A week in the Alps

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Hello All,

Well after 10 months of Liz doing all of the reporting I thought I should pull my finger out and add an entry to the travel blog. She's done a great job so I hope I can follow suit.

Our latest adventure on the ‘Steve and Liz tour of Europe’ was a skiing trip to the mecca of winter sport - Switzerland.
We didn’t get off to the best of starts- only just making the flight as our travelling companions Tony and Debbie (our friends from Burton) ‘apparently’ got caught in traffic on the motorway. We had our suspicions as Tony is a notorious sleeper and was on night shift the previous night.
After a quick scurry through the terminal we boarded the plane as they were announcing the call for the last passengers, strapped ourselves in and headed for Basel.

We were met in Basel by Mary and her cute 2y/o daughter Evie and after picking up hubby Simon from work we headed back to their place for a few days sightseeing in Zurich before driving South to the Alps. Simon and Mary used to live near Burton Latimer and are really good friends with
Tony and Debbie. Their 2 y/o daughter Evie is a bubbly little thing who seemed to love everyone except me. In fact I made her cry three times so was very unpopular with the baby although by the end of the week I think I redeemed myself.

That night we had the most amazing dinner - meat and potatoes smothered in melted cheese which is cooked on a ‘Raclette’ - a party grill that sits in the middle of a table with the meat and veggies cooked on top and the cheese melted on spatulas underneath. Brilliant for just sitting around, chatting and getting drunk which we did on some really cheap but nice local beer and wine. From memory we paid £2 (Aus$5) for 8 500mL beers. So much for Switzerland being the rip off capital of the world.

The next day Tony, Debbie, Liz and I caught the train into Zurich for a day of sightseeing. We started off walking down the Bahnhofstrasse which is known as the most expensive street in the world, mainly due to the vaults of gold under the road. However the shopping was exorbitant as well. Later on we went into a
ski shop and I spotted a pair of skis I liked. Had a look at the price tag and almost had a seizure when I saw the $3600 (Aus) price tag. I carefully put them back down and went over to the beanie section hoping to find one in my price range. Tried a nice one on, then saw the $90 (Aus) price tag and had to walk out of the shop. Maybe Switzerland is the rip off capital of the world after all.

From here we walked up the Lindenhof, the birthplace of Zurich. Then had a look at the three biggest churches in Zurich which are also amongst the biggest tourist attractions. The first was St Peters church which at 8.7m diameter has the largest clock face in Europe. I still doubt a few of the blind pensioners acting as cricket umpires we had this year would have been able to tell them time on the massive clock. (Yep, I’m still bitter). After that was the Fraumunster with some amazing stained-glass windows and then we climbed the tower of the Grossmunster Church for some awesome views over Zurich.
The afternoon saw us make the most of the gorgeous sunshine and walk along the shores of Lake Zurich with Mary who we’d met up with at lunch.

The next day we were all a little weary after another big night and decided to have a relaxing day at a nearby thermal spa. What an experience!! Picture a perfect bluebird day, temps just above zero and we were swimming outdoors in a hot thermal spa. There was even a whirlpool which was good fun. The only low-light was a couple who were getting very, very cosy only metres from the relaxing sun beds where we spent most of our time.

Simon thought he’d be really funny and offered me a drink of the thermal water which smelt and tasted like sulphur. (Pretty much like rotten egg for you non-chemistry buffs) When I said no he said its healing properties would cure my hangover and had a big sip himself. So I followed suit, almost throwing up at the smell let alone the taste. I only found out later he’d drunk normal tap water.

In the afternoon we had a look around Baden, another town known for its thermal spas.

The next day we left Zurich for Brigels ski resort. After a few teething problems with the roof racks (and some undeservedly harsh comments from the women about the skill level of the roof packers) the seven of us made it to Brigels without too many hiccups. Unfortunately we were greeted by a predominately green lower section of the mountain. However it was Switzerland and the top of the mountain was 1.6km above the village and locals said it was pretty good up top. As a guide, that’s about 4 times taller than Perisher.
After the formalities, Simon, Tony, Debbie, Liz and I headed up the mountain for an afternoon of skiing. Mary and Evie played around in the toboggan at the base.

We had a great time skiing. Well at least a few of us did. Poor Debbie had a spectacular stack on the first run and managed to snap one of her poles. Tony didn’t fare much better, deciding to use his face rather than skis as brakes and grazing his face and nose. He was lucky he has enormous ears that helped cushion the blow or he might have received brain damage. (For an article on this check out the Burton Latimer webpage http://burtonlatimer.play-cricket.com/home/home.asp)

That night we had dinner at the only decent restaurant we could find in the resort. Food was lovely, especially the local cuisine of Rosti which we’d had in November and couldn’t wait to try again. The highlight of the night was meeting the trainee chef. He came out of the kitchen, pulled up a chair and started talking to us which in hindsight seems weird but at the time we just thought he was really friendly. It turned out he had about 42 beers too many the night before and was adamant he’d seen us all out at the local nightclub. We told him several times we only arrived that day. He was very confused!!

The next day we were all a little bit stiff but got up early and had a really good day skiing. At about 3 it started snowing but Tony and I were having such a ball we decided to go up top for one more run despite the fast-closing weather. Big mistake!!
It was a total white out up top and we couldn’t see more than 7 or 8 metres in front of us. There were fluorescent PVC pipes about 20m apart marking the piste and we’d see one, then lose one, see the next one, then lose it, see the next one and so forth. A little bit scary but we made it down and were greeted by hot chocolates and beers and the 5 others, three of them looking knackered!! To be honest it was a great feeling making it down in conditions like that. By now it was bucketing down snow so we had some fun and made a snow man, made snow angels, had a snow fight etc. Poor Evie was hysterical when we were fighting as she thought we were all beating up her dad (Simon). It turned out her dad was clutching at Liz’s leg so we couldn’t grab him. Actually, maybe she was crying at her dad grabbing a girl to save himself. Who knows??

The next day we woke up to loads of snow. It had snowed about ½ metre at the top of the mountain and about 20cms down the bottom. Pure heaven!! We couldn’t wait to get up there but we had to clear the snow in the driveway first so we could get out.
Anyway, the snow was amazing and we had a great time. At one point I turned around to wait for Liz. I looked down at my feet and couldn’t see my skis, boots or knees so decided to take a photo.

So that was it, our skiing over and we headed back to Zurich and the next day flew back to dreary England.

So in summary we had a ball. As always the Camsells were great fun and our hosts Simon, Mary and Evie were brilliant. Hopefully we catch up with them again before we head back to Australia. At least we have an excuse to go back to Switzerland.

Two weeks ago Liz had a Monday meeting on the Isle of Wight which is a small island off the South Coast of England. So we decided to make a weekend of it and head down the Saturday morning. We spent Saturday day and night in Southampton which is a lovely town on the coast. There is a lot of history here so there was a lot to look at including a well preserved shell of a church which had been bombed during the war. In fact a lot of Southampton was destroyed during the war due to its coastal location.
The next morning we looked out the window hoping for a perfect sunny day but forgot that we’re in England. It was blowing a gale and raining.
I contemplated heading back to London but Liz convinced me to stay so we took the jet ferry across to the Isle. The island has a really good bus service linking all of the towns and you can buy an all day travel card so we spent the day checking out the large towns. We’d heard the beaches here were some of the best in Britain, but like our previous experience at Huntstanton we were again let down. The sand was brown, the water even browner and I was scratching my head as to why Susie Maroney ever wanted to swim through it to France.


We have a lot on for the upcoming month so we’re pretty excited. We’re going away for the Easter weekend at a location TBA. We have several friends arriving in mid April so it will be great to catch up with them all and have some friends from back home living in London. I know Liz is looking forward to hanging out with someone other than me.

And then in late April my parents arrive and we’re heading to the Lakes District and Edinburgh before flying over to Ireland to meet Jade who moved there last month.

Anyway, hope you’re all doing well. Take care.

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Photos

Beaming
Both of us grinning from ear to ear after an epic morning

Evie
Isn't she cute!!

Lake Zurich
Debbie, Tony, Steve and Liz on the shores of Lake Zurich

The gang
Liz, Debbie, Tony, Simon, Mary and little Evie after a days skiing

Ouch!!
Tony smiling bravely after testing how cold the snow was with his face

Frosty
It only took 10 minutes to make this guy with the amount of snow falling. Not bad huh

The gang at dinner
Check out the food

Loads of snow
This photo was taken in the morning, about halfway up the moutain

Where'd my legs go??
So much snow I'm buried past my knees

Comments

[Al]

Haha Steve
Haha, that thermal water story reminds me of when someone convinced me to eat ¨toffee¨in science class. Keep having fun mate. See you in May or June.

[Paul Winduss]

Looks Familiar
Well, reminds me of my back packing eventures around EUROPE for 2.5yrs in the early 90'S (shit I am getting old)- take care