The morning mist still sticks like cotton candy to the wooded slopes of Piz Mezdi, while the rising sun bathes Lake St. Moritz in warm, soft light and creates a touch of melancholy in me. Are you actually happy or rather sad if you have to delete a part of your bucket list? Badrutt´s Palace in St. Moritz is a living legend that has enchanted generations of travellers and yet sits timelessly enthroned above the greenish shimmering lake.
After the ascent to Ballstadheia I already weighed myself on the climax of my Lofoten trip, the panoramic view over the fjord landscape around Leknes was so unique that I almost ran out of letters. But today’s 120 kilometres from Svolvær to Reine should eclipse everything that has existed so far. I was served a picture-book summer’s day, which occasionally raises the thermometer to a record-breaking 19 degrees. I’m even about to apply sunscreen and for the first time I’m really happy to have chosen the low season from May to mid-June as travel time, because there’s not much going on on the streets, in the few cafés and restaurants and in the accommodations. In midsummer you will certainly need elbows and lots of luck and patience due to the limited availability.
Even the flight to Tromsø in early summer resembles an Arctic acclimatisation. While Lufthansa just gave me a „downgrade“ of -10 degrees Celsius on my way from Munich to Oslo, SAS added a shovel on the following 1,200 flight kilometres and adjusted the air conditioning to the outside temperature, so that I finally reached the rain-wet taxiway of Tromsø with only 6 degrees Celsius.
From capital to capital – from an abandoned parking deck in Berlin Wedding directly into the secret garden of the Draycott Hotel in Chelsea London. The day could not have taken a greater turn when I think of the recent hectic moments at the film set for my client´s new spot and compare it to the peaceful atmosphere at one of London’s finest private parks. And the best thing is that I’m in the middle of the beautiful district of Chelsea and the fine shopping streets, restaurants and galleries around Sloane Square are just a sneaker tip away.
The day kicks off early with a lost Olympic final in ice hockey and if this sudden death after overtime wasn´t pain enough, the next blow follows immediately. Without warning, I slip on the glassy cobblestones of Riddarholmen and can be happy that my fall was completely unobserved. But maybe I should check on YouTube later?! The -11 degrees stun on the spot and I drag myself to the beautiful vantage point, the Evert Taubes Terrass, where the panoramic view extends from Södermalm to the striking Stadshuset.
You are in Sweden, when the singing national monument ABBA welcomes you at the airport with an original performance of Fernando. It is already night in Stockholm and a clear starry sky watches over the snow-covered streets of Gamla Stan, the old town and nucleus that lies like a mini-island between the north of Norrmalm and the hip Södermalm.
The climate change has now taken even the snow-spoiled city of Aspen in its lukewarm headlock. The high plateau of a stately 2,600 meters is wetted only with a slight layer of sugar and the four magnificent ski resorts Snowmass, Buttermilk, Highlands and Aspen Mountain have melted down to half.
Vail or Aspen? Not an easy question, as both resorts belong to the Champions League of the Alpine circus and were the venue for numerous World Ski Championships, like Vail in 2015. The photograph of star guest Felix Neureuther still adorns the ancestral gallery in the Sonnenalp Hotel which belongs to the German Faessler family for 5 generations.
The E-car drives silently through the narrow streets of the Christmas decorated Zermatt, before it disappears without warning in an underground bat cave. The driver opens the passenger door without a word, takes discreetly care of the luggage and already picks up the lift. „You are expected“. Not more, not less. Barely noticeable, we glide upwards, below us now only the colorful lights of the 1,610-meter-high Matterhorn village.
„Due to the bad weather conditions, we´re unable to take all your luggage with us. It will come with a later machine“. So far, the narrow-lined announcement by a staff member of Precision Air in the quite dilapidated departure area of the airport of Arusha.
With a somewhat queasy feeling I climb into the propeller machine, reckon with the worst, but land quite gently in a paradise with the magic name Zanzibar.
