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Would Love to Ski…but Just Plain Can’t

Today’s plan was to hit the slopes and we both really wanted to spend most the day skiing because it was officially our last day in snowville and in Switzerland all together. But in the immortal words of John Steinbeck “the best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.”

The day was clear and cold, without a cloud in the sky. Seemed like the perfect day to ski. After getting up to Sunnegga Paradise we strapped into our skis and set off. First of all, all the slushiness from the day before that made the slopes easy to ski had become ice over night. After the grating machines had come through everything was a solid patch of ice. Not fun!

Secondly, my legs were really hurting from the day before because I think my ski boots were too loose. I tried to get out and ski but no matter what I did my left leg in particular hurt really bad. After going down the slopes twice I was shot…there was just no way I could do any more.

Kel was a real sport about the whole thing but I felt bad having to give up so soon. There was just no way I could keep going so that’s that!

The Heights

Since we had time to kill, we decided to ride the funicular up to the top of the mountain. We started at Sunnegga which is roughly 7000 feet above sea level and headed to Rothorn Paradise which is close to 10,000 feet above sea level.

The top was very cold and windy but the views were spectacular. The number of people actually skiing up there was wild despite the fact that all the trails at the top are ridiculously steep.

One of the local photo companies does a promotion that allows people to have pictures taken with one or more St. Bernards. One of the photographers was up top with a big old St Bernard named Bobby. Bobby was huge, his paws were the size of my balled up fist. We loved him and went ahead and had our picture taken with him. Unfortunately we don’t have the photos because they were printed instead of digital which means we’d have to carry the copies with us. They would end up destroyed during our travels, so you will just have to imagine Kel and I and Bobby the giant St. Bernard with the Matterhorn in the background.

As we were leaving the photographer asked us if we wanted to see the St. Bernard puppy that he had sleeping in the back room. We of course said yes!! The puppy was too cold to be outside where he was shooting so he was sleeping inside. At three months old this dog was almost the size of Catfish, our dog, who’s with my parents back home. He was so cute that we completely wanted to take him home with us. Of course, we can’t do that but either way it was great to spend a few minutes with him and Bobby.

A Lazy Day in Snowville

The rest of the day was pretty boring. We ate lunch at Sunnegga which is always a beautiful place to eat. One quick comment about the people you see skiing. There are some absolutely amazing outfits that people where skiing. For instance one guy had a completely silver outfit that was made out of a reflective material. Awesome!! The one we liked today was a lady in a full bright green outfit. She had a white hat on with a sunvisor that covered most of her face. To make matters even funnier she had almost no idea how to ski. Hilarious!

After lunch we returned our skis and went back to the room to rest for the afternoon. Pretty much the rest of the afternoon consisted of reading, watching BBC and a horrible Michael Caine movie from the 60’s.

Hope everyone had a great day! Tomorrow we head off to Strasbourg, France.

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