Following up on my Boxing Day post, here are some more things that I appreciated musically in 2021. Today’s focus is on music with a connection to this travel blog.
In 2018, I went to a music conference in New Jersey. We saw a great band called the Weeklings: you can read more about it here. A couple of the songs they debuted at that conference (see photo at the top of this post) have since made it onto their 3rd studio album (logically, called “3”). I think the above cover of “Baby You’re a Rich Man” improves considerably on the Beatles’ original version…which is not something I say very often!
But I also like the Weeklings’ original music. “In the Moment”, “Running Away”, and the title track from “3” may not sound like 21st century recordings: hearing them is like finding previously unreleased power pop gems from the last century. And what’s wrong with that?
Another vinyl compilation I picked up in 2021 was Stevie Wonder’s “Original Musiquarium I”. This double album collects some of his best 1970s tracks along with a handful of new recordings from the 1980s. It’s hard to imagine a better sequence of music than the beginning of side 3: “Higher Ground”, “Sir Duke”, “Master Blaster (Jammin’)”, and “Boogie on Reggae Woman”.
An urgent live version of “Higher Ground”
But Side 1’s opening comes close: “Superstition”, “You Haven’t Done Nothin'”, and “Living for the City”. Despite being quite a distance from the stage, seeing Stevie Wonder a few years ago in Toronto is one of our fondest concert memories. Here’s a link to that post.
…and an urgent live version of “Superstition”, from the same 1974 German TV appearance
2021 saw me listen to a lot of Marshall Crenshaw’s music again. We saw him perform in upstate New York in 2013, and I managed to get him to sign my copy of his self-titled 1982 debut album (the original vinyl pressing, of course). He was happy to hear that I played his music on my radio program at CFRC-FM.
My signed copy of Marshall Crenshaw’s debut album
That album remains a great blast of fresh air, but I also like playing his lesser-known 1996 Miracle of Science LP. It was recently reissued on vinyl, and included a bonus single with a Michel Pagliaro cover!
Someday, Someway is from Marshall’s debut album
Michel Pagliaro may not be well-remembered, but this Quebec singer wrote and performed “Lovin’ You Ain’t Easy”. The title is rubbish, but musically it has more hooks than almost any other single ever released. When we saw the Trans-Canada Highwaymen perform at the Grand Theatre in Kingston a few years ago, they performed this song as an encore. An absolute highlight! Pagliaro is still performing in Quebec to this day; maybe we’ll get a chance to see him soon.
Music has been an important part of our travels. While the pandemic is crushing any travel ideas right now, I’m hopeful that in a few months we’ll be journeying and listening to live music again.
This post was going to be about the difficulty of planning travel during a pandemic. But my heart just wasn’t in it: we already read enough about isolation, quarantines, cancellations, and those dreaded words “tentatively scheduled”. I also appreciate that leisure travel cannot be prioritized over more serious concerns. Instead, I’ve decided to write about some of the music I discovered (or re-discovered) in 2021.
You’ll probably be seeing some of this at the 2022 Grammy awards
Music has continued to be a wonderful refuge from the pandemic. Most of my music purchases this year were on vinyl: at home, it is very easy to enjoy the ritual and warmer sound of vinyl records.
“I Need You”, by Jon Batiste
Some records were new to me. One of my favourites was “We Are”, by Jon Batiste. I first saw him as the bandleader for Stephen Colbert, but that is only a small part of his career. While loosely based on the music of New Orleans, “We Are” ranges from jazz, swing, and old-school R&B to hip-hop and gospel. And it is nice to see that it was released on the legendary Verve record label. I wasn’t surprised to see that it has just received a bunch of Grammy nominations. I’ve included a couple of video links – these are probably the most “commercial” of the tracks.
“Freedom”, by Jon Batiste
Another record that was “new” to me was actually released in 1978: Earth Wind & Fire’s “Greatest Hits, Volume 1”. I knew some of the songs beforehand, but I enjoyed practically everything on it. It seems to be from the sweet spot of vinyl: it sounded absolutely spectacular on my turntable. Sometimes these compilations would have a token new song that didn’t measure up to the rest. In this case, however, the token new song was “September”: it may well be their best song.
“September”, by Earth Wind & Fire
I took a chance on an LP called “Al Zman Saib”, by long-dead Moroccan singer Fadoul. The first track is called “Sid Redad”…but it is actually a startling Moroccan Arabic version of James Brown’s “Papa’s Got A Brand New Bag”. While the LP contains a couple of other covers, even the original songs ae fascinating. Unpolished, to be sure, but the musicians do seem to be having a lot of fun.
Sid Redad (Paps’s Got A Brand New Bag)
The year also saw me rediscover some albums that I originally owned on CD. I’ll be mentioning some of those in a future post, but I’ll focus on one for now: The Beatles’ 1966 “Revolver” LP.
Tomorrow Never Knows – truly without precedent
Many people consider it the best album of the modern era, and the songs are of a uniformly high quality despite being incredibly diverse. It’s hard to believe that the Beatles recorded this LP less than 4 years after “Love Me Do”. But even though I’ve heard “Revolver” hundreds of times, listening to again on new vinyl was a revelation. I heard things I had never heard before. Whenever I want a quick jolt of the sound of innovation, nothing does the trick quite like “Revolver”.
Got to Get You Into My Life – by the Beatles
It’s hard to top the Beatles’ original version, but Earth Wind & Fire gave it a good shot!
If you enjoyed this post chronicling travel of a different sort, stay tuned. I’ll be posting some more music discoveries soon!
It’s been quiet on the blog for the past couple of months. But, after 17 months of pandemic restrictions…we were finally able to travel! I had some tournaments in the Toronto area, followed by a couple more in Western Ontario, marking the first times that I had been more than one hour from Kingston since March 2020. So, what was it like?
Our first out-of-town restaurant meal in ages: Thai cuisine from the Thai Coconut in Burlington, Ontario
In a word, “normal”. Yes, I had to wear a mask every time I went inside. And yes, I had to complete health declarations to compete in the tournaments. And many restaurants were still restricted to take-out only. But those restrictions seem almost normal too now.
Picked up some 45s at this record shop in Acton, Ontario.
The first trip was to a tournament in Burlington, followed by one the next day in East York. Booking the hotel was just like old times. However, I must admit that it was strange walking into a hotel again. Even though we are now being encouraged to “travel local”, there was still a lingering feeling of not having enough of a justification to be there. But being fully vaccinated against COVID-19 helped deal with that, and I soon forgot about it. As this first trip only took us away from home for two nights, we weren’t away for long enough to be totally disoriented.
Old mill in St. Jacobs, Ontario
After being home for a few days, it was time for the main trip to tournaments in Windsor and Woodstock. These were multi-day tournaments and took us about as far as we could go in southern Ontario without crossing a border. In fact, Windsor is so far from Kingston that we decided to stay overnight in Waterloo before making the final push on to Windsor.
Main Street in St. Jacob’s, Ontario
Once in Waterloo, we visited a nearby village (St. Jacobs) that we had never seen before…yes, a completely discretionary trip! ! The next day, we took a break from our drive to have lunch in the town of Tilbury…again, no special reason to go, it just happened to be there. We picked up some food from the grocery store and ate it on the lawn of the local library.
The Public Library in Tilbury, Ontario: our lunch spot
We reached Windsor in the mid-afternoon. We wanted to get some practice in before the start of the tournament the next morning. It was brutally hot, but we rewarded ourselves with dinner at a Mexican restaurant called “Palenque”.
Palenque Mexican Restaurant in Windsor, Ontario
So far, so good. After dinner, we took a walk along the nearby Detroit River. The park was filled with unusual plant sculptures. But the “Wow” moment was across the river. Across the Detroit River from Windsor is the (larger) American city of Detroit…and seeing a city from another country (see photo at the very top of this post) seemed very surreal after the last 17 months. True, we couldn’t go across the border (the U.S. land border is still not open to non-essential travel, even though their COVID-19 infection rate is far higher than Canada’s), but it was a taste of what we hope to experience again before too long.
My “Gringas” at Palenque
After a very brief period of adjustment, it wasn’t hard to get used to new things again. Stay tuned for more about our Western Ontario odyssey!
My last post focused on the first part of our summer 2006 trip to Switzerland. Now it’s time for the second part!
We stayed in this farmhouse in the tiny village of Hondrich, Switzerland.
After Fribourg, we tried something completely different: a farm stay near the town of Spiez in the Berner Oberland. I had never heard of the village of Hondrich, but it became our home base for several days. We started each day with a hearty farm breakfast, with many elements (including the mint tea!) sourced from the farm itself. Our host even shared some amusing ads from one of his farming magazines!
At Kleine Scheidegg, looking towards Grindelwald (the mighty Eiger on the right).
Our first day trip was to Wengen, which I consider to be my “home” ski area. We took the train from Lauterbrunnen up to Wengen, and then further up to Kleine Scheidegg. While we continued to be cursed by cloudy weather, we still saw enough of the legendary Eiger, Mönch, and Jungfrau mountains to make it a memorable day. At Kleine Scheidegg, we were greeted by a couple of goats who were employed to greet tourists outside the train station.
Hiking down to Wengen…they were selling Alpkäse here.
After the obligatory goat photos (sadly, they weren’t very photogenic), we hiked down to Wengen. We retraced the route I have taken on skis hundreds of times…except the steep slopes were replaced by gentle paths and contented farm animals. It was hard to believe that this same terrain hosts the fearsome Lauberhorn ski race (and its 40 metre Hundschopf jump) every year.
The town of Spiez, as seen from our boat on the Thunersee
The next day saw us explore the nearby towns of Spiez, Thun, and Frutigen. We cruised on the Thunersee (Lake Thun), bought some classic R&B music on the Atlantic label (as one does in Switzerland), and ensured hydration through ice cream. Just for fun, we decided to have dinner in the “Cafe Restaurant Bad” in Frutigen. Named for the thermal baths in the region, the food was naturally quite good.
Cafe Restaurant Bad, in Frutigen (Switzerland)
Our next day was spent on a whirlwind tour of my ancestral valley: the Simmental. We started in Weissenbach: we would stay here in my grandfather’s chalet during family vacations in the 1970s and 1980s. We then hiked to the nearby village of Boltigen (getting licked by a cow en route), where we caught a train to Zweisimmen and then another one to Lenk.
My grandfather’s chalet (straight ahead) in Weissenbach, Switzerland
Lenk, as you may know, is my Heimatort (place of origin) in Switzerland. We hiked partway up the massive Simmenfälle (see also the photo at the very top of this post), where my ancestors probably wandered hundreds of years ago. It felt great to go “goating” here, and I wish we had more time to explore the beautiful mountains. Alas, we had to make sure we got back to our farmhouse before it was too late.
The Swiss Alps are dangerous, and I barely survived this close call at the Simmenfälle above Lenk
In the summer of 2006, I took my wife on a whirlwind trip through Switzerland. I wanted to show her some of my favourite places in the “motherland”, but also wanted to have a summer experience in some of the places where I had been skiing. Because it was such a fast-paced trip, we didn’t have a chance to meet very many friends/family while we were there.
Schloss Tarasp – near Scuol. We climbed to the top and went on a (German-language) tour.
We took full advantage of our “SwissPass”, which gave us free train, bus, and boat transportation throughout Switzerland. It also gave us free admission to most museums. It ended up being a remarkable bargain…something you can’t often say in high-priced Switzerland. If only it included food too!
Near our hotel in Sent, Switzerland.
The only problem with the trip was the weather. It rained a lot, and even when it didn’t rain, we rarely saw the sun. We made the most of it, trying to focus on indoor activities when the weather was truly diabolical. And that is why there are no photos of Glarus, where we started our trip. The photo at the very top of this post is from our very overcast trip through the Bernina Pass – you can see the glacier at the higher altitudes.
Hiking from Scuol to Tarasp, Switzerland
I had been skiing in Scuol in March 2004 and March 2006. My favourite skiing experience there was a piste that led from the top of the Motta Naluns area to the nearby village of Sent. It was called the Traumpiste (“Dream Piste”), and for good reason…it is 10 km long! The piste is so long that you need to take a bus to get back to Scuol. Sent was captivating in winter, so I just had to see it in the summer. We stayed in a quaint and ancient pension called Pensiun Plaz, which had arched ceilings and was obviously built at a time when people were a lot shorter.
The grounds at Vulpera, near Scuol
We were lucky enough to be in Sent for the Swiss National Day (August 1). We joined the festivities in the town square, where we feasted on sausages and local beverages. Sent is a Rumantsch-speaking community, so we didn’t necessarily know what exactly was happening, but it still felt good to be part of the event.
A statue of Freddie Mercury has become a tourist attraction on the Montreux waterfront.
From Sent (in the extreme southeast corner of Switzerland), we reversed course and spent a long day travelling to Fribourg, in the western (and French-speaking) part of the country. The rationale is unclear, but that’s where we ended up. Fortunately, it gave us easy access to the charming city of Lausanne…which remains my wife’s favourite Swiss city.
Me demonstrating the Olympic high jump record (as of 2006)
Lausanne is the home of many international organizations, including the International Olympic Committee (IOC). It is also home to the Olympic Museum. At the front entrance, there is a high jump bar to demonstrate the current Olympic high jump record. In the photo above, keep in mind that I’m 6’4″ (1.93 m) tall and can just barely reach the bar.
I won’t try to objectively rank the best ski areas in Europe… there are far too many for that! But why not try to rank the ones I know?
The question: in which resort would I most want to spend an entire week of skiing, without regard to cost? Everything else can be considered: the skiing, the town, the atmosphere, and the food are all fair game. I tried not to assign too much weight to the particular place I stayed: if I did, one otherwise fine Italian area wouldn’t have been on the list…as our hotel was located next to what seemed to be a sewage plant. Let’s start the countdown to #1!
The insane “Swiss Wall” starts at the French border, in the Portes du Soleil ski region. As you can see, some parts have a 90% gradient!
10. Morzine (Portes du Soleil), France. Full marks for the extent of this region: it’s the second biggest in the world, with 13 different resorts and 208 ski lifts! Some of the resorts are in Switzerland, and it is fun to ski back and forth between countries. I wasn’t as keen on the sheer numbers of skiers, and some of the resorts (Avoriaz in particular) are purpose-built with little or no character. The Swiss resorts are smaller and more inviting, but the skiing on the Swiss side is also relatively limited. But there’s always the Swiss Wall…
Believe it or not: this is on-piste in the afternoon above Borgata (Sestriere)
9. Sestriere (Via Lattea), Italy. Italian for “Milky Way”, the Via Lattea includes 5 Italian resorts and one French resort (and 70 lifts). But getting to the French resort is not easy, especially when conditions are less than ideal. Still, we found some spectacular pistes…that made us forget about the sewage plant beside our hotel. Fortunately, most hotels are located away from that plant. Sestriere is another purpose-built resort, but it is old enough to still be interesting (a cylindrical hotel, anyone?).
Lots of choices, high above Lenk and Adelboden (Switzerland)
8. Lenk, Switzerland. Linked to the resort of Adelboden, this is a sentimental choice. It’s my Heimatort (place of origin) in Switzerland, and I can ski with family members here. While not as extensive as the other places on my list, it still feels very Swiss and I didn’t find crowds to be a problem. It’s also a quick train ride away from St. Stephan, which is part of the separate Gstaad ski area (and home to more skiing relatives). I had one of my best powder days ever here.
Madonna di Campiglio
7. Madonna di Campiglio,Italy. Not as extensive as the Via Lattea area, but scores higher on things like atmosphere and food quality. Like Lenk, it caters more to a domestic crowd. Perhaps for that reason, I really felt like I was on vacation when I was skiing here. I don’t think I heard any English during the entire week. We also spent an entire morning at an outdoor cafe!
Stuben at night
6. Stuben (St. Anton/Arlberg), Austria. The Arlberg ski region is another vast area, including 7 different resorts (perhaps more by now!). I enjoyed tiny and remote Stuben, which retained some Tyrolean character, but still gave access to the larger areas such as St. Anton, Lech and Zurs. You really have to pick your base carefully: St. Anton, for example, is just too rowdy and “in your face” for me.
Our ski group passing through the rocks at Pomedes (Cortina d’Ampezzo)
5. Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Similar to Madonna di Campiglio, this is a major resort with a domestic focus. But I found the setting even more spectacular: skiing even closer to (and through!) the stunning Dolomites, and the legendary “Hidden Valley” actually lives up to the mystique of its name. With 12 distinct resorts in the Dolomiti SuperSki area, the options are endless even though there aren’t too many pistes in Cortina itself.
I’m enjoying the empty slopes at Piz Lagalb!
4. Celerina (St. Moritz), Switzerland. While St. Moritz is too posh for my taste, staying in nearby Celerina was the perfect way to experience this collection of five distinct resorts. Corvatsch had the best overall skiing, but the remote glacier areas of Diavolezza and Lagalb are unforgettable skiing experiences that few people bother to experience. The long-ish bus ride to Diavolezza and Lagalb is worth it: one day, there were only 10 other skiers on the slopes!
The jagged Dolomite peaks
3. Selva (Val Gardena), Italy. At the opposite end of the Dolomiti SuperSki area from Cortina d’Ampezzo, the town is perhaps not as elegant. But the combination of vast skiing options, unsurpassed food, and interesting culture made it one of my very best ski weeks ever (see the most recent post on this blog for proof!). This is the one resort that I keep wanting to revisit, and I would even like to return to the very same hotel. I never thought a hotel meal plan could be so amazing.
Me on the lower slopes of the mighty Eiger
2. Wengen, Switzerland. I have skied here (and the linked resort of Grindelwald) so often that I consider it my “home” ski area. So while it is partly a sentimental choice, I challenge anyone to find a more dramatic experience than skiing in front of (or on!) the legendary north face of the Eiger. I especially love the steep pistes (such as Black Rock or Oh God) just below the Eigergletscher, but there are challenges elsewhere too. One cannot forget the Schilthorn: despite being most famous for a James Bond movie, it’s a demanding and impossibly scenic mountain.
At the top of Klein Matterhorn, just before a wee bout of altitude sickness kicked in!
1. Zermatt, Switzerland. It’s huge, in every sense of the word. The resort spills over into Italy. You can ski a 20 km-long piste!! It even includes the Matterhorn (see photo at the top of this post)!!! But the best summary of Zermatt is a simple one: it is a resort that is unquestionably meant for skiers. If you are a serious skier and can only ski once in the Alps, you need to seriously consider Zermatt. Not every run is 20 km long, but many of them do seem to go on forever. There is an exceptional variety of terrain, with the Swiss side in particular having some very challenging on-piste skiing. Now, if only cost weren’t really an issue…
One consequence of being the photographer for my travel blog is that I don’t appear in many of the pictures. However, the pandemic has led me to discover some stashes of photographs taken by others. Today’s blog features photos (and a video!) taken by my friend during a 2013 ski trip to Val Gardena, Italy.
Happy to be here!!
What strikes me most about these pictures is how happy I/we look. It is such a privilege to spend time in the beautiful Dolomite mountains of northern Italy. I see no worries in anybody’s face! (And while I feel some nostalgia for those recently-retired orange ski boots, I don’t miss that heavily-stickered white helmet.)
Group shots are always a challenge!
On trips like this, there is so much to discover. New mountains, new pistes, new food, new culture…even, in the case of Val Gardena, a language (Ladin). It may sound corny, but I hear the voice of Louis Armstrong as I type this: “…and I think to myself, what a wonderful world…”
My best photobomb ever. Sorry, Richard!
This trip (which also included a brief visit to Verona, Italy, as well as some skiing in Stuben, Austria) was my last European trip before I started this blog in early 2014. As I mentioned in an earlier post about Val Gardena, it really can be liberating to just live in the moment and not worry about capturing every aspect for publication.
Sometimes you just have to stop and look!
Having people in the photos can also emphasize our insignificance. Time and time again, we stopped to look up in wonder at the hugeness of nature. The Alps don’t really care about the tiny structures and the artificial borders created by people!
We never get tired of skiing in Italy
Seeing myself in locations all over the Sella Ronda series of interconnected resorts reminds me of just how much movement is involved in an intense ski week. And I’m also reminded of how much I love to move! In a pandemic, it’s really hard to maintain that level of activity.
Hard at work on a future blog?
I’m not sure what prompted Richard to record the following video. Maybe it was just a beautiful sunny day? I remembered a “skiing in a blizzard” video that he gave me right after the trip (I loved that one, and you can see it here on YouTube), but I had completely forgotten about the one that appears below. Although they’re very short, they immediately bring me back to when they were created 8 years ago.
Sunny cruising on the lower slopes at Val Gardena
Every year since 2013, I have thought about returning to Val Gardena. Each time, my ski posse and I decided to try a new resort. But when I look at all the pictures (these are just a sample of the hundreds that exist), I still think it would be really nice to return. The world is too big to see and experience everything. Why not return to an acknowledged “happy place”? It’s going to be really hard to resist the pull of Val Gardena once international travel is possible again!
As you can imagine, it is not easy for a travel blogger to…not travel. How have I managed through the pandemic so far? One key coping technique is travelling through food.
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
I’ve tried all kinds of wonderful food while travelling: check out Part 1 and Part 2 of my 2014 food highlights. Trying new food, even in lockdown, brings back some of that adventurous feeling. Today’s post is about faraway food and drink that I’ve discovered within the City of Kingston since the pandemic began.
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
I love cheese. All those stereotypes about Dutch and Swiss people eating immense amounts of cheese? 100% true, in my case. And I found a great new one just this month. It’s a goat cheese called “Midnight Moon”. While it is sold by an American company called Cypress Grove, it is actually made in theNetherlands. It’s a firm cheese that looks like Gouda…but is aged just enough to take on the sharper characteristics of Swiss “Alpkäse”. It is currently my favourite cheese. And I found it at the local “Farm Boy” store!
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
Farm Boy was also where I found a decadent new dessert. I was familiar with the vanilla-esque goodness of Portuguese Custard tarts, but they recently introduced a variation with chocolate hazelnut filling. The infusion of Italy makes these already delicious pastries even better.
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
Still in the sweet spectrum, I found some Sweet Chili Plantain Chips at the local FreshCo grocery store. These are made in Colombia from green plantains and have a nice balance between sweet and spicy…and, most importantly, no garlic. And apparently they have “40% less fat than regular potato chips”.
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
Speaking of spicy, I recently tried some Gochujang Chicken in a “prepare-it-yourself” meal kit from Loblaws. Gochujang is a fermented red chili paste from Korea. The sauce was mostly tangy, rather than sweet, and had just the right amount of heat for both of us. I’d never heard of it before, but I’ve already started looking for it in local Asian grocery stores.
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
But what to drink with all of this interesting food? I’m not much of a beer drinker, but I’ve discovered two good new ones in the past year. For spicy food like Gochujang Chicken, I like a Jamaican beer called Dragon Stout. It’s made by the same people who make Red Stripe, but Dragon Stout is very different: it’s a high-alcohol (7.5%), nearly black beer with hints of licorice and chocolate. It can stand up to even the spiciest food.
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
I’ve also enjoyed Leffe Blonde, a Belgian beer that also exhibits sweet and spicy flavours. Like Dragon Stout, it’s also higher in alcohol content (6.6%), so it’s good that they are only availably locally in small bottles!
February 20, 2021 – Lemoine’s Point (Kingston, Ontario, Canada)
Today’s photos are all from a recent walk at Lemoine’s Point. Lots of wild turkeys…but no owls or deer on this particular day. That’s okay: we still see them on about half of our walks. Coming soon: some “lost” photos rediscovered!
I recently reviewed the photos from my 1991 backpacking trip through Europe. It was the same kind of extended post-university trip that new graduates have been doing for decades.
Downtown Trier, Germany (June 2, 1991)
While I have posted about a portion of this trip before, I was struck by some of the people in the pictures and how clearly I remembered them nearly 30 years later. And not just their names…although I will refrain from using their names here. Since personal connections are an important part of travel too, I thought I’d talk about some of the events that I shared with people I have never seen (or heard from) since.
The Roman Amphitheatre (circa 100 A.D.) in Trier, Germany (June 2, 1991)
Virtually every night was spent in a youth hostel, so it was natural that I would meet others doing the same thing. My first hostel night was in Trier, Germany, where a nice young German couple joined me for dinner and gave me some tips on the sights in the area. This set the stage for some memorable experiences later in the trip.
Benny, my uncle’s Dachshund – Riehen, Switzerland (June 3, 1991)
By the time I got to Zug, Switzerland, I was getting good at the whole hostel thing. There, I met a couple from Vancouver, as well as a teacher from Australia, and we decided to hike together the next day. We walked on the newly established “Swiss Path” around the Vierwaldstättersee: we saw where Switzerland was born exactly 700 years before (see photo at the very top of this post).
Leading the cattle through downtown Zuoz, Switzerland (June 11, 1991)
But the defining moment with my new friends was eating in an Italian place in Zug. It wasn’t a traditional restaurant, it was more of a club for the local Italian community. Anyway, the menu was mostly in Italian with a few (all too brief) German translations. I couldn’t quite figure out one of the pasta dishes, but my friends told me they thought the main ingredient was wild mushrooms. Well, it was a wonderfully spicy tomato sauce, and the “mushrooms” sure were chewier than any mushrooms I’d had before. About halfway through, after some worried whispering between the couple, I was told “Sorry, I think those are clams”. Still, I guess that’s how you overcome unfamiliar food: don’t find out what it is until it’s too late!
View above St. Moritz, Switzerland (June 11, 1991)
Another interesting adventure was in Zell am See, Austria. After getting off the train from Innsbruck, I dutifully headed to the local hostel. Imagine my surprise when nothing remained except a charred pile of bricks: it had burned down a few days before. Now I was in a bit of pickle! However, a group of 5 Swedes arrived at that very moment. They were on the very same train, and wanted to stay at the very same non-existent hostel. We decided to tackle our problem together.
Swedish picnic at Areitalm, above Zell am See, Austria (June 16, 1991)
We managed to find a place that would rent a “suite” to the three Swedish young ladies, and another “suite” to me and the two Swedish young men (who both had the same first name). They were all active people, so I joined them the next day for tennis and a picnic on the mountainside above town. It was fun being Swedish for a day, and foreshadowed other positive Swedish experiences in the future. When I finally made it to Sweden 21 years later, I found the vibe very comfortable. Stockholm was one of those places where I said “I think I could live here”.
On the Kohlmarkt in Vienna, Austria (June 20, 1991)
I eventually made it to Vienna, where I met a backpacker from Vancouver with energy to spare. We decided to tackle Vienna together: dinner at a very famous Schnitzelhaus, and then we managed to get cheap standing room tickets for a performance at Vienna’s State Opera House (Wiener Staatsoper). For those keeping track, the opera was “Elektra”, by Richard Strauss. This was the kind of unique experience that you might not try on your own, but seems much easier when you’ve got company. I made it back to Vienna, albeit briefly, in 2014.
Street market on Rakoczi Blvd. in Budapest, Hungary (June 24, 1991)
I’ve recently posted quite a few blog entries about my 1999 trip to Bavaria and Bohemia. While most of the that trip was spent in the Czech Republic, it started and ended in Germany (today’s photos are primarily from Würzburg, our last stop before flying home from Frankfurt).
Würzburg, Germany: Haus zum Falken and Marienkapelle (1999)
This seems to be a common theme in my travel history. I’ve been to Germany six times, and changed planes there on a further five occasions. However, it had always been on the way to somewhere else. Three of those visits were with my family, when we were traveling between relatives in Switzerland and relatives in the Netherlands.
Würzburg, Germany: across the River Main (1999)
On my extended 1991 backpacking trip, I flew in and out of the Netherlands. I made it to Budapest (Hungary) and back, passing through Germany on both legs of the trip. However, it wasn’t the focus of my trip: I only spent a handful of nights there. It was even more fleeting in my 2014 travel odyssey: I walked into Germany from Luxembourg, but I was probably never more than a mile inside the country.
Würzburg, Germany: the Residenz (built in 1720, photo from 1999)
So, other than two nights in each of Erlangen and Trier in 1991, one night in Bad Honnef, and two nights in each of Würzburg and Munich in 1999, I haven’t had too much to report about this large country in the heart of Europe.
Würzburg, Germany: Flower and sausage vendors in the Marktplatz (1999)
In a fine example of synchronicity, I picked up a library book this weekend that I had reserved some time ago. It was about road trips in the German-speaking countries, and I signed it out to see what it said about driving in Switzerland. But when I started reading other parts of the book, I realized that there was a lot about Germany that I had never seen…and that I wanted to see.
Würzburg, Germany: a very old (from 1319!) restaurant
In particular, the extreme north and south parts of the former East Germany (DDR) are piquing my curiosity. I had never really thought about them as destinations, and they tend to be ignored by North American travel resources. But if I ever travel to Europe in the warmer times of the year again, I’m going to have to give serious consideration to one or both of those regions.
Plzeň, Czech Republic. We saw this hitchhiker on one of the platforms at the railway station (1999).
From visiting the location of the legendary East German beach movie Heißer Sommer, to exploring the natural wonders of “Saxon Switzerland” (Sächsische Schweiz), to museums documenting the oppressive East German Stasi (secret police), this could be a really unique trip. It just goes to show: even if you’ve been to a country many times, there is always something else waiting to be discovered.
