Tranquil moments on the shores of Lake Lugano in the canton of Ticino, Switzerland.
Hello lovely travelers! If you’ve been thinking about traveling to Europe as much as I have recently, then you’re feeling REALLY anxious right now. Several of you reached out to me in recent weeks wondering when we’ll be able to head back to Europe for hiking in the Alps, visiting a castle in Scotland, and/or sitting down to a delicious dinner in France. The simple answer is that it’s still not possible, or advisable, for non-Europeans to visit Europe for touristic purposes at this time. Let’s dive in and see what’s going on in Europe this week.
Europe is pretty much locked down to foreign tourists. There are various exceptions, but in general, traveling to Europe for pleasure is a no-go for the immediate future. In the UK, the national government is currently enforcing a national lock down in an effort to curb the transmission of COVID-19. In Switzerland, vaccinations are under way, but a raft of measures passed in January have closed non-essential businesses, public and private parties are reduced to 5 people, and most workers across the country are required to telecommute from home. In France, a mandatory curfew has residents resting chez eux each night from 06:00 pm to 06:00 am. Some shops and public services remain open in France, but restaurants and bars are fermé. In Germany, restrictions are tight. There are all sorts of rules applying to travel, and it is currently verboten for accommodation providers to offer overnight accommodation for tourism purposes. The German government, along with Austria, also made N95 surgical masks mandatory on all public transport and in stores. No cloth masks allowed! In the Netherlands, riots recently broke out over curfews. In Italy, the prime minister resigned this week as the COVID-19 response split the coalition government. That’s just a peek into the Europe travel scene at the moment. It’s not exactly conducive for sipping a café and feeling romantic in a French bistro.
What about 2021 summer travel?
It’s a toss up. We’ve actually been quite busy lately. We have guests signed up for fall hiking in the Swiss Alps, and we’ve been writing proposals for custom trips for all times of the year. In short, we all have our fingers crossed, and everybody understands that we just have to wait and see how events unfold. I’m not terribly optimistic about summer travel, but looking at the data and the predictive math, I think it’s slightly possible that we’ll be traveling to Europe by the fall of 2021. I’m hopeful. That said, we humans really have to come together to beat this pandemic. The realist in me believes that we probably won’t seriously consider travel in Europe until the spring of 2022. I hope I’m wrong and we get through this earlier. This is an exercise in patience! Rest assured, you’ll be the first to know when we have the green light. The most important thing is that we get through this safely. I’m looking forward to traveling with all of you for many years to come.
Know this. The travel situation is not all gloom and doom. Time passes quickly, and we’ll be sipping Apfelschorle in the Italian Dolomites before we know it! In the meantime, here are some interesting things going on in Europe this year.
The Lion Monument in Luzern celebrates 200 Years
The Dying Lion Monument (Löwendenkmal) in Luzern honors the Swiss Guards who lost their lives during the French Revolution. The monument is 200 years old in 2021.
The Lion Monument (Löwendenkmal) in Luzern commemorates the Swiss Guards who lost their lives during the storming of the French King’s Tuileries palace by French Revolutionaries on August 10, 1792. A surviving Swiss Guard officer named Carl Pfyffer von Altishofen from Luzern brought the monument to fruition, and a Danish sculptor named Bertel Thorvaldsen developed the design. Sculptors carved the image of the dying lion directly into the sand stone wall of a former quarry and inaugurated the monument on August 10, 1821. Please do visit the Lion Monument the next time you’re in Luzern. The monument is an easy 10 minute walk from the famous Chapel Bridge in downtown Luzern, or a quick 7 minute ride by bus.
The New Ceneri Base Tunnel Makes Alpine Travel Crazy Fast
Montebello Castle is one of three historic castles in Bellinzona and a UNSESCO World Heritage Site. Travel between Zürich and Bellinzona is less than two hours thanks to the new Ceneri Base Tunnel. The travel between Lugano and Bellinzona is just 15 minutes.
The Ceneri Base Tunnel opened for regular service on December 13, 2020. The travel between Zürich and Lugano now takes less than two hours! Yes, you really can have your Zürcher Geschnetzeltes for lunch and your Risotto Ticinese for dinner too. What’s more, the journey from Zürich to Milan, Italy is a brisk 3 hours and 17 minutes. (Three hours is the eventual goal.)
But wait, there’s more! The Bellinzona-Locarno-Lugano triangle also experienced a quantum leap in transport efficiency. Thanks to new routes and state-of-the art trains, the travel time between Lugano and Locarno has been reduced to 30 minutes. The journey between Bellinzona and Lugano is just…wait for it…15 minutes! Put the castles of Bellinzona on your bucket list the next time you visit Ticino. The Bellinzona castles are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and worth exploring.
Fun Times (and Good Reads) at Leakey’s Bookshop
Leakey’s is one of my favorite secondhand book shops in Scotland, and I make it a point to stop in whenever I visit Inverness. Housed in an old Gaelic church dating to 1793, Leakey’s boasts 100,000 selected volumes collected over 40 years. A crackling wood fire keeps the place cozy on chilly days, and the wonderful staff are happy to help you find a good book on nearly any subject. New for this year: The Leakey’s staff proudly announce that they’ve alphabetized the entire crime, thriller, sci-fi, fantasy and popular fiction sections. The days of combing through the whole stack to find the author you’re looking for are over! Personally, I enjoyed the journey and sense of discovery involved with scanning the entire stack. However, the faster you find the book you’re looking for the sooner you can pour yourself a Real Ale and lose yourself in a great story. Awesome job Leakey’s. I can’t wait to dive into those stacks!
That’s all for this week. Do you have any questions about traveling in Europe? Dreaming about hiking in the Alps? This is the perfect time to plan. Please give us a shout.
