The Taelemans´ Blog

I know, I posted a lot of night shots of Kitzbühel, but the main idea of going on a snowboard trip is that you hit the slopes during the day. Since I do not really trust my snowboarding skills enough to take my camera up on the slopes, I had to limit my photographic activities to evenings/nights.

This shot is a 30 seconds exposure (which was a bit too dark), saved by pulling it up 3 stops. The view shows the field we could snowboard down to our hotel, which you can see on about 1/3rd from the bottom of the picture, right in the middle

Kitzbühel is home to the historic Grand Hotel Kitzbühel, dating from 1903, which is now a private resort, training and conference facility led by the worldwide management consulting firm McKinsey & Company. A decade ago McKinsey purchased the run down and bankrupt hotel in the city of Kitzbuhel. Access to the Grand Hotel is generally limited to members and alumni of the firm and their families.
The resort is also called the McKinsey Alpine University.

Another panorama from Kitzbühel, this time showing the whole town and the Hahnenkamm. This picture was merged from 18 exposures (6 times 3 bracketed exposures), resulting in a 60 megapixel shot. I had to upload a resized version because it just wasn’t convenient to look at the original version in flickr.

Click the picture if you want to see a larger sized version of it (choose “all sizes” above the picture in Flickr), or click here the see the resized/original version.

Every Thursday and Friday night from 17.45-23.00, the Hahnenkamm gondola allows you to get up on the mountain in the evening and enjoy the view from the top of the mountain and if you would want enjoy a candle light dinner in the Hochkitzbühel restaurant. If you are planning to visit Kitzbühel or are in the neighborhood, note this down as you get an amazing view over Kitzbühel and the neighboring towns.

Tomorrow the 68th International Hahnenkamm Race starts, which is an annual race held since 1931 and has been part of the men’s alpine skiing World Cup since its inception in 1967.
Races are currently held in the following disciplines:

• Super-G on the Streifalm, on Friday (18 Januari)
• Downhill on the Streif, on Saturday (19 Januari)
• Slalom on the Ganslernhang, on Sunday (20 januari)

Apparently, Bryan Adams will be attending the event.
If you want to follow the event, you can find a list of broadcasters broadcasting the event here.

Austria is still a very religious country and has a lot of churches. Kitzbühel for example has as far as I know 3 churches. Two of those actually stand right next to each other. On the left side of the picture you can see the Liebfrauenkirche (Church of Our Lady). The lower part of the Liebfrauenkirche dates from the 13th century, the upper part from 1570.
The St Andreas parish church, located on the right, was built from 1435 to 1506 and renovated in the baroque style during the 18th century.

I must say, we saw some really beautiful houses in Kitzbühel, the one on the picture looked really nice and even had an outdoor pool, well… not really useful during winter, but… look at that view! Oh well, some very rich people seem to live/have a vacation home in Kitzbühel.

Oh by the way as a small extra, I present to you the Kitzbühel coat of arms… I know, I know

I came across this snakeskin ski helmet by Bogner while in Kitzbühel. The price was 350€ which was actually quite ok compared to the 5500€ ski suit next to it…

We spent our Christmas evening in Kitzbühel and decided to take a nightly stroll around the town after the wonderful Christmas buffet in our hotel. A bit uphill from our hotel, I saw the full moon rising from behind the hills showing the mountain’s contour. In the picture it looks like the star which guided the three wise men to the barn where Jesus was born

After a week of seclusion from the internet, we’re back from a week of snowboarding in Kitzbühel, Austria, fully charged to face 2008. I must say, one thing we did not expect of Kitzbühel was the eliteness level. Half of the women were dressed in fur coats, the average car was a Porche Cayenne and only 1% of the people on the slopes were snowboarding…

During our visit, we stayed at Hotel Edelweiss which proved to be a very nice hotel, located about 500 meters from the Hahnenkammbahn.

As my last picture post of 2007, I’ll leave you with a panorama night shot of Hotel Edelweiss in Kitzbühel and the surrounding mountains/slopes. This shot was merged together from 6 different shots. I suggest you click the picture if you want to see a larger sized version of it (choose “all sizes” above the picture in Flickr), or click here the see the resized version (the original is 10026×2286, which wasn’t convenient to see through a browser…)

Have a happy new year!

I just got back from Stubai . I was there on a business trip, and there was really a lot of snow (pictures will follow later). It always reminds me of Christmas time. We always go snowboarding during the Christmas holidays and this year we decided to go to Kitzbühel, Austria. I hope there will be some snow, because I want to have a white Christmas.

Christmas is my favorite time of the year. And actually I have to admit I already bought a christmas tree… I know, waaaaaaaaaay too early, but well, it’s kinda cosy… (and even my cat likes it, well maybe he just likes the decoration of the tree).

But well this is what it looks like…