Wednesday 11^th March

Today we had a trip on the Zillertalbahn, a narrow gauge railway which connects Jenbach with Mayerhofen in the Zillertal. The railway maintains a steam locomotive and some old carriages for the tourists, though there is a regular service on the railway operated by diesel trains. We travelled on the steam train which runs once a week in winter – though probably more frequently in summer. The trip took about 90 minutes and was worth every minute. The line runs alongside the road most of the way and the track bed is well maintained with modern signalling. We were both feeling tired so we did not do a great deal while in Mayerhofen, but Heather found the place where she stayed when she came as a student. It was still in business – now a thriving cafe and we had our lunch there – gulaschsuppe with bread. There was a little altercation over the soup as they took it to the wrong people originally and although we got our soup, they would not give up the bread. We did get bread, but white rolls rather than the seeded wholemeal buns we should have had. Nevertheless it was still delicious. After a bit of a wander round the town and a hot choclate back at Cafe Kostner, we went back to Jenbach on a mid afternoon train. While on the way back, it snowed pretty heavily.