I couldn't have asked for a better group of people or place to be for New Year's this year. Allie, Angie, Deanna and I met up in Lugano on December 30 to head for a 7 day ski trip. There were a couple of glitches before it all could happen, Deanna's and Angie's luggage was lost.
We got early on the 30th, piled into the Giuseppe (my little green monster) and drove to Malpensa, crossing our fingers the entire way hoping that the luggage was going to be there. Angie had been unsuccessful the previous night and in the morning to get through to the airline so we were hoping that the airport was disorganized and wouldn't put the skis and snowboard on a shuttle to Lugano. But we were lucky, the airline hadn't touched the bags. Actually they were sitting in the middle of baggage claim with no one thinking twice about them, so Angie and Deanna grabbed the bags and we we were on our way. It a very tightly packed car. Everyone was only allowed the essentials.
Deanna and Angie in the back of Giuseppe
First stop was Saas Fee. We pulled into a parking structure and unloaded all of our luggage. Meanwhile Allie called our hotel for our "taxi" to come get us because Saas Fee is a car free town. Little did we know that our taxi was going to be an electric bread box that was dark purple. We piled all of our goods into the purple machine and laughed the entire way, hoping that Deanna's snow board didn't fall off of the top.
Once we had checked in, found our little rooms that were not quite ready or cleaned for us to move in we headed out to get our lift tickets and find a restaurant for New Year's dinner.
We didn't expect it to be so hard but every restaurant was completely booked and had only one scheduled seating. We went from one end of the town to the next walking into every restaurant. Usually with Deanna in the front, who then backed away because she doesn't like talking to strangers. Finally we walked into a restaurant that had a giant potato over the door and found an open table for later that evening. They had a set menu giving a sample of the local fare, which was tasty at times but the onion soup didn't quite do it for me. However, we lucked out because this restaurant was connected to the hotel who was hosting the biggest New Year's Bash in Saas Fee. After much negotiating and a lot of conversation lost in translation we didn't get any discount and we bought our bracelets for entrance at the Living Room and Popcorn.
View of Saas Fee from our Hotel Balcony on New Year's Eve before it started snowing.
We met a group of guys who had been eating dinner across the restaurant from us. They were from Zurich and they spoke English, which was a huge plus. I asked them what their traditions were for midnight and their response was champagne and heading out into the streets. So that is what we did and we were surprised when we stepped outside into the snow and the entire population celebrating.
Everyone was shooting off fireworks and popping bottles of champagne. It was absolutely crazy. It didn't help that the four of us were no where near prepared for the snow because that had started while we were in eating dinner and we didn't know there were quite that many people in the small quiet town.
Thomas, Angie, Deanna, myself, Stefan, Allie and Jean-Marie
Angie, Deanna, myself, and Allie
Deanna and I dancing in the streets on the way homeThe next day we woke up bright and early to hit the mountain and have our first day of skiing. It was absolutely beautiful, with blue skies and no one out. I think most had a late start but we had the energizer bunny staying with us and knocking on our door at 8 shagging us out of bed to get moving. There wasn't much new snow but the skiing was great.
New Years Day Morning
At the very top
At one point Deanna and Angie got seperated from Allie and I. We took the Gondola up and told them we would be waiting at the top. As we got out of the gondola Allie and I thought it would be a good idea to go outside and sit in the sun, but there wasn't any so we continued to follow the crowd. We ended up entering this long tunnel that lead to a funiculare that went the rest of the way to the top. We sat down right in the middle thinking that Angie and Deanna had to come this way if they thought like us and followed the crowd so they would run into us. But they never came, because unlike us they thought the bench immediately when you got off the gondola was a much better choice so they went into the restaurant and bathrooms looking for us.
Deanna in the tunnel trying to find Allie and I. We had already taken off because we had gotten tired of waiting. Oops!
After many phone calls and a funiculare ride to the top we ran into each other finally. However, the funiculare provided much humor throughout the week at Saas Fee, with Deanna wiping out as she entered an empty car and myself getting squished by the people around me that had no general sense of space.
After a hard day of skiing and a long night the celebrating we all crashed for quite some time. When we finally woke up we had missed the apres ski and found a restaurant advertising as Mexican. It was perfect, two orders of nachoes, hot chocolate a couple of beers and several games of banana grams. With Allie totally dominating every single round. At one point in the trip we put Allie to bed and the three of us practiced so that we could at least compete. Deanna got slightly obsessed.
The next couple of days of skiing were really nice. The temperature was rather chilly but we skied full days with many sun breaks to warm up.
However, we realized really quickly that we didn't really enjoy the whole stopping and sitting outside aspect of skiing in the alps. This was the only time that we ever did this. The temperatures were so cold and the wind was biting that there was a no way that sitting outside in the sun was enjoyable. But it didn't stop many of the other skiers partaking in the chill.
At the mid point station before entering the funicolare to the top there is a run off the back side that has a sign stating for good skiers only. We found this to be quite amusing and we had to take our picture in front of it. We also skied down, proving to ourselves that we could handle the mountain pretty well. Granted most of the runs at Saas Fee were gentle blues with very little steepness. This good skiers run was entering the beginnings of a black because of the mogels at the bottom but that was it.
After all of our trying days of skiing and sipping hot cocoa we decided to explore the apres ski scene. We found out the first day that taking a nap was not a good idea because we were not good at rallying later on. So we dropped our skies off and changed our boots and took off in our snow gear to find a bar. All of which are outdoors with heating umbrellas over head. Most people drink gluhwine but I can't stand the stuff so I put my gloves on and sipped on a nice cold Heinekin.
A fun outdoor bar
At Apres Ski
The crowd dancing to the YMCA
On the way home from Apres Ski. We decided to skip through town. Why not, right?
Pastry anyone? We liked this little place and we had our apres ski here on our last day. All we wanted was a little pastry, hot chocolate and a few games of banana grams while sitting inside out of the cold. Those crazy people like their outdoor activities, but we were not having it.The entire time I was in Saas Fee I really wanted to drive one of the electric cars. Lucky for me there was one sitting outside of a hotel with the doors unlocked one evening when we were walking home. Don't worry, I just jumped in to take a picture and didn't actually try to drive away. But it was a fun one. They were all so creatively decorated.
The next morning we were off to Zermatt. It was only a hour and a half drive to the train station. Zermatt is also a car free town and we had to park about 30 minutes away from the town, load all of our luggage and equipment on carts and role them onto the train. The views were beautiful the entire way and we were all in awe of the systems in place to keep our luggage from rolling away as the train wound through the mountains.
Zermatt is beautiful. Just getting of the train I was in complete awe. There were a lot of the electric cars but there was also many horse drawn carriages for the guests of the nicer hotels.
After dropping off all of our gear once again we put Allie to sleep because she was not doing well. She had come down with something nasty and it had finally caught up with her and the lack of sleep. Then Deanna, Angie and I were off walking through the streets and finding a place for dinner, once again. The town is very quaint and walkable. We wandered in and out of stores, found the gondola that we were going to take up, and took a couple pictures in front of the Matterhorn.
The Matterhorn from town
The whole crew in front of the Matterhorn. This was one of the clearest days so luckily we took a ton of pictures before the clouds settled in.
The map of Zermatt. We could ski from Switzerland to Italy. So exciting!
View of the Matterhorn from Deanna and Angie's hotel room.
The gondola rides were my least favorite part of the whole skiing experience in the Alps. They allow a certain number of people in a holding chamber before opening the glass doors onto the platform. At this point everyone piles out, heading for the huge gondola to the top. The smart ones go to the corners finding a space for themselves and their skies. The other smart ones wait till the absolute last minute to be on the outside and right next to the enterance being the first to depart the gondola. Then there was us, we were not knowledgeable about these things at first and we found ourselves right in the middle of this cattle car. Unable to move, most likely able to pick up our feet and float in mid air due to the pressure that was being applied by everyone around us. We learned our lesson as the days went on but there were many times that we found ourselves in the middle. It did warm us up.
A very comforting sign at the highest point. Do not leave the ski run, crevasses. Yeah we followed those guidelines. The crevices would have eaten us up. They were absolutely huge and I guess we should have also been concerned with avalanches but at that point we were not knowledgeable about that concern.
Yeah we skied from Switzerland from Italy. So cool!
This is the bowl that we spent the majority of our afternoon in on the Italy side of the mountain. It was really gentle with very little change in steepness but we had a good time. We were just happy to have chair lifts and not the T-bars of Saas-Fee.
The Matterhorn. Can you believe how close we were and that we were that high while skiing. No wonder it was -22 at the top on our last day.
Allie got extremely cold and had a fear of frostbite. So she tried something new, gloves on her toes to help change them back from white to red.
On the chair with Deanna
In front of the Matterhorn on the first day of skiing. The second day was nowhere as clear and so much colder. I actually got frostbite on my nose. Oh well!
In town at the Zermatt Hotel having cocktails before dinner. At this point we are listening to a quartet play in celebration of the Russian New Year. It was impressive and we were very lucky.
While wandering the streets I found a skewer of chicken that I wanted to take a bite out of. No one believed me it was real so I had to test it out. The chicken was slightly plasticy but it could be downed if really hungry.
After 6 days of skiing, below freezing temperatures and the final day being completely in the clouds we were ready to come home to start work again. We had taken stock in the local farmacia's trusting the doctors to tells us what we had based on our self diagnoses. Allie was coughing up a lung and was permanently cold, Angie's fever broke because she was smart and stayed home one day, Deanna was coming down with something was absolutely miserable and I was still feeling healthy continually sucking on cough drops due to the dry throat and the feeling of emptiness in my chest. I dropped everyone off at their houses in Lugano. Went to the grocery story for a few necessities and a slice of pizza for dinner, unloaded my stuff and crawled onto my couch for my fever to set in. At least I didn't get sick until I got home but it was bad enough to take me out of work half way through the day and put me to sleep for over 14 hours. It was all worth it!!!
