Our winter ski holiday saw us return to Switzerland to see Drew, Mel and Freyja and partake in a spot of snowboarding. But rather than fly, we opted to make the journey part of the holiday with a little road trip trough Europe. Leaving on a Friday feels a bit like playing hooky from school, so that’s what we did! Six hours later and we were in Europe, perhaps for the last time that we can freely and easily transition the continent. It’s such a shame to be losing this freedom due to the lies and short sightedness of others. Let’s hope the whole thing gets called off! Anyway, back to the holiday! Our first evening was spent back at the excellent Villa des Raisins in Bruges. We ate at the Haalve Maan brewery on huge rabbit pie (Ben) and moules frites (Beck) and copious amounts of dunkel beer. The portions were enormous, so much so that we wondered if we’d missed the note on the menu which told us these were sharing meals! Like many of our holidays, this set the tone for the rest of our travels; lots of local food and drink! We ended the evening back at Parazaar bar for a delicious Boon kriek, cherry beer, without the cloying sweetness of many krieks.
Were trying to be a little healthier, so the next morning, we set off for an 8km run round the outskirts of Bruges. This was hard going after the indulgence of Friday night, but worth it as we worked up an appetite for Geert’s breakfast buffet of granola, eggs, cheese, ham, squid ink bread, pancakes, pesto & tomato toast, well, you get the picture!
From Bruges it was back on the road for a long journey to Eguisheim in the Alsace region. Ben & I fell in love with Gewurtztraminer wine during our time in the Okanagan in Canada, so we wanted to try it at its origin. Arriving fairly late into Eguisheim we thought we had missed the boat for tastings, but managed to find not one, but two wineries open, plying their wares. We entered the first and Beck asks in her best French if it’s possible to taste the wines. The women behind the counter is wise to the cheeky tourists and responds asking whether we just want to taste the wines or if we are actually intending to buy?!? We assure her that we are serious buyers and after 6 or 8 samples we are indeed persuaded to purchase three bottles. We take them back to the hotel room, past the knowing look of the man on reception. We have been in Eguisheim all of about an hour at this point. We don’t stop there. A second winery is advertising tasting up to 7pm where most places close at 6pm. As the saying sort of goes, the later bird catches the wine guzzling tourist and we leave with another two bottles, having had a tour of the cellar and a bit of a lesson in terroir, volcanic earth and Gondwanaland all in rapid French from the owner. It seems here we have to work for our samples! Ben returns to the hotel to drop off our additional bottles. Beck stays outside, too mortified at having bought ALL the wine within about three hours of entering the Alsace to face the receptionist again.
Dinner is taken at one of four restaurant recommendations given to us by the same receptionist. It’s the only one that is actually open, the others having signs saying they are taking annual holidays. We are obviously a little early in the year.
The following day we tour the vineyard strewn countryside by car and vow to come back in the summer for more tasting. We then head to the Airbnb in Murg and meet Eder & Michael who are so welcoming. Their place is spotless and so well equipped! The perfect place for our week.
Our first full day back in Murg sees us hit the slopes of Flumserberg early with Drew & Mel to get a tour of the mountain and get our legs back in to snowboarding. The next day, we snowboard in the morning with Mel and then run 10km on the shores of Lake Walenstadt in the afternoon. We mean to do 13/14kms but it’s so hot we bail after 10! Freyja finishes school at 3.15pm and both Mel and Drew are working, so we step in to look after her. We do some crafts, go to the lake and then watch videos of snowboarding (particularly Uncle Ben’s crashes!)
On Wednesday we take the day off snowboarding to do cross country on the 4km loop. We go round three times it’s so beautiful and then take coffee and cake at Sennastube. On Wednesday night Drew returns from his work trip and we all go out to Sagibeiz for dinner.
On Thursday we ski with Drew and Mel first thing and then, at 2pm we return to Murg for the Fassnacht parade. It’s absolutely brilliant, about 10 groups, all in elaborate costumes (Freyja has spent the last week at school making hers) plus about four brilliant brass bands playing tunes. We congregate for beers in the central square in the baking sunshine. Fassnacht is about welcoming the spring but right now it feels like full on summer.
On Friday the weather breaks and it pours all day. Luckily there is a wet weather option in the form of the Tamina Therme at Bad Ragaz. Steaming pools, ice plunge, steam room, whirl pool, cave with jacuzzi bubbles, actual jacuzzi…. It’s great fun! Cheese fondue rounds off a brilliant day.
On Saturday we spend the day skiing with everyone. Then in the evening we go to Olivia and Pat’s for drinks and pizza and cook up a plan to return for Oktoberfest, which will require costumes!
On our last day in Murg, Sunday, we go sledging! It’s a 3km breakneck route which follows the piste from the mid station bubble lift. We go four times, it’s such fun, getting soaked in the process. With schnitzel for tea, we have had the full gamut of local cuisine!
On Monday it’s Ben’s birthday so we have a special breakfast at Drew and Mel’s with croissants cooked by Freyja and cake cooked by Drew. Then it’s back on the road, north to Rothaus brewery for free minibar, brewery tour and evening meal. Tuesday is our big road trip north to Dinant, but first we take a side trip into Freiburg to scope out the aforementioned Oktoberfest gear. At Schwartzwald Couture Beck tries on dirndl and takes the plunge, and then Ben gets lederhosen at a specialist leather shop in the town. Now we are committed to Oktoberfest!
This all means we don’t get to Dinant until late, enough time for a walk along the river and hitting our beds for the drive to Calais in the morning. A text from Eurotunnel at breakfast next morning warns us that due to industrial action at all ports, there may be tailbacks on the route and boy, are they right. The queues start 40kms out from Calais as all traffic is filtered off the road and trucks are separated out and held in rest areas for customs inspections. It is part of the Brexit preparations by French customs, who are working to rule to show the French government that they will need lots more staff in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The impact is staggering, adding an hour and a half to what should have been a two-hour journey for us. For the trucks, the delay will be much longer and we can see first-hand how no-deal will immediately impact on imports into the UK, leading to shortages of vital short-shelf life medication. We feel thoroughly ashamed of our country to be the root cause of such pointless chaos and disruption for normal people trying to go about their daily lives. It’s a bitter way to end what was otherwise a lovely holiday and so it’s cathartic that two weeks later we join over a million people in London to march against Brexit. We cherish the right to freedom of movement and happily accept that that right works two ways. We will happily do whatever we can to protect it for us, and our nieces, as part of the next generation.