A Foodie’s Guide To The European Slopes

Thanks to Contiki we’re shining a light on the best European Winter has to offer; and it’s not all carols, eggnog and log fires.

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What’s the deal with skiing? There’s something about careering down a mountain strapped to thin wedges of wood or carbon graphite that’s always been associated with the super rich.

While school holidays in the French Alps are generally still the pastime of squillionaires, European getaways in the snow are actually really doable, with regions from Germany to Switzerland offering affordable holidays for Aussies. The best thing is that even if you don’t wish to fulfill your Freudian death wish on a black run, these areas are teaming with cool bars, places to eat, and scenery so good you won’t even need a filter. Yeah. That good.

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1. Drink from a bar at 3,000 metres above sea level

Top Mountain Star Hotel – Wurmkogel Mountain, Austria

Here’s a view you can feast on! I apologise for that offensive sentence, but really, look at it: 3,000 metres high, a 360-degree panorama… While you may want to hang around snacking for a while or even hang your head out a window and lick a cloud, you should also remember that 3,000 metres is a long way to ski down on a full stomach.

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2. Eat pretzels on Bavaria’s tallest mountain

Restaurant Alpspitze – Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany

If you’re anything like me, the word “pretzel” immediately conjures images of dry, stale beer snacks. But while our mass-produced, crunchy biscuit versions may be horrible, a proper Bavarian pretzel is not: it is bready and golden and delicious when served with a German wheat beer.

Located on Bavaria’s highest peak, Restaurant Alpspitze serves pretzels with beer and weißwürste (sausages) for less than €7. If that doesn’t do it for you, they also serve other Bavarian fare such as pastries and schnapps, and at 2,033 metres above sea level, it offers the highest dining experience in, well, Garmisch-Partenkirchen.

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3. Be James Bond and gamble in St Moritz

Casino St Moritz – St Moritz, Switzerland

Look, gambling isn’t the sort of thing you want to do everyday, especially in Australia where it probably means spending lots of time in front of a poker machine at your local RSL. But hey, when you’re in St Moritz, home to the rich and famous, James Bond, and other examples of ostentatious wealth… well, you just have to throw the dice, at least once. You won’t feel to bad about losing all your money in such a swanky place.

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4. Drink at Mooserwirt, and then ski home

Mooserwirt – St Anton, Austria

Okay, sometimes I struggle to make it home after a night at my local pub due to a fondness for post-drinking snacks and a sense of direction that often plays up on me. But that’s nothing compared to this: Mooserwirt is one of the most popular bars in Austria’s ski fields, and is said to serve more beer per square metre than anywhere else in Austria. Thing is, the only way to get back to your lodge after a night out is to ski down. As if that wasn’t hard enough, it’s surrounded by black runs. Yep, that’s a bigger challenge to getting home than trying to avoid a kebab shop.

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5. Go to a music festival in your ski lodge

Zermatt Unplugged Festival – Zermatt, Switzerland

Our penchant for holding massive festivals in the middle of summer means crowds, sweating and dehydration. Zermatt Unplugged, on the other hand, has none of those problems. Held in the small Swiss village of Zermatt, it’s a more intimate festival and offers a diverse line up: last year’s bill featured Marianne Faithfull and Bryan Ferry, as well as a whole bunch of new up-and-comers. Smaller crowd + diverse acts = less dickheads.

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6. Party like Prince Harry

The Farm Club – Verbier, Switzerland

Prince Harry knows how to party. While it’s gotten him into strife (and occasional nudity) in the past, we should follow his example when it comes finding places to let loose in the Alps. Unfortunately, young ‘Arry wasn’t available to comment, but he’s known to frequent the Farm Club in Switzerland’s swanky Verbier. If you prefer your red-headed royals female, you might be interested to know that Fergie liked to party here, too. We hope they never drunkenly ran into each other… awkward!

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7. Eat halfway down a cliff face

Äscher Cliff Restaurant – Wasserauen, Switzerland

What’s the appeal of this place? I will refer you to the photo. That’s Ascher Cliff Restaurant, perched precariously 2,500 metres up a mountain. You’ll need to hike for three hours just to get a feed there, but hey, at least it has a cable car back down.

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8. Eat at the world’s oldest sausage restaurant

Zum Gulden Stern – Nuremberg, Germany

Nuremberg: history, architecture, sausages. No, that probably won’t be adopted as the city’s official tourism slogan, but it definitely could be because it produces the finest pork sausages you may ever eat. In fact, Nuremberg is so famous for its sausages that it has one named after it: the ‘Nürnberger’. Does your city have a sausage named after it? That was a rhetorical question. If there is a ‘Newcastle’ or a ‘Perth’ sausage, I don’t want to try it. While anywhere in the city will offer you a good Nürnberger, you should really grab one at Zum Gulden Stern; open since 1419, it calls itself “the world’s oldest sausage restaurant”. Drooling.

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9. Drink beer from a monastery

Andechs Monastery – Bavaria, Germany

Beer festivals are great for beer, but not so great for the riff-raff they attract. You know the type: loud, rowdy, and keen to get drunk. Thankfully, not every beer lover shares such questionable character and poor personal hygiene. The monks of Andechs love beer so much that they brew seven different types and host beer tours year-round.

Drinking beer with monks has got to be the most guilt-free alcohol experience you’re ever likely to get, and better yet, the monastery is smack-bang in the middle of Bavaria’s ski fields!

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10. Drink at a bar carved out of ice

White Lounge – Mayrhofner, Austria

Every year in Austria’s Mayrhofner, an igloo village is carved out of ice and the famous White Lounge pops up. It’s open until 4am and offers good music and cool cocktails (nice pun, hey?), but let’s face it, the main attraction is that it’s IN AN IGLOO THAT’S CARVED OUT OF ICE. Unless you’re a penguin, that should sound pretty exciting.

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Callum Denness is Melbourne-based freelance writer who makes films, takes photos and watches television. You can tweet him here.

Feature image via Moosewirt

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