Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope everyone has a great Valentine’s Day! It’s another snowy day here in Switzerland. We went into the internet café and had a nice soup lunch. They had flowers for sale, so Mike bought a yellow rose for Abby and a red rose for Amy (and a heart cookie for Austin). We’ve had a couple of great days of skiing and are taking today to rest. Here is our updates from the last couple of days.

Skiing in the Swiss Alps:

The skiing here is different than what we are used to back in the States. We were told it would be, but you have to experience it to believe it. First of all, if you are used to Spring Break skiing than you have never attempted to ski in weather like this. (winter) The temperature hasn’t really been a factor (although its been below zero Celsius every day) , it’s been the amount of snow falling. We are definitely more used to skiing in beautiful sunshine. It has snowed everyday this week and a lot. The mountains are bigger than any mountains we’ve ever seen. Since we are staying in the valley, we first have to take a train or cable car to get to the mountain base. Then in order to get to the slopes, you either have to take another cable car or ski lift up the mountain. The cable cars travel up into the snow and fog. At times, you can’t even see the ground or anything else around you, but clouds. We have also experienced some of the slopes not being fully groomed. Mike and Abby got caught with snow up to Abby’s waist one time.

February 9th --We got up early this morning in order to catch the bus, the train and then the bus to get the kids to ski school in Grindelwald on time. We arrived on time and got them checked in. Abby & Austin were in an English speaking class although the other kids were European. The class was a 2 hour starter class that Mike had to assist the whole time. The instructor, David, was a little overwhelmed with 5 kids under the age of 5. Also, Austin really wanted someone around him at all times. The class really just got them both used to being on skis. By the time the 2 hours was up, they were both a little tired and hungry. We found a spot to have lunch, and then skied a little bit more. It was a little rough at the beginning, but we finally got going with the kids skiing between our legs. I’m pretty sure that Mike and I were more tired than they were by the end of the day.

February 11th --We headed to Murren (to 5361 feet) by bus and cable cars to do some skiing. It was snowing pretty hard (but as we know now it was nothing like what was to come the next day). Mike and I had to buy goggles today, the kids already had some. We rode up the chair lift and it was probably an aggressive decision with the kids. It took us about 4 hours to get down with a 30 minute break for hot chocolate in between. The kids were troopers, but they definitely had their moments. After getting back to the chalet, we looked in to a more appropriate place to take the kids and found an area at Wengen.

February 12th --We headed to Wengen (to 4160 feet) by bus and train to do some skiing. It definitely had a great kids ski area. We should have started here at the beginning of the week, but you live and learn. It had a small slope with a moving walkway lift. It took the kids a little bit to get over their previous experience, but once they did, they loved it. Abby picked it up fairly quickly. She could go side to side and snow plow. If she fell, she could get herself back up. Austin was more of a “point your skis down hill, go fast and fall on your back at the end” kind of skier. He’s a little young to really understand the directions, but no fear for him. Today was the first day we really experienced a blizzard and apparently that doesn’t stop anyone from skiing around here. We had put the kids in a drop-off daycare for a couple of hours so Mike and I could go skiing. We took the cable car up the mountain (to 7317 feet), but when we got to the top, it was a white out. You could barely even see your hand in front of you. We were bundled up (you couldn’t see a bit of skin) and put our ski’s on. The whole time I was thinking “this is insane!” Well, we took off down one hill to a sign to try to figure out what direction we were supposed to go. It was snowing so hard, you couldn’t really tell how steep or in which direction to go. Mike headed the easy slope way, I think anyway. All of a sudden, I got all dizzy and disoriented from “all the white”. I yelled down to him “you go ahead!” I popped my skis off and headed back up the mountain the same direction I had just come from. I prayed that he would be safe and that I would see him again. I got back on the cable car and headed back down. While I was on there, I was talking to a man from Zurich. His family has skied here a lot and he confirmed that the conditions were very rough to ski in. Mike later admitted that if he hadn’t already committed, he probably would have joined me. (Here is Mike telling his story) I headed down the mountain and had no idea where I was going. At times, I couldn’t tell if I was moving or standing still because the wind and snow were blowing so hard. It was a very scary feeling not being able to see where you are going and being disoriented by seeing nothing but solid white wherever you looked. I found a ski lift and used it as my directional guide. Luckily, the run wasn’t all that difficult except for 0 visibility and thick powder. I rode back up on a ski lift and actually decided to do it one more time (wanted to get my money’s worth). It was easier for me the 2nd time because I had a feel for where I was going. I then rode the cable car back down and that’s where Amy and I met back up. The kids wanted to ski a little bit more after we picked them up so we did. They are loving it! (back to Amy).

February 13th -- Today was an excellent skiing day. The weather was beautiful and sunny! We decided to go back to Wengen since they had such a great kids village. We all skied around the kids area until about 2:30 with a short “picnic lunch” break. Abby really liked the area because it had some moguls or “bumps” as she called them. There was also a rope pull that took you a little higher up. Since the weather was so wonderful, at 2:30, we decided to put the kids back in the daycare so Mike and I could attempt to go skiing together again. We went back up the cable car and this time the weather was a lot more cooperative. We were amazed at the view up top…totally couldn’t see any of it the day before. It was absolutely beautiful! We made a few runs down and it was a lot of fun. Mike wanted to do a longer run so I told him to go on and I would go get the kids. He met us back in the kids area. We basically closed the ski area down, skiing until almost 5:30 since it was our last day. We turned our skis in and decided to eat dinner in the nice Wengen village. We found a pizzeria that had excellent food. It’s funny…we’ve eaten more Italian food here. By the time we get to Italy, we will probably be sick of it (probably not!). Everybody, but me had pizza. I tried something more local, the goulash soup. It was wonderful, very similar to a version of stew.