Summer Holiday UK - August
For the second part of our summer holiday, Jules and I headed to the UK to spend a bit of time with family and friends. We started in Newcastle, then headed down to the Cotswolds, and finally through Berkshire on our way home.
Saturday - Monday, Tynemouth
Our trip started with a perfectly pleasant journey to Tynemouth, which took most of the day. We were pleasantly surprised by the LNER journey, in particular the haggis roll, which went down very well. We arrived in Tynemouth in the late afternoon and headed over to Marie & Dave's for a sociable evening.
After a good nights sleep in the Grand Hotel Tynemouth, we woke up to a lovely summers day. We went for a stroll along the seafront and were astounded by the number of cyclists, runners, skaters, joggers and even swimmers. The seafront has clearly seen a lot of investment and is really benefiting as a result.
After breakfast we took a gentle trip to the summerhouse with Marie & Dave, and enjoyed a relaxing afternoon there. It's a lovely place to chill out, and we can see why the family has enjoyed it so much over the years.
In the afternoon we headed back to Tynemouth for fish & chips in Pantrinis, which was very good, but none of us had space for ice cream at Di Meo's afterwards! We finished a lovely day with a quick nightcap in hte Copperfields pub attached to the hotel. The bar was nicely done, and they served an excellent IPA.
We woke up on Monday to the sound of waves and seagulls and a clear sky. After a good breakfast we headed into Newcastle to do a little shopping, and to see the "Vera Bridge" (as Jules calls the Tyne bridge)
We had a rather nice light lunch in Feugos, and then headed over to see Sam, Faye, and (very little) Abi in the afternoon. Quite a few of the clan descended on the new parents, but Abi didn't seem to mind, and it was lovely to spend the afternoon with everyone.
We rounded off the day with a cheeky pint in the Rockcliffe with Dave and Len.
Tuesday - Thursday, Cotswolds
On Tuesday morning we met briefly with Kathy and family for a walk along the beach before heading to Newcastle to start the journey to the Cotswolds.There was a slight disaster on the Metro, but we got to the station with a Taxi in the end. The X-country journey was slightly improved by a bacon sarnie, but we arrived slightly late in Cheltenham Spa and missed our connection. That wasn't entirely unexpected since we only had about 6 minutes to spare. The problem was that GWR had cancelled the next connection to Stroud (sighs), leaving us with a two hour wait for a 31 minute journey. Still, at least the delay meant the journey was free...
We checked into the Old Lodge, and headed over to see Sara & Richard for a lovely chat and to see their new place. We headed back to the lodge for dinner - more fish & chips!
We woke up on Wednesday to a slightly damp and grey Cotswolds morning. We had slept quite well in the cool room, but with only on duvet there had been a minor tug-of-war in the night (yours truly was never going to win that battle). We declined to go for a walk in the rain, and instead read a book in the lodge instead. We were very impressed by the golfers braving the weather for their rounds, but we didn't feel the need to join them.
In the afternoon we headed over to Burleigh Court for a lovely afternoon tea with Sara & Richard and my parents. It was very well done, and the format always works well for a gentle chat with snacks. In the evening we went for a short stretch of the legs, then relaxed with a book.
With better weather on Thursday we set off for a walk around the local villages. We toured the mill ponds in Nailsworth which were very pretty and had an excellent light lunch in William's Food Hall. We stopped at the church shop in Amberley and picked up some maps - possibly a little late for this trip, but maybe for next time! We then headed over for an ice-cream at Winstons, and dropped down to the Stroud Brewery for an excellent modern British beer. All in all a lovely little tour of the surroundings.
In the evening we headed over to The Crown at Frampton Maunsell for a lovely dinner and a gentle chat with Sara & Richard.
On Friday we started the journey back home. We had a bit of drama getting a taxi to Stroud, but managed to find one eventually. Our mood was much improved by an excellent pork pie and sausage rolls from a small artisanal bakery in Stroud for the journey. We needed that becuase the GWR train was delayed (did they get a single journey right? No, they did not), but we made it to Berkshire eventually for a brief stopover before flying back to Zürich.
Walking Lech Weg - August
For the first part of our summer holiday, Jules and I headed to Vorarlberg in Austria to walk along the Lech Weg (Lech way), following the path of the river Lech, along the Lech Tal (Lit. Lech valley), starting from ... you guessed it ... Lech. The route is relatively new - not one of the historic routes in the Alps, but it didn't suffer from that at all. In fact the route felt very natural and seemed to avoid lots of the built-up areas and roads, which suited us very well. The navigation was very easy, and well signed - you just need to follow the owl...
Thursday 1-Aug
We started with a civilised mid-morning train ride to Lech - much appreciated having a more gentle start. The train was very full and we only just about found seats despite travelling first class! St Anton was very pretty in the sun, with flowers throughout the village center and surrounded by the green mountains. We had a gentle stroll around town, including an unsuccessful hat-shopping trip and a tour of the (closed) après ski highlights. From St. Anton it was an easy bus ride to Lech, despite the heavy traffic caused by the still-closed Arlberg tunnel.
We were warmly greeted at the Hotel Lärchenhof and settled into our generous room. We braved the early evening rain for dinner in town, and my disappointment that Ambrosius has closed was tempered by a lovely dinner in Hotel Tannbergerhof - mushroom soup and the farmer’s salad being plenty after a pretty chilled day. We retired to the hotel for an early night.
Friday 2-Aug
We woke up to birdsong and gentle mist in the Lech valley. After a good breakfast we caught the well-organised bus up the Formarinsee. It was a short walk up to the lake, which was fine, but not the most beautiful lake in Austria as advertised. We followed the path of the Lech down the valley, starting out as a dry stream bed, then static pools and eventually into a trickle then a small stream. It was slightly hard going underfoot - the ground a bit uneven at first, but we made good progress nonetheless. We saw lots of lovely flowers in the Alpine meadows and Jules even spotted some orchids.
We stopped by the stream for a picnic lunch before continuing downhill, the high alpine meadows giving way to low bushes and pine woods. The landscape was really very pretty and nicely undeveloped - hardly anyone except for the walkers from the bus. We continued on the path, Jules dutifully following the Owl. We did manage to make the only possible navigational error of the day on the way up to Rud Alpe but that was soon corrected. We ate a late lunch of Wiener Schnitzel with Braten Kartoffel for Jules and a Tyroler Gröstl for me, both of us very happy with our choices. We were both feeling our legs a little by the time we were home in the hotel - a bit surprising given the 16.6km, but perhaps the 390m of ascent and 715m of descent also contributed. We had a tapas dinner in the lounge of the hotel with a glass of wine from the self-service bar - very practical and convenient - clearly the hotel had thought that through...
Saturday 3-Aug
We woke up feeling alright, and thankfully without any noticeable pains in our legs. We headed off after a good breakfast in the bright sunshine. The failure to buy Jules a sunhat over the last couple of days presented a slight challenge, but she did an excellent (although hilarious) bodge-job with a spare bootlace and a zip-off hood.
We made good progress, taking frequent breaks which was a good idea. The first leg to Warth was quite pretty. We stayed high above the river through pine woods for much of the way then dropped down to cross the river before climbing back up into Warth where we stopped for an excellent smoothie. En-route we saw a sparrowhawk chasing a sparrow through the trees (it looked like the sparrow got away) and a black squirrel. We crossed the Krumbach river and into Tyrol and joined the Panorama Weg where we were treated to lovely views back down the Lech valley and over the mountains. We followed the Panorama Weg high above the river, journeying through woodland and the occasional hamlet, before dropping down on a forest track to find that the Lech had transformed into a proper Alpine river. There was evidence of recent storms with broken tree trunks and washed out gulleys lining the carved out gorges. We followed the river past some very well appointed hunter's lodges (complete with private suspension bridges and personal cable trolleys), and a well-bolted climbing route.
We arrived in Steeg and stopped at the rather nice local dairy for a ice-cream. It looked as though they were gearing up for a decent party in the village - given the size of the bar being set up - but we didn't stop for long. Instead we set off on the final leg to the Styrolerhof hotel, about 3km further down stream. We arrived a little tired, and our legs feeling the ca. 30km with 650m of ascent and 950m of descent.
We made good use of the bar and restaurant with the excellent choice of a salad and Käsepressknoödel for dinner - tasty and with plenty of carbs, but not too filling. The entertainment for the evening was provided by the really hilarious head waiter, who recommended the "Abfallstrudel" to everyone...
Sunday 4-Aug
We both slept well, and woke up feeling remarkably good, considering the efforts of the previous day. We headed off after a good breakfast and rejoined the Lechweg just a short distance from the hotel. We made gentle progress along the valley floor to start, and then headed uphill fairly steeply at Holzgau, to the Bridge of Certain Death. Jules was very brave crossing the bridge, not helped by one guy in the party ahead deciding that it would be hilarious to start bouncing the (narrow, and already fairly wobbly) bridge in about the middle. From there the route continues before dropping down on narrow and steep paths to a pretty bridge at the river. There was a short climb up to the Jöchlspitzbahn, which nearly knocked me out - perhaps the last couple of days catching up withe me! We just caught the last cablecar up before the 12 o'clock lunch break, but declined the extra loop at the top of the hill and instead elected to share a Kaiserschmarrn for lunch at the Sonnalm Lechtal. We took the bubble back down and Jules saw an ibex grazing at the side of the ski piste!
Back down in the valley we continued on wider paths to the hotel Panorama in Elbigenalp, where we were pleased to see that our bags had already arrived. We freshened up and headed into the centre where we shared a pizza for dinner - a good idea as neither of us were hungry after breakfast. For the remainder of the afternoon we relaxed in the garden at the hotel and tried to ignore the arguments from the German family next door. We retired early to round off a fairly easy day of 14.9km, although with 540m ascent and 615m descent.
Monday 5-Aug
After another very good nights sleep, a good breakfast, and with shorts nearly dry we headed off to rejoin the Lech Weg. We followed the river to Grießau and then left the river slightly until Häselgehr. We missed going inside the church, and instead carried on to climb slightly up to the Panorama Weg, which we then followed for quite a long way. Jules did quite well on the more exposed sections and we were soon back onto slightly less intimidating paths. We briefly met a group of 6-ish Austrian women out in a girl's walking holiday at lunchtime, but declined to join them owing to the last bench being right overlooking the cliff. After lunch we followed the route as it dropped down gently into Vorderhornbach. We stopped for an affogato at the Rose Inn, which hadn't been materially refurbished in the last century. We continued on the final leg of the day into the pretty village of Stanzach, where we made a reservation at the restaurant Gasthof Post for dinner.
On the way to check into the Hotel Garni Waldhof, Jules found a pedicurist who was prepared to brave her walking shoes, and to paint her toenails. I think she earned her tip! Overall the day was 21.3km, with 395m ascent and 510m descent. Dinner at the Gasthof Post was a pretty poor experience - the hotel/restaurant has clearly seen better times (and better serving staff), but the food was ok, and the homemade spätzle were very good.
Tuesday 6-Aug
After a slightly short nights sleep (we were a bit late to bed) we headed off, with a hot day forecast. It was harder going than we expected, perhaps the cumulative days catching up on us a bit. The route started in the shade, for which we were grateful, alongside the now wide and torrential river. There were scattered broken tree trunks and assorted other debris, and the path of the river in the bed was a clearly a whim of the last surge. We crossed the river on the suspension bridge near Forchach - Jules being very brave, but the views (and photos) being rather special.
Safely over the bridge we rescued a small Alpine Salamander from the baking road - he was clearly a bit confused - and put him back in the undergrowth. We continued onto an awesome swimming lake - the Baggersee where we stopped for a swim in the beautiful clear water - just the ticket for a hot summer day. The lake was clearly well used, but had been kept very natural looking and was beautifully framed by the surrounding mountains. Slightly reluctantly we left the lake and continued on to Weißenbach am Lech where we stopped for a picnic lunch and a coffee from the local bakery (which was unfortunately not listed in the itinerary, or else we would have had lunch there).
For the final stretch we followed the route on paths, country roads, and track towards Höfen. We admired the flood protection for the town en-route and continued on the very long and hot path past the town before doubling back to the Hotel die Lille. Overall it was 21.6km, with 350m ascent / 430 descent, but it felt like a lot more - quite hard work for what was supposed to be an easy day.
For dinner we headed back into town to the Sennerland "gourmet" restaurant. We'd been quite rude about the name of the restaurant having seen it in the guidebook, but we were pleasantly astonished - the food was fresh, interesting, and healthy. I had a falafel salad - perfect after the day we'd had - and Jules had the fried chicken salad, followed by a Coupe Dänemark. Just what the doctor ordered! We went back to the hotel and collapsed into the Aufenthaltsraum quite knackered.
Wednesday - 7 Aug
We started our last day with a generous breakfast, including a large cup of English breakfast tea (always a good start to the day). There was a brief panic of missing trainers, but found them sleeping in the Aufenthaltsraum. Our legs were actually pretty good, considering how we'd felt the night before. We made a slight detour to a bakery to pick up some lunch, which was a good plan. We made quite good progress, but decided to miss out on the extra 5km look and instead to press on to Füssen in good time. The early sun turned into angry clouds and we got drenched in a proper summer storm - perhaps not the best day for Jules to forget to pack her waterproof trousers! We waited out the worst of the storm in a small woods, and then continued on in wet shorts. The big advantage of the storm was that it brought out all the Alpine salamanders, including one that waited patiently for me to set up the new camera and take his picture. As we continued through the woods we saw loads more salamanders and also lots of thumb-nail sized frogs - all enjoying a shower.
We pressed on round the never-ending Alpsee lake and on towards Schloss Hohenschwangau. We were quite cold, tired, and hungry when we arrived (sense-of-humours a little strained), but a bowl of hot soup in the brewery restaurant did wonders for the general mood as did shorts and pants drying out. From there it was one last push onto Füssen. We finished our official walk at the Lech Fall which was almost dry - not falling anywhere - with about 24.6km and 500m of ascent plus 640m of descent.
The town of Füssen is very pretty, but it felt full of tourists after many days of walking in pretty quiet places. There were plenty of shops (some were a bit tacky) but we were both a bit too tired to go shopping and instead retired to the Beim Olivenbauer restaurant for a good meal and a refreshment. We rounded off the evening with a drink on the lovely rooftop terrace of the Hirsch hotel, complete with a cigar for yours truly.
The journey home by train was notable in one respect. We had (unwittingly) booked tickets with only a 6 minute interchange in Buchloe, Germany. We had resigned ourselves to missing that connection, but amazingly DeutscheBahn managed to run both trains exactly on time and we made our scheduled connection and took our reserved seats. Miracles do happen!
Fishing Passeier Meran - June
Hoping that the levels in the river would drop (and maybe even some sun), Jamie, Jules, and I headed to South Tyrol to fish the Passer river just a upstream from Meran.
Friday
We headed out from Zürich in good time, and decided to go via the Brenner pass, owing to the recent rain and snowfall in the Alps. Unfortunately the Brenner was awful - down to a single lane in places and the journey took over 7 hours. The low point was traffic jam about 400m from our destination which did test our senses of humour slightly.
Anyway, we made it eventually and went fishing almost straight away with Robert. There was a lot of water in the river, so Jamie went with his Czech nymphing setup, and I was on Robert's 6 weight rod also nymphing. The water was quite cold, and there weren't many bites but between us we did manage a few nice rainbows and a brown trout.
We retired for a well earned beer and a lovely dinner at Hotel Sonnegg before collapsing into bed.
Saturday
It was cold when we woke up on Saturday morning, and reasonably fully dressed we headed off to the river. We fished the weir-pool which was absolutely freezing, but quite pretty with mist rising off it. The rain kept threatening, but we persevered and it was quite good fun in the slightly inclement conditions. I did manage to catch a reasonable rainbow and a smaller brown trout, but Jamie did much better - with quite a few fish...
After dinner we retired to the rooftop patio and sat under the cover whilst a storm rolled down the valley.
Sunday
The weather had cleared up in the morning, and even some sunshine, we headed off to a section of the river that's reserved for the local fishing club (and guests). This is a little way up from San Leonardo and is a beautiful section of the river. We fished the small pools working our way up the river, and Jamie in particular did very well with his nymphing setup.
Monday
We set off home on Monday morning, feeling slightly sad to be leaving. We decided to avoid the Brenner and instead headed back over the Ofenpass, which was very pretty and also very quiet - a lovely way back. We stopped in Klosters for a light lunch before heading to the airport. It was about 6 hours home, including the stop, and I think we'll use this route again.
Vienna - May
Continuing our "family & friends" theme for 2024, Jules and I headed to Vienna to attend Antonia's first communion and to spend some time with Robert and family.
We had an easy journey on Friday night - the flight landed on time (which was nice) and then a short train ride to the centre of town, taking the usual trains (rather than the City Airport Train). We found the NH hotel on Mariahilfer Straße easily and checked in for a fairly good nights sleep
Saturday
After a good breakfast in the hotel we headed over to see Robert and family. There was a Flöhmarkt in full swing, and the streets were bustling with people. We spent the morning with the family and had lunch (pasta - y'know, kids) there before heading out for ice-cream and coffee in the afternoon.
In the evening we went to Schnitzelwirt which was absolutely hilarious - including the waitress telling one couple to hurry up becuase they were taking so long, and at one point declaring that she was tired and the service would be paused for 20 minutes whilst she took a break. But, the schnitzel was good, and there was a long queue so they're clearly doing something right! We rounded off the evening with mojitos in a local bar before retiring to bed.
Sunday
After another good breakfast we prepared for the church ceremony. It seemed like a nice service (the bits that I understood), and it was clearly an important religious event for the families. After the service we went for pizza lunch (Antonia's choice) and then back to family home for afternoon cake.
In the late afternoon Jules and I headed off for a walk - we headed through the museum quarter to the Stephen's Dome and then on to the canal for a drink in the sun. The city felt very alive with lots of people out and enjoying the good weather.
We returned for Abendbrot with the family and one last chat before saying our goodbyes.
Eckernförde - March
We kicked off our "family & friends" year with a trip to visit Bernhild in Eckernförde. We spent a lovely long weekend seeing the town and spending some time together and with Carly. The days broke down as follows:
Friday
After an easy flight to Hamburg, and not much hassle collecting the rental car we headed off to Eckernförde. The only slight mishap was yours truly putting the car in manual mode and only being able to change down gears. I didn't touch the paddles again for the rest of the holiday, but aside from that it was an easy and comfortable drive!
We checked into the perfectly pleasant Stadthotel in the early afternoon. We had a lovely room overlooking the beach and the sea, with the added interest of some military boats, and a submarine in the distant harbour - well Russia isn't that far away...
After freshening up, we met with Bernhild and took a stroll through town and along the waterfront to her apartment. The town clearly used to have a working harbour originally, but now devoted mostly to pleasure craft. Dinner was a great barbecue - a lovely selection of pork ribs, kebabs and lamb - delicious. I tried the local and regional Pilsners - purely out of politeness you understand - adn I can confirm that they're all perfectly acceptable!
Saturday
After a good night's sleep in a very dark, not overheated room, and without the railway track renovations all night we headed down for the good breakfast. We met Bernhild mid-morning and went for a wander around the local market and shops. We just about managed not to buy too much in the kitchen shop, and picked up some herbs & spices, some smoked mackerel, and some of the local gin.
We stopped for a nice coffee in cafe Ach, before splitting up so the girls could do some more shopping. Lunch for me was a Bachfisch Brötchen from Fischzeit - perfectly acceptable, and clearly popular with the locals. In the afternoon we headed back to Bernhild's for a relaxed afternoon with a glass of Prosecco to celebrate Jules' qualification. We took Carly for a walk around the very convenient woodland and fields. Dinner was crispy chicken schnitzels from the market, and relaxed in the evening.
Sunday
After another good night's sleep (briefly punctuated by the fireworks), and another good breakfast in the hotel, we met up with Bernhild and went for a walk at the coast near Maasholm. We started with Fisch Brötchen from a local cafe, then walked around the natural harbour. Went to the lovely cafe Gut Oehe For coffee and a cake (and a monkey pils beer). I found a good winter coat from the shop, and Jules found a very useful yellow summer cardigan.
Retail therapy complete we headed back home - unfortunately Carly was a bit ill from the drive, but soon perked up again - and relaxed and chatted for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening we returned to the hotel for a glass of wine in the bar before retiring.
On Monday we went for a short walk to stretch our legs in the morning (and to try out the new coat) before heading back to Zürich to complete a lovely weekend in good company.
Skiing St. Anton - February
For my second skiing holiday of the season I headed down to St. Anton to meet up with Andy. We stayed at chalet Monte Vera Apart Garni, provided by Skiworld which turned out to be a nicely appointed Chalet only a short bus ride from the Nasserein lift in St. Anton. We had a very generous room, and to our pleasant surprise the bus stop was right outside the building. We never had to wait long for the free (with a lift pass) shuttle bus, which was scheduled to run every 15 minutes but seemed to come more often than that. The snow conditions were alright for the week, although we spent most of the time on-piste where the snow was definitely better.
The days broke down as follows:
Saturday
I travelled to St. Anton arriving at a very relaxed late afternoon. I found the chalet pretty easily and after parking up I headed down to town for a beer in Sonnegg for old times sake until Andy & the bus arrived. It seemed like a pretty good crowd of people in the chalet and we had a good chat over dinner before and early night to bed.
Sunday
After a good breakfast we headed off out. We caught the bus easily with no stress (although we quickly learned to ignore the timetable and just to wait for the next one). We skied around St. Anton with Richard and found better snow higher up - it was a bit refrozen lower down. We did an excellent run down the skiroute from the Schindlergrat gondola, and found some nice snow on the long blue 100. We skied most of the area around St. Anton, St. Christoph, and Stuben. We tried out the new gondola Albona I up from Stuben, which was good, but couldn't ski the Albonagrat area, we guessed because the winds were a little strong on the day. We had lunch in the Albona bergrestaurant above Stuben which was fine, but my choice of chips AND goulash was a little much.
We finished the day skiing with a top to bottom run from Kapall to Nasserine which was fine, but a bit busy. We recovered from the experience with a beer in Sonnegg for old times sake. In total we managed 38.5km of skiing with 7,000m of descent over 13 runs. I put my skis in for a service at InterSport (€48 - fine) and we retired to the chalet. Yours truly managed to set a new record of going to bed at 7:20pm, and missing dinner entirely!
Monday
I picked up my skis quickly and easily from InterSport - they seemed to have done a good job - and we set off up the slopes. We headed over to Zürs which was fine once we got there, but there were a few queues on the way. We found some pretty good snow underneath the Muggengrat lift, both the blue back down to the lift, and the long red around back around to Zürs were in good nick. We stopped for an early lunch at Trittalm Bergrestaurant, which was a good plan. We all had the Rindsuppe with knödel and shared a bowl of chips, but that was still a bit too much food.
After lunch we skied under Trittalp for a couple of runs before heading back over to the other side of the valley above Zürs. We found the snow on-piste a bit better - both off-piste and the skiroutes were a bit cut-up and re-frozen. We finished with a loop around Muggengrat and then took the Flexenbahn back to St Anton. We stopped for a quick coffee in Galzig bar before heading down the black run to Mattun chair. This is always an awful run but made doubly bad by the closure of the blue run which meant that it was also busy on the black and with a lot of people who were finding the conditions very challenging. Andy and I tried to get another lift up, but we'd just missed Kapall and instead took the skiroute / women's downhill run to finish at Nasserine. It turned out to be a perfectly respectable day of 47.1km with 8,400m of descent over 21 runs.
Tuesday
White Ring! We made a pretty prompt start and headed across St. Anton and over the Flexenbahn to do a lap of the White Ring. The snow seemed better in Lech and was even surprisingly good on the skiroute down from Madloch-Joch. We stopped at the Balmalp (posh) bar at the top of Zugerberg lift for a drink but headed on to Kriegeralpe for a lovely early lunch. We waited for a table inside, which was definitely worth it for the atmosphere. Andy had the Rösti, whilst Richard and I had a variation on Älplermagronen. All good skiing food! After lunch we skied above Lech including some new routes down from the top of the Steinmähder chair. We headed back via the Rüfikopf gondola, and had a great run down skiroute 181 - lovely snow, and then cruised back to Zürs. We stopped for a hot chocolate in Trittalm Bergrestaurant before heading back over the Flexenbahn. The day turned out as 45.8km with 8,000m of descent over 23 runs
Wednesday
We headed over to Rendel in the morning to check out the area. The snow was OK on-piste in most areas, but the skiroute from the top of Riffel II was a bit icy and bumpy. We cruised around most of the area in the morning and then headed back to St. Anton so that I could (re-)try the truffle pasta from Basecamp. It was definitely very good, but perhaps a little pricey at €35 for a medium bowl. I gave up after lunch and stayed in the bar to have another beer before going shopping for cold cuts and cheese for dinner - it being the chalet hosts night off. It was a pretty relaxed day for me at 28.1km with 6,000m of descent over 13 runs.
Thursday
To try to take advantage of the better snow in Lech, but without the long ski there and back, we drove over, parked up and headed up the slopes to ski Lech and Warth. The light was a bit flat in the morning and it was raining at times, which is never good in a ski resort. We skied most of Warth including a hot chocolate in Punschhütte. I took a pretty bad fall coming down black 280 - for the first time ever I was grateful to have been wearing a helmet. Fortunately I managed to get back on my feet before Andy arrived with a camera, so there's no evidence of the event.
We stopped in Auenfelder Hütte on the advice of a young lady on one of the lifts - this was definitely good advice since the knödels were excellent, but the stuffed marmots for decoration were a bit ... odd. In the afternoon we skied above Lech were Andy and I just about made it down Nordhängen in quite difficult conditions. Overall it was 41.2km and 7,400m of descent over 22 runs.
Friday
We started our last day of skiing with a few gentle runs around St. Anton, and then took the Valluga gondola up, and the second gondola to the very top. We timed it a little wrong as there was more cloud in the morning, but ho-hum. We were a little surprised to see people skiing off the top (with guides), but good luck to them and rather them than us! We made it back over to Albonagrat where the snow was quite good, and had lunch back in Albona Bergrestaurant. After lunch we took the Schindlergrat gondola up for a run down the favourite skiroute #86 and then dropped down into St Christoph for a hot chocolate. We finished the week of skiing with a couple of loops of Kapall. The day was a respectable 46.6km with 8,500m of descent over 19 runs.
We finished up in the old man's pub Cafè Mondscheinstüberl which was actually quite good, and definitely worth remembering. We met up with Frank, Simon, Paul, & G from the chalet and enjoyed a couple of last beers together. Overall it was a pretty successful week of skiing, although with slightly better snow conditions we could perhaps have done some more interesting runs.
Skiing in Switzerland with Giley - January
For the first proper skiing holiday of the season, Giley came over and we headed off to south-west Switzerland to experience a few resorts in Graubünden. We based ourselves in Chur, which made the trips to each of the resorts much easier and shorter. The days broke down as follows:
Friday - Flims
We headed off pretty early from Zürich, and managed to get to Flims for about 8:30. It was pretty quiet and we headed up the mountain without much fuss at all. We started with a run down Stretch (for tradition's sake), but it felt a bit marginal - refrozen and a bit hard & icy. We decided to head a bit further up the mountain and found much better snow higher up. Lovely conditions on the runs under Tres Palais and around Vorab.
We stopped for lunch in the Vorab station, which was my first experience of the new self-service model being operated in the resort. Giley and I just about managed to figure out the machines (we're not very good with technology), and ended up with what thought we ordered.
After lunch we headed over to the Lavadinas lift. We tried the ski route back down, but it was a bit challenging on early season legs. Soft in places and then hard-frozen on the next turn. No wonder the route was closed! We cruised around for the rest of the afternoon, and even popped in to see a bit of the Laax open from the viewing gallery. Those guys are crazy!
Overall we managed 52.0km, and 8,900m of descent over 16 runs - pretty respectable for the first day...
We headed to Chur to find "La Suite" in Arcas (which turns out to be a square in the old-town). It was quite easy to find, there was plenty of parking in the nearby carpark and a cold beer in the fridge - which was very welcome. For dinner we headed out to Kornhaus for a good and traditional meal, but perhaps a little heavier than either of us needed. We stopped in Hemingway for a nightcap to finish off an excellent day.
Saturday - Klosters
After a good nights sleep we headed out fairly promptly to Klosters. We wanted to get there before any rush, and we managed to get the very last space in the carpark by the gondola. After a bit of faff with lift tickets and the ride up the slope we finally managed to get skiing about 9:45. The conditions were great, and we were skiing under lovely sunshine for most of the day. We cruised around the area taking in the sights and trying out most of the lifts. We made it down into Davos town and up ot the Weissfluhgipfel - some of the best conditions were on route #1 / Nostalgie Run
We ended up for lunch in Schifer Berghaus for what turned out to be an excellent pizza - would happily go back there. We just about managed to catch the last lift back to the right side of the mountain for the descent into Klosters - 4 minutes to go until the close, which is a bit tight for yours truly!
Overall we managed 51.9km, and 7,850m of descent over 15 runs - another respectable day. Dinner was tapas, and an evening spent relaxing in the flat.
Sunday - St. Moritz
We headed off early again, for the drive over the Julier pass to St Moritz. The pass was in much better condition than the last time I drove it (in February 2017) - the roads were clear of snow and the sun was shining. We made it to the resort in good time, and managed to park in the carpark right by Signal lift. There were no queues - in fact the resort seemed deserted - and we were up the mountain very quickly and efficiently.
We spent the day cruising around the whole resort, including going to the very top for a photo opportunity and checking out the start of the Men's downhill route (it's quite steep). We stopped for a very forgettable lunch at Marguns - very busy and all the seats reserved by families or taken up by the ski-school (we won't be heading back there in a hurry!). After lunch we continued in the same vein - cruising around whatever took our fancy. We did stop at the Paradiso bar for a brief refreshment in the afternoon. It's clearly popular with the TikTok crowd, judging by the clientele. Giley was very impressed by the fleece onesie, less so by the Fr. 14 for a beer.
With our legs almost done we found the world's slowest chair lift, but which did give some views of rather nice looking houses. All in all it was a good day's skiing, in lovely conditions and with pretty empty pistes. The only disappointment was when Giley figured out that they don't acutally have diamond crusted pavements in St. Moritz. Overall we managed 51.0km, and 9,250m of descent over 22 runs.
The drive back to Chur was thankfully forgettable and in sunlight, which was nice for the driver. Once back in Chur we went to Mamma Mia for a perfectly adequate Pizza.
Monday - Arosa/Lenzerheide
The day started with an easy drive to Lenzerheide. Somehow I managed to miss the car park at Churwalden, but we ended up at Rothorn with plenty of spaces available and so all good. We started with a bit of a cruise above Lenzerheide, in good snow conditions and pretty empty pistes. After a couple of runs we headed over the Urdenbahn to the Arosa side, where we found some lovely conditions in the usually-good area undeneath the Hörnli lift
We made our way gently down the Arosa side, stopping to take some photos of the hot-air balloons landing on the slopes, which must have been a bit of a challenge. We stopped for an early lunch in Tschuggen Hütte. A very good burger for me, and a great cheesy sausage for Giley. After lunch we popped down to the village, just to see the sights and then slowly made our way back up the valley. With the wind picking up a bit, and not wanting to be caught in the wrong valley we headed back over to Lenzerheide for a few last runs. We stopped in at Motta restaurant on a whim, and found it to be lovely inside - very distinctive wooden construction, a very interesting combination of pretty and functional. Oh, and they do an excellent chocolate brownie.
We dropped back down to Lenzerheide to finish the day with 50.7km, and 8,850m descent over 20 runs - keeping up a respectable average for the four days...