Until my working circumstances changed, and I became a man of leisure, I was bound despite not having any children of school age to the school holidays for going on holiday. The shoulder season was unheard of and unchartered territory for going away. My wife, shackled to school holidays by dint of being a teacher is also similarly non-plussed. She now counts the number of Semesterferien left until retirement. We’ve tried to dodge going away at the this time of year, as when we have, the lurgy sets in and we pay full board to be ill in a hotel bed because they won’t let us cancel our accommodation. The motorail routes are also, if operating, booked out far in advance and we prefer to have a longer summer break than bankrupting ourselves by mid-February in search of snow.

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