Samnaun

There are two roads up the valley to the collection of little Swiss villages that is Samnaun. The old road goes up the Swiss side of the valley and features three very small, unlit tunnels. A sign at the bottom of the road indicates a maximum height limit of 3.0 m, width 2.3 m, length 10 m and weight 10 t. Baloo fails on all four counts so we needed the newer road on the Austrian side of the valley. Because of Covid, popping in and out of Switzerland is not the trivial task it used to be. Fortunately they have a system. Once we explained where we were going to the Austrian border guards they gave us a piece of paper that, 12km further up the road, we gave to the border guards as we returned to Switzerland.

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That sorted, we settled into the duty free enclave of Samnaun. The place boasts 50 duty free shops. This may well be true but the difficulty is buying ordinary food like carrots. Pretty much every shop can sell you vodka, cigarettes, chocolate and perfume. Potatoes are a much more difficult. In fact, there is just a single general grocery store about 4km down the valley from the campsite. The bakery is much closer. They sell cigarettes and vodka along with bread but also have locally produced eggs, butter and cheese. The eggs are the largest hens’ eggs I have ever seen.

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In a normal year, the ski area links with the Austrian Ischgl area. Unfortunately Ischgl was the location of one of the big super spreader Coronavirus events last year. Thousands of people headed home from the bars, restaurants, night clubs and other après ski venues carrying the virus with them. Now the place is very firmly shut down. Completely. Ski lifts and everything. So Samnaun is a much quieter place than normal. There are a few visitors, mostly Germans in motorhomes. A few hotels are open. Bars, restaurants and other indoor venues are closed. Fortunately the ski lifts are open. The skiable area is much reduced but still ample for a good day’s skiing. The slopes are very quiet. No lift queues. On powder days there are plenty of fresh places to go round.

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The campsite or wohnmobilplatz, is just for campervans. There is probably space here for 25 or more vehicles but today there are just 5. We have electricity, water and somewhere to empty our tanks. That is all we need really. There are showers and a toilet block but we don’t use them. We are at the end of a valley so it is very quiet. No through traffic in fact hardly any traffic at all.

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I’ve been enjoying some skiing. Diane’s knee is still getting better. She can walk quite well now but skiing for this year is probably out. We have been exploring the local area. I did a couple of trips on my touring skis. We got the snow shoes out and walked up a small but very pretty valley. No idea where we will go next. Europe is still locked down for the most part so just now Switzerland continues to look like our best option.