Our Christmas dinner turned out really great. I ordered a turkey from the British shop here in The Hague and it was frozen to an inch of absolute zero, so it took two days to thaw. In other words, a 24 hour car ride and a day in the fridge was perfect. Kristina made a sweet stuffing for the bird and I made a savory stuffing for the oven. Add mash potatoes, gravy, green beans and cranberry sauce, and you have our simple dinner. We were all to full for our traditional Christmas pudding so we opted for regular. Then we all took turns calling our families and wishing them a “Happy Holiday”.

At this point I should describe where we were staying. The château was located in south central Switzerland in the Valais area very close to the Italian boarder. The house itself was on the mountain side right above the town Morel which sat down in the valley along the Rhone River. I must say that valleys in Switzerland are not like valleys we are use to in the States. In this section of the Alps, they are little slivers of low land between two mountain ranges. It is a little disorienting to look out your window at night and stare out to see house lights instead of stars. You have to look up in a, what feels like an unnatural way, to see the real stars at night. What you see twinkling out in the distance are other house lights from the mountain range opposite you. Needless to say, when you are on the north side, you spend a better part of the day covered in frost. As the sun begins to reach the north side you can see trees in a half frost, half thawed state, very beautiful.

The road up to the house was a narrow switchback, and I suspect at one time a former cow trail up the mountain. We were all very glad that there was no snow while there because even though there was snow on the ground, the roads were clear; a very good thing.

The Château itself was not very big. It was divided into to parts. The main floor has a very small kitchen, bath room, two bedrooms and a small sitting/dinning area with access to a wrap-around deck. Then there was a daylight basement with a separate entrance. This part of the house had one bedroom, a large bathroom and a little kitchenette with a sitting area. Dan and I stayed in this section of the chateau, giving Frank and Kristina the top area. It was easier for the pups to be in the upper area and we mostly all hung out in the main area anyway.

There were other houses around us, and farms. We were able to take walks along a snow covered dirt road to open field areas (tilted of course, remember we are on a mountain side). Just think of Heidi and you pretty much have the feel of the area.

The day after Christmas Dan, Kristina and I drove to Sion. Frank wanted to stay at home with the pups. As we drove west, the valleys became more expansive, though still nothing like the US. The most distinctive feature of Sion is it has ruins of a castle and an old church (Nortre-Dame-de-Valere) up on a high hill east of the center of town. The church itself was on the small side, though had impressive frescos and an organ built in the 15 century.

After our tour of the sites we walked down to the center of town and found a place to have lunch. Of course we had cheese fondue and gluehwein. The gluehwein was exceptional, made with a white wine instead of a red. Kristina and I looked at each other and talked about trying to find this wine at the store because it was worthy of hamstering. Dan looked as us and said something about a stop at the market was in his future. At this point I need to side track a little and tell you about a favorite activity Kristina and I have when traveling. It is called “hamstering”. Hamstering is taken from the Dutch market Albert Hein. When they have a big sale it is advertised as “hamstering”, a time to stock up. Traveling is a good time to hamster all of our favorite items we can only get on the road or I should say, the area we are in and this wine was one of them.

After asking our server about the gluehwein, we finished our lunch and wandered through the shopping area leading us to the grocery store. Once at the Co-Op Dan decided to go back and get the car because we also needed to buy more wood for the wood stove and there was no way the three of us were going to be able to carry everything back to the car. This left us two women to wander around the store.

We found the wine and bought a few other bottles to get a sample of the area. Then found the wood and other essentials. Once out of the store we saw a gluehwein stand and feeling the need to warm up, we had another cup. At this point you must all be thinking that we do nothing but drink. Well that is only half true because the other half of the time we are eating. Dan found us with bags at our feet and gluehwein in hand. After loading up we were on our way back to Frank and the pups.

The next day was, dam it another sunny day in Switzerland. We all decided to take the train to Zermatt, the ski village at the base of the Matterhorn. We drove into Brig and caught the red mountain train. The ride snaked up through the mountains and we past through several little villages all pealed off of a post card from the past and pasted along our rout. The ride was about ninety minutes and the view was so intense it hurt the eyes.

Once in Zermatt we were in touristy Switzerland. The village itself had typical Swiss architecture with a lot of trinket shops and swarming with people. The streets were very crowded. The Matterhorn was at the other end of town. However, before making our way to the viewing point we stopped for lunch.

After lunch we walked to see what we came for. It did not take long to see the Matterhorn looming in the distance. At the end of Zermatt there is a gondola to the main ski area. The
Skiing looked outstanding. And across the road from the gondola there was a nice spot to view the Matterhorn. We all started to snap photos of proof that we were there, and then after every angle was exhausted; we turned around and made our way back through town.

The only other thing we did while making our way back to the train station was stop and the Matterhorn museum. I have read several books about Mt. Everest and did not know very much about the Matterhorn so I was excited to learn more. Like every mountain it has its tragic stories of disastrous climes that end in death and mayhem. After looking at the expedition gear of the early climbers, it is amazing how they did not all freeze to death. All that technology advancements in this sport have done is it allows every dreamer with enough money to try and climb.

After leaving the museum we did some window shopping and bought some local wine. Then we caught the 18:30 train back to Brig.

Then next day was Thursday and we decided to make this a shopping day in Brig for last minute gifts. Dan found some absinth for his son and the rest of us bought Swiss watches; can’t leave Switzerland without buying a watch. I did my last minute shopping for my kids as well. Now about the absinth, Switzerland has its on distillery and makes different verities. From what I hear it is very strong. I also bought some though have not tried it yet.

That night was move night and more Fondue. I have to say that after that week I was off cheese and bread for awhile. I never thought that I would get tired of fondue, it is possible to over dose and I hit the wall.

Dan and I decided to leave the next day, Friday and take two days to get home. We had to have our rental car back on the 31st of December and did not want to do the drive in one day.

I will stop here and write about the drive back in my next update.

Cheers,

Kim

OK, here is my next installment. Before I begin there will be a bit of back track. I had planned on writing my Holiday in sections and after reviewing my last posting I see a very important beginning piece has been left out. If I don’t correct it now, none of you will understand the rest of my holiday adventure. Here it goes!

Most of you know that I was expecting a visitor over the Holidays. I had not written about it because……well, I was being self centered and just wanted to talk about myself. No not really, I was going to talk about it as my Holiday unfolded.

My very good friend (OK now I can say boyfriend), Dan came and spent Christmas and New years being dragged around half of Europe. He arrived at the Schiphol airport at 7am Thursday morning on the 21st of December. I met him there bright and early. We made our way back to The Hague by train and arrived at my place at around 9 am. He slept for awhile, and then we went for a walk around my neighborhood. That evening we meet up with Frank and Kristina for dinner so introductions could be made. They did not know Dan from Portland and if we were all going to spend a week together, I thought it a good idea for everyone to have a chance to talk before our trip began.

The evening went very well (as I knew it would) and we all had a good time even though Dan felt like he was on Mars, which is normal given the effects of jet lag. He also was able to meet Clark and Louise, the two lovable labs. One of the great things about living in a culture that is extremely dog friendly, your furry well behaved companion can join you in most pub/reentrants. Anyway, after dinner we all headed to our respective homes to prepare for our travel day which was going to start at 9 am the next morning.

This was the bit that was left out…..now onto the first day in Switzerland.

Our first day not only being Sunday, but also Christmas Eve day, our options for an outing were limited. We decided to drive into Brig and look around town. We were hoping to find a grocery store open because there were a few essentials that were in short supply at the château (like toilette paper). Kristina thought our best hope was the train station. And she was right. There was a great little grocer opened there and we picked up what we needed. It was the only thing open in town besides some restaurants. After some window-shopping and a walk around Stockalperschloss (first photo) which was once the largest private residence in Switzerland, we all headed back to our home for the week.

Christmas Eve dinner Kristina and I cooked megret (duck), spatzli and endive. After stuffing our selves, we all sat around the wood stove talking and telling stories. Missing our families.

Christmas Day, the four of us decided to take a gondola ride up to the ski town/resort Bettmeralp. Also home to the Aletsch glacier that was added to the World Heritage list in 2001. We just went to site see, not to ski. The snow was just OK and on this day the four of us just wanted to look around. Once in Bettmeralp we walked through a picture postcard ski village up to another gondola that took us to the glacier. On our walk, we pasted people pulling little ones bundled up on old fashion wooden sleds, Swiss version of a stroller. It was great to see rosy-cheeked kids, tucked in and snoozing.

Once we reached the glacier area, we only had to walk a short way past the restaurant that looked like it needed to be in orbit, to get a view of Aletsch. It was Awesome. To the lift there was a view of the Matterhorn, to the right, the glacier. There is a plaque next to the glacier explaining how this was an area preserved as an area of peace. I wish I had written down what the plaque said because after reading the words I understood why this area was added to the World Heritage list. Just looking at it gave you a since of calm.

Of course after sitting by the glacier for a while, we headed to the restaurant for some soup and gluiewine. Oh yes gluiewine is everywhere. Now this upper gondola stops running at four and we were all so taken in by the view that we missed the last gondola down to the village and had to wait for the staff to go down in the last three cars. Once back at Bettmeralp we caught the next gondola down to the valley and headed home to our Christmas dinner.

More soon!

Love
Kim

It’s hard to believe that the holidays are over for another year. It took me all of last week to recover from my Christmas and New Year holiday time off. Switzerland was very beautiful and the trip there was eventful in itself. We all decided to do the trip in two days so we stayed the night in Métz France, a beautiful town between Luxemburg and Strasbourg. I would really love to go back and spend a few days exploring.

(Photos are of the car train and of Metz)

In the morning, Kristina and I wanted to go and grab a few pastries for the road and we ended up finding some great little shops right up the street from the IBIS hotel where we stayed. There was an open air market in the church square that we past throw and then we found a little bakery that was also a chocolate maker. They had little chocolate figures of all kinds made out of different flavors of chocolates that were used as “color” to make the figures more interesting. Each figure had a “50’s” look to them; I have never seen anything like them before. Everything was incredible. After leaving with some pastry goodness, we came across another little shop that had incredible liqueurs. I bought some Blanc absinth and a chocolate liqueur. I also bought a bottle of “Pirate punch” for my son Michael. I have no idea what it is; I will wait for Michael to tell me how it is. Kristina bought a Carmel liqueur. The liqueurs we planned to share once in Switzerland, the absinth is waiting to be shared another day.

After getting back on the road (Saturday the 23rd of December), we made it a little beyond Strasburg and stopped to do our grocery shopping for our Christmas Eve and Christmas day meal. French stores are the best in the world. Wonderful stuff everywhere. I had gotten a turkey from the British shop in The Hague so all we needed was breakfast food and the holiday trimmings. The plan was to have fondue that night, our first night in the cabin, then foie gras (duck breast) on Christmas Eve (I have to say sorry to my vegetarian friends, but this was a meat filled holiday).

Being the last shopping day before Sunday and the upcoming holiday, the store was a mad house. We were completely loaded down after the shopping stopped and had enough food for most of the week. Of course this did not stop us from food shopping in Switzerland! More about this later…..

Back on the road and heading south, we arrived in Switzerland just before sunset. By the time we hit the mountains, it was dark. After traversing up the side of one mountain to the pass we needed to cross, we became a little confused as to were we needed to go and at around 7:30 we drove into a picture postcard ski village to ask directions at one of the hotels. Because Kristina can speak enough French to get by, she went in to find out if we were headed in the right direction to Brig. The town closes to where we were staying. After returning to the cars, she looked perplexed and stared into all of our faces and said,” the pass is closed, but we need to head down the road 9 kilometers and catch the car train to the other side of the mountain”. We were all confused because no where in her driving instructions did it say anything about a car train. All of us were starting to feel stressed, that happens to people who live bellow sea level and are thrusted up into snow covered, mountainess terrain with the possibility of taking a car train through a tunnel to god knows where is looming over your head.

After a deep breath, we all decided it would be a good adventure because none of us had ever been on a car train before. So we headed down the road and soon arrived at the train station and just drove up onto the string of flatbed cars just waiting to snake its way through the mountain. The time from one side to the other was a little less then 20 minutes. A half hour later we were pass Brig. Moral and our cabin for the week was just a little farther down the road.

We arrived at about 9 pm. After unpacking we made fondue, drank too much, and headed to bed for our first nigh In Switzerland.

I'm going to go this in parts. More Soon!

Love you all

Kim