Let's see, if I remember correctly, I don't think I've even mentioned that I have a husband back at home. Not that you didn't already know, but I DO! Taylor FINALLY made it home on Thursday Jan 20th...after being stuck for 4 days at Ramstein Air Base in Germany! We have determined that the two of us are bad luck for traveling...but I guess it hasn't slowed us down too terribly much! So needless to say I am very happy to have him here and I believe he is equally as happy to finally be back home. Although I am currently writing this on Saturday afternoon and he has been at work today since 430am...so maybe I shouldn't speak for him. No, but really, he is happy to be back :). His mandatory leave just finished on Thursday, so it's back to work as usual for him!
But before work began we managed to get in a ski trip to Switzerland. Had to try out all the new birthday and Christmas toys!! I took a few trips to the post office as all the toys were arriving. The car rack, jackets, and of course Taylor's skis...again. Thankfully this pair has already made it through two ski trips...more than his first pair managed!!! But that's a whole other story that I'm sure I posted about last year...maybe around March! :) Anyway, Taylor put the new ski rack on the car, we pulled out our ski clothes, and got the skis all ready to try out for the first time. We loaded up the Volvo and headed up to Switzerland on Sunday morning. It was an easy 7 hour drive, mostly all on the Autostrada and arrived in Grindelwald around sundown that evening. We got checked into our 110 year old hotel and walked into town to explore and find dinner.
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| Our hotel the Gletschergarten. |
The town was a cute ski town with little shops and restaurants scattered through out. We found the food included lots of Italian as well as a bit of German. The country has four National languages: Italian, French, German, and Romansh. All official documents are printed in all languages and the currency includes all four languages printed on every piece. The Swiss Franc is pretty much equal to the dollar. Sadly the good exchange rate doesn't help much when the items for sale cost 4 or 5 times as much as normally expected! This was seriously the most unbelievable expensive place we have ever been!! That was our only complaint of the trip was the price! But I'll mention more as we go along!
We got up on Monday morning to head to the slopes. Our hotel was one bus stop away from the Gondola to take us to the mountain. We were skiing in the Jungfrau mountain region of Switzerland. We spent the whole day skiing and exploring the area. And loved it! It was great skiing and a beautifully sunny day. So gorgeous!!
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| The ski parking lot...stopping for lunch :) |
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| The slopes. |
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| The sky was such a gorgeous deep blue. We don't see that color often in Aviano due to frequent haze around the mountains. I loved it! |
We stopped in the afternoon to have a meal expensive enough to drain your bank account. Good thing it was delicious! Lasagna, a cheeseburger, tap water, a beer and a Coke for 65 dollars!
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| At lunch on the slopes. |
We finished the day worn out. Came back to the hotel and I challenged Taylor to a few games of Ping Pong. And by a few I mean about 30...and I beat him every single time. (Here is one of the perks of being the writer of the blog...I have to rely on my recollection of events. And in my mind, I'm pretty sure that's how it went...30 straight games of W's :)
Anyway, we got up Tuesday morning and headed to a different ski area in town. It was much larger and it contained the highest point in Europe at the top of the mountain. We had a second day of gorgeous skiing and bright sunshine!
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| On the gondloa ride up to the slopes. Longest gondola in Europe, apparently. The ride was a good 30-40 minutes! |
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| If you check out behind me, there is a helicopter flying. We quickly realized there was a snow landing pad and plane runway to the side of the slopes! |
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| The helicopter landing on the snow next to the slopes. |
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| And a small little plane taking off on the runway! |
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| And flying off into the mountains! |
You could ski to a train stop on the top of the mountain to catch a train to the highest point in Europe. We thought this would be really cool, especially on a gorgeous day. Maybe a once in a lifetime thing, so we should probably do it. So we map our route through lifts and runs to the train station on the slopes. We arrive and I ask the conductor how much it will cost for a ticket to ascend the final 1000 feet to the top of Europe. "It will be 111 Francs per person, maam." WHHAAT? Whoa. So our smart financial decision was to settle for another 65 dollar lunch and enjoy the views from the balcony of the restaurant. But I guess we can claim that we were 1000 feet and 222 dollars away from the top of Europe, and that's as close as we'll probably ever be! Oh well!
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| There you have it, the top of Europe, people! |
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| My 22 dlooar plate of loaded hashbrowns...with an egg. And if you really look closesly, you can see our 9 dollar side of fries! AH. Crazy prices! |
But it was another great day of skiing even though the sun made the slopes a bit icy by late afternoon. We made our final run from the middle of the mountain all the way back down to town at the base of the gondola...it took us a good 30-40 minutes skiing at a pretty good speed with no stops. Except to take this picture on the way down!
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| The view of town from the base of the slopes. |
Once down from the slopes we headed into town and ate at my favorite restaurant we found. It was a cute, cozy little cabin we passed every night and it had about 10 tables downstairs and then a small little loft above the restaurant with one table, which is where Taylor and I ate dinner!
And after another night of Ping Pong...where I'm just sure I probably beat Taylor for another 30 straight games...we finally had to get up Wednesday morning to head back to Italy.
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| Taylor scraping our car in the morning to head out. With all his toys on the car, skis, and ski rack. Thank you family for all the gifts...they are for sure being used!!! |
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And we saw this church on the drive up and thought it was so cool, so we had to stop on the way home to get a picture. That's all...nothing too significant :)
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And that concludes our wonderful trip to Switzerland!! Here is a link to my Facebook Album from the trip...there are a few extra photos in there if anyone is interested in checking it out!
