06Jan 2019

Winter Wonderland – Over the Flüela Pass

06 Jan 2019 0 Travel Permalink

White and pure. I could walk around anywhere and I would find the beauty in nature. Yet, there is something very special about the mountains in winter I find. Everywhere you look it seems to be white. It always looks so peaceful, so quiet, so pure. It is something I could stare at for hours and most likely explains my love for the mountains and why I wouldn’t mind having my own little chalet up in the mountains one day!

I have always had this little Christmas dream: that one day, my whole family (future family included) will rent out or own a little chalet in the mountains that we can stay in over the Christmas holidays. That when you open the door all you can see is white. The children can run around in the snow, the dogs (never forget the dogs!) lying in front of the fire place and I’ll be sitting on the couch drinking a glass of wine. Isn’t that an amazing dream?!

To give a little background to these photos that I wanted to share with you: The story is quite amusing. As I told you in my last post, my girls and I went to South Tyrol for a SPA weekend. On our way there, my navigation system took us to the car transporting train that goes through the mountain (very time efficient!). On our way back, however, it decided that it would be a great idea to drive over the Flüela Pass! We only really noticed once we were more or less up the mountain already and the snow fully covered the roads. Although I didn’t mind this way as I had the chance to stop once in a while and enjoy the beautiful view of the mountains (we must say it was amazing weather thankfully!), my girls were not all so convinced. One of my besties was writing with a couple of her friends and we were then told that it is not normal to drive over the Flüela Pass (or any mountain passes) in winter – especially not without snow chains for the wheels. Whoops.

Nevertheless, I would totally do it all over again and was and still am super happy with the impressions I got from the beautiful views. Oh, and my friends now fully trust me with driving! ;-)

31Dec 2018

Weekend-Getaway at Quellenhof Luxury Resort

31 Dec 2018 0 Travel Permalink

It was the perfect end to the year: a weekend-getaway in December with my girls at the luxury Quellenhof hotel in South Tyrol (Italy). For those that know me, know that I am a sucker for weekend retreats. Although I don’t get the chance all too often, I love doing absolutely nothing. This weekend was exactly that. We went 3-4x a day to the sauna, then to the hot steam baths, enjoyed the inside and outside whirlpool, drank hot teas and closed our eyes in the relaxation area.

One thing I very much appreciated, is that most areas were adults-only. Although the resort offered many activities for children, has a water-park and even the restaurant has great offers for children, the “children-area” was always separated slightly from the rest of the resort or the adults-only-restaurant. This way families with their children did not have to worry that couples or hotel guests would get annoyed with their little ones and vice-versa.

I left my dog home with my family for that time and did not take her with me. Yet, on the last day before driving back my girls and I noticed that quite a few dog-walking paths were leading directly from the resort into the woods. We then also saw a few dogs and my guess is that one of the other hotels of the same resort allows for dogs. My mission for the next year is thus clear: Visit more hotels, more down-time, more me time – but trying to take my dog everywhere. It seems there are a few hotels that offer dog services, dog-walkers for when I would go to the SPA areas and even state that dogs are very welcome to their resorts!

and before I forget: I wish you all a great last day this year and a wonderful start into 2019!

07Aug 2014

Peschiera del Garda

07 Aug 2014 0 Travel Permalink

If there is one thing I never want to give up, it’s travelling to places I’ve never been too. Last weekend my father and I decided to do a roadtrip with the motorcycle, with no definite destination ahead of us. We knew we would start in Zurich, drive towards Innsbruck (Austria), head down to Italy towards the coast and eventually drive back up again- and so we did. After driving over the boarder down to Italy, going over the alps, the landscape got more beautiful with every kilometer we passed. Passing a little town up somewhere in the mountains, out of nowhere we saw an outlet for traditional German clothing. I immediately knew, that if they had a Dirndl (traditional dress you basically need for the Oktoberfest), I had to have one. Guess what? I got one – but that is another story, another post and another time I will report upon that.

Towards the evening we decided to head down to Peschiera del Garda. Now let me tell you – I completely fell in love! This little town all the way down at the south of the lake made me feel like I was in vacation, better yet: in heaven. It felt like I had left all pressure, all worries (not that I have many), all bad thoughts and all stress behind me. I was suddenly fully relaxed and it felt like I had needed it in forever. I was love-struck, to say at the least.

Peschiera del Garda is a relatively small town. We arrived in the evening just when the sun went down and all streetlights were turned on. It was a beautiful view, one that I am missing right this second whilst writing and thinking back to the weekend. Oh, how much I would do to be there again. That evening we also had the most delicious food, ever! You cannot imagine how much meat I ate, what an amazing Rosé I had, what a great experience it was and how little we spent on it. It was a recommendation by the hotel and it was worth every penny we spent. He had told us the place as if it was a secret and it surely was magical. The food was breathtakingly amazing. I will definitely post all about the food next time – trust me, the pictures are making me hungry the minute I looked over them.

You see that little bag further down on the photo? That little piece of paper with the words Gucci on them made me SO happy! I instantly felt like a child being fed with candy. Oh, I am so easily satisfied, it is almost embarrassing. But I did, I got a little something (I’m sure you can all guess what) and had to grin all night. Ever since I bought this beauty, I have been wearing it every single day.

Later that night we decided to up the hill and found an amazing bar that was placed outside. They had great background music on and I can tell you the glasses they served were HUGE. Huge is probably not even the right word, compared to what I am used to from Zurich, they were enormous – one glass surely made me happy and satisfied. Writing to you about the trip makes me almost sad now – I really wish I could go back! – and simultaneously so happy – I feel so blessed I was able to experience that little amazing town. I surely, definitely, to a hundred percent, will go back. The atmosphere was magical, the lake view breath taking, the weather amazing (we had around 29C at midnight) and the Gelato (oh, how I love ice-cream) was to bathe in.

Thinking back, I cannot wait for my next vacation! Until then, I wish you all a great continuing week – hey, it’s almost weekend!