I was happy to visit with my friend, Hermann Weidenger, at his hotel in Ruette, Austria.  After a long day of driving and touring the king’s castles, it was good to see a welcoming smile and familiar face.

Hotel Ernberg-Zum Dorfwirt, is located less than twenty minutes from the castle area in Reutte, Austria.  All the rooms are decorated in the traditional Tyrolian style with lots of wood paneling and comfy beds covered with warm duvets.  There is not a bad room in the hotel, so visit here with confidence.

Hermann’s hotel restaurant is very popular, so you would do well to get a reservation as soon as you arrive in town.  Luckily, we obtained a reservation at 6 p.m. on a Saturday night, during the height of the Christmas season.  The meal was wonderful!  The only negative was the smoke due to Austria not banning smoking inside.

It seemed that beef was the speciality of the evening, so both Charlotte and I ordered it.  I had a filet and Charlotte had a T-bone.  Both came with vegetables, french fries and plenty of special homemade pepper sauce.  The entire dining experience was great, but jet-lag began to catch up with us half-way through dinner.  We skipped desert and were sound asleep in bed before eight o’clock!

-David