On my last night in Lyon, I went to a Lebanese restaurant called Rose de Damas in the Part-Dieu neighbourhood. The location and appearance didn’t suggest that this was the #6-ranked restaurant (out of more than 2200) in Lyon. And roughly 90 of those restaurants have at least one Michelin star. Rose de Damas doesn’t. But I agree with popular opinion on this one: I thought my meal there was outstanding.
My Menu végétarien at the Rose de Damas
I went for the Menu végétarien, which had an assortment of hot and cold dishes. Check out the above photograph – doesn’t it look spectacular? The cylindrical pastry on top was filled with cheese. And they didn’t try to overwhelm with garlic, as some restaurants seem determined to do. Instead, the dip tasted of sesame. Other interesting flavours included walnut and pomegranate. My photo of the restaurant itself (see below) was taken at night, but I think you can tell that it looks cosy yet unpretentious.
Night view of the Rose de Damas in Lyon
The next morning, I was up bright and early to catch a series of trains from Lyon to Zweisimmen. I had to change trains in Geneva and Montreux, but those stops were very brief…thanks to the incredibly dense network of public transportation in Switzerland. Zweisimmen is in the heart of my ancestral Swiss valley, and is my base for skiing (and more!) for the next three days. The picture at the very top of this post is an overcast view of Zweisimmen taken from the ski gondola.
Waiting for the train to depart Montreux for Zweisimmen. If this is 2nd class, I wonder what 1st class looks like?
The posh resort village of Gstaad is just down the road: check out the 2nd class railway car on this route. The wood panelling and skylights are standard issue. The service was very impressive too.
Hotel Sonnegg – home for my three days in Zweisimmen, Switzerland
I’m staying at the Hotel Sonnegg (above), a very friendly family-run hotel at the top of the town. It can be a demanding uphill walk from the downtown core, but it’s also very peaceful. There are no rowdy late-night disturbances!
Speaking of family, my cousin Catherine happened to be on a brief visit to the nearby village of Mannried. We hadn’t seen each other for a while, so we had an enjoyable catch-up dinner at the Bären Restaurant (see above). This restaurant serves mostly Swiss food, and I had my very first Rösti of the trip! Very good, but also very filling. Perfect for the demanding sports-filled days that lay ahead!
Another chalet in downtown Zweisimmen. The yellow signs point the way to various nearby places and villages…including Weissenbach, where I visited my grandfather as a child.
The uphill walk back to my hotel wasn’t easy, but it’s hard to complain when there are so many typical rustic chalets along the way. It’s so nice to see the real thing. (Don’t get me started on the Canadian restaurant chain called “Swiss Chalet”: it is neither Swiss nor a chalet.).
Above Zweisimmen – a cosy place with a nice view
But what about the skiing, you ask? All those spectacular photos are coming up soon! And I’ll also be telling you about a very special sports experience I had in Gstaad, of all places…
My last overseas trip seems like it was ages ago. In reality, it was less than four years ago (March 2020) that I went skiing in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, and Morzine, France. But so much has happened since then.
The fearsome Swiss Wall, on the Switzerland/France border in the massive Portes du Soleil ski region (March 2020).
A global pandemic would be the most obvious intervening factor. But there have also been changes in travel philosophies and a personal reconfiguring of priorities. I did manage to ski in Banff in 2022, but otherwise I haven’t been on the slopes. And other than a brief trip into northern New York, I haven’t been outside of Canada since March 2020 either.
Me and my friend, the skiing “Milka chocolate” cow – near Les Gets, France (March 2020)
This has been quite a change for me. I used to ski in Europe every winter and spend every other summer vacation in Europe too. And of course there was my travel sabbatical in 2014, which prompted the creation of this blog. That year, I tackled my travel bucket list and went to Europe no less than six times.
Our ski group passing through the rocks at Pomedes (Cortina d’Ampezzo – March 2014)
So when I made the decision to ski in Europe this winter, I had to ask myself a lot of questions. Which country (or countries) should I visit? Do I try to go somewhere new? Do I return to some old haunts? Am I travelling on a budget? Will I do anything besides skiing?
Skiing by torch light down to Grindelwald (March 13, 2000)
It didn’t take long for me to realize that much has changed since early 2020. Most notably: the dramatic price increases for flights and hotels. It dawned on me that I probably wouldn’t be resuming annual ski trips to Europe. And my choice of destination was likely going to be influenced by where airfares and accommodation prices were most competitive.
Me skiing on the lower slopes of the legendary Eiger (March 2002)
I made the decision to stick with places that had special meaning for me. And so, when I found a good hotel deal in Wengen, Switzerland, I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve skied in Wengen and the linked resort of Grindelwald many times before. Not only is the skiing excellent, but I think the surrounding scenery might be the very best in any ski area anywhere. If you’ve never seen the Eiger up close (or been skiing on it!)…it is beyond spectacular. And then there’s the Jungfrau, the Schilthorn (known for James Bond and “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service”)…
Looking down on Wengen from the cable car – March 2005 (skating rink and curling hall at top left)
All of that is amazing. And then Wengen itself is a car-free village perched on a cliff overlooking the famous Lauterbrunnen valley…reachable only by a special cog-wheel train. For an overall skiing experience, I don’t think it can be beat. Zermatt is bigger, and it has the Matterhorn, but I feel most at home in Wengen.
Stretching above the clouds, high above Wengen and Grindelwald, in March 2005
Trying to book my flights was a very long bout of sticker shock. I had to summon all of my tricks to find a reasonably priced itinerary that also had direct flights from Canada. On a relatively short trip, I couldn’t afford to miss flight connections (or luggage).
Ho-hum, just a midway station on the way up to the Schilthorn…
Finally, after hours and hours of trial and error, I found something that worked at an acceptable price: I would fly outbound from Montreal direct to Lyon, France, and then return home by a direct flight from Zurich to Toronto. Unusual? Yes. But it’s out of necessity: my flight costs are always increased by the need for additional leg room…and the airlines are experts in extracting every conceivable additional charge.
This way to everything! On the France-Switzerland border, March 2020.
I am excited about starting my trip in Lyon. It’s the “second city” of France, and yet people rarely talk about it as a destination. It has a beautiful old town, a reputation for great food, and is less than an hour from the Alps. And I’ve never been there. What a great way to begin!
View from my hotel room in Geneva, Switzerland (March 2020) – I’ll pass through here again this winter after visiting Lyon
I had a few days to allocate between my stays in Lyon and Wengen. In the end, I went with another sentimental choice. The Swiss side of my family is from the Simmental (Simme Valley), so I happily booked a few nights in the town of Zweisimmen (literally, where two branches of the Simme River meet). This also allows me to ski for a couple of days in the Gstaad ski region, where I have been skiing a few times with friends and family.
Skiing above Zweisimmen at Parwengesattel (March 2018)
The skiing around Zweisimmen is not quite as dramatic as Wengen, but the region has the added bonus of being my ancestral home. And you can’t put a price on that. What better way to visit my roots than by doing something I love? And I have to say that skiing is my favourite way of experiencing the mountains…no matter which mountains I’m visiting! That’s why most of this trip will be spent skiing rather than “touristing”.
My grandfather’s chalet (straight ahead) in Weissenbach, Switzerland (August 2006), just a couple of kilometers from Zweisimmen
So, that’s the trip. It has some very meaningful skiing, and also some interesting new destinations before and after the skiing. I’ll keep the last stop a mystery for now. Besides – all my hotel bookings have free cancellations, so I still have time to change my mind!
I recently wrote about my 1983 trip to Hinton, Alberta, which was my first “independent” travel experience. Today, I’m going back even farther…to my 1974 trip to Europe with my parents. While I have some souvenirs from that trip, most of these pictures were taken on subsequent trips.
The front cover of our menu – April 1974 Swissair flight from Montreal to Zürich
Travel was different then. Even in economy class, there was an element of elegance and style. You had to wear your “Sunday best”. Check out the menu from our flight…you’d never see this much fuss about a meal in economy class now!
Pages two and three of the in-flight menu
My mother put together an album of our trip, so it is easy to recall exactly what happened. We flew from Montreal to Zürich on SwissAir flight SR161, a DC-10 that covered the distance in 7 hours and 10 minutes.
My grandfather’s chalet (straight ahead) in Weissenbach, Switzerland (August 2006)
For the Swiss part of our trip, we stayed mostly in my grandfather’s chalet. It is located in the quiet Simmental village of Weissenbach; my uncle still owns it today. I loved being in the mountains, even before I had ever tried downhill skiing.
Skiing above Zweisimmen (March 2018)
We also stayed in the nearby town of Zweisimmen, where I have been skiing on many occasions since then. From there, we drove up to the Bühlberg mountain restaurant above the village of Lenk…where I went skiing (see also the photo at the top of this post) with my cousin 44 years later!
My cousin and her family – at the summit of “Lavey” between Lenk and Adelboden, Switzerland (March 2018)
From Zweisimmen, it was on to Montreux on Lake Geneva. The climate was much milder here; it almost felt tropical compared to the mountains we had just left. From Montreux, we moved on to my uncle’s house in the Basel suburb of Riehen.Now owned by another cousin, I also stayed here in 2011 en route to a ski week in Wengen.
Benny, my uncle’s dachshund (May 1991)
We then left Switzerland and spent a couple of days in Frankfurt, (West) Germany. Once again, there was a family connection: we stayed with my mother’s cousin.
The beach at ‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands (August 2014)
The last couple of weeks of the trip were spent in the Netherlands. We made our way by train from Frankfurt to Hoek Van Holland (via Mainz and Köln). We then stayed at my aunt’s house in ‘s-Gravenzande…I stayed there many times over the years, and it was also the “base camp” for my extended 1991 backpacking trip through Europe. Although it is no longer in the family, I did take a picture of it in 2014 during my even-more-extended travel odyssey.
“Our” house on the Monsterseweg in ‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands (August 2014)
We visited Delft, Rotterdam, and The Hague, just like I did with my wife 40 years later in 2014. I really enjoyed a day trip to the Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam…one of the few “sights” that I haven’t returned to in the intervening 49 years.
Market Square in Delft, the Netherlands (August 2014)
A lasting impression was how great Dutch breakfasts could be. Of course, being not yet 6 years old, this assessment was based mostly on the ubiquitous availability of chocolate hagelslag (sprinkles) and chocolate vlokken (flakes). Actually, chocolate was a common theme on my childhood European trips. If I eat too much of it now, I can trace it back to those formative experiences!
Me and my friend, the skiing “Milka chocolate” cow (March 2020)
We flew back to Montreal from Amsterdam on KLM flight 0671. This time, the plane was a DC-8 and it wasn’t as comfortable as the outbound flight.
Maassluis, the Netherlands (two of my cousins live here) – August 2014
It would be another 5 years before we were able to return to Europe, despite all of our family connections there. My international travel, at least for a little while, would consist only of brief trips across the U.S. border to northern New York state. But European trips were major events, and my memories of the 1979 trip are much more vivid.
Six months ago, I published a post about the surprising results of my ancestral DNA test. You can find it by clicking here. At that time, I expressed surprise about my significant Swedish/Danish ancestry and the lesser but still unexpected Norwegian ancestry. Although those two regions only accounted for 8% of me, it was much more Scandinavia than I was expecting. But the remaining 92% was also a surprise. I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be far more “Northwestern Europe/England” than “Germanic Europe”.
View from the Christiansborg (Copenhagen, Denmark)
Well, DNA knowledge and technology changes quickly. A mere month after posting those results, I learned that there had been substantial changes. My DNA hadn’t changed, but there had been refinements in assigning regional ancestry in several parts of Europe. As a result, I learned that my original results were no longer accurate. Just when I was getting used to my distant past, I had to deal with another new reality!
Tivoli Gardens (Copenhagen, Denmark)
So while I likely still have some Norwegian DNA kicking around, it is now too small to be significant. However, my Swedish/Danish ancestry has remained at the same level. To acknowledge that, I have illustrated this post with images from my 2016 trip to Denmark. I felt at home there too…so maybe those are my true Scandinavian roots?
You can’t have too many pictures of Nyhavn in Copenhagen!
As for the even larger (now around 94%) remainder of my ancestry, the majority of it is now in fact Germanic Europe. A slightly smaller, but still significant, portion is traceable to “Northwest Europe and England”.
The Wish Tree Garden on Papirøen, Copenhagen (my collaboration with Yoko Ono)
As some other friends and family members have tried this testing too, I have also learned just how random this DNA business can be. Even siblings can have significantly different outcomes. You almost certainly won’t get the same 50% from each parent that your brother or sister did. And of course 50% is lost with each generation.
The Fish Kiss Spa in downtown Copenhagen
What now? I will certainly be checking in from time to time, to see if my results have been refined further. I now know there are some other regions in my family’s past, and I’m curious to see if they will appear for me too.
Today’s post is a little different, but still very much in the spirit of travel.
Although I had been thinking about it for a while, I finally got around to requesting an “Ancestry DNA” test this spring. And the results have now arrived.
Getting caught by the waves at the same beach where my father played as a child (‘s-Gravenzande, the Netherlands)
On the surface, the expectation was simple. With one Swiss parent and one Dutch parent, one would expect the results to be 50% from each country. But I also heard some other distant echoes from the past.
My ancestors lived in Maassluis, the Netherlands, many centuries ago
Over time, family stories become almost accepted as fact. And one of my family stories was that we had some Spanish ancestry, due to the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands in the 16th century. With respect to the Swiss side of my family, I wondered if there might be some Italian influence, given the fairly close proximity of Italy to my ancestral place of origin. And I also wondered what other interesting connections may have been forgotten in the mists of time.
A church in Lenk (Switzerland) – I wonder what important family events took place here?
I was pretty excited when the results finally arrived. When I clicked on the link, I discovered something very interesting. Switzerland and the Netherlands each belong to the same two broader groups: “Germanic Europe” and “England and Northwestern Europe”. And I had almost complete (92%) ancestry in those two regions.
Lots of choices, high above Lenk and Adelboden (Switzerland)
I found the “England and Northwestern Europe” region interesting. Consisting mostly of England, Belgium, the southern Netherlands, Northeast France and Switzerland, I had never really considered that DNA from England would be connected to both of my countries of origin. This region even contributed more to me than the anticipated “Germanic Europe” region.
Mårten Trotzigs gränd – the narrowest street in Sweden (Stockholm)
And what about the other 8%? The stories and guesses were, in a word, wrong. No Italy. No Spain. As it turns out, most of my other ancestry was from Sweden/Denmark, with a smaller part from Norway. I had always been looking south, but it appears that I should have been looking north.
Terminus of the railway to Flam (Norway)
I know that these tests are not 100% accurate, and of course some ancestry is lost with each passing generation. But way back in 2012, I felt very comfortable in Stockholm (see photo at the very top of this post). I thought it was a place in which I could live. It makes you wonder why I had that feeling.
Today, I finally pulled the plug on my planned February 2022 ski trip to Zermatt, Switzerland. While I had been expecting this for some time, it was still kind of sad to cancel the Zermatt hotel room that would have formed the base for most of my trip. However, even with three COVID vaccinations so far, I couldn’t justify the costs and complications of international travel at this particular time. Perhaps to compensate, I’ve decided to finally write the final post from my summer 2006 trip to Switzerland. The first part is here, while the second part is here.
Italy! Domodossola’s old town (August 11, 2006)
As we had a Swisspass allowing unlimited travel on the Swiss transportation system, we were highly motivated to stay within Switzerland. However, certain cross-border trips were covered. One of them was to the northern Italian town of Domodossola. It was a nice change of pace, and we really enjoyed having a relaxed lunch on an outdoor patio.
Zermatt’s new town, with the Matterhorn struggling to emerge in the background (August 11, 2006)
While it would have been nice to stay longer, we had to return to Switzerland. In fact, our next stop was…Zermatt! A big part of Zermatt’s appeal is, of course, the Matterhorn. Alas, the grim weather that characterized much of this trip continued. We could barely see the Matterhorn from the village. And as you can see from the photo above, I had to put the jacket back on even though this was early August.
Zermatt’s old town (after many failed Matterhorn photos)…August 11, 2006
While we saw little of the Matterhorn, the trip to Zermatt was still memorable. I didn’t have a digital camera yet, but the views from the train were still stunning enough to attempt some pictures from the train window.
Crossing a bridge by train, and looking at other bridges (August 11, 2006) – near Stalden, Switzerland.
The next day, we explored the popular Swiss city of Luzern. It was much more crowded than our base in rural Hondrich. Once again, however, we used our SwissPass to see something totally unexpected: the Bourbaki Panorama. The Panorama is a very large round room, and it contains a very unusual thing: a circular painting! It is 377 feet long and 32 feet high, but each end is connected to the other. It depicts the French army retreating through Switzerland during the 1870-71 Franco-Prussian War. It’s a very long story – you can read more about it here.
My ticket to the Bourbaki Panorama in Luzern, Switzerland (August 12, 2006)
We took a walk on top of Luzern’s old city walls (the photo at the top of this post was taken from the top of the walls), saw some other typical Luzern sights, such as the old Kapellbrücke (chapel bridge) and the “Lion of Lucerne”, and then returned to Hondrich for one final night at the farmhouse.
At one end of Luzern’s ancient Kapellbrücke – August 12, 2006.
Writing this post has been another reminder of how much we took for granted in the past. Imagine making spontaneous decisions to hop on a train to visit another country! I remain hopeful that international travel will become a part of my life again soon, even if won’t be this winter.
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…
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)
