In 1924, a school teacher by the name of Elinor M Brent-Dyer visited a little town in the Austrian Tirol on holiday. She fell in love with the town, on the shores of a beautiful blue lake, surrounded by mountains. She was inspired to write a story about two sisters who moved out there to set up their own boarding school, and the Chalet School was born.
45 years later and EBD (as fans like to call her) had written 59 books (later split into 62 separate titles), and had amassed a world-wide following. The stories were written in real time and looking back, it is fascinating to see the way attitudes changed and evolved. When war broke out, the school had to leave Austria, but in a xenophobic nation in the throes of a World War, EBD’s books focused on tolerance and inclusion – encouraging readers to separate the nationality from the politics, and reminding then that not all Germans were Nazis or joined the armed forces by choice – very advanced thinking for the time!
My love of the Chalet School began in 1988, when I was given two books by an old lady to keep me occupied during the boring sermons in church. They were typical girl’s boarding school type stories, about English girls that attended a school in the Alps. I devoured the stories and began looking for more books about the Chalet School. I collected all my pocket money and bought as many as I could from WH Smith, until they stopped being published. I scoured second hand book stalls on the market, charity shops and car boot sales looking to complete my collection.
Sadly the books went out of print some years ago and, aside from the odd title printed by fans, it was increasingly difficult to find the last few. Luckily my friends and family all chipped in with the final few in the last couple of years (thanks Phil!).
The first 16 books in the series are based in Austria, in a fictional village called Briesau. However, fans have since realised that this is based on a real place – Pertisau – and every village, landmark, mountain and expedition can be found and experienced in real life. Since the age of 18 I have planned to visit this place and see for myself the places that I experienced so many times in my childhood imagination.
I attempted to go in 1997 when backpacking around Europe, but was bitterly disappointed when I ran out of time and money around Innsbruck and had to turn back. Therefore when writing my list of 40 things, this was one of the first things to be added!
Originally planning to go with a friend, she couldn’t make it in the end so I booked on my own to go on a 4-day break via a travel company called Inghams.
I flew out of Heathrow, which was a little daunting as I’d never flown alone before, so needed to work out where to go and what to do. I asked staff for help and it went smoothly so that was one relief! I was greeted at Innsbruck by my travel company rep, who had a coach to take us to our hotels. There was only me and one couple, so the coach was practically empty!
Upon arrival, I explored my surroundings. I’d been doing some research and found a couple of blogs that discussed the location of the Chalet. Some seemed to think it was this old hotel (Alpenhof) but whilst this may have been where EBD stayed in the 1920’s, it did not match the descriptions of the Chalet in the books at all!
Two fans discussed this and suggested another building may be the Chalet. I visited it, and everything matched, from the balconies, to the orientation of the windows, to the carving of the Virgin Mary which is referenced in the books!
The next day, I went on a walk around the lake. The village of Scholastika is referenced many times in the books and is the namesake of the rival school across the lake that was the cause of many adventures! I walked past Seespitz, then the village of Buchau, past Seehof and all the way round to the village – a 10 mile hike.
Distances and descriptions were exactly as EBD had outlined in the books. In the village, chalets were gaily decorated, with frescoed walls, flowers along the balconies and goats and chickens in every garden.
After a gourmet lunch at a little restaurant I found off the beaten path, I caught the bus back to Buchau and walked to a mountain called the Rofan, which fans have identified as the Sonnalpe, home of the main characters and site of some of their biggest adventures including their infamous escape from the Nazi’s in The Chalet School in Exile.
I saw the path that the girls would have taken, as steep as EBD described, but simply did not have time to climb it so sailed up in the cable car instead – not bad for someone with a horrendous fear of heights! At the top of the Rofan, views were amazing and I could definitely see why the girls loved coming up here to stay!
After a little look around, I got the cable car back down because I’d heard of a nearby waterfall that I thought would be worth a look. It turned out to be a really steep path and I was puffing like a steam engine all the way up! Some locals stopped for a chat and asked me where I was going – their reaction when I said the waterfall was “that is really high” and “good luck”!
I got to the waterfall after about an hour and it was really impressive so I am glad I made the effort, and again had a wonderful view of the lake and mountains. On the way back down it was fairly deserted so I entertained myself by singing at the top of my voice, much to the amusement of some other hikers I encountered when rounding a corner!
I finally caught the ferry back to my hotel for dinner, rounding off the day by experiencing the same journey that the Chalet girls took on their very first day at Briesau.
The next day I decided to go to Seespitz and ride the steam train that is still running after all these years. EBD describes the journey in great detail in her books and so I felt like I was one of the Chalet girls, the journey was identical even after 90 years! There’s a great video of the experience by another blogger here if you want to see it for yourself.
After riding the train both ways I then popped to the Fürstenhaus for lunch – the real life Kronprinz Karl which features heavily in the books.
After lunch, I walked along the opposite side of the lake to the previous day’s journey, to see the Dripping Rock and Gaisalm. This was a key feature of a couple of the stories, including a harrowing adventure in Rivals of the Chalet School where the girls were trapped after a bit of the path collapsed into the lake, forcing them to climb over a mountain to get home.
The walk was beautiful but there were some scary bits where the path was a bit dodgy, although they had attached metal cables to the rock face to hang onto. There were even some gaps in the path which had been bridged, where the path had broken away just like in the story!
At Gaisalm there seemed to be some sort of radio roadshow going on and it was very busy so I immediately got the ferry back to Pertisau, ready for my final expedition. I wanted to climb one more mountain – the Feilalm which in the books is called the Mondscheinspitze.
This walk was apparently so easy even the “babies” (6-8 year olds) could manage it and features in the early books. The walk itself was very steep and strewn with rocks and roots, so was actually quite hard going. It seemed to go on forever and with a thunderstorm brewing I was soon rather damp with perspiration! I had a bottle of water but also stopped to drink directly from a mountain spring!
It was totally worth the effort though – the view from the top was absolutely incredible. I stopped to admire the cows grazing on the Alm and bought fresh milk from the Gasthaus – truly feeling like a Chalet girl. Finally I made my way back down just in time for dinner and to get ready for my homeward journey.
The journey to Pertisau was everything I hoped for and more. Every place I visited was exactly as described, which is pretty amazing considering it was 90 years ago that the books were written! The locals were friendly and I was delighted to exchange the traditional Tirolean greeting “Grüss Gott” just like they did in the books. I genuinely think that it is the most beautiful place I have ever been to, and I echo Joey Maynard when she says that part of her heart will always live here.
I packed a lot into a very short trip, and I will definitely be back. I would be delighted to show any Chalet fans all of the locations that I found. Non-Chaletians would also really enjoy it as it is a gorgeous place, with loads of activities and plenty to see and do.
I’ve been re-reading the books and it adds an extra special element when I can picture the locations as I have seen them in real life!
For more information:
- Full photo album with higher resolution images
- An Armchair Guide to the Tiernsee
- Girls Gone By Publishing
- Inghams Holidays
- Chalet School wikipedia
40 things... 