switzerland...

On February 17th, I left the stress of Oxford (yes, again) and joined some friends for a weekend in Switzerland! Well, they were all lucky enough to be staying there the whole week, but by class schedule just wouldn’t allow. :( I flew out to Zurich on Friday night and met up there with Neil and his friend Jeff (who conveniently lives in Zurich). Jeff took us out on the town that night for some dinner and some yummy drinks, and then we stayed at his new flat (very nice!).

Saturday morning we met up with Scott and his friend Tyler (along with Tyler’s girlfriend Laurie and his parents) at the airport in Zurich, where we all boarded the train(s) out to Wengen. Wengen is a beautiful little ski village near Interlaken in the Junfrau mountain range. We stayed at a great hotel called the Alpenrose (shameless plug, they were fabulous: http://www.alpenrose.ch/SiteAlpenrose.html). Saturday afternoon we wandered the town a bit, then ate a fabulous five course dinner at the hotel.

Sunday morning we hit the slopes! After waiting a long time for ski rentals, we finally made it up the mountain around 10am. I was skiing with Jeff and Scott (Neil was taking snowboarding classes down the mountain, Tyler and Laurie were waiting for their skis which got lots on the plane, and the Ottens were on their own). I told the boys that I hadn’t been skiing in six years and that I would probably need some time on the beginner slopes to get my ski-legs back… So we went up the mountain, and after one run on the beginner’s slope, I said ‘okay, let’s go’. They were surprised, but we took off on a long blue (scale: blue-red-black) run all the way down the mountain (about 40 minutes). When we got to the bottom of the mountain, we ended up on a gondola back to a different part of the mountain, and once we got to the top the boys decided it was the time to tell me that all of the runs in that area were red… hmm. Very sneaky boys! But we took off, and I fared fine (thankfully!).

Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse just afternoon, and by 2pm all of the runs and gondolas and lifts were closed, so we had to cut our day a little short. It was at that point that I decided to keep my skis for one more day and fit in some more skiing before leaving on Monday. The rest of Sunday was good. Kristin Hayes arrived from DC to join the crowd, and we spent some time in town and drinking gluewein and soaking up all of the atmosphere, before, of course heading back for another fabulous five course meal…!

It snowed about five inches on Sunday night, and the view out of my window in the morning was just amazing. The clouds cleared up quickly and we got out early for skiing (still just me and Scott and Jeff – Neil took some more snowboarding classes, and Kristin took a ski class also). The skiing on Monday was fabulous. The snow was better, there was less wind, and there were fewer people. I was certainly happy that I’d opted to get a few more hours in. We skied from 9 until about 1230, and covered a good portion of the mountain. We all then met up for lunch together, and after lunch sadly, I had to part from the group and begin te long trek back to Oxford. The trip back took ten hours and included four trains, a plane, and a bus! But still, the weekend was 100% worth it. It was great to see everyone.

Looking forward to repeating it next year!!