Swissmas

SWISSMAS

This entry, particularly coming on the back of my last one, will be mercifully brief (at least comparitively) I assure you, primarily because the week we had in Switzerland over Christmas was not all that eventful. Perfect in every sense and the greatest week of the entire trip, if not my life, but nonetheless fairly uneventful so far as quirky or interesting stories are concerned. Furthermore, the few people who may still be reading have probably all been to Europe at some stage and I doubt that I would be shedding any new light by documenting my feeble observations of the continent.

It was often hard to keep your eyes on the slopes while skiing...

Basically the place, being Switzerland, is perfect. After a month of chaos in the sub-continent, it was quite surreal to arrive in Zurich airport, all shiny and sanitized, like the set of one of those futuristic society films. I was still in a bit of daze after not sleeping much during the previous 72 hours but this was Switzerland and they've pretty much taken the thinking out of doing anything, it just seems to happen. I knew that I needed to get to Wengen, a ski resort town at the foot of the Eiger and Jungfrau mountains, but other than that I was a lost child. Somehow in my zombie like state however, I followed the signs to the train station downstairs, was given a ticket (by a woman who was fluent in at least 4 languages) with an accompanying instructions printout directing me step by step to Wengen, and then I found myself on the comfiest and fastest damn train I've ever been on in my life, which left at the exact time that it said it would. Oh, and I was also $80 lighter, the phenomenal cost of public transport being another interesting but slightly less welcome discovery of Switzerland's many attributes.

The town of Wengen.

Two hours later, I was in heaven. Was met by Tim, Jonno Samson and John "Racket" Fitzgerald (all ex-cromwell boys), at the Wengen cograil station and taken to our humble abode, a frickin chalet with all the trimmings. I tell you it was like walking through Narnia, all snow on the pine tree branches and sloped rooves, with majestic snow-capped mountains all around us. Basically just snow everywhere. Stunning.

The crew...

Had a great crew in our large house that week, Pat of course was there and the full complement of 10 was completed by Jeanette (Jonno's wife), Marielle (Racket's wife-to-be...?), Linda, Jen and Pascalle. A fantastic addition to this was the fact that Pat's parents, James and Kathy, arguably the coolest parents you'd be lucky enough to meet (apart from my own of course, got to keep my number one fans and only regular readers happy....), were staying in a resort just up the hill. The company of others on top of Pat and Tim was a most welcome addition and really made for a special week.

Me, Pat, Kathy, Jim (Pat's parents) and Tim hitting the slopes.

Was a dream fulfilled to finally have a proper white Christmas, and it lived up to all expectations. Enjoyed a fabulous roast turkey lunch provided by our resident culinary experts (many thanks to Jonno, Marielle, Kathy, Jeanette, Pas, Linda, Jen - everyone pretty much except the boys- being the primary contributors all week) and followed it up with a monster present giving session where I no doubt took out the award for most impractical, useless and unappreciated presents with my leopard print underwear for Racket (from India), a red rope hammock for Jonno and Jeanette (also from India), and "Tiger Eyes", a ladies deodorant endorsed by Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan, again for Racket (again from India. I thought it was for men). It was then time for another impromptu singalong (put it away....) which I at least found a whole lot of fun, before sitting around watching movies, eating chocolate, playing trivia etc. Basically heaven.

The view from our window (above) and the view from Pat's and my loft (below). Very cosy.

From then on everyday was pretty monotonous really, you know, just getting up each morning and skiing in the Swiss alps all day before then coming down to enjoy a fabulous meal provided by the aforementioned inhouse chefs all washed down by some fine 12 year old single malt whiskey. Ho hum.

The massive gondala (above) that took us up the mountain each day and presented us with the view below. Magic.

The skiing was obviously fabulous even for one such as I with my vast experience of both front and happy valleys in Perisher Blue. A nice change indeed to have runs lasting longer than a few minutes, some of the runs even ran all the way from the top of a mountain all the way down to the bottom and required you to catch a train back to start another run. One of these, the Eiger run, was great fun to ski down with Jonno on the toboggan who could at least keep up the skiiers, unlike those slowpoke snowboarders. Best thing however was being able to ski all the way down to our door at the end of the day.

The famous south face of the Eiger (a notoriously difficult climb) and below, a very sad day as we departed our shangri la.

Alas, our heavenly and all things considered, affordable sojourn in the Swiss Alps had to come to an end as all good things do. After seven wonderful days we said goodbye to our chalet and Jim and Kathy, and headed back to Zurich for our flight to Berlin in time for New Year's under the Brandenburg Gate.

Some views of beautiful Lausanne including the 750 year old bridge below.

Had a nice little stop in Lausanne on the way, but even the prospect of a few days in a history geek's dream city of Berlin couldn't remove that little ache in my stomach that longed to be back in that winter wonderland. A cheeseburger from my beloved Mickey D's in Lausanne helped a little but it's still there and I imagine it shall remain for quite some time...

The famous lion commemorating the death of numerous Swiss Guards in the service of the French royal family during the French Revolution. I believe this event marked the beginning of Swiss neutrality. Below is just another typically beautiful shot of a Swiss village we passed.