Winter Wonderland Sunday 06 March

Wake up to a gorgeous blue sky without a cloud to be seen.
Breakfast is a cold buffet but perfectly adequate and the views from the dining room are lovely.
We are having an easy day today and leave the hotel at 09:30.
We drive up the Reschenpass to Nauders and on into Italy, stopping at the Reschensee lake. Here there is a lone church tower standing in the lake as a memorial to the village that used to be here before being destroyed to make way for the reservoir. I have been here many times but not quite like today as the lake is frozen and you can walk right up to the tower.
On the lake are skiers being pulled along by parachute (?), cross country skiers and skaters. A pathway has been smoothed out the length of the lake and also a skating circuit complete with little hut. It is all quite a sight.
From here we drive back the short distance to the cable car in Nauders where we park amongst the hundreds of cars alongside a couple of coaches.
All of the groups want to go up to the top so we buy 29 tickets and off we go. The scenery is a beautiful as ever and at the top the deep blue of the sky makes the white of the snow seem even whiter and brighter.
It is very busy up here and there is a band playing outside the restaurant as many skiers soak up the sunshine.
Brian and I have our lunch and then go back down to the bottom. As lovely as it is here I am a little jealous of all those ski-ing. Last year I had a holiday here ski-ing and it was one of the best weeks of my life.
It is cold out of the sun but sitting in it is very warm, which most of the group seem to be doing at the bottom of the slopes.
Brian walks most of the group into Nauders along a nice gentle path that runs between the cable car and the town while I drive the rest into town and to meet Charly at the Hotel Hochland.
It is always a pleasure coming here and meeting Patricia, Chrystal and Charly again is emotional!Everybody comes in and enjoys a drink with some of them also having a good look around. We will be coming back in 2012 and hopefully today will show some prospective passengers how lovely the hotel is.
I am given a couple of boxes of new brochures in English to help sell the hotel. These brochures are great because the hotel looks exactly as it does in the pictures whereas you often see a hotel brochure and the hotel does not live up to it. I am sure some places use trick photography and some definitely airbrush out bits.
We have to arrange a sleigh ride this week and I am having serious problems sorting this out. I e-mailed Patricia last week asking for help and she comes up trumps.
While we are here she contacts a local man who can accommodate us tomorrow at 10:00, 11:00 and 12:00. He can take a maximum of 11 in his carriage so we will have to do three runs. We will meet him in Reschen by the cable car.It has been great coming back to see Charly and his family and I only wish I was bringing a group out this year.
We are back at the hotel by 16:00 which allows everyone to relax before our 19:00 dinner.