Creative Travel with “Creativelena” and Creative Tourism Austria. When I heard about our group of young travel bloggers joining a creative beer-making workshop in Salzburg, I thought it was all falling into place. I just had to organise for us to continue creative travelling in Austria, exploring further interactive leisure options around the provinces of Salzburg & Tyrol. Starting with the city of Salzburg, we went south for about an hour and right into the mountains near Zell am See, to Wohlfühlhotel Tannenhof: That’s where the Belgian chef runs amazing cooking lessons, the hotel owner offers colourful painting courses, the mum felts sheep wool and local herb lady Erika reveals to us all there is to know about the healing properties of yarrow, St. John’s wort and stinging nettles: A lot more than meets the eye, we found! Come & check it out.
Having arrived at Wohlfühlhotel Tannenhof hotel, we are invited to a toast from the rooftop terrace greeting the mountains of Salzburg and, each other.
In the evening, we are treated to a special “colour menu” whereby all courses are held in the colours of orange (starters), white & red (mains) and green (dessert). How creative! It gives us a perfect “taste” of what we can expect from the colorful painting workshop the next day.
The creative garden studio of Martina Lochner, owner & creative artists at Wohlfühlhotel Tannenhof. Here, she likes to run a series of creative workshops with guests at the hotel.
Breakfast already gets quite “creative”, featuring beautiful local delights.
Strawberries have just been harvested in the garden, the bread is home-made (we each get to take a loaf back home with us!) and the colours are what I really like about my breakfast menu. Of course 🙂
Well check out this beauty … sometimes, smiles & happiness reside in the most simple things.
In the morning, local plant expert Erika takes us out on a walk across the meadows of Salzburg …
… making us feel like in the “Sound of Music” (I guess – I haven’t seen it – yet!) and simply enjoying our every minute. A mountain summer dream come true – even for an Austrian like myself!
A typical Alpine meadow in Austria, such as this one, looks just wonderful. Wouldn’t you agree?
Travel blogger Susi (aka “Black Dots White Spots“) gets dreamy eyes and has childhood memories rushing back at her. Johannes (“Just Travelous“) is simply there smiling happily. And Janett, our “Teilzeitreisende/Part Time Traveller“? She is laughing, enjoying the time and has found a new friend in our plant expert Erika, who explains to her that the St. John’s wort herb actually offsets all other medicine you take … “just be careful if you are on the pill”, Erika smiles with a twinkle in her eye. We listen to her and her local Salzburg stories happily taking in all there is to know about the area, its people and their (herbal) traditions.
Herbal expert & local lady Erika teaches us all there is to know about local plant life, herbal essences and much more. She is a pure delight, even handing us out hand-written notes on all the plants we find!
“My most favourite herbs & grasses”, she calls out in delight, taking a handful of “meadow” here.
A little later, we treat ourselves and her to a great, interactive cooking lesson with all the herbs we collected: Creative experiences at Wohlfühlhotel Tannenhof here we go!
Before we actually get to enjoy our beautiful spread topped by fresh herbs, we first have to roll (and bake) our own bread 🙂
Don’t they look beautiful? 🙂
… forming typical Austrian dumplings with nettle leaves, very healthy & tasty!
… in the afternoon we cook, eat & become creative at the Tannenhof hotel, also known as the “Wohlfühlhotel” – a place to feel good!
Well this is exactly what happens here: Because of all the exciting, interactive offers, you just cannot help but feel good. A hike with local lady Erika is relaxing yet invigorating at the same time. The cooking workshop invites to roll, form, join in & laugh (about yourself), supporting kitchen hands never being far. And then comes the fun part … actually tasting your own, self-made delights such as spreads with herbs collected, home-made bread and oh so good Austrian dumplings interspersed with the nettle leaves we found earlier on: very healthy, I tell you. I had to eat it all. 😀
This table is just so so inviting. Beautiful. I love all the colours, as well as the food! – at Wohlfühlhotel Tannenhof.
What a beautiful, and immensely tasty soup served to us in a “creative way” – in a jar normally used for fruit & jams!
… freshly baked bread straight out of the oven together with the spread we created using local herbs: There is nothing more simple, yet more tasty than this. We just LOVED it !
And oh, I forgot to mention the famous Austrian dumplings … oh dear. 😀 Had to finish all of them as well. Yum!
Time to get (really) creative now … on canvas & wool
The entire Hotel Tannenhof is covered in inspiring paintings done by local artist & hotel owner Martina Lochner, who just loves sharing her passion with the creative travellers that visit her. “Felting with sheep wool is my mum’s task”, she laughs and off we go: Fueled by all the healthy, home-made food from lunch Johannes and I start felting small pieces of decoration while Susi & Janett go for … blow-drying. Each layer of colour on canvas has to be dried first, you know. Patience pays, though (and so does the blow-dry): True works of art are created in no time!
Janett clearly has her moments! 😀
Martina Lochner loves to provide us with her inputs and countless tools used in the creative moments of the workshop.
Even only after a short while, we get to take amazing things back home with us!
Johannes and I are really concentrated with achieving the finishing touches to our felting experience: This wool has the most beautiful texture.
… I just love digging in! From wool to felt we learn is actually just a matter of little time.
Thank you so much to the entire team for these “creative hours” spend at the Tannenhof hotel, unique in its kind. We would love to come back for a visit!
Disclaimer: We have been invited by Wohlfühlhotel Tannenhof in order to sample their range of creative workshop offers. All opinions are my own.