Pension Baumgartner-Berghof

A few miles off the motorway just inside Austria, on the top of a bluff, a craglet, overlooking the River Inn; I was given what must have been the best room in the house, two storeys up with a balcony from which the river and the valley town were visible. Not a bit of noise, and a soft comfy mattress (if your back requires something firm, be warned), and the room was immense and impeccably clean, the fixtures in excellent simple taste, the huge en-suite bathroom had underfloor heating (toiletries: Two film-wrapped plastic cups and a cake of soap, but at least you're not paying for a shower bonnet that you'll never use)... Moderately good WiFi access, with slowish downloads in the early evening, as if others in the area were competing for bandwidth, that sped up by early morning. Then downstairs into the restaurant, where I ate an impeccable meal: A dill-scented rich cream potage with the tiniest of dumplings, followed by Tafelspitz (boiled beef) with crispy-fried onion and potato and Semmelkren. What an eye-opener! I'd never before had Tafelspitz that earnt its sobriquet, "head of the table", best dish in the house -- but this cut was so wonderfully cooked, so tender, so flavourful, that I finally understood what Tafelspitz is meant to be. And Semmelkren, a revelation: This is what bread sauce will become when it grows up and meets horseradish, acquires a theme, a purpose, a mission. Brilliant! Then, the next morning... along with the bottomless cup of strong, strong coffee, the feather-light rolls and broad-shouldered brown bread, the sliced meats and cheese and cucumbers and tomatoes, the yogurts and jams and jellies, where one expects the boiled eggs -- well, there they were, but they were green and blue and orange-red EASTER EGGS. Comfort, cuisine, charm. I very much want to find an excuse to come back here!