Travels
Tales from the Tirol – the Grutten Hütte Hike
Wedding Photographers need a holiday too so we recently recharged our batteries in Ellmau, Austrian Tirol, climbing new heights literally!
This was our third time hiking in this area and for the third time of trying we completed the classic hike to the Grutten hut on the Wilder Kaiser range via the Klammweg – a rocky path with a short ladder and a rock staircase to climb marked out with red dots. This path starts from the Gaudeamus Hütte which is reached in a couple of hours from Ellmau. Wonderful sunshine and views at the top. The return to Ellmau was via the easy service road and down through the woods to the Riedl Hütte - although not so easy for cyclist coming up that way! Previous attempts had been curtailed due to lack of time and snow on the klamwweg. The huts provide wonderful apple strudel and other alpine delights. Another climb saw us having a picnic beneath the Schleier waterfall – a 3 hour hike from Going, the village next to Ellmau. Am incentive to climbing is that you can collect stamps from the alpine huts in a book and then claim your walking medal - happy yo get my gold walking pin 
Quite an active holiday – the next one in Crete will be more of a chill out time in the sun!
View of Ellmau and the Wilder kaiser
Grutten Hutte
Up Via the klammeg
Climbing Incentives!
Easy way down
Schleier waterfall
Moroccan Memories
Wow Pixsmiths have been so busy with weddings and designing albums, almost forgot we had a fab holiday in Morocco in March. we spent 10 nights in Marrakesh, indulging in an all-inclusive hotel but taking time out to explore the souks, palaces and gardens of this vibrant city. Also a couple of trips out to the Atlas mountains to see waterfalls and have tea with a Berber family, amazing experiences. A tasty lunch at the fishing town of Essaouria on the Atlantic coast was another hi-light of our trips. Below are just a few favourite pictures from the many that we took. Enjoy!
Wilder Kaiser Weddings
We have enjoyed hiking in scenic Tirolean resort of Ellmau in Austria several summers and are more than happy to be returning this summer.
Coincidently we discovered that the Hochfilzer Hotel in the centre of Ellmau organise romantic weddings and special celebrations and what scenery on their doosteps! This is a lovely hotel with good facilities
Now you needn’t think the bride and the rest of the party will have to don hiking boots to get to those scenic spots for fabulous photography as many vistas are easily acessible with the efficient mountain transport system – the Hartkaiserbahn will wisk you to the top of the Hartkaiser range for tremendous views over the majestic Wilder Kaiser mountains. The panoramawegs allow easy acess to the view points. The onion domed churches with their ornate interiors provide a marvellous setting for a ceremony.
The friendly Hochfilzer can make all the necessary wedding arrangements regarding catering, flowers, photography as well as rooms for the wedding party, as can be seen on their website so have a look! Contact Ingrid via their website for all the details. Ellmau is our most favourite austrian resort, it has a real village feel to it and makes an idyllic setting for an alpine wedding. If you want to know more about the Ellmau area and location of the chapels and scenic spots for photography in the neighbouring villahges of Sol, Scheffau with the beutiful lake Hintersteinersee then feel free to ask. We can heartily reccomend Ellmau for idyllic alpine weddings..and than a hiking honeymoon with a marvellous stay at the Hochfilzer Hotel.
Ellmau Wilder Kaiser
Reminding ourselves of these views again we can’t wait to be back in Ellmau this summer, and if we see a wedding in the mountains then it will be extra special.
West Kirby Marina
Another beautiful day in West Kirby so time for a stroll around the marina. At the beginning it was quite calm so managed to get a couple of reflected shots. Tried out a Sigma 70-300 lens but missed the quick focus and VR stability of other Nikon lenses. Walking around the marine lake wall is so relaxing and there is always a photo opportunity. Sunday 12th Dec. there is a Santa Dash here so that should be fun to see!
Marina reflections
Austrian Adventures
Goodness how quick the week has gone by since we returned from Austria. Been busy getting organised for the weddings in October and meeting clients for events in 2011. Yay two more weddings booked at Leasowe Castle !! So at last chance to write about our alpine excursions in the small village of Bruck, lying at the foot of the Grossglocker alpine road, not far from the larger resort of Zell am See. A quiet resort, public transportation not as frequent if you need to rely on it but Kaprun and Zell were within easy walking distance, all on flat paths, hey we even got on bicycles that the hotel provided so it was quite a healthy option…except for all the lovely hotel food we had to walk off ![](http://www.pixsmiths.co.uk/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_wink.gif" alt=){kind=icon}
We were on an all inclusive package so the exercise was much needed. A mixture of weather but on the clearer sunny days we headed up to the mountain above Zell – the Smittenhohe for fabulous views and easy hikes. Oh we took the easy route up using the gondola. Another trip saw us at fantastic dams above Kaprun, truly spectacular and an engineering marvel. Quite a journey to get up here using a series of 3 buses and a huge open air lift but truly a must see whilst in this area.
Cooler days saw us hiking on the Maiskogel paths above kaprun, the wildlife park near the Grossglockner toll entrance an a trip to Salzburg, where we enjoyed the city sights and a tour of the castle there. The shopping street by Mozart’s house was very crowded but managed to get some shots of the wrought iron signs which are obligatory, even for McDonald’s who were not allowed their usual “golden arches” structure. Now Pixsmiths are refreshed and ready for our autumn weddings
Mykonos and the Cyclades
Just enjoyed a two week break in the Greek Cyclades, taking in the islands of Mykonos, Tinos, Delos, Paros and Naxos. a lot of sightseeing plus still time for relaxing on the many good beaches, oh and lets not forget the photographic opportunities! I’m currently editing down some 1600 pictures, wonderful landscapes, architecture, street scenes and architecture to name a few subjects. The streets of Mykomos are lovely both by day and night, Delos is an archaeological gem of an island, Tinos has beautiful white villages and Paros and Naxos are more laid back resorts being off the normal tourist trail. In time full travel report can be found on our VirtualTourist page but below are a few pics as a taster.
Mykonos View
street view, Mykonos
street view, Mykonos
Ouzo
Paros Doors in Lefkes village
Naxos
Delos
Tinos
Castleton Climb and a Buxton Bride
Had a day off on Saturday so we drove ove to Castleton in the Peak distick . It was forecasted to be sunny and it was. It was a lovely trip, somewhere we hadn’t been for ages. Took a while to get parked, tourists and hikers abound here. We ambled around the town and found a path leading up to Cavedale, a spectacular narrow limestone valley, which was a route I had read about and decided to do, as it was just a shortish scenic hike. Wonderful scenery as we ascended the stony path up the gorge. We had a picnic and then headed over towards Perevil Castle, perched high on the rocks amidst the grazing sheep. You can’t visit the castle from this route – there used to be a drawbridge but ow there is a fence to guard the steep drop in the gully below, so don’t be tempted to cross it!
At this point you are virtually on top of Peak Cavern – this area is riddled with limestone caves which you can visit. The path descends steeply down the moorside to meet a path at the bottom, leading back into the village.
who you looking at?
ascending the gorge
Pathway down
Castleton Pastures
After some more refreshments we headed over to Buxton where we ambled through the Pavillion gardens – surprise surprise a wedding had just taken place in the bandstand there, the Don Redfern Memorial Bandstand, and was now having some formals taken. The Bandstand is licensed for civil ceremonies, a lovely setting in the Pavillion Gardens.
To end the day a stop at the famous Cat and Fiddle pub - some claim the highest, in England some second highest. In truth a bit disappointing, not much there but the hot chocolate and cointreau was delicious! All in all a lovely day trip out.
Buxton Bride
Buxton and a Bride
Weddings – Sandals, St Lucia, Style
Whilst celebrating our silver wedding in St Lucia we saw several weddings taking place at the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort - the most intimate of all the Sandals resorts, being the smallest and friendliest.. Thought it might be an idea to share our views of weddings here in case it appeals to you as a venue for a destination wedding.
Its certainly a beautiful setting with the sparkling turquoise Caribbean Sea in front of you. and the colourful gardens around. Two gazebos are available for weddings, carefully prepared with tables, linens, flowers and cake etc.. They are fairly small so only suitable for small groups and bear in mind that the officiant, photographer and videographer are also present! Hence more suited to small wedding parties. The ones we saw were mainly just the bride and groom and their witnesses (can be provided by Sandals).
There can be several weddings a day – our last day there were 4 – 11am, noon, 3pm and 4pm The ceremony takes about 10-15 minutes, cake is cut and a champagne toast made by the couple for the photographers. A small canape buffet was then often served in the gazebo to the wedding part – larger groups were set up on a lawned area. The happy couples often had a dance in the garden afterward. It was It was funny to see newly weds in their just married T-Shirts the next day too.
wedding gazebo.
Weddings also took place on the beach, with sunbathers and swimmers around it seemed a bit surreal! Either way you are probably going to use the services of a Sandals photographer. It would be too expensive to fly out a photographer and accommodate them, besides which a work permit is required here if not a local. They all seemed good at posing couples and taking the pictures efficiently. We had a few chats with Gavin the main photographer – he used the same camera as us and we exchanged a few ideas about settings, positions and albums. As a side note we had Gavin do a photo shoot for us on our anniversary and it made a change for us to be on the other side of the camera and be posed. Gave us a new perspective on that!. 15 min Complimentary photo shoots were available – prints were obviously extra, packages for 10 prints on a CD and 7 x 5 print for $99 were available. Single prints $20 but the more you have the better value it was. Albums can also be purchased and pictures can even be viewed on-line when back home in case you change your mind about which ones to choose.
We saw couples of all ages getting married here, it was lovely to see them. Sandals being a couples only resort its not possible to have family children present so these weddings suit those who want to enjoy a wedding in beautiful surroundings. either by themselves or just a few family present. Its hot and humid out here so Brides cool dresses and shoes that are beach friendly are the order of the day! Several brides wore pretty flip flops – esp if they wanted pics on the beach afterward.
Sandals were great at organising the bridal preparations. All the couples we spoke to had a great day and got special treatment at their eveing dinner.
wedding on the beach
close capture
comparing gear
Looking for a Honeymoon Destination? Sandals St Lucia
Had an amazing time on the Caribbean island of Lucia, celebrating our silver wedding at the Sandals Halcyon Beach Resort. A couples only resort its ideal as a honeymoon destination or any romantic celebration. Halcyon is the smallest and most intimate of all the Sandals resorts and this makes its atmosphere unique. Truly the most friendliest staff I have ever known, nothing is too much trouble whatever category/ suite level booked.. The manager invites you to a cocktail party and introduces his staff to the guests, he’s a well respected and practical manager. Just before a wedding he noticed two sunbeds nearby which had not been cleaned – he was on his phone straight away to the team responsible to sort it out.
Two other Sandals resorts are a short courtesy bus ride away.- The Regency and The Grand, so you can stay at one but play at three and enjoy all the restaurants and amenities at your disposal. The food was fantastic, gourmet dining every night in lovely settings. – plenty of choice with French, Japanese, Italian and of course Carri bean.. Our favourites were the Pier and Mario’s at the Halcyon. You could even have a private dinner on the beach
The Pier Restaurant, Halcyon Beach
Many people here were on honeymoon, getting married or celebrating a special occasion – it truly is the perfect destination for a romantic holiday and the staff and service were second to none. We saw several weddings here but I’ll keep that info for another blog.
Salford Quays
Business in Salford for Mrs Pixsmith meant that Mr Pixsmith enjoyed the sunshine and quiet of Salford Quays yesterday. The water was calm and afforded the chance of some lovely reflections from around the Salford Quays. If you go here make sure you take the lift up in the Imperial War Museum (small charge) as the aerial views are great.
