The countdown is on...

October 8, 2021

Yay, there's a new ADVENTURE blog again. Some of you might already know my adventure blogs.

Take a look at our adventurous family trips to Australia (journey through 4 climate zones), South Africa (with Zambia and Zimbabwe, including Victoria Falls), Azores (4 islands - traveled during Corona 2020) and finally our unplanned Maldives trip (Thulhagiri Island) this summer.

Once again, our vacation plans have been disrupted this fall - thanks to Corona. We're already used to it by now.

Just this summer, our planned trip to Portugal fell victim to the 'virus variant' and had to be canceled. We would have had a great vacation, but then we weren't really unhappy with our 'alternative program' - 2 weeks in the Maldives on the small island of Thulhagiri 😇🤭

Normally, we would go to Abu Dhabi / Dubai every fall, where members of our family live. Unfortunately, due to the strict Corona rules in Abu Dhabi, a vacation is not possible for us this fall. While Germany is still debating the 2G and 3G rules, Abu Dhabi has the 1G rule: if you want to visit museums, malls, restaurants, water parks, amusement parks, etc., you MUST BE VACCINATED! 😱🥴🙈

Our children are (still) not vaccinated, so we unfortunately have almost no options on site to do anything. In addition, there are regular PCR tests, which are also mandatory for vaccinated people 🥴 .... and we're not really excited about that.

So we reluctantly decided against the Abu Dhabi trip and have to postpone our godchildren to next year (last year we couldn't go there thanks to Corona either 😢)

So I asked the family what they would like to do as an alternative to Abu Dhabi during the autumn holidays:

Son: 'Drive through Canada with the camper and go hiking!'

Daughter: 'Horses - riding - anywhere, as long as it's horseback riding!'

Husband: 'Skiing would be cool again, I'm totally up for it!'

Hmm..... another flying vacation was out of the question, many places are considered unsafe due to Corona or you would have to be vaccinated, unfortunately there were no more bargains to be had in the Maldives (visiting the Maldives twice within 3 months would have been quite decadent🤭), so we had to go somewhere we could reach by car..... 🥴

Last year, we briefly considered going to South Tyrol / Merano and visiting friends there. Due to the situation in Italy last year, we found it 'too hot', but why not go this fall!?

After a short internet search, we found a nice vacation apartment in Hafling on a riding farm. Since traveling through Canada by camper is currently not possible, I can fulfill my son's hiking wish, because you can hike around Hafling / Meran2000!

Now we just need to fulfill my husband's wish - and we can do that too: the Schnalstal Glacier is small but nice, and it's already open for skiers from mid-September.

Perfect, so after the horseback riding and hiking week, we'll spend a few days skiing on the glacier. And not just anywhere - no!

We booked a few days at the Glacier Hotel Glacier Grawand - at 3,200m - that alone will be a highlight, no matter what the weather is like!!!

This evening at 10:30 p.m. we finally finished packing the car. A masterful feat à la Tetris. In the end, all 4 suitcases, skis, ski boots, pillows, and various backpacks + lunch boxes actually found a place in our Focus.

Now off to bed - the alarm will ring at 4 a.m. - it will be a short night!