First Skiing Holiday

Only being able to spend the summer holidays at home in Trinidad from my boarding school in England, I was usually sent to my grandmother's home in Weinheim near Heidelberg in Germany for Christmas and Easter.

Every second year, my parents would be in Europe at Christmas and we all drove over to Grans for that. This had been the case for Christmas 1964 and I had been given a skiing outfit.

Now at Easter, uncle Jochen was to take me on my first ever skiing holiday to the Kanzelwandhaus, near Oberstdorf. At that time I don't think Jochen had a car and so we had set off the night before by train first to Heidelberg then changing to a train that took us through Ulm where we met a relation on the platform. I think it may have been a sister of my deceased grandfather and many years later when she died, I was to get a letter from the Wills office in Germany saying my mother had been left something but as she had died, I was now entitled to the inheritance. Much form filling and eventually, the money was transferred to my UK bank a/c. 100DM or nowadays (2017) about 50 Euros/GB sterling/USD.

Then the train continued down to Oberstdorf and we left our baggage somewhere to be transported by goods lift to our accommodation while we took the bus to Riezlern in Austria, a place I was to visit in April 2015 with my son J for a bit of skiing.

Then take the Kanzelwand mountain cabin lift to the top and then a long long ski back into Germany and down to the accommodation, the only way back then to get there. Most of the lifts that are there now, were not there. In fact, the Kanzelwandhaus as the place was called is actually on the Fellhorn Mountain which is nowadays served by several lifts but the main one wasn't built until 1972. I don't remember there being any lifts in fact that we could use.

For me, it was a nightmare cross-country trip - snowing and deep unprepared slopes. Being Easter the snow was also rather heavy. Trying to turn with skis as good as 1.5 times my own height and with brand new heavy leather boots.

Eventually arrived in the early evening. The accommodation was a cross between basic hotel and youth hostel. I think we had a two bunk bedroom, many though were much larger and some were dormitories. Communal washing and toilets. There was also a basic restaurant and bar. All activity took place in the building. There was no alternative anywhere. Naturally, no TV and the evenings were spent with things like playing cards.

The building still exists today and from what I can see is more or less unchanged and used by school parties. I can't, however, find a website.

Despite all this, it was wonderful for me. The photo shows fresh snow on the trees and was taken from the bedroom window.