More Snow

We have snow again. And by snow I mean 2 1/2 feet of powdery wonderful. Last night I spent an hour sledding down a hill with the Juliette Low Seminar participants. Some of them had never seen snow before much less played in it. And I realized that although we spoke different languages and had completely different backgrounds, giggling is universal. And we did a lot of it.

Tonight I went to the local hockey game. It was outdoors and the snow was coming down so thick you could hardly see. And it was wonderful. I had a kaffee fertig (coffee finished or coffee with schnapps in it, which to the swiss means "it's done") and yelled along with the crowd. The only cheer I retained was "hopp Adelboden" which means go Adelboden. They had a band that consisted of giant cowbells and drums. And just because they had drums didn't mean they had rhythm. But it was a great time had by all. And Adelboden is magical in the snow. It's your ideally picturesque Christmas destination! I think I'll miss it when I'm gone. But what a wonderful reason to return one day.

OOO OOO I found pictures of the hockey game. Here they are :)!

Jungfraujoch: The Top of Europe (Although not really.)

I've been wanting to go to Jungfraujoch for a while now. It's said to be the "Top of Europe." It's not the tallest mountain by any means, but perhaps it's one of the tallest with a tourist trap on top?

It just so happened that Jen and Kat had the day off yesterday too, and Laura wanted to see Jungfraujoch before departing to the US, so we all went as a group to see the "Top of Europe" (you have to say it loud and pretend there's an echo).

We had 4 or 5 connections on the train ride there and it was a bit exhausting. Not to mention that we were all exhausted from the Juliette Low Seminar currently going on. 54 young ladies from 54 different countries with 3 meals, two breaks, and evening programs equals 13 nonstop hours per work day. Woo hoo!



We had a short wait in Spiez and this was the view. An absolutely beautiful day. Cold, but clear.


One train we caught had little compartments like the Harry Potter trains. So we played games and broke out in random British accents.



While we were at one of our stops this guy was standing on the side walk jumping. As in, he stood on the line, cigarette in mouth, took a deep breath, held his arms out, wiggled, then jumped as if he was attached to a parachute. He did it several times in a row. We were about to get off and jump with him because it seemed he was doing very important work and anything that important we should try, but the train started to leave. Oh well. I hope he makes whatever jump he was practicing for. Or maybe that was his jump and I personally think he was doing a stellar job.



Kat is very talented.


Atop Jungfraujoch, the view was phenomenal. However, the wind was howling. It was -9 degrees celsius, and bits of ice were flying through the air pelting us in the face. And it hurt. So we spent some time on the viewing platform, but not very long.





Here's me and Kat in the Ice Palace. It was this series of tunnels made of solid ice. And the best part is you can run and slide around on your belly. Much like a slip and slide except now you have parts that you didn't when you're 7 and it hurts a bit more. But we had a great time. This picture is a great representative of our kindergarten glee while we were in there.



There was also a lot of random ice sculptures. I took a picture of the fish to make Ed laugh. He'd appreciate that they had a sculpture of me, Sea Bass, in Switzerland.



Kat and Jen were obsessed with the cracks. Hmm....







This is what Kat refers to as glacier bacon. She insisted I take a photograph. Here Kat.



Swiss dogs are amazingly well behaved. This St. Bernard rode the train back with us. He apparently was as worn out as us. He spent the entire ride sprawled out on the floor. I had the urge to hug him, but didn't know the word for hug in German. And he might have bit my face off. He was a dog I did not know.

We had dinner in Spiez. It's along the Lake of Thun, and I finally had some fish from the area. It was very very good. We had dinner in Switzerland at an Italian restaurant and were waited on by a lovely Portuguese man. Gotta love it.

Over all it was a good day. I think I was too exhausted to completely enjoy it, but I'm glad I went. I liked my experience atop Niesen better, but now I can say I've been to the "TOP OF EUROPE."

Sion

I went to Sion yesterday with Andrea, Jennamari, and Marjolein. A Dutch, a Swede, a Fin, and an American are on a train.....

We planned to see the castles there and since Sion is the capital of Valais, which is filled to the brim with vineyards, we decided it most necessary to go to a wine tasting as well. And to kick things off, we had cheap wine in cheap plastic tea cups on the train ride there. It was a good morning.

We arrived and met a dragon. It seemed like a courtyard area where people could hang out and kids could play. But the green stuff on the ground...well that's broken bits of glass. Really? They want kids to play in broken glass? A little more relaxed about it than I would be.


Then we visited the Cathédrale Notre-Dame du Glacier. It was your standard small cathedral-the smell of incense, the dark quiet forboding type, but I was really impressed with their stained glass windows.


We walked around a bit and did some shopping. I bought myself one of the pashmina/scarves that are all the rave now. I can now be fashion chic. Well at least from my neck up. Well not even that much...just my neck. Maybe it will cover up the redness a bit. Well only if I keep my mouth shut.


Then on to the wine tasting. We went to the Robert Gillard vineyard/wine cellar. Our host/tour guide was a nice man who spoke a noticeable amount of English but I still had to help him with some words. He gave us a very thorough but scattered tour. It seemed that he didn't give tours often and was letting us stick our heads in tanks full of wine and such. We had a great time, but I'm sure he wasn't suppose to let us do some of the things we got to do. After that we tasted some wines. I'm glad I watched the movie Sideways before I went. I felt a little knowledgeable. Knowledgeable or not, I still came out of there with three bottles of wine.

Then we ventured out to the castles. The sun was fading and it was cloudy, so it got dark really fast. But the views were amazing. We saw Valere from a distance. It's now a history museum and was closed until the winter season.


Then we climbed up to Tourbillon. It's open now, but we were too late to get in. So we just walked around a bit. It was still amazing to be up there and absolutely beautiful.



We had dinner at an Italian restaurant. I had gnocchi and it kicked the Red Tomato's gnocchi's ass. It was an excellent dinner to end an excellent day.

I also had purchased some cheese, camembert, to try when I got back to the Chalet. Well, it wasn't the most pleasant smelling cheese and it provided lots of jokes for our entertainment on the train ride home.
We had a really good day, full of laughs, food, and fun. I reccommend Sion to anybody, just be sure to share it with someone who you can laugh with.

Oh and I threw the cheese away this morning. It might stink normally, but I'm almost positive it's not suppose to taste like the crack of your ass. Yea, the pashmina won't hide the red.

Niesen

I went to Niesen today. Niesen is one of the mountains at the end of the valley. It has a stair case with thousands of steps, but you can't go on them because you'd die. Only those trained to take on that many steps or those working on the funicular can use them. So the funicular is a good way to get to the top. Cuz I'm not walking up another damn mountain if I don't have to.

Antonia gave me Our Chalet's pass to ride the funicular to the top for free, so I figured why not. The funicular is an inclined railway, and they have a few here in Switzerland seeing as how not everyone wants to kill themselves by climbing all these Big Ass Alps.

So I set off and found the funicular station easily and went for a ride. It was a little wierd at first because the train is built for an incline so it was sort of like reclining in a lounge chair that is stuck between no tan lines and tan lines caused by your stomach rolls.

But we soon started the steep climb and all was right with the world and my orientation.

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

The climb was slow and there were some sound effects. Perhaps the funicular was hitting a few gnomes on the way up. (Ok bad joke. Sorry.)

We switched trains about half way up. Up until that point the view was unimpressive. There wasn't much besides trees and the village below to look at it. And let's face it, I've seen that view a few times.

But after we switched trains and came out of the dark tunnel in which we switched them, suddenly we were above the clouds and the view was...absolutely breathtaking. Well, you can see from the pictures.

And when I got up to the top, it was absolutely, possolutely silent. There was no one to be found. It was just me and the clouds and the Big Ass Alps and silence.


It was wonderful.

I went to the peak and still I was alone. I took my time drinking everything in.

Then I played on the playground. When there is a slide, I must slide.

Then I had an amazing lunch - haushamburger with rosti. Hamburger patty's and hashbrowns translated. But it was more than that. Combined with the view, the thin Alpine air, and the large amount of caffeine from the cup of European coffee I had, it was the best meal I've had yet. I just sat, staring at the mountains around me, and I felt on top of the world.

Then I hopped the funicular again for the descent. Which was slow and gnomeless. And took the train back to Frutigen. And caught the bus to Adelboden. And on the way to Adelboden, I was lucky enough to sit beside a tour guide in the form of a darling blonde 3 year old Swiss boy. He would point things out and explain what they were to me in Swiss German. After a few minutes of that, he got bored and noticed my ipod. And so we jammed the rest of the way until his stop.

It was an excellent day.