All posts by pierrev

Ottawa and the Chair of Horns

May 29, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Ottawa, Ontario, Canada)

We just spent a weekend in Ottawa – as we went by car this time, we decided to focus on places that are a little harder to visit using public transportation.

I’ll start with the strangest part: we stopped at a flea market in Stittsville on Sunday. There was a lot of used furniture and the usual knick-knacks that are typically found at flea markets. But then we saw “it”! As you can see from the picture, “it” is a chair made out of animal horns. This raises all kinds of questions. Was the chair builder somehow inspired to build a Chair of Horns and subsequently went looking for the perfect horns? Or did the chair builder already have the horns…and then arrive at the unavoidable conclusion that they must be used to build a chair?

The startling chair of horns in Stittsville, Ontario — The startling **Chair of Horns** in Stittsville, Ontario

It would be interesting to know the answer. From my perspective, when I see horns, I don’t immediately think that “I must build a chair out of these”. Anyway, it’s quite unusual and, if you’re lucky, this Chair of Horns might even still be available for purchase!

Although we didn’t realize it was happening until we arrived in Ottawa, we also managed to attend part of the annual Tulip Festival. This festival has its roots in the gift of more than 100,000 tulip bulbs by the Netherlands to Canada, as thanks for Canada’s role in World War II (you can read the details here). The big event this year was the unveiling of the new “Canada 150”: a tulip that resembles the Canadian flag (see photo at the top of this post). It has been developed in anticipation of Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 and will apparently be available commercially later this year.

Part of the Tulip Festival near Dow's Lake — Part of the Tulip Festival near Dow’s Lake

Many of our destinations were food-related. In addition to various ethnic grocery stores, we went to a Malaysian restaurant on Friday and a South Indian restaurant on Saturday. We learned that the food from the Kerala region of southern India is very spicy…even the mild dishes would be considered at least “medium hot” elsewhere. Fortunately, we were able to balance it with gelato from Little Italy on Preston Street.

World of Maps in the Hintonburg district of Ottawa

However, I think our best food experience was in the Hintonburg neighbourhood. We found a lot of great little shops here: my wife enjoyed a Christmas store, I enjoyed visiting a record shop, and we both spent a lot of time in “World of Maps”! As this is a travel blog, I have to mention this as a travel store worth visiting in Ottawa. Lots of maps and travel guides, of course, but also lots of other travel literature and supplies. If you need a New Zealand sticker for your car, or a flag from Barbados, this is your place!

My Capricciosa pizza at "Tennessy Willems" restaurant in Hintonburg — My Capricciosa pizza at “Tennessy Willems” restaurant in Hintonburg

Anyway, we had a great lunch at a Hintonburg restaurant called “Tennessy Willems” (spelling apparently intentional). It focused on Italian food and was extremely committed to local ingredients. The Capricciosa pizza (usually my favourite kind) was one of the best I’ve ever had; I’m glad that I remembered to take a picture before eating. The sauce was particularly good – the restaurant even sells jars of it!

Stay tuned for a few more flashbacks, as the Southern Hemisphere countdown continues!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Reykjavik and Traditional Icelandic Food (2008)

May 22, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

As I’ve mentioned a few times in my blog, Iceland has a very small population and the majority of it is in the capital city of Reykjavik. So what’s it really like?

Unfortunately, I don’t have much to show you. This was the very first destination with my digital camera and I didn’t anticipate that I would ever be writing a blog about it. However, upon reviewing my photos of Reykjavik I realized that almost all of them were dominated by a large umbrella, as it was raining for almost our entire visit.

The Bautinn in Akureyri, Iceland - we ate dinner here once — The Bautinn in Akureyri, Iceland – we ate dinner here

We spent a lot of time indoors in Reykjavik. I wasn’t going to include the photograph below, which was clearly not taken with my usual care, until I realized that there really wasn’t much blog-appropriate photography from Reykjavik. Most of the photos in today’s post are from elsewhere in Iceland.

Part of the cafeteria menu at Reykjavik's bus station — Part of the cafeteria menu at Reykjavik’s bus station

Many travel guides spend considerable time describing some of the more unusual traditional Icelandic foods. Iceland was once a poor country and it was necessary to eat whatever was available. As you can see from the Svið (sheep’s head) in the above menu, some of those traditional items have managed to stay popular today. I took a look at the Svið (which does not include the brain) but did not actually have any.

At one of the big markets in Reykjavik, we encountered the legendary hákarl: putrefied meat from the Greenland shark. It has to be buried underground and allowed to ferment for a couple of months because the meat in its “original” form is toxic to humans. The poisons include uric acid…it seems that this particular shark urinates through its skin. However, the fermentation process, followed by another extended period of air-drying, removes the toxins from the meat and it becomes edible.

Buildings near the harbour in Húsavík, Iceland

I did not try hákarl either: while it may not have been toxic, it apparently smells like very strong ammonia and rotten cheese…and can cause gagging for the uninitiated. At the market, we could not smell it because it was kept tightly sealed. Given the way it was presented at the market, it did seem to be aimed more at adventurous tourists than at everyday Icelanders.

Another traditional item I did try was Brennivín. It is the equivalent of brandy, as the name translates into English as “burning wine.” It is actually a powerful schnapps-like drink made from fermented potatoes and caraway seeds. Many travel writers speak poorly of it (indeed, its nickname is “Black Death”) but I enjoyed it enough to bring some home from the airport’s duty free shoppe.

I also developed a taste for chocolate-covered licorice in Iceland: like most northern European countries, Iceland is crazy about licorice and there are many different ways to enjoy it. I later had a variation on this theme in Finland (licorice-covered chocolate, which I liked even more) but it was in Iceland where I first discovered and enjoyed this unusual combination of sweet and salty. If you like dark chocolate with sea salt, you will surely enjoy the combination of chocolate and licorice!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Urban Life in Northern Iceland (2008)

May 15, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Akureyri is the “capital” of the northern part of Iceland and is, in fact, the second largest urban area in the country. However, its population is still less than 20,000! Iceland is indeed a sparsely populated country, with just over 300,000 people altogether (most of whom are in the Reykjavik area).

The Akureyrarkirkja ("Akureyri Church) in downtown Akureyri — The Akureyrarkirkja (“Akureyri Church”) in downtown Akureyri

Akureyri feels bigger (at least in summer), as it is a major transportation and administrative hub. We spent 5 nights here in 2008: the main reason was to have a base for our day trips to the Lake Mývatn region (see this post, that post, and still another post), Grímsey and the Arctic Circle, and the fishing town of Húsavík. There weren’t really any specific “must see” sites in Akureyri, but we ate a lot of meals here and enjoyed making it our home.

Deep inside Akureyri's botanical gardens — Deep inside Akureyri’s botanical gardens

There were some surprises. Even though Akureyri is almost at 66 degrees north, it had botanical gardens! As there were very few trees left anywhere in Iceland, we really enjoyed getting some shade and seeing some plant variety here. We also spent an evening watching what was presumably a professional soccer game. The quality was uneven but the sparse crowd was very enthusiastic.

I spent a little time at Akureyri's soccer stadium — I spent a little time at Akureyri’s soccer stadium

While we were in Akureyri, the 2008 Olympics were taking place. I’ve never seen so much handball before…and I was quite surprised at the physicality of the game! Iceland is handball-crazy and they participate in many international competitions. Even so, it was remarkable how well they did in Beijing: they won the Olympic silver medal! Considering the size of the country, this has to rank as one of the greatest Olympic achievements. They lost 28-23 in the gold medal match to France: a country with 200 times the population of Iceland.

Exterior of the Bláa Kannan in downtown Akureyri

As in Reykjavik, relief from the then-extortionate costs of eating in Iceland was found in Akureyri’s Thai restaurants. We also enjoyed some relatively inexpensive times at a café called the Bláa Kannan. As the name suggests, it was very blue…and also very cozy. Who would have expected to see a Parisian-style café in Akureyri? Unfortunately, we were not able to find a cheap way to do our laundry in Akureyri: at $50 (in 2008 dollars), it remains by far our most expensive laundering experience!

We had lunch at the Salka Restaurant in Húsavík

We went on a day-trip to Húsavík (see photo at the top of this post) just to experience a smaller town in northern Iceland. It’s known among tourists mainly for whale-watching but, after our “unsettling” experience sailing to Grímsey, we confined our visit to the town itself. As with Akureyri, it may have been relatively small but it was certainly not narrow-minded. We easily spent a couple of hours in one of the local museums. Actually, we were impressed throughout Iceland with the level of literacy and linguistic proficiency. Everybody seemed to be reading books!

Rough-looking bar at the harbour in downtown Húsavík

While Iceland’s main attractions remain its natural wonders, even its smaller urban areas are enjoyable. Stay tuned for the next post, where I’ll be taking a look at Reykjavik, Iceland’s edgy metropolis!

Posts from Base Camp

Showtime in Kingston!

May 8, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

While the sound wasn’t so great at the Los Lobos concert in Toronto, we have had a lot of great concert experiences this year in Kingston at the Grand Theatre.

Last fall, we saw Darlene Love…you know her voice, even if you think you don’t know the name. She sang on a bunch of the early 1960s records produced by Phil Spector but she was very rarely credited personally. She also was a back-up singer for some artists you may recognize: Elvis Presley, Sam Cooke, Tom Jones, The Beach Boys and Dionne Warwick, to name just a few.

With Darlene Love at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

Recognition came later: being admitted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2011, being named by Rolling Stone magazine as one of the 100 greatest vocalists, being invited onto Late Night with David Letterman every year to sing her signature song “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” and then more recently starring in the feature film “20 Feet from Stardom” (which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary in 2013). She was in Kingston as part of her tour to promote her new album cleverly titled “Introducing Darlene Love”. But she also sang the songs that first made her voice famous…it really sends a chill down your spine to hear “Christmas” live!

One of the great things about shows at the Grand Theatre is that the performers generally come out afterwards to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Darlene was no exception and it was great to meet her. She has been singing for more than 50 years but still sounds great and loves what she’s doing.

With Holly Cole at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

We also saw Holly Cole, Buffy Sainte-Marie and Johnny Clegg this year at the Grand Theatre. Each of them were inspiring in their own way…and we also had the privilege of meeting each of them and getting pictures and autographs from them.

Buffy Sainte-Marie on stage at the Grand Theatre in Kingston

It was especially cool to see Johnny Clegg (see photo at the top of this post) in Kingston. I first wrote about Johnny Clegg in this post from late 2014. We previously traveled to Ottawa and Niagara-on-the-Lake to see this South African legend perform but never thought that we would be able to see him in our hometown.

We were a little concerned that seeing him for the 3rd time in 5 years might not be as special. Happily, we were wrong. His set list was quite different and he seemed even more energetic than before. You get the whole experience at a Johnny Clegg concert – the incredibly joyous South African music that makes the crowd go wild…followed by reverent silence as the audience hangs on every word when he tells his fascinating stories. And the stories were all new too!

We’re really fortunate to have this facility in Kingston…I’m sure we will be attending some great shows in the 2016-2017 season as well.

Stay tuned for some travel flashbacks…and the countdown to our mysterious summer adventure in the Southern Hemisphere!

Posts from the road

Showtime in Toronto

April 29, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Toronto, Ontario, Canada)

We recently made a quick visit to Toronto for a concert. Los Lobos have been on my musical bucket list for a while and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to see them. Before showtime, however, we had a couple of stops to make.

Toronto has a great transit pass offer on weekends: 2 adults (and up to 4 children) can ride all day for a total of $12.00. With single rides costing $3.25 cash, the pass pays for itself if 2 adults take one return trip. We did that…and much more.

The Hockey Hall of Fame in downtown Toronto

Our first stop was a neighbourhood that used to be known as “Little India”. Somehow, I had never visited this part of Gerrard Avenue East (between Greenwood and Coxwell) despite living in Toronto for 3 years. It’s now known as the “Gerrard India Bazaar” but it still has several blocks of restaurants and shops featuring food and clothing from the Indian subcontinent.

We were hungry and slightly overwhelmed by the number of restaurants, so we went to the first one that looked a little different from Kingston’s Indian restaurants. Karma’s Kitchen featured Indian, Nepalese and Tibetan cuisine; I settled on a sizzling plate called Chicken Tangra.

Chicken Tangra at Karma's Kitchen in Toronto — Chicken Tangra at Karma’s Kitchen in Toronto

After picking up some unusual food items (including a delicious Punjabi peanut brittle!) for home and dropping them off at our hotel, we did some music shopping in the Queen West/Spadina neighbourhood and then headed to The Annex.

I lived on the edge of The Annex many years ago and often visited this part of town for dinner and/or entertainment….and so it was on this night, as we visited the venerable Country Style Hungarian Restaurant on Bloor Street West. As you can see from the photo, the size of the schnitzel did not disappoint! There was lots of spätzle underneath and a cucumber salad besides. It’s not fancy but you cannot possibly leave hungry.

Chicken Schnitzel at Country Style Hungarian Restaurant

We sauntered slowly from the restaurant to the concert venue. It was all quite promising: an acclaimed band, an acoustically renowned concert hall, a supposedly “unplugged” concert theme, and seats in the first row of the side balcony, right by the stage. We looked forward to seeing and hearing with astonishing clarity.

Well, we did *see* Los Lobos up close. Unfortunately, the concert was marred by unbalanced and muddy sound. It was strange to be only a short distance from the saxophone player and yet not hear any of the notes he was obviously playing. Same with the vocals; in fact, even the announcements (without music) at the start of the concert were unintelligible. However, we did hear plenty of the wall of guitars. Our ears rang for quite some time afterwards; this was certainly not an unplugged or acoustic performance.

Los Lobos at Koerner Hall in Toronto: this band has been together for more than 40 years! — Los Lobos in Toronto: this band has been together for more than 40 years!

I walked the length of the balcony, to see if we were in a sonic “dead zone”, but things didn’t seem to be any better. Los Lobos finished their concert with a seamless medley of “La Bamba” and the Rascals’ “Good Lovin'”. They clearly are accomplished and adventurous musicians – other songs wandered into portions of “Not Fade Away” and “Papa Was A Rolling Stone” before returning to the original Los Lobos song.

Despite the disappointing sound at the concert, our trip was still a success…particularly with some great finds the next morning at the antique market and spectacular gelato (as always) at “G is for Gelato” on Jarvis Street. And we can listen to brilliant albums like “Kiko” at home anytime!

Posts from the road

Arrivederci, Italia!

April 22, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Torino, Italy)

My last two days in Italy were blessed by brilliant sunshine. The first, in Sestriere, was a rather unplanned day off the slopes…but I did enjoy exploring the town and indulging in some local pastries.

Sestriere is a “purpose-built” resort with an unusually high number of cylindrical buildings. Not much character, then, but looking up into the surrounding gleaming mountains does compensate somewhat for the lack of history. There was an unexpected fireworks display on the last night: although it is difficult to capture it on camera, it really was impressive to see the fireworks reflecting off the white snow.

One of Sestriere's cylindrical hotels. Note the spiraling windows! — One of Sestriere’s cylindrical hotels. Note the spiraling windows!

We traveled to Turin (Torino) for the final full day in Italy. I was expecting a city similar to Milan, but I found Turin to be a little more accessible. There were more affordable indulgences and more elegant architecture: many streets had arcades to shield you from the sun…something I didn’t see much in the more commercial and hectic Milan. In a nutshell: there were lots of appealing opportunities for gelato, pastries and focaccia! It was only March 19, but for lunch we were able to eat our pizza outdoors.

Dinner was a special treat. We found a “locals only” restaurant a few streets away from our hotel. It was family run: the parents were running the show and the (adult) children were handling the customers. After 12 days in Italy, I was feeling bold enough to do all of the ordering in Italian. This was partially out of necessity: there was no English menu here. We also lived on the edge, as we didn’t necessarily know what we were ordering. I knew enough Italian to avoid trippa (tripe) and our appetizer of insalata verde (green salad) was obvious enough…but we didn’t truly know what would show up for our main courses. No worries – our pasta dishes were delicious and we had lots of the real parmigiano reggiano cheese to go with them.

My pizza capricciosa; I was so hungry (and it was so good) that I ate it in about 30 seconds after taking this picture — My pizza capricciosa in Turin; I was so hungry (and it was so good) that I ate it in about 30 seconds after taking this picture

For dessert, we took an even more daring approach. Reasoning that the most expensive dessert would also be the best, we threw caution to the wind and ordered the mysteriously-named (so mysterious that I cannot remember it) house specialty. Great call: we enjoyed a phenomenal dessert with hazelnut liqueur and dark chocolate in various forms. How much did we enjoy dinner? I completely forgot to take pictures of the food!

While we were only there for about a day, we left with a very positive impression of Turin…even if that was based mostly on the food. The only negative was that people seemed to smoke a lot here: no smoking was permitted inside but some of the more crowded areas downtown were a little unpleasant after being in the fresh air of the Cinque Terre and the Italian Alps for nearly two weeks.

I didn't expect to come across a tango festival in Turin! — I didn’t expect to come across a tango festival in Turin!

Thus endeth another Italian ski adventure. On our last night in Sestriere, we had a meeting and decided on the venues for next year’s ski camp. I’ll keep it a secret for now…however, given how much we enjoyed Cortina d’Ampezzo and Val Gardena, I am reasonably certain that next year’s choices (in two different countries) will be great as well.

Stay tuned for some Canadian content!

Posts from the road

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 4 (The Final Chapter)

April 15, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Sestriere, Italy)

The stage was set: after exploring the Milky Way ski region for 4 days and confirming the logistics involved, our 5th day would be spent on an epic round-trip journey on skis to Montgenevre, France.

But it wasn’t. We awoke to yet another snowstorm and made the difficult decision to stay closer to Sestriere. It just didn’t make sense to ski all the way to France without being able to see anything.

Pausing mid-morning before resuming an attack on the "Kandahar" Olympic downhill slope — Pausing mid-morning at a plateau before resuming an attack on the “Kandahar” Olympic downhill slope

Instead, we returned to the nearby Borgata area and set about exploring some of the pistes that we hadn’t seen back on Day 1. Something cool happened: while the top of the mountain was shrouded in snow and had essentially no visibility, the bottom half (which could only be reached by skiing all the way down from the top) was actually relatively clear even though it also had been blanketed with tons of fresh snow. Thus, if you were willing to endure some blind skiing up top, you were rewarded with amazing conditions at the bottom.

We stumbled upon the “Kandahar” (Banchetta Nasi) piste early and took the plunge. This was the 2006 Olympic men’s downhill course and the buckets of snow made it an exhilarating ride. We returned to it often, thoroughly enjoying conditions that are rarely associated with on-piste skiing.

We decided to ski to the village of Pragelato for lunch. The lone piste to the village was a winter wonderland; nowhere near the Kandahar in terms of difficulty but nonetheless incredibly scenic as it slowly wound through the snow-blanketed forest to the valley. Alas, Pragelato turned out to be a Club Med village…with very formally dressed staff and steep lunch prices for non-guests. We ate instead at a more humble place back on the Borgata slopes.

My lunch: potatoes, bacon, cheese, egg... — My prototypical Alpine lunch: potatoes, bacon, cheese, egg…

While the Kandahar piste remained excellent for the rest of the day and we returned to it periodically, the sun eventually emerged over the entire area and my posse found even more stunning deep powder conditions on pistes that had been marked as closed or had simply been overlooked by everybody else. When looking at the next two pictures (as well as the photo at the very top of this post), remember that these pistes had been groomed overnight: these photos were all taken in the afternoon! As you can see, there was nobody else around.

Believe it or not: this is on-piste in the afternoon above Borgata

Access to this kind of skiing is usually only by helicopter…and yet, we were able to have the same experience for the price of a simple lift ticket. We were incredibly fortunate.

And then, on the last run of the day, shadows began to fall on the slopes. I was within sight of Sestriere village when I planned a turn through what I thought was yet another stash of powder. Alas, the low light was playing tricks on me and it was not powder at all. I didn’t realize this until the last second and took an awkward stumble. To make a long story short, I decided that I should not risk a more permanent injury by skiing the next day with a stiff shoulder and neck.

More on-piste (!) skiing in the sunny afternoon above Borgata...begging to be captured on film for posterity — More on-piste (!) skiing in the sunny afternoon above Borgata…begging to be captured on film for posterity

I was more than a little frustrated at the time. However, as I type this, I realize that I did have a remarkable 5 days of skiing…and it was probably equivalent to 10 days of skiing in “normal” circumstances. Taking it easy the next day also ensured that I could enjoy the last two days of my holiday.

Stay tuned for the final post from my trip to Italy!

Posts from the road

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 3 (Another Blizzard!)

April 8, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Sestriere, Italy)

Day 4 on the Milky Way slopes was set aside for a journey by skis to the resort of Claviere on the French border. It all made sense: we would speed through Sansicario (familiar to us from Day 3) and travel through Cesana Torinese on the way to Claviere, thus setting the stage for a trip to Montgenevre (in France) on our 5th day of skiing. There was just one thing we did not count on: another blizzard.

Old house near one of the lifts above Cesana Torinese — Old building near one of the lifts above Cesana Torinese

Everything looked good at first: we roared down the familiar Olympica piste at Sansicario and at Cesana Torinese we enjoyed the novelty of taking a chair lift above both a major river and a highway. However, by the time we got onto the 3rd (and final) chairlift above Cesana Torinese, we couldn’t even see the chair in front of us. Amazingly, it got worse.

At the top of the Claviere area, several lifts (including the 3rd lift from Cesana Torinese) converge and several pistes branch off in various directions. The problem: we couldn’t see *any* of them. We had to walk in a big circle to figure out where the pistes were located…and then figure out which one went down to the actual resort of Claviere.

This piste just above Cesana Torinese was easy enough that we could take pictures while skiing...but at least we could see! — This piste just above Cesana Torinese was so flat that we could take pictures while skiing…but at least we could see!

Skiing blind in whiteout conditions on slopes you’ve never seen is not ideal. Presumably because my jacket’s colour is “creamsicle orange”, I was nominated to lead the way. Well, skiing blind is a very good way to remember to bend your knees. It is essential because you do not know if you are going to hit a mogul (or encounter any change in pitch) until after you’ve hit it. If your knees are not bent for shock absorption, you will become involuntarily (and very ungracefully) airborne at the first unexpected bump.

This is about halfway up the mountain at Claviere...the visibility got worse at the top! — This was taken at lunchtime, about halfway up the mountain at Claviere. Yes, this picture is in focus…and the visibility got worse at the top!

It wasn’t all bad. As we descended the abandoned slopes toward the village, we naturally found lots of deep powder and even gained a tiny bit of visibility. Despite skiing a number of pistes, however, we cannot truly say that we have *seen* the slopes of Claviere. We only *felt* them. We decided to take an early lunch, in the hopes that the blizzard might clear while we were eating. No such luck…but we made an excellent choice for lunch!

Claviere's excellent La Coche restaurant — Claviere’s excellent Baita La Coche restaurant – nobody eating on the sun terrace today

We ate at Baita La Coche, a family-run restaurant approximately one-third of the way up the mountain from the base of Claviere. I saw polenta e salsiccia on the menu, although I was skeptical that it would live up to my expectations. Wrong! It was even better than the one I had on the first day of skiing! I had a cioccolato calda (hot chocolate) to go with it, as I had a bit of a chill from the blizzard. It was deliciously dark chocolate and warmed me up very well, but it certainly couldn’t wash down my polenta: it was more like hot pudding. My spoon couldn’t reach the bottom because the chocolate was so thick!

Another delicious lunch of polenta e salsiccia...with some seriously thick cioccolato calda! — Another delicious lunch of polenta e salsiccia…with some seriously thick cioccolato calda!

Because the visibility at Claviere seemed to be getting even worse, we decided to be prudent and return to Sansicario (which kept us close to our base in Sestriere). We didn’t want to miss the last lift home in conditions like these!

Back in Sansicario, the blizzard still raged but the visibility was a little better. With the slopes here also being empty, we enjoyed some absolutely brilliant (and on-piste!) deep mid-afternoon powder. This is unusual in itself, but almost unheard of in the latter half of March when ice and unwanted moguls can predominate. Once again, we whooped and hollered like little kids as we sliced and bounded through the somewhat visible snow. There’s nothing like fresh snow to keep you young!

My posse climbing over the pass from Sansicario to Sestriere at the end of the day…it is still snowing heavily!

Stay tuned for more: would the weather clear so that we could actually see Claviere and then finally make it to France on skis?

Posts from the road

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 2 (Here Comes the Sun!)

April 3, 2016 pierrev Leave a comment

(Sestriere, Italy)

After two days of snow, we awoke to a brilliantly sunny sky for our third day of skiing. Today’s mission: to thoroughly explore the Sansicario ski area, located to the northwest of Sestriere.

Looking at the piste map, the main attraction here was the Olympica – the women’s downhill course at the 2006 Olympics. As we had hoped, this long piste was steep, straight and still covered with lots of fresh snow. Even though it was the most direct route down to the actual resort of Sansicario, it was wide enough to accommodate substantial traffic and still retain abundant stashes of untracked powder.

Our lunch venue above the resort of Sansicario

While this was our favourite run today, the day was really devoted to enjoying the beauty of the snowy Alps under a brilliant March sun. There were long pistes winding through the woods…where we would be the only skiers for 10 minutes or more. It is hard to imagine this happening in North America: we certainly did not expect sunny silence and isolation at a major resort that had recently hosted the Olympics.

Lunch al fresco under Monte Rotta, overlooking Sansicario

Lunch was at a strategically situated restaurant about one-third of the way down from the top of the mountain. We were able to get an outdoor table at the edge of the balcony, gleaming in the sun and overlooking the rest of the area. The food was simple (“Milanese”, better known as Wienerschnitzel) but satisfying. We ate at a very leisurely pace, thoroughly feeling as if we were living la dolce vita.

Taken before the last run of the day, just above Sestriere

Despite the leisurely lunch, we must have skied on virtually every Sansicario piste by the end of the day. While we cut loose a little bit when we skied on Olympica, we didn’t work too hard for the most part. We did, however, manage to scope out the next day’s route: in order to ski to France, we would have to ski beyond Sansicario through Cesane Torinese and then Claviere. Given the distances involved (the French resort of Montgenevre lay beyond the Italian border town of Claviere), we would not be able to make any navigational mistakes if we were to ski to France and make it back to Sestriere before the lifts closed.

Stay tuned to see if we will achieve our goal!

Posts from the road

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 1

March 29, 2016 pierrev 2 Comments

(Sestriere, Italy)

We will be spending six days on the slopes of Italy’s Via Lattea (literally, the Milky Way), a huge ski area connecting 6 resorts in Italy and France that hosted the skiing events of the 2006 Winter Olympics. Our base is the purpose-built resort of Sestriere, located at the eastern end of the Milky Way. The Sestriere/Borgata ski area is right above the resort; from the resort itself, you can also take a gondola to the top of the Sauze d’Oulx and Sansicario ski areas.

Continuing west from Sansicario are the Cesana Torinese and Claviere resorts in Italy and finally the Montgenèvre resort in France. This is a huge interconnected ski area, all for a fraction of the cost of skiing at one of the major resorts in western Canada or the U.S.A. Our challenge was to conquer the area and, conditions permitting, complete at least one international ski circuit.

Commemorating the 2006 Winter Olympics in Sestriere...still some fog! — Commemorating the 2006 Winter Olympics in Sestriere…still some fog!

Our first day was spent primarily in the Borgata area. The weather conditions could best be described as “snowy and foggy”: there was lots of powder on the slopes, but it was difficult to see much more than a few feet ahead. Even more difficult was skiing with improperly fitted bindings! I always bring my own ski boots to Europe, to prevent blisters and other discomforts, but I usually rent my skis for the week in the resort. Unfortunately, as my boots kept sliding out of my bindings, I had to return to the rental shop after only a few minutes on the slopes. The owner was very apologetic and recognized his staff’s error immediately. It was a bit of a frustrating start but, on the other hand, skiing was extremely easy once the problem had been fixed!

Some of the apres-ski scene in the later afternoon at Sestriere

The visibility was a little better on the lower slopes, where the fog was not quite as heavy, and I enjoyed a hearty lunch of polenta e salsiccia at a mountain restaurant. I find ordinary polenta somewhat bland, but this dish combined polenta with a tasty tomato sauce and some local sausage. The afternoon’s skiing was better, even though (or perhaps because) it continued to snow heavily, and we all looked forward to waking up the next day to deep fields of powder and brilliant Southern Alps sun.

Our second day of skiing took us to the Sauze d’Oulx ski region. Alas, neither the snow nor the fog had lifted: as a result, we struggled with visibility near the top of the resort but enjoyed some epic powder runs (on-piste!) at slightly lower elevations in the morning. This was my kind of skiing: snow flying with every turn but a complete absence of any scraping or skidding. These definitely were not eastern Canadian ski conditions! While we went off-piste a little bit, the conditions really were excellent on the pistes themselves and it wasn’t truly necessary to leave them. As with many resorts, the Via Lattea slopes are less busy on weekdays…especially when the sun isn’t shining.

The fog starts to clear at the end of the day, above Sestriere — The fog starts to clear for the posse at the end of the day

Well, we did leave the officially open pistes once more in the late afternoon when the sun finally appeared. As we were riding a lift to the top of the Sauze d’Oulx area, an allegedly closed piste emerged from the fog and demanded that we give it a try. Try it we did…and we immediately declared Piste #25 (“Canale Colo”) the current holder of the Traumpiste (“dream run”) title. There was joyous whooping and hollering as we attacked the deep, soft and virtually untracked snow. It was an exhilarating late-day surprise and we resolved to return later in the week. Surely the newly-emergent sun would return the next day, so we could enjoy these fabulous conditions from top to bottom with spectacular views as well?

Looking towards Sestriere - our hotel is at the top left of the village — Looking towards Sestriere – our “cruise ship” hotel is at the top left of the village

Stay tuned to find out what happens on our journey to Sansicario…and beyond!

Pierre Vanderhout's Travel Blog

All posts by pierrev

Ottawa and the Chair of Horns

Like this:

Travel Flashback: Reykjavik and Traditional Icelandic Food (2008)

Like this:

Travel Flashback: Urban Life in Northern Iceland (2008)

Like this:

Showtime in Kingston!

Like this:

Showtime in Toronto

Like this:

Arrivederci, Italia!

Like this:

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 4 (The Final Chapter)

Like this:

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 3 (Another Blizzard!)

Like this:

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 2 (Here Comes the Sun!)

Like this:

Skiing Italy’s Milky Way – Part 1

Like this:

The Odyssey Continues…

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

Share this:

Like this:

The Odyssey Continues…