October 27, 2008 at 10:38 pm · Filed under Rambling, Travel
I’m as happy as a generally grumpy person can ever expect to be, but occassionaly I get it in to my head that perhaps I’d feel more at home somewhere else – the eternal grass is greener scenario.
This weekend, in search of lush lawns, I headed to Hebden Bridge.
Hebden Bridge is the UK mecca for guardian readers and “alternative practitioners”, and I’ve long held the view that the place would be enhanced by my presence. The “AP” euphemism was suggested by the local lesbian hotel and I’ve adopted it as a subtle way of getting this post past my mum.
I was accompanied by Lynn who was prepared to indulge my fantasy of returning to Yorkshire for a life revolving around yoghurt, communal vegetables, alternative practitioners, real ale and hill runnning (not necessarily listed in order of importance). Given that this weekend was forecast to be the wettest and windiest of the year, and even saw 1500 hardman mountain marathoners evacuated from the area by helicopter, I think it was incredibly public spirited of her!
My new home presented itself well, with a rather fabulous olde worlde railway station but friday night in dowtown Hebden was disappointly bereft of AP’s who appeared to have been replaced by spirit swigging teenagers – my favourite variety.
I’d planned an early start for our Saturday morning hike through the hurricane, but at 11am we were still struggling to swallow the locally sourced alpaca sausage that came bundled with the hotel room. I’d like to blame my sleep loving companion for the late start but I might have delayed the proceedings a little bit by leaving the walking guide hidden under the discarded and pre-requisite guardian on the Leeds train.
We got a map, which promptly disintegrated in the downpour and headed off with the plan to stick to the right handside of the river. A cunning plan, almost immediately rejected as we found ourself on a path, flanked on our right by a raging torrent and a strangely spotty youf holding a bottle of empty red wine. I thought he had puss coming out of his pores but apparently he’d just stuck his head in the river. A tick in the box for staying in London methinks!
The walk was random, preciptous and extraordinarily muddy but I enjoyed it immensely. My enjoyment always seems to be enhanced by adverse conditions. Seeing other walkers approaching me with a hang dog, god isn’t this awful expression, always makes me smile, and I think Lynn may have been cast in a similar mould.
Here’s Lynn, striding off in the wrong direction – in fairness the visibilty was somewhat impaired.
6 miles later we were sitting in the local cream tea house, being served by some of the local sullen teenagers – “What dya wan?!”
It’s a strange accent and in the mouths hungover teenagers it doesn’t go so well with the concept of “customer service”. Another tick in the box for London I’m afraid.
In order to swing the balance in favour of Hebden Bridge the hotel decided to throw a lesbian disco in our honour and although we did our best to miss most of it, we caught the tail end and were introduced to the hip and happening alternative practioners from the North Yorkshire vicinity. I have to say it was an eye-opener. My fashion sense clearly needs an overhaul if I ever hope to fit in, but I was pleased to discover that they still play the tunes from my early years at women only discos. 4 non blondes most definitely needs to stage a come back on my running playlist!
My dreams may have been shattered this weekend, but I’m not bitter. It ranks as one of the best weekends of the year and has given me a new found passion for running in wet and boggy conditions. I’ll be spending this weekend searching for good ole London mud and hills.
Boarding the buss to Leukerbad I was filled with dread and I’m sure if I’d been on my own I would have got off and changed my destination pretty smartish. I really wondered what we were letting ourselves in for, our travelling companions reminded me of the village from A League of Gentlemen. I imagined a village so isolated that inbreeding was the norm.
Anyway I’m glad we did continue, it seems that this sort of spa town attracts those in need of healing – must be the same at Lourdes. I’ve never seen so many wheelchairs and crutches in one high street, I have also never been in such a lively and uninhibited town. Sitting in a bar playing umpah pah music there was no end of people prepared to entertain with impromptu dancing.
Simple inclusive fun that made me feel ashamed to spend so much time finding my body ugly.
We need to correct the first misnomer – this is no express train! 8 hours long is what I call an endurance feat and not a pleasure trip. Can’t say I saw any glaciers either but perhaps I should let that pass.
The trip between St Moritz and Chur was beautiful, it was the stretch with the famous LandWasser viaduct but we had covered it the day before on the ordinary train – no need for a surcharge. The remaining 6 hrs of the journey was your typical swiss fare – mountains, valleys and forests – you see it all the time and I’m not sure I would advise doing it all in one go. Save yourself some money and pick and choose routes on the standard network.
To give you an idea of how we enjoyed the trip, Shakti occupied the last 5 hours dreaming up dramatic suicide attempts in order to escape the monotony and when she found herself locked in the toilet for 1/2 an hour I didn’t even consider launching a search party.
Our Swiss trip involved a whirlwind tour of the southern half of the country. We had invested ?140 in a swiss pass each and so had to make the most of it with daily rail trips.
We started in Geneva and moved directly to Interlaken, then on to Luzern, St Moritz and via the Glacier Express to Zermatt. Finally we spent two days luxuriating in the spa’s at Leukerbad heading back to Geneva.
Even in the off-season (and May is certainly off season with towns such as St Moritz almost entirely closed) Switzerland can be described as incredibly expensive. We ended resorting to Youth Hostels as the only affordable accomodation option – a typical price for including evening meals would be 60CHF or about ?30.
The standard of the Swiss Youth Hostel was exceptionally good, we found them to be clean, friendly and very good value.
We stayed at the Interlaken Youth Hostel which is actually in Beningen, about a 20 min walk along the river after turning right out of Interlaken Ost staion. It was a very friendly hotel and it offered a bbq on our first night.
In Luzern we opted to stay at the Tourist Hotel as it was more centrally located than the YH and only slightly more expensive at 49CHF without dinner. This was a fine place too – clean and with a great view directly over the massive river running through the town.
The Youth Hostel at St Moritz was also run to a high standard. Our double room was large an easily on a par with many hotel rooms. The dinner was pretty filling although a massive bratwurst and polenta is not exactly inspiring. Our stay in St Moritz was marred by the fact that it pissed it down for a solid 24 hours and the whole town was shut down for a month. Fortunately we were able to bring forward our reservation on the Glacier Express. and leave the town a day early.
Zermatt was a great town, arriving at 6pm it was a joy to see that the town was living and full of people in contrast to the geschlossen St Moritz. The Youth Hostel here was the best, it must have been recently renovated with beautiful slate tiles – spotless and welcoming. We opted for a small twin room with bunk beds. It was the smallest room so far but very comfortable and we had a clear view of the matterhorn from our window. Most hotels charge a significant premium for that privilige. Again dinner was included and it was fresh and filling as usual. I will definately be heading back to this hostel and town when we come back on the main bike tour.
September 30, 2004 at 9:59 am · Filed under Travel
Ischia is a small island off the Amalfi coast. We reached it by ferry from Naples and later moved on by ferry to the glitzy island of Capri. There isn’t much to visually excite you about Ischia, it is just a lump of rock populated by folk and their boats. The interest lies in the geological activity that has left this place an oasis of thermal spas.
Accomodation anywhere around Amalfi is expensive so we decided to travel to the opposite end of the island to use the Youth Hostel near Forio. This was a fairly grim affair but passable and cheap.
A short walk from the hostel, along the beach, lies the Poseidon Spa. What a fantastic place this is. It is a sprawling affair with tonnes of pools all at different temperatures, some at sea level and others cut into the side of the rock face.
There are dingy saunas within caves and the original japanes foot baths left over from the war. These are great for the feet if you can stand the pain. You walk around hot and cold tubs covered with loose pebbles.
This is definately a spa to recommend, there are restaurants, cafes and treatment rooms as well so it very easy to while away a whole day. With cheap flights into Naples I would definately like to go back here for a relaxing weekend break.
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention to arrive safely in a pretty and well-preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming: Wow!! What a ride!
