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...