In January 2020 Beck read a travel article in the Guardian newspaper reviewing a seven day bike tour starting in the Julian Alps in Slovenia and finishing at Slovenia’s tiny coast line. The route took in rivers, forests, mountain passes, vineyards and gourmet restaurants. Having done a three day cycle tour of the Black Forest the previous September and enjoyed it and with a hankering to return to the Adriatic after Croatia had been a highlight of a previous trip many years ago, this sounded right up our street!
We booked it as a 17 day trip with extra days at the beginning and end, plus a rest day in between each stage – we like cycling, but it was also meant to be a holiday right?! This was all due to happen in September 2020. In the meantime, in the far distance, a microscopic virus was emerging in a little known place called Wuhan. In April, with the UK in full lockdown, we had a (socially distant) conversation with a neighbour over our wall about how a holiday in September must be sure to be unaffected. I mean, give it 3 or 4 months and surely things would be back to normal. Ha! September came and we pushed the trip to September 2021. That would surely be plenty of time for life to have returned to normality. Well, sort of, if it’s the new normal that we are talking about!
So, there we were in August 2021, refreshing travel websites on a compulsive basis to see if we would be able to transit Europe as far as Slovenia without any major restrictions such as multi-day quarantines or spending our life savings on a dazzling array of viral tests. The holiday gods were, for once, in alignment, and we set off for the first leg of what had, in the interim 12 months, developed into a seven week epic, starting with a week with Drew and Mel in Switzerland.
But first we had to negotiate the 14-ish hour journey. Normally we would break the journey to Switzerland in Belgium and Germany but, as mentioned above, this was the new normal and the more countries we added into the mix, the more complex the rules and regulations we had to follow. We’d done the journey in one big hit once before at Christmas but the end of the August holidays meant the Eurotunnel was busier than we’d ever seen it and a wrong turn approaching the Swiss border put us back another 20 minutes which we could have done without. However, we arrived Chez Lewis-Howes late on Friday 27th August tired but happy to have broken the back of the journey through Europe uneventfully.
Our arrival in Murg was timed to coincide with Andy’s 45th birthday and a surprise beach BBQ was originally planned. The weather gods had not got the memo however, so the plan was rapidly changed to lunch out and a surprise party at the house in the evening. Andrew’s friends know him well. The gifts consisted almost exclusively of: a bottle of Polish vodka; a bottle of Bacardi; a bottle of golden rum; a bottle of gin and a bottle of wine! To help recover from the excesses of the evening, we chose to partake in the All You Can Eat brunch buffet at the Maschgenkamm restaurant on Flumserberg on Sunday morning. Which turned into Sunday afternoon. Which meant Sunday evening was spent largely groaning on the sofa. Which was fine as the weather still wasn’t playing ball.
From Monday however, the weather was starting to improve and with it we began to rehash our favourite hits of the area.
Run along the shores of the Walensee? Check!
Cycle along rivers, hills and villages? Check!
Lounge in the thermal waters and play in the whirlpool at Tamina Therme? Check!
Hike up to the Murgseehütte? Check!
Canoe on the Walensee with and without punctures? Double Check!
New additions (which we’re sure will become part of the greatest hits list in the future) included coffee and lunch visits to Quinten including the biggest cake and ice cream sundae ever seen at the Schifflände Restaurant and a trip up to Elm Sportbahnn including splinter strewn wooden skittles, the Giants forest trail and the highlight, mountain buggy ride from the cable car top to base station (think rodelbahn but without the safety of being attached to a rail!!)
Thus concluded our first week on holiday. From here we were firmly on uncharted territory, with the first challenge, navigating Italy, a country which required Brits to quarantine for 5 days on arrival. We were exempt from this as we were only transitting the country, however, we weren’t sure the border guards on the remote Monte Spluga pass would be fully briefed on this!