Covid Holiday Souvenir

On our return home from Austria we were required to self-test for Covid within 48 hours of arrival * It’s a bit strange that we were not advised to self-isolate before the test isn’t it? We obediently took our tests on Monday morning. My test was negative - but James’ test was positive! Yes, he had brought the souvenir of Covid back from his holiday. With hindsight, I think that James may have developed Covid last Monday; the day that he felt unwell and was unable to ski. At the time he was convinced that his cough and headache were due to the high altitude of the resort (compared to home) and indeed he has had similar symptoms on previous ski holidays. After that one day he felt well enough to resume skiing and his symptoms disappeared, so it seemed that he was right, until Monday’s lateral flow test. 

He was well masked-up throughout the holiday apart from when we were seated and eating, so hopefully other holiday-makers will have been protected, and also you were not allowed to fly to Austria or to ski or to go into shops and restaurants unless you were triple-vaccinated. This was checked at every stage of the journey and in every establishment, 

After his positive test James had to let the Scottish Government know, and I soon received an email telling me also to self-isolate until 2nd February. However our confinement may be shorter than since James hasn’t had symptoms since last Monday; we will each take another lateral flow test tomorrow morning and if they’re both negative we will check the government rules to see what’s what. We’re not looking to take any shortcuts or bend the rules mind you, we will behave ourselves. 

* this requirement will cease on 11th February. 

Happy Travelling Birthday James!

Another plane, another blog. Today is James’ 60th birthday and he has had a pleasant day; breakfasting at our lovely Bellevue Hotel, going for a stroll around the village, and lunching at the Arlberg Hotel just down the road. We have spent the afternoon and will spend the evening on our journey homewards to Scotland, however James enjoys a plane journey so that’s good too! Heather and Ewan have given him the extremely generous gift of a trip on a seaplane around the Scottish Islands and I get to go too, so we were both delighted! He got quite a few Happy Birthday messages over the course of the day. 

Despite much rumour and innuendo at the airport - all nonsense - we are currently seated on time in our plane to Edinburgh, waiting for our plane to be de-iced. Our journey to Innsbruck Airport was, however, not without incident. As our bus driver carefully drove through one of the semi-tunnels between Lech and St Anton, a car driver ran right into the back of our bus. At first I thought that we had simply scraped against the wall of the tunnel, but when we moved off in order to stop again at a sort of lay-by down the road (because we had been blocking half of the road) we saw the guy who had run into us. Boy, his car was a mess, all crumpled at the front. We had to wait for the police to arrive before we were allowed to continue our journey, by which time we were running about two hours late. This was of justified concern to the passengers who were travelling to earlier flights than ours, but we were still in good time because our flight was due to leave a bit later at 18.55 (Austrian time.) Maybe it’s because James and I have been lucky enough to travel a lot over the years by “planes, trains and automobiles” to quote the old Steve Martin and John Candy film, but I was unmoved by the rumour that due to the snow we would all be bussed to Munich once we got through departures. It’s true that quite a few flights were delayed, one until the next day, and that some passengers on other flights were indeed being bussed to Munich, but there is no point in getting ahead of yourself in my experience. Que sera sera. And sure enough, after standing in several very long (but moving) queues we were sent onto a bus which took us, not to Munich, but the short distance across the tarmac to our plane bound for Edinburgh. Our pilot has just thanked us for going on our holidays in these Covid times, which of course is important for the livelihood of the staff in the airline industry, which was nice to hear. I must go as we will be taking off shortly. 

Last Ski Day

We had no idea whether we were going to be able to ski today, because the weather forecast was very uncertain. One snow report predicted a cloudy day without snow, another predicted some sunshine, and the hotel owner, Herr Wolf, told us that we should ski in the morning because it was going to snow in the afternoon. 

In fact none of these predictions were quite correct. We woke to cloudy skies and just as we went down to breakfast it started to snow. I was disappointed because after not skiing yesterday I was keen to get back on the slopes for the last day. But by 10 o’clock the snow stopped, the sun came out and the four of us set off to ski. 

Heather, Ewan and James were all very encouraging to me; James and Heather led the way and Ewan skied behind me to make sure that I was getting on ok. This helped my confidence a lot and after a shaky start I really enjoyed the morning. The snow was a bit bumpy in places due to yesterday’s snowfall but it was lovely to be out. Needless to say my knee started hurting quite quickly, but I’m hopeful that physiotherapy might help me to strengthen it. I’m pleased that I have managed to ski for a good part of the week. My knee and I bowed out for an early lunch at the Rud-Alpe, while the others skied some more. 

In the afternoon we returned our skis to the hire shops and went for après-ski in the village at the Pfeffercorn. I have become very fond of Lech this week and we have been very lucky with the snow and the weather. 

I had been chatting to Herr Wolf earlier in the day, telling him about the UK children's game and book, "What's the Time Mr Wolf?" He hadn't heard of it. So with his collusion, after dinner when he was socialising around the bar area, he arrived at our table and I looked up and said loudly, "What's the Time Mr Wolf?" and he told me the time! James, Heather and Ewan were horrified, thinking that I was being very cheeky to our host, until Herr Wolf and I started laughing and told them that we had arranged it - I enjoyed my little joke very much. 

Strolzing on a snowy day

Today the forecast snow arrived, on schedule and in quantity. This is very good news for the ski industry in Lech because they haven’t had any new snow for a couple of weeks and this top up will make sure that they continue to have plenty of snow into their peak season of February. Visibility was low and I decided to err on the side of caution and refrain from skiing today; hopefully the conditions will be more to my liking tomorrow. Instead James and I strolled down to the village and did a little shopping in the famous and very upmarket Strolz skiwear and gift shop. On choosing our item (which I can’t mention because it’s a gift) we were given a chitty with its details, and when we arrived back at the front desk we exchanged it for a beautifully gift-wrapped parcel. How delightfully old-fashioned, I loved it. We then decided that we deserved a restoring coffee in the Arlberg Hotel, indoors in their lovely lounge this time. Just as we were finishing our coffees we received a text from Heather and Ewan suggesting an excursion onto the pistes and James was keen to give it a go, so he hurried back up the road while I did a bit more shopping. I arrived back just as the others were leaving, suited and booted, and I had a relaxing couple of hours reading and watching the last episode of “The Duchess of Argyll” which was very good but all rather sad. When James arrived back he said that he had enjoyed himself but had found the conditions “hard going” so I felt that I had made the right decision. And now I had better get out of the bath in time for pre-dinner drinks in the cosy hotel bar. 

Skiing with a future astronaut

The weather continued to be absolutely beautiful on Wednesday. Stunningly beautiful in fact; the sky was the deep, clear blue that you can get at high altitudes, and the white snow was dazzling. The slopes were quiet and the conditions for skiing were just about ideal. I took a private ski lesson in the morning in order to brush up my technique and was very glad that I did. At first I was rather dismayed to be allocated a very young ski instructor, because I thought that he would be impatient with my cautious skiing, but in fact he was excellent. His name is Frido and he is spending his gap year between school and university as a ski instructor, before going to university to study aerospace engineering and become a fighter pilot. Then his goal is to become an astronaut - it would be quite something if my ski instructor becomes an astronaut! 

He took me on a sort of refresher ski course around some lovely wide blue slopes, giving me tips on technique. It was absolutely great for my confidence, and the setting and views were magnificent. I was a very happy bunny. 

Three other happy bunnies were James, Ewan and Heather, who had skied much further than me and had also enjoyed a day that was perfect for skiing. We all had après-ski drinks together on the hotel’s sun terrace, before another excellent dinner and convivial evening. 

Skiing and Swimming

Unfortunately James was unwell yesterday (Monday) with a bad headache and a cough, perhaps caused by the altitude. He had also been awake all night with an upset tummy and was in no fit state to go skiing. Ewan and Heather set off towards Zurs and after James assured me that he didn’t need me to stay with him, I went up the chairlift and cruised the blues for a couple of hours. The weather had been a bit grey in the morning but by the afternoon the clouds rolled away and the blue skies returned. When I got back to the hotel James was still looking rather pale and wan, but he came down for dinner and by bedtime he was feeling much better.

So this morning James felt ready to go back out on the pistes with Heather and Ewan in glorious sunshine, and by all accounts they had a fantastic day of skiing. 

I had my own adventure; I was keen to rest my dodgy knee so I asked at the hotel reception where in the vicinity I could go swimming. It turns out that Lech’s open air pool is open only in the summer, so the hotel manager (Herr Wolf) advised me to take the bus to St Anton, about half an hour away, where there is a “Wellness Centre.” I followed Herr Wolf’s instructions with ease and enjoyed the bus journey through the mountains to the pretty village of St Anton. I found the Wellness Centre which has both indoor and outdoor pools as well as a “naked sauna” - it clearly specifies “naked” on the sign at the entrance, presumably so that there will be no misunderstandings! The outdoor swimming pool is delightful and I swam my usual 1000 metres, with views of the mountains and the ski slopes all around me. There’s also a large outdoors jacuzzi which has a fast current sweeping around a central island, I loved it. The sun was shining and steam was rising from the warm pools into the cold air; it really was idyllic. 

I got the bus back to Lech in time for an après-ski (or should I say après-swim) drink in the hotel bar with Heather, Ewan and James. James seems fully recovered and was very happy to have been back in action on the ski slopes. 

Gelbe Hose in Lech

Ewan impressed us with his vivid yellow trousers on our last ski holiday in Arabba three years ago and this year he amazed us by wearing even brighter yellow trousers! Ewan’s trousers aren’t the only radiant thing on this holiday however. We have been blessed with plenty of snow and beautiful sunshine; conditions are excellent for skiing.

Yesterday we had to buy our lift passes and pick up our hired skis, which as usual took a bit of time to sort out. We have to wear masks on the ski lifts. We set off up on our first chairlift with great excitement and then down our first run. At this point I encouraged James, Heather and Ewan to continue to explore while I took it easy on the blues. We had discussed this beforehand and they were all very understanding, which made me feel very relaxed, and so I enjoyed myself very much despite my right knee being disappointingly painful. I took myself for a coffee at a pretty little restaurant above the village which had fantastic views, and was chatting to some lovely German people who assured me that Frankfurt is the best place in the world. On one of my trips up the chairlift I decided to take a few photos of the spectacular scenery which turned out to be foolish because I managed to drop both of my ski poles! I was dismayed and was not looking forward to skiing down (without poles of course!) to find them. While I was thinking about my dilemma three lovely ladies from the Black Forest area of Germany offered to fetch them for me! People can be so kind.

After skiing around for a couple of hours I made my way back to our hotel, the Bellevue, which is superb and very well situated, just below the piste. The manager is the friendly Herr Wolf, which of course reminded us of "What's the Time, Mr Wolf?" the well known children's book. It only takes five minutes to walk up to the slope in the morning and you can ski right back to the ski store. I had only been back in the room for about half an hour when I got a phone call from James to say that he and Heather and Ewan had just arrived back. We walked the short distance into the village and sat in the sunshine outside the gorgeous Hotel Arlberg for a late lunch. I had caramelised apple kaiserschmarren which was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth. When the sun set behind the mountain it got cold very quickly and we went for a browse around the shops before returning to the Hotel Bellevue to relax before an excellent five course dinner followed by drinks.