everything closes here at 1:30PM on Saturdays. And when I say everything, I mean the 5 stores that exist in town. There is nothing here! We hung out for a bit and then went to the supermarket to grab some food for our late lunch. The one good thing about Hopfgarten is that it’s fairly cheap compared to the other cities I’ve been to on this trip so far. You can buy a 2 liter bottle of Diet Pepsi or a 2 liter bottle of Evian Water for 1 Euro. The fruit is great and also CHEAP! Your best bet is to hit the supermarkets instead of going out to a restaurant. Unfortunately you can’t really buy anything that needs to be heated up because there are no such thing as microwaves, stoves, etc at Haus Lukas. But, cold food, snacks, drinks, etc always work!
Tonight dinner was Goulash Soup, Salad, Turkey Schnitzel, and Apple Strudel for dessert. It was very good. I thought the Goulash soup was okay, nothing too exciting, and the turkey schnitzel was really tasty. After dinner everyone hung out at the hotel bar and had a few drinks. Bruno, Julieana and I headed over to the Silver Bullet Pub to shoot some pool for a bit. When we got back everyone was heading out to the Silver Bullet so we turned around and went back for a beer. I promised myself that I would have one beer and that I’d get home to get some sleep because we had a somewhat long travel day tomorrow morning. And that’s exactly what I did…
Swarvoski Factory first thing tomorrow morning, then off to Munich!
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