007 Travelogue: Kitzbühel (AUSTRIA) 2024

After waking up in Wasserburg am Inn, Germany, we had a great breakfast at Hotel Gasthof Paulanerstuben and continued our journey towards Austria, ending the day in Kitzbühel.

However, on the way we drove through the city of Rosenheim on the German side and stopped in Kufstein on the Austrian side and visited the Kufstein Fortress (Festung Kufstein).

“Bond unscrewed the two butterfly nuts and folded the canvas top back behind the seats. He had a look up and down the Autobahn. These was plenty of traffic. At the big Shell station on the roundabout they had just passed, his eye was caught by a bright-red open Maserati being tanked up. Fast job. And a typical sporty couple, a man and a woman in the driving-seat–white dust-coats and linen helmets buttoned under the chin. Big dark-green talc goggles that obscured most of the rest of the faces. Usual German speedsters’ uniform. Too far away to see if they were good-looking enough for the car, but the silhouette of the woman wasn’t promising. Bond got in beside Tracy and they set off again down the beautifully landscaped road.

They didn’t talk much. Tracy kept at about eighty and there was wind-roar. That was the trouble about open cars. Bond glanced at his watch. 11.45. They would get to Kufstein at about one. There was a splendid Gasthaus up the winding streets towards the great castle. Here was a tiny lane of pleasure, full of the heart-plucking whine of zither music and the gentle melancholy of Tyrolean yodellers. It was here that the German tourist traditionally stopped after his day’s outing into cheap Austria, just outside the German frontier, for a last giant meal of Austrian food and wine. Bond put his mouth up close to Tracy’s ear and told her about it and about the other attraction at Kufstein–the most imaginative war memorial, for the 1914-18 war, ever devised. Punctually at midday every day, the windows of the castle are thrown open and a voluntary is played on the great organ inside. It can be heard for kilometres down the valley between the giant mountain ranges for which Kufstein provides the gateway. ‘But we shall miss it. It’s coming up for twelve now.’

‘Never mind,’ said Tracy, ‘I’ll make do with the zithers while you guzzle your beer and schnapps.’ She turned in to the right-hand fork leading to the underpass for Kufstein, and they were at once through Rosenheim and the great white peaks were immediately ahead.

“The traffic was much sparser now and there were kilometres where theirs was the only car on the road that arrowed away between white meadows and larch copses, towards the glittering barrier where blood had been shed between warring armies for centuries. Bond glanced behind him. Miles away down the great highway was a speck of red. The Maserati? They certainly hadn’t got much competitive spirit if they couldn’t catch the Lancia at eighty! No good having a car like that if you didn’t drive it so as to lose all other traffic in your mirror. Perhaps he was doing them an injustice. Perhaps they too only wanted to motor quietly along and enjoy the day.”

“Ten minutes later, Tracy said, ‘There’s a red car coming up fast behind. Do you want me to lose him?’

‘No,’ said Bond. ‘Let him go. We’ve got all the time in the world.'”

Ian Fleming: “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1963)

“Twice they went to visit the ancient white-walled fortress in the centre of Kufstein, near the German border, where every day at twelve a great organ in one of its towers played a short concert as a memorial to those who had died in the Great War – the sound echoed for miles down the valleys.”

Charlie Higson: “Young Bond: By Royal Command” (2008)

We drove through the town of Wörgrl, stopping briefly at the train station, which Bond has also visited, and continued for lunch in the town of Jenbach, where we found a pizzeria called “Pizza Man” where we got Mamma Mia pizza, topped with tomato, cheese, oregano, ham, salami, paprika, black olives and onion. Yum 🙂 Bond stopped in Jenbach too in the same book (although it is spelled Jenspach in the book).

“They sat back in their seats until the train stopped in Worgl, then took their bags and got off.
James was relieved to see that the man didn’t follow them.
They were still about twenty miles from Kitzbühel so they decided in the end to take a taxi the rest of the way. It was an extravagance, but they had been careful with their money and they were bone tired from travelling. All they wanted to do now was reach journey’s end.”

“He was just telling himself to stop worrying when they pulled out of Jenspach station and a man entered their compartment hefting a bulky rucksack with a climbing rope wrapped around it. He looked to be in his twenties, with the firm build of a soldier. He was dressed for hiking in the mountains, with long socks, stout boots, a hunting jacket and a soft felt hat. There was something unmistakably English about him and James watched him out of the corner of his eye.”

Charlie Higson: “Young Bond: By Royal Command” (2008)

Then we headed towards Kitzbühel. On the way, we had a short stop in Westendorf. Bond stayed at a hotel called Hirzingerhof in John Pearson’s book “James Bond: The Authorized Biography of 007” (1973). The hotel called Hirzingerhof was found in the nearby village of Westendorf. The events of the book took place there in 1938. Could it be the same hotel? 🙂

“In 1938, Kitzbuhel was still a sleepy little Tyrolean market town beneath the jagged mass of the great Kitzbuheler Horn. For years now it had been a favourite haunt of Fleming’s who had been coming here since the 1920s. He was there late that autumn when Bond arrived at the Hirzingerhof Hotel. It was inevitable that they should meet in that closed circle of rich winter visitors. Most of them in those days were Austrian. Englishmen – and particularly good-looking Englishmen – were a rarity. It was also inevitable that they should clash. Fleming was something of a prima donna with a considerable following of adoring maidens. Bond, despite the difference in their age, was competition. They were both tough, both Scottish, both powerful characters. But whereas Bond was somewhat dour, Fleming was an inveterate deflater of other people’s egos. He was a mocking, highly cynical Old Etonian. James Bond, another Old Etonian, was quite capable of taking care of himself against such opposition. In their different ways, both of them seem to have enjoyed it.”

John Pearson: “James Bond, the Authorized Biography of 007” (1973)

In Kitzbühel we checked into a nice little hotel called Pension Haus Koller. We totally felt welcome here. The reception was really friendly and warm! Pension House Koller is established by the famous skiing pioneer Karl Koller, the guesthouse has maintained its authentic, nostalgic atmosphere to this day. It is located in the heart of Kitzbühel and is just a few minutes’ walk from both the historical centre and the ski lifts. As actress Romy Schneider once wrote in the guestbook after several extended stays with Karl and Hilde Koller: “I don’t say goodbye to my Kitzbühel family – only Auf Wiedersehen!”

Accommodation: Pension Haus Koller

Address: Gerbergasse 12, Kitzbühel, Austria

Room type: Familyroom

Price: 166 EUR / 1 night / 3 persons, including breakfast

Booking: via hotel’s own pages

We explored Kitzbühel on foot and by car and visited the place where Ian Fleming has lived. Tennerhof was a small private school, where Fleming studied in 1927. Today it is a Tennerhof hotel, and there is a room where Fleming once lived. We spent some time at the hotel and ate ice cream at the hotel’s lovely terrace.

“Fleming apart, the most important person Bond met at Kitzbuhel was a man called Oberhauser. Fleming, who knew him, wrote of his tragic death in Octopussy, and quotes Bond’s words to his murderer, the pathetic Major Smythe – ‘Oberhauser was a friend of mine. He taught me to ski before the war, when I was in my teens. He was a wonderful man. He was something of a father to me at a time when I happened to need one.’

“During those weeks in Kitzbuhel, Bond took his advice, and once again he felt the joy and the renewal of a whole day’s climbing. By the time he returned to Paris, the mountains and Oberhauser’s words had done their work. Bond had evolved a conscious plan for living. His aim was now to live entirely for the moment and to enjoy the pleasures of his calling to the uttermost. There would be no more remorse and no regret. He would turn himself into what Fleming called ‘a lethal instrument’.”

John Pearson: “James Bond, the Authorized Biography of 007” (1973)

We just managed to catch one of the last cable car departures of the day on our way to the top of Hahnenkamm. From there, there were fantastic views down to Kitzbühel.

“So it was that on Saturday morning James found himself climbing aboard a gondola on the Hahnenkamm-Bahn for the 1,500 metre ascent to the summit. He was with Hannes, a master called Mr Eastfield and a group of ten boys. They stood in the narrow gondola clutching their skis and chatting excitedly.”

“The car latched itself on to the moving cable and they jolted out of the lower station and lurched up the slope. They passed through the outskirts of town and up over the tops of the houses, their roofs covered with thick white snow. There was no sound apart from a low bass hum punctuated by the occasional rattle as they went over one of the supporting towers. Soon they were climbing much more steeply between impossibly tall pine trees that shot straight up towards the sky.
“Every year there is a famous race down the mountain.” Hannes told James. “The Hahnenkammrennen. Perhaps the most important skiing race in the world. It is a very tough course, and very dangerous, but don’t worry: it is not the course we will be taking today. It will be great fun.”

“James looked out to see that they were now so high they were above the tops of the pine trees, which clung to the almost sheer side of the mountain, sprouting from between the jagged rocks. Looking out through the rear windows it was easy to imagine that they were thousands of feet in the air, as if the gondola was airborne and flying up the slope like a glider. Below them Kitzbühel had become a toy town. Unfortunately the weather had changed this morning, though, and the sky was grey. It had the effect of turning the view into a black and white photograph. All colour seemed to have been drained from the scenery. The pretty doll’s houses of Kitzbühel looked gray, the snow was white and the pine trees a dense black.

“A gust of wind whined through the windows and the steel cable zinged as they passed an empty gondola coming down the other way.”

“A few minutes later they cleared the top of the slope and left the trees behind. The land flattened out into rolling pillows of snow, criss-crossed by animal tracks, probably left by chamois, the mountain goat native to the Alps. And then they arrived at the top station and there was a flurry of activity as they clambered off and carried their skis out into the daylight. It was noticeably colder at this altitude. James felt the wind bite into him. He arranged his black cotton scarf in such a way that it partially covered his face, and tucked it carefully around his collar so that no icy fingers of draught could snake down his neck.”

It was another world up here. The top of the Hahnenkamm was flattened so that there was a panoramic view of mountains all around – the Kitzbühler Horn, Resterhohe, Pengelstein, Gaisberg. It was breathtaking. James stood for a moment just taking it all in. The scenery was perfect, and perfectly untouched. He felt like God on the first day of creation looking out over his handiwork.”

“Once they were down the mountain they headed back to Kitzbühel and then south towards the high Alps. Soon after Jochberg they left the main road and slowed down. The road began to slope upwards and they had to negotiate a series of tight hairpin curves to left and right, which meant that they were climbing higher. “

“James sat in the sun on the top of the Hahnenkamm with his back against a rock. The clean air filled his lungs. The buildings in Kitzbühel were hidden from him. He might be the only person in the world, looking at a scene that had remained unchanged for millions of years. The petty squabbles of men meant nothing up here.

From his vantage point he could see the vast range of other mountains spread out around him. To the south, the more distant peaks of the higher Alps were dusted with snow, but here they were a vivid emerald studded with black rocks and the darker green of the pine trees. The sky that stretched over his head in a great endless sweep was deep, deep blue. As he had ridden up alone in the cable-car, and take control of it, like a child playing with toy houses and cars. From up in the gondola it had all looked so clean and simple and ordered. That must be how God saw things. From a distance all looked well with the world.”

Charlie Higson: “Young Bond: By Royal Command” (2008)

In the evening, another walk to Kitzbühel’s beautiful center of the town, dinner and hot chocolate in a cafe in Bond style.

“One night the boys were sitting in the coffee house on the Hinterstadt in Kitzbühel, once again discussing what had happened. They were drinking creamy hot chocolate and all shouting at once and laughing noisily.”

“When the boys left the coffee house in a rowdy gaggle they passed a darkened archway that led to the Sport Hotel. Had they looked down it they would have seen a man in a trilby writing something in a notebook. And, had they looked in that notebook, they would have found a record of exactly what James had been up to since he had left the hospital. Provided, of course, that they were able to decipher the code it was written in.”

There was also a Bogner shop in the town. Willy Bogner Jr. has worked as a cameraman in several Bond films requiring complex ski footage. He has filmed ski sequences to “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969), “The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977), “For Your Eyes Only” (1981) and “A View to a Kill” (1985). In last three films Roger Moore wears Bogner ski wear, as do many other characters in skiing scenes.

“It was late afternoon by the time the train did an almost complete circuit of the town and pulled into Kitzbühel station. There had been a recent heavy snowfall and many excited skiers from the towns and cities along the route bundled off the train, carrying their skis and poles.
James stepped down from his carriage and took in his surroundings. Kitzbühel was 2,500 feet up in the eastern Alps, sitting in a lush valley ringed by mountains. Behind the station was the Kitzbühler Horn, and opposite was the huge flattened peak of the Hahnenkamm, linked to the town by cable-car. Away to the north, standing out against the sky like a line of broken grey teeth, was the range known as the Wilder Kaiser.

“James found a porter, and discovered that his hotel was in easy walking distance. He felt the need to stretch his legs after the long journey and set off after the man into town. They crossed a river and a main road and then took a curving street that ran below the twin fairy-tale churches that dominated Kitzbühel – the tall, narrow Liebfrauenkirche and the barouque Andreaskirche, whose tower, like so many in the Tyrol, was topped off by what looked like a sultan’s turban. It started to snow as they came into the main street, the Vordere Stadgasse, and light powdery flakes drifted aimlessly in the air. The porter cheerfully pushed his laden trolley along the well-made pavement, pointing out the sights to James. There was a picture-book feel about the old medieval town, and it was hard to believe that people lived and worked in these outsized, brightly painted doll’s houses with their red, green and blue shutters and overhanging eaves.”

Charlie Higson: “Young Bond: By Royal Command” (2008)

The next day’s program includes Weissensee and filming locations from the movie “The Living Daylights“.