We pulled into the Arrivals at Innsbruck airport just as Jess’ parents, Reeva and Paul, were walking out of the main terminal. Perfect.

Excited, having not seen the parents for several weeks, there were prolonged hugs all round. We bundled them into the van with the luggage, which mostly consisted of essentials we had run out of i.e more box sets and Tetley tea bags,  and made our way to Mayrhofen.

On arrival into the town we swung by the hotel they were staying at to get them checked in, before parking Maggie in a campsite we had found 1.5km out of town.

On our way to the centre of Mayrhofen,  we stopped to grab a postcard for the wall of cash* in back in the van, at which point Mark spotted some authentic Lederhosen. Needing to fulfil a lifetime ambition of owning a full set, he made a beeline for the shop to get fitted out. After several minutes of laughter at Mark’s Clark Griswold impersonation, he settled on the shorts, checkered shirt and a hat to match. The shop owner threw in a pair of socks as a good will gesture to complete the ensemble. Armed with this new clobber, we will finally be able to host Bavarian night in style back home, complete with an outdoor screening of The Sound of Music and National Lampoons Vacation for friends and family.

Stopping for some goulash soup in Wine & More, we ended the meal with some B52’s to warm us up. Realising after a mouthful of pure alcohol the drink needed to be lit, hence the matches, we encountered several attempts, burnt fingers, and a match dropped directly into the shot, we eventually downed the shots and immediately felt a lot warmer.

With this sudden burst of energy, we decided it would be a good idea to book a late afternoon parapente session to finish the afternoon off, but unfortunately we were too late and in retrospect this may have been a good thing.

After booking our evening meal, we all headed back to the hotel to get ready for the night. Needing to take advantage of the facilities here, Mark made use of the shower which he was greatly in need of, and Jess was grateful for too.

On the way to the restaurant we dropped by Bruckenstadl, a lively apres bar and club close to the centre of town. The usual eurobeat cheese and classic tunes were pumping out to a more than up for it crowd of Austrians, all still clad in full ski gear despite it being well into the evening. Out of the countries we’ve visited, the Austrians definitely top the list for party party, with not a miserable face in sight or a whiff of pending alterations you sometimes see at other lively resorts. After a couple of bouts of running man and a full routine of YMCA, we made our leave and went for our meal.

Wirtshaus zum Griena is an authentic Austrian restaurant 10 minutes walk away from the main centre. It is an old farm outbuilding which could still be in full operation at first glance. Inside is pretty rustic with plenty of cow bells, and other farming paraphernalia, strewn across all the beams and wooden walls surrounding the tables and benches. Meat, meat, meat and sauerkraut is a plenty on the menu, so this may not be the place for vegetarians or those wanting a ‘light’ dinner. The food was superb and perfect to soak up an afternoons worth of boozing and catching up on gossip from ‘back home’.

With heavy stomachs and eyes, we all headed home to our respective beds to get some rest before our upcoming ski day.

Waking early the next morning, we made our way to the hotel to scoff some free breakfast that the parents had managed to blag for us. Although we were still fairly full from the previous evenings meat fest, having a breakfast made for us and sitting down in comfortably spacious surroundings was a real treat!

As we had already been on a family ski holiday together at the start of the year, our aim for today was mainly to spend time together, as opposed to hammering it round the mountain ‘fitting it all in’ before the parents departure the next day. Later in the afternoon and due to the weather closing in, we decided to introduce them to an another authentic Austrian export, schnapps. Reeva seemed to take to it really well, with no issue in going back for seconds and helping Jess with hers, while Paul on the other hand would clearly prefer to have a pint in his hand, as his schnapps face resembled a child being forced to eat their brussel spouts at Christmas.

Needless to say, everyones skiing ability improved in the afternoon.

After a relatively tame family-fun evening of good food and conversation, we waved the parents off at their hotel and Jess and Mark made the 1.5km trek back to Maggie.

Wanting to make the most of our final morning together, we took a detour via the Olympic bobsleigh course just outside of Innsbruck. We were hoping to have a turn for ourselves but unfortunately it was closed as several Olympic teams were training. We spent some time watching these nutcases hurl themselves down the track, which was interluded by the Italian team taking at pretty spectacular crash, which once it looked as if there were no injuries, we didn’t feel so bad about laughing at their misfortune.

After an all too short, great couple of days, we said our goodbyes at the airport and made our way back into the mountains to continue our journey.

*The wall of cash is where we pin all of the spent ski passes, post cards and other tut we collect along the way.