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Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Bavaria and Bohemia 1999 (Part 2)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

In 1999, Klatovy was not the most obvious choice for our first destination in the Czech Republic. Even now, with a population of just 22,000, not too many people have it on their travel radar. But I thought it might make a gentle introduction, as it was not very far from the German border. It wasn’t just close to Germany…it is also known as Klattau, and many of the surnames in the area are clearly German in origin (our inn was run by the Hauptmann family).

The Municipal Building in Klatovy, Czech Republic

I took a LOT of pictures of Klatovy’s main square (náměstí Míru), because it was just so photogenic. One of those appears at the very top of this post. But we enjoyed other aspects of the town too. Klatovy was where we first enjoyed Knedlíky (boiled dumplings), and also hosted the first store in which I saw Ukrainian champagne. After a couple of days here, we were ready to move deeper into the Czech Republic.

Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje, in Plzeň, Czech Republic. Note tourists on the deck above the clock. That’s where I took my photos

Our next destination was Plzeň, a considerably larger city on the way to Prague. LIke Klatovy, Plzeň also has a German name (Pilsen)…after which Pilsener beer was named. The highly respected Pilsner Urquell beer is from here. Alas, our accommodation in Plzeň (a cross between a hostel and a budget hotel) won a different kind of recognition from us: due to the openly hostile service and lack of cleaning, we declared it the inaugural winner of the Anti-Tourist Awards (a shortened form of the actual name!). It really was a letdown after our fine accommodations in Klatovy,

Climbing the Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje in Plzeň, Czech Republic.

Many of my photographs in Plzeň were taken from the top of Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje (St. Bartholomew’s Cathedral), located in the absolute centre of the city. As you can see from the photo above, it required a steep and narrow ascent with very low ceilings. It was worth it in the end, however, as the 46 m high tower afforded some great views.

View from the top of Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje, in Plzeň, Czech Republic.

Although parts of Plzeň were a little rough around the edges back then, we still found some cool places to visit. I stumbled across the hockey arena, which foreshadowed a subsequent part of our trip, and my friend found a spectacular wine shop. Although it has a fine history of beermaking, the Czech Republic also takes winemaking very seriously. Once again, this foreshadowed something we would return to later.

Another vertiginous view from the top of Katedrála svatého Bartoloměje, in Plzeň, Czech Republic

We also found a very ornate synagogue, which turned out to be the second largest one in Europe. It had been restored only in 1998, after being closed in 1973. The Plzeň Jewish community had numbered about 2,000 when the synagogue was completed in 1892, but now numbers only about 70. Part of the synagogue is once again used for worship.

Velká synagoga (Great Synagogue) in Plzeň, Czech Republic…it’s the second largest in Europe.

After Plzeň, we were ready for our biggest challenge yet: Prague, the legendary capital of both Bohemia and the Czech Republic. Would it live up to its advance billing? Stay tuned!

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Bavaria and Bohemia 1999 (Part 1)

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Yesterday, I discovered a long-lost treasure: a photo album I assembled right after returning from my October 1999 trip to Bavaria (Germany) and Bohemia (Czech Republic). I’ve decided to prepare a few “Travel Flashback” posts for this special trip from a very different time.

Neues Rathaus (New City Hall) on the Marienplatz in Munich, Germany

I wasn’t alone: my friend Trevor was willing to join me on this exciting adventure. As flights to and from Germany were considerably cheaper than flying direct to Prague, we decided to fly into Munich…and back home from Frankfurt. In between, the focus of the trip would be the newly independent Czech Republic. This would be my first sustained trip behind the former Iron Curtain: other than 3 days in Hungary in 1991 (and a couple of hours in Yugoslavia on that same 1991 trip), Eastern Europe was still largely unknown to me.

Munich’s Olympiastadion, as seen from Olympiapark (there’s a soccer game between Germany and Turkey in the stadium)

To begin, however, we had a couple of days in Germany to acclimatize ourselves. In retrospect, this was a great idea: when stepping outside of your comfort zone, it’s a good idea to take baby steps at the beginning. I could survive in the German language, and I had been in Germany many times before. It seems strange to talk about culture shock in the Czech Republic now (here’s a link to the start of my posts from a 2014 trip), but back then it was still emerging as a travel destination and few of my friends and family had been there.

Neuhauserstrasse (Munich, Germany)

Alas, our brief stay in Munich was plagued by fairly grim weather. The old city is beautiful, as you would expect, and not even the wet/overcast weather could obscure that. You’d think that October would be a great time to visit, given that Munich is the home of Oktoberfest. Well, Oktoberfest actually ended the week before we arrived. The various pavilions (and they are indeed massive) were still there, but they were empty and abandoned. On the plus side, this explains why the accommodation costs were quite low and the various other attractions in the city were not very busy.

The Paulaner pavilion, on the Oktoberfest grounds in Munich, Germany

In addition to the medieval city centre and the Oktoberfest site at Theresienwiese, we saw the impressive Deutsches Museum, the Olympiaturm (Olympic Tower), the BMW headquarters…all the things one should properly see when visiting Munich. But we also knew this was only an amuse-bouche.

Another Oktoberfest pavilion in Munich, Germany.

On the morning of October 11, 1999, we took a regional train from Munich to Plattling, in deepest Bavaria. In Plattling, we hopped on an even more regional train to Bayerisch Eisenstein: a small village right on the Czech border. In fact, the border runs right through the train station. We walked across the border, technically now in the Czech village of Železná Ruda, and hopped on the “regionalest” of all trains to our first Czech destination: Klatovy.

This was the train that we took to Klatovy, Czech Republic. Taken at Klatovy’s train station (October 11, 1999).

Stay tuned for my first immersion into the Czech Republic!

Posts from the road

Quinte Road Trip

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(Belleville/Trenton/Picton, Ontario, Canada)

Going on a road trip for my birthday…it’s the kind of thing that I always took for granted. This year, however, the situation was just a little different. I first had to ask myself if this was the right thing to do.

Enchiladas Verdes (with Horchata), from Chilangos (Belleville, Ontario)

I compared the COVID-19 numbers for Kingston and my proposed Quinte region destinations of Belleville, Trenton, and Prince Edward County. There was very little, if any, active infection in any of those places. That was essential, because I wouldn’t want to be exporting or importing anything. After loading up on masks and beverages, we headed down Highway 2 to Belleville. Or was it Mexico, en route to the Netherlands?

Chilangos (Belleville, Ontario)

For lunch, we ate on the back patio of Chilangos, a Mexican restaurant that’s been open for a couple of years. Much to my delight, they now offered horchata. It’s a milky rice-based beverage with vanilla and cinnamon, and it’s really good when the weather is warm. It was the perfect accompaniment to my spicy enchiladas.

Trenton Delicatessen (Trenton, Ontario)

After some shopping in Belleville, we moved on to Trenton. Right now, the main attraction for me there is the Trenton Delicatessen. It is a treasure trove of European specialties…especially Dutch ones. I stocked up on kroketten, atjar tjampoer, interesting varieties of true Dutch gouda, and salty black licorice (dropjes), to name a few. Although I have never spent more than a couple of weeks at a time in the Netherlands, all of these foods remain special for me. Some were introduced to me as a child at home, while others I really got to know when visiting relatives across the sea.

View from the waterfront park in Wellington, Ontario

From Trenton, it is a very short drive to Prince Edward County…also known simply as “the County”. It is “almost” an island jutting out into Lake Ontario. While I remember it as a primarily agricultural area with a famous beach (the Sandbanks), it has really gentrified in recent years. It’s now filled with wineries, cideries, and B&Bs.

Wellington, Ontario

Wellington, in particular, seemed to be totally transformed. There were sprawling new homes on the outskirts, and signs for artisanal lemonade in the newly bustling downtown. We saw many cars with Quebec license plates, even though Wellington (see photo at the top of this post) is about 4 hours from the Quebec border. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, I doubt that many visitors to the County lived more than an hour away.

Home of Crimson Cider (Picton, Ontario)

After leaving Wellington, I thought it would be cool to bring home some cider from the “County”. I had no plan; I just envisioned stopping at some quaint little cidery in the middle of nowhere. Sure enough, we found Crimson Cider just before arriving in Picton. I had never heard of it before but, after a quick outdoor tasting, we had a bottle to bring home.

Glenora, Ontario (taken from the Glenora Ferry)

Rather than rush home via the bridge at Deseronto, we decided to take the ferry from Glenora to Adolphustown. The ferry (it only takes about 10 minutes) is free, as it is considered part of the provincial highway system. After another 30 minutes of driving, we were home just in time for dinner. Overall, it wasn’t an epic trip. But I think we appreciated it far more than other pre-pandemic local trips. If the conditions are right, we hope to embark on another area road trip before too long.

Posts from Base Camp

Kingston, Ontario. And a turkey

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)


I’m very fortunate to live in Kingston, a historic city at the junction of Lake Ontario, the Rideau Canal, and the St. Lawrence River. The cover photo above was taken in front of City Hall and shows the Confederation Basin (including a Martello Tower).

Johnson Street, Kingston, Ontario

Kingston was the first capital of Canada. Even though it only lasted as capital for one year (the risk of invasion from the nearby United States was too high), Kingston has managed to retain a lot of beautiful old buildings from those early years of growth and prosperity. Our City Hall was intended to be Canada’s Parliament building. I took all of these pictures on a recent errand-running trip downtown.

Brock Street, Kingston, Ontario

We’re still trying to support local businesses, especially locally-run ones, as much as possible. We’ve also used local contractors to do extensive exterior renovations to our home, and have tried to support the same restaurants that we used to love visiting before the pandemic hit.

Kingston City Hall (Ontario Street)

It was reasonably busy on Princess Street (the main commercial street)…busy enough that I didn’t want to stop in the middle of the sidewalk and take pictures of it. So yes, on a sunny summer Saturday. the downtown is still very much alive.

Headquarters of The Empire Life Insurance Company (King Street, Kingston, Ontario)

While we are used to our beautiful downtown, we aren’t used to some of the wildlife that has moved into suburban Kingston. For the past two weeks, our daily walks have brought us into contact with a wild turkey who now lives on nearby Kenshaw Street.

Tom the Turkey visits one of his favourite houses on Kenshaw Street, Kingston, Ontario

We’re used to seeing wild turkeys at Lemoine Point, but we don’t really understand why “Tom” has decided to make his home in the middle of suburbia. He’s quite large, I think, and doesn’t seem to be a pet. In fact, he has displayed some aggression towards…jeeps.

Tom checks out a garage

For reasons unknown, Tom was very upset by the jeep you see below. He was walking alongside the front tire, pecking at it and posturing aggressively. The driver tried to drive away slowly so that Tom wasn’t injured, but Tom kept jabbing at the tire. I’m pleased to report that Tom wasn’t hurt, and he eventually gave up after hectoring the jeep for more than a block.

Tom the Turkey attacks a jeep on Lawton Place, Kingston, Ontario

Despite his anti-jeep activity, we haven’t seen Tom act aggressively towards any humans. The many rabbits that live around here don’t seem to be bothered by him either!

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Close to home, but on the move

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

As you can imagine, the ongoing pandemic has made me quite restless. So far, we’ve dealt with it by walking briskly for more than an hour every day. While we often follow the same route (as we know it’s about 6 km long), we sometimes wander off to avoid the sun. We’ve really gotten to know our neighbourhood, and soon began recognizing people who were also walking on a regular basis.

Random scene from suburbia: Pimlico Place, in Kingston, Ontario, Canada

The other thing we’ve noticed is how it is home to much more wildlife than it used to be. There are definitely more chipmunks, and at least as many squirrels, but most notable is the explosion in the rabbit population. Bauder Crescent might be the official name, but we now call that street Chemin des Lapins.

Rabbit at Lemoine Point (Kingston, Ontario)

We also walk at Lemoine Point (a nearby conservation area) from time to time. Most of today’s pictures are from Lemoine Point. The wildlife population there is exploding too…or, more likely, they have been overfed and have lost their fear of humans. The squirrels and chipmunks are incredibly brazen: you just have to pause for a second and you are swarmed by rodents looking for food.

No fear – squirrel at Lemoine Point

Lemoine Point is home to deer and wild turkeys too (I took some deer photos in this post from a few years ago), although we didn’t see any today. Hopefully, they have not become dependent on humans like the squirrels and chipmunks have.

What do you have for me? Squirrel at Lemoine Point (Kingston, Ontario)

As stores are slowly reopening (albeit under significant restrictions), we are trying to spend more time downtown so that we can support our local businesses. Kingston has a beautiful and historic downtown; I hope to include some pictures of it in my next post.

Collins Bay, as seen from Lemoine Point (Kingston, Ontario)

As for travel…by this time of year, I would normally have decided where I’m going for my winter holiday. While I don’t think I’m ready to completely rule out an early 2021 ski trip, and I want to support those who work in the travel industry, I have to be realistic. Any trip will have to be a last-minute decision.

Trail at Lemoine Point (Kingston, Ontario)

A significant barrier is going to be the quarantine situation (both at home and at the destination), and it is simply not possible to predict what that might be in 8 months’ time. Even within Canada, quarantine periods are required for travel between some provinces. A 14-day quarantine at the start of a vacation, followed by 14 days at the end, effectively rules out any kind of long-distance leisure travel for the time being.

Stay tuned for more on Kingston!

Posts from Base Camp

Local “Travel”

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

The past couple of months have certainly made me think a lot about the future of a travel blog.

The County Court House in Napanee, Ontario

Since returning from Europe in early March of this year, everything has changed. Typically, I wouldn’t even be back from a trip before I had given some serious thought to the next destination. This time was different. Entirely unrelated to the gradually unfolding pandemic, I had very unpleasant experiences with the airline on each leg of my trip. These experiences fully fit into the category of a “first world problem”, but it still made me think about taking a break from very long distance travel.

The County Registry Office in Napanee, Ontario

Although I didn’t quite connect the dots at the time, I now view the unpleasant air experiences as blessings in disguise. It made me think a lot about what kinds of experiences I wanted to have in the future. I had always preferred “experiential travel” to “passive tourism”. Perhaps it was time to focus even more on the experience, regardless of where it took place geographically.

The old post office in Napanee, Ontario

In essence, the most rewarding thing about travel is going outside your comfort zone to experience new things. With a little effort, and within the limits posed by the pandemic, it’s time to make that happen on a more local scale.

The intersection of Centre and Dundas Streets: the core of downtown Napanee, Ontario

All of the pictures here are from a small road trip we took last fall to Napanee and Deseronto, two small towns just west of Kingston. Like just about anywhere, there are all kinds of experiences waiting to be discovered in my area. Have you ever tasted black lemon gouda cheese, imported from Holland by a local deli? Ordered a rare record from a local independent shop? Lawn bowled on a peaceful green overlooking the Trent Canal?

The New York Restaurant in downtown Napanee, Ontario

Last fall, we invented our own adventure. For years, we have driven to Napanee (and beyond) and passed the sign saying “Switzerville Road”, but it was never convenient to check it out. Being Swiss-Canadian, I vowed to someday investigate this mythical place. Perhaps it would be a little slice of Switzerland in a forgotten corner of Eastern Ontario?

Very old fire engine (from Batawa, Ontario, but actually in Deseronto, Ontario)

Well, we finally made it to Switzerville. You can see the “village” in the photo at the very top of this post. It consisted of two (or maybe three?) houses, and a very old cemetery. So…not really a slice of the Alps. But it was fun to check it out, imagining what it might be like and what it once must have been.

Christ Church, Her Majesty’s Chapel Royal of the Mohawk (Deseronto, Ontario)

Stay tuned – I’ll continue to report on local adventures and experiences, with the occasional “flashback”!

Posts from Base Camp

Souvenirs from Bosnia & Herzegovina

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

Cleaning and organizing have been occupying more of my time lately. In the process, I have found a lot of “souvenirs” from my past travels. Today’s post focuses on some interesting ephemera from my April 2014 trip to Bosnia & Herzegovina.

I stayed at the Hotel Konak in Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

The Hotel Konak was almost perfectly located in downtown Sarajevo. I could easily walk to everything. The hotel facade was a little unusual, but it was quite nice inside. It was a very comfortable place to sleep off my jet lag and adjust to my new surroundings. I had a long trip from Kingston to Toronto to Vienna to Sarajevo, and I appreciated the quiet room.

I visited the “Tunnel of Hope” in Sarajevo (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

The next day, I went on a guided “Siege of Sarajevo” tour, and it was an excellent (if sobering) introduction to the relatively recent conflict in this historic city. You can read more about the siege here, including the still “bullet-holed” tunnel entrance. The “Tunnel of Hope” was my first direct introduction to the impact of the war on Sarajevo…although the ruins of the Olympic complex also made a deep impression. I later wrote about a very close encounter with a land mine in Sarajevo.

Specialties of the Restoran Šadrvan in Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

My next stop was the city of Mostar. As I noted in the blog entry I posted shortly after arrival in Mostar, the wounds of war were even more apparent here. But it was also a beautiful city, and my first meal was in a garden-like setting near Mostar’s famous and historic bridge. The photo at the very top of this post is actually a postcard from the Restoran Šadrvan in Mostar (my table was right by the fountain), and the picture above shows some of their specialties. My main course was stuffed peppers, but I also had a pickled vegetable salad…and I’m sure I had dessert too. After all, I was doing a lot of walking!

The Museums of Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina

I visited the local museum in Mostar primarily to see a video. They have a small theatre inside the museum where you can watch footage from the conflict that took place in Mostar. The footage of the destruction of the bridge was especially sad. I crossed that rebuilt bridge many times during my stay, and it is easily the most emotional bridge I have ever crossed. I also visited the Koski Mehmed Pasha Mosque, which is now a National Monument. Ascending the minaret was particularly memorable: you can read about it here.

Receipt from the Hotel Platani in Trebinje (Bosnia & Herzegovina), along with bus tickets/baggage receipts from Mostar

My next stop was not very far geographically, but it felt very different in every other respect. Trebinje is located in the Republika Srpska: it’s still in Bosnia & Herzegovina, but it is also governed separately from the “Federation” part of Bosnia & Herzegovina. You can read about that in more detail in my Trebinje post from 2014. The Serbian influence is much stronger here, as you can see from the above invoice from my hotel. The top of the invoice says “Hotel Platani” and “Trebinje” in the Cyrillic alphabet.

Receipt from the restaurant at Hotel Platani, Trebinje (Bosnia & Herzegovina)

The receipt above is from my meal in the hotel restaurant on my first night in Trebinje. While the form is all in Cyrillic, my waiter used the Roman alphabet to record my meal. I had a Capricciosa pizza, a glass of local red wine, and a decadent dessert. It was a palačinka … basically a stuffed crepe. But this one was the house specialty: it had an enormous amount of cherries and much more ice cream than usual. (You’ll notice that all prices in this post are in “KM”. This stands for “convertible marks”. The Bosnian currency was pegged to the German mark, and theoretically still is…even though Germany no longer uses the deutschmark.)

I enjoyed reliving my Bosnian trip through these items. Who knows what I will uncover next?

Posts from Base Camp

Travel Flashback: Vermont 2007

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(Kingston, Ontario, Canada)

As I don’t foresee a whole lot of travel in the near future, I’ve decided to take a plunge into my “pre-digital camera” travel archives. Today’s travel flashback covers our 2007 road trip to the state of Vermont (that’s the state capitol in Montpelier, at the top of this post). We passed through Vermont again in 2009, but this earlier blog post explains why I didn’t have too much to say about it (and the state capitol was hard to properly photograph then too!).

Mount Ascutney Hospital (Windsor, Vermont)

You may wonder why I’ve included a picture of a local hospital. Unfortunately, we had to make an emergency visit here because my wife was stung by a bee in nearby Claremont, New Hampshire…and she began having a bad allergic reaction. This was when we discovered that she was allergic to bee stings! Fortunately, she was insured and was able to get medical attention without worrying about the cost. The emergency department was empty: it seems to handle mainly broken bones during ski season.

Hotel Coolidge – White River Junction, Vermont

We stayed in the town of White River Junction that evening. While there isn’t very much rail service in this part of New England, this town still has a station. I suspect that the Hotel Coolidge (see photo above) was originally built to accommodate rail passengers. When we were there, we had a huge room and you could tell that it had really been something special once…but it was in a state of transition. However, it seems to have received a significant overhaul and it is now looking spiffier again. It is on the National Register of Historic Places.

Quechee Gorge (Quechee, Vermont)

Vermont is a beautiful state with lots of recreational opportunities. We went for a hike in the Quechee Gorge, which passes underneath Route 4. This is one of those cases where a photograph doesn’t really do justice to the scenery. There is even a small ski area here.

Granite Bowling at the Rock of Ages Granite Quarry (Graniteville, Vermont)

In yet another foreshadowing of my eventual lawn bowling “career” (here’s a link to a similar situation in Scotland’s Orkney Islands), I was able to bowl outdoors at the Rock of Ages Granite Quarry in Graniteville, Vermont. The “lane” is made entirely out of polished granite! Apparently, this idea never took off because the granite eventually breaks conventional bowling balls. However, the quarry has specialized rubber bowling balls that can withstand the hard granite surface. The lane is still open from May to October of each year.

Rock of Ages granite quarry (Graniteville, Vermont)

We followed that with a tour of the Rock of Ages Quarry. It is almost 600 feet deep and they claim it is the largest operating deep-hole, dimension granite quarry in the world.

  • Main Street of Lake Placid, New York – showing the old (1932) Olympic Arena

My photos for most of the rest of the trip weren’t very good. In those days, you just couldn’t tell until you had the film developed. We returned home through the Olympic Village (1932 and 1980 Winter Olympics) of Lake Placid, New York. It’s a really small place, and it is sometimes hard to imagine that the Winter Olympics took place here. But they did!

Stay tuned for more (and older!) travel flashbacks.

Posts from the road

Geneva, Switzerland

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(Geneva, Switzerland)

I had less than 24 hours in Geneva before returning to Canada: just enough to re-familiarize myself with this famous but not-actually-very-big city at the southwestern tip of Switzerland.

Rue de l’Hôtel-de-Ville, in Geneva

Geneva is primarily a “government” town, as the European base of the United Nations and many other international agencies. Just like Ottawa and other capitals, it can be prohibitively expensive…but also relatively uncrowded on weekends. I was able to take advantage of a half-price offer and stay in a very nice hotel that would otherwise be way out of my price range. It overlooked the Rhone River – the photo at the very top of this post was taken from my window! And they even threw in a free transit pass!

Fruit vendor in Geneva’s old town

As other aspects of downtown Geneva remained quite expensive, I headed to Carouge, a “village” southwest of downtown that allegedly had an Italian feel. It did indeed feel like a small but prosperous Italian town, so I treated myself to a delicious gelato outdoors on the Place du Marché…even though it was still early March.

Place du Temple, in the village of Carouge (now part of Geneva, Switzerland)

Nearby, I spotted Geneva’s largest hockey arena, which is home to the strong Geneva Servette hockey club. They would have been in the Swiss National League playoffs that evening, so I checked if there might be any tickets available. Alas, as a precautionary measure, the playoffs had been postponed due to the COVID-19 situation that was beginning to take a serious foothold in Italy (but had not yet had any real impact on Switzerland).

Place de Longemalle, Geneva, Switzerland

This was the second cancellation I encountered. I had hoped to take a guided tour of the United Nations complex, but it too had just been closed as a precautionary measure. These were the only indications that very difficult times might lie ahead.

Rue de la Fontaine, Geneva

I spent much of my time exploring the city on foot. It is clearly a very prosperous place, and it sometimes felt like a French-speaking Zurich…just a bit smaller and scaled-down. If I found myself too far from my hotel, I would just hop on a tram.

Place du Bourg-de-Four, Geneva, Switzerland

Having just spent two weeks in the mountains, I decided that I didn’t want to eat “local” for my last meal in Europe. Noticing a significant number of Ethiopian restaurants, and not having this kind of cuisine back home in Kingston, I decided to visit the Nyala Barka restaurant. It took me a while to get there, as my “tourist map” unfortunately took quite a few liberties with things like distance and direction (which are somewhat important for a map).

Reformation Wall in Bastions Park, Geneva, Switzerland

Anyway, I eventually arrived and enjoyed a very tasty “vegetarian platter” at Nyala Barka. As always, I enjoyed eating with my hands and using the underlying injera bread to scoop up the food. I was the first customer of the evening, as locals seem to follow the France model and have their dinners considerably later than in German-speaking Switzerland. I didn’t mind: I needed to properly pack and get a good night’s sleep before my long journey back to Canada.

My dinner at the Restaurant Nyala Barka (Geneva, Switzerland)

[Shortly after I returned home, the COVID-19 pandemic exploded globally and the world became a much different place. I ultimately decided to post this entry more or less “as written” two weeks ago.]

Posts from the road

France 2020 – the final chapter

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(Morzine, France)

Usually, the sixth day of skiing in a resort involves revisiting the highlights of the previous five days of skiing. However, due to the massive size of the Portes du Soleil region, we found ourselves in a completely new area on our last day.

A brilliant day above Les Crosets, Switzerland

Before this trip, I had never heard of Châtel, France. But it hosts a fairly extensive set of slopes radiating out in all directions from the town itself. The snow was excellent and we even made it into Switzerland again briefly: one of the lifts starts in France and ends in Switzerland. When you ski down, however, you soon find yourself back in France.

Turn left for everything, above Champoussin (Switzerland)

Of course, drama is the theme of this year’s trip…so it was only fitting that we had some more of it during our last day of skiing. This time, a power outage knocked out 4 lifts which we had just taken…and these were 4 lifts that we needed to get back to Morzine! We had to take 2 “navettes” in order to get around the blockage: on the second one, there must have been 100 people on the bus. We were wedged in like rush-hour commuters, with people falling onto each other whenever the bus went around a bend (which was a lot…these are the Alps!). Everybody was in a panic because they were afraid that they wouldn’t make it back before the rest of the lifts closed too.

Goulash in a bread bowl, at Champoussin (Switzerland)

Anyway, it worked out in the end and we had a very nice lunch at Le Blattin. This is a mountain hut high above Châtel that epitomized “cozy”. I would love to share some pictures of it, but my camera got soaked in the previous day’s rain and wasn’t working. Click here to see a picture that somebody else took.

Near Champoussin, Switzerland

In fact, I couldn’t take any pictures until the very end of the day. As the terrain and “vibe” was similar, I’m including some more pictures from Portes du Soleil Day 4 instead.

Near the Swiss border at Avoriaz (France), some skiers contemplate their next move

I continued skiing until 5:15 p.m. on the last day, and then caught a bus back to Morzine from the hamlet of Ardent. As the day slipped away, I passed the usual milestones: the last mountain lunch, the last lift, the last piste, the last turn…until I finally had to pop out of my bindings and admit that the skiing portion of my holiday was over.

Just inside the Swiss border, near Pointe des Mossettes

The Portes du Soleil region is massive. I didn’t get to the areas that were not lift-connected, and I didn’t really get to Mont-Chery, the slopes north and east of Châtel, the slopes north of Morgins, the slopes south of Avoriaz, or some of the slopes above Champery. That might look like a lot, but it pales in comparison to what we did actually see.

Les Lindarets, France, the “Village des Chèvres”

Overall, Portes du Soleil gets a passing grade, with bonus marks for the extended lift hours and the unique international aspect of the slopes. If I return here some day, I think I will base myself in one of the Swiss villages and focus on the Châtel and Swiss slopes. They were less busy and also felt more “authentic”, especially on the Swiss side. There was little or no purpose-built mass development, as we saw in Avoriaz (France). It was mayhem passing through the Avoriaz slopes during the late afternoon “rush hour”!

While the skiing part of my trip is now complete, I still have a brief stay in Geneva coming up. Stay tuned!