{"id":17046,"date":"2014-06-20T05:52:39","date_gmt":"2014-06-20T04:52:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/?p=17046"},"modified":"2020-05-26T14:20:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-26T13:20:46","slug":"kitzbuhel-trip-days-1-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.alananna.co.uk\/blog\/2014\/06\/kitzbuhel-trip-days-1-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Kitzb\u00fchel Trip – days 1& 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

My trip to Kitzb\u00fchel in Austria for the 2014 European Triathlon Championships had begun. It started with an uneventful train journey to Manchester. I actually got off a stop early at Wilmslow where a client of mine was meeting me. Keith from Mannerborne<\/a> who provides chauffeur services to the rich and famous had offered to collect me from the train station, chauffeur drive me to his house and provide me with dinner for the evening. I was therefore soon travelling in style through the outskirts of Manchester to his house. I had only ever corresponded with him via email and on the phone before so after more than 10 years working on his website<\/a> it was nice to finally meet in person.<\/p>\n

After dinner he drove me to my hotel where I booked in and arranged for a shuttle bus to the airport at 3:55am. The hotel room was OK but only just. It was only for a night though and with a 3am start I wasn’t going to be there for very long at all.<\/p>\n

Day 1<\/h1>\n

The shuttle bus to the airport was quicker than advertised, mainly because it was only calling at Terminal 2. In fact, the whole airport procedure was quicker than it shold have been and I was checked in, my bags were checked and I\u00a0was through security and into the departure lounge less than 10 minutes after arriving at the airport. I probably could have got the next shuttle bus from the hotel and got up an hour later, but I’d rather be early than having to rush. Things were a little easier than usual as I\u00a0didn’t have my bike box<\/a> with me this time. It was\u00a0going overland in the back of Andrea and Franks car. They were driving\u00a0to Kitzb\u00fchel and had offered to take it which saved a bit of hassle at the airport. Although I do quite like taking my bike box with me as it’s good fun dragging it through train stations and airports.<\/p>\n

I met Helen in the departure lounge a little later. She was travelling out the Kitzb\u00fchel for the race as well. She said that getting checked in and through security had been a nightmare with endless queue after queue – I was therefore glad I’d got there early as I’d rather be relaxing in the departure lounge for a little longer than necessary than standing in queues.<\/p>\n

The flight to Salzburg was uneventful, only about 2 hours long and then we were soon on a coach driving through the amazing scenery of the Austrian Alps. It took about 1.5 hours to get to Kitzb\u00fchel where we were dropped off at our respective hotels. I was staying at the hotel J\u00e4gerwirt<\/a>, a family run hotel close to the centre of Kitzb\u00fchel. I checked in to my room which was quite small but had everything I needed. It was quite noisy outside the hotel from traffic on the road, but as soon as I closed the large door to the balcony it was silent. I had a bath and shower and of course a nice comfy bed. wi-fi was \u00e2\u201a\u00ac10 for the week and the hotel had a pool, sauna and wellness centre as well as a nice little garden. The view from the window wasn’t too bad either.<\/p>\n\n\t\t