Skiing in Zermatt and The Majestic Matterhorn

The weekend before I left to go home to the States for Christmas, Nate and I joined some of his co-workers to go for a weekend of skiing in Zermatt... and it was quite an adventure. I have always loved to ski, but I had never had the chance to ski in the Swiss Alps, so when I heard of the opportunity, I told Nate we could not pass it up. Plus, we were going with people who grew up skiing in Zermatt, so we felt comfortable having them there with us on our first Swiss ski trip.

DAY 1

When we got off the train, we stepped into a winter wonderland ... this is the main street in the village.

It is hard to tell from these pictures that I took at night, but this place was straight out of a fairytale. It was so quiet & peaceful, every hotel looked something like this one (below), and there was a fresh blanket of snow on everything... As we walked around, Nate and I said to each other, "Is this place for real?"

Here is a picture of our pedestrian street during the day...

Zermatt does not allow any cars, trucks, or buses... everyone must come in by train. The only thing you'll see are these cute little electric-powered taxis. Nate and I opted to walk everywhere because it's a small enough town, but when we had our ski boots on, that was a work out!

DAY 2

We got up early Saturday morning, got our skis, and hit the slopes! It wasn't crowded and a pretty clear day, so I thought it was pretty smooth sailing from here on out. In this picture, we're riding our first lift. Most of the lifts are enclosed, which is nice because they are so long and it is too cold to be sitting still outside for that long. A few facts about Zermatt: There are 71 lifts, 196 miles of runs, and the longest run is 8 miles!!!

When we rented skis, we told them we were intermediate skiers, but little did we know that an intermediate skier in Switzerland is like an expert in the States! When we started to ski, Nate was falling over the place! I had skied with him before and he didn't fall even once, so I didn't know what was going on. I tried to help him out by giving a few refreshers/pointers, but he did not appreciate that... men! :) He told me that he wasn't falling because he didn't know how to ski, but because his skis were too long! Instead of having a miserable day of Nate falling and me trying to help him up, we decided to go back and get shorter skis. Fortunately, the ski rental place was right at the end of the slope, so we skied right to it. And boy, we were glad we did that, because it made the day SO much more enjoyable for Nate (and me)... he skied a lot better with the right-sized skis!
As you can see, in this picture above, it's snowing! The day that started out clear turned into a small blizzard. At first, it was so beautiful, but we soon realized that it made it very difficult to ski. Also, Nate and I didn't really have all the right gear. Our gloves were too thin and we didn't have goggles... so, our hands were frozen and we couldn't see well. We only had sunglasses which kept fogging up, but if we took them off, the snowflakes would fall in our eyes... and that was quite miserable.

Me, posing before getting on another lift to get to the top...

We had a nice, warm lunch at the top of one of the peaks with part of the PwC group (all the Swiss ones) and then skied with them afterward. They all looked like professional skiers!! I think we were holding them up at times... okay, probably the whole time! We came to a fork in the slope (after we had been skiing for what felt like an eternity) and they wanted to go down the more difficult one, so we went our separate ways to go the easier route, but then we realized that it was closed and we had to go down the difficult slope anyway, but by ourselves!

Here is a picture of one of Nate's co-workers snowboarding... I had to borrow this picture because we skied on a lot of runs like this, but I never got a picture of it. I was too concerned with making sure I didn't fall off the mountain!Just when we thought our day couldn't get anymore interesting, we ran into a sweet American girl who had gotten lost from her husband and she needed our help. It was starting to get dark and she was getting worried, so we let her use our phone. We got to talking... and it turned out that her husband worked for PwC as well and they were in Zermatt with the same group! Here is Nate to the rescue... and fortunately, she found her husband at the end of this slope and he was so glad she was okay!

Despite all the obstacles we came across throughout the day, the skiing part was a blast and we have many things to look back on and laugh at from this day... Look at all the snow on us even after we dusted ourselves off! On Friday night we went to a Tex-Mex restaurant (my favorite!) ... it was delicious. And then on Saturday, we went to a very interesting restaurant where the whole dinner was a surprise. We had absolutely NO idea what we were going to get! The servers asked everyone what they didn't like and then brought out surprise courses. It was all very good except for a raw beef appetizer. Yuck! I forgot to tell them that I don't like raw meat!

DAY 3

Sunday morning, we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day! I prayed that we would have a clear day so that we could see the Matterhorn. Here is a good picture of the town and the stream running through it...

On the other side of this bridge is a view of the most recognizable peak in the world, The Matterhorn! I honestly could not believe it when I saw it. It is simply breath taking...
Me and The Matterhorn... and it was FREEZING outside. I don't think I've ever been that cold in my life!
Since we didn't have time to ski, Nate and I thought we should seize the nice day and at least take a lift up to get closer to the Matterhorn and see the view of the surrounding peaks. Here is the view from the top... you can see the town of Zermatt below and the gondola that we took to the left... it was quite scary!
When you come to this side of the mountain, you can actually ski down to Italy!! Here is the sign with the Italian flag. I guess you have to make sure you have your passport with you!

The Matterhorn from the top. People are skiing right below it and you can do that year round! It looks a lot smaller from up here...
Nate is even taller than it! Not quite. :) The Matterhorn is almost 15,000 feet and Nate is only 6'1"...

We had the gorgeous view as we ate lunch (inside!). There were tables outside, but we were not that brave.
After soaking it in as much as we could, it was time to go back down to catch the train home. We ran into our new friends (the girl who we "rescued" and her husband) and we took pictures of each other.
I always love getting on the train to go home because you can think about the weekend, read, or take a nap! I think we did a little of each. Here are some views from the train ride...
Don't forget... you can click on any of these pictures to see them bigger!

Strasbourg & Colmar Christmas Markets

Strasbourg, France

One weekend before Christmas, Nate had to travel to the UK for work, so my friend, Mallory, and I decided to take a little trip to France to shop at the Christmas Markets. Neither one of us had ever been to a Christmas Market before, so we had no idea what to expect, but we had both heard a lot of good things about the ones in Strasbourg and Colmar, so we decided to go. However, we did not expect for them to be closed! We were a little disappointed to find out that all of the booths in Strasbourg were setting up for opening the next day, but we still tried to make the best of it by touring the city and shopping (indoors)!

The empty and sad Christmas booths...

Jake and I are standing in front of the Strasbourg Cathedral... the biggest cathedral I've ever seen!

I tried to fit the whole tower of the church in this picture, but it just wasn't possible. I later came to find out that this cathedral was the tallest building in the WORLD from 1439-1874. I would not want to be the one climbing that ladder attached to the front! As soon as Mallory and I thought we should go inside somewhere to get a little relief from the cold weather, we conveniently stumbled upon an amazing sweets store! They had every sweet imaginable...

Everything you pointed to... They would let you try! Those are some big smiles :)
After getting our sweet fix and buying some goodies for Christmas presents, we ventured back out in the cold to walk the streets of Strasbourg. They had a very different way of decorating for Christmas than Basel. They had actual chandeliers hanging in the streets... never thought I'd see that!

Colmar, France

A couple of months ago, Nate and I traveled to Colmar during the day because it was only a 40 minute train ride from Basel and it was a charming little city. I wanted to take Mallory there because she had never been and it was on the way back from Strasbourg. I was glad when we got there because it was even more charming with all of the Christmas decorations and lights.

Also, the Christmas Markets were open! The markets were scattered all over the city, so they had signs pointing where to go to the next one... this was good because Nate is usually my human map.

At the markets, you could buy....
Sausage (and lots of it)

Half of a pig (eew!) ...

Cheese (I dislike the smelly kind)...

Hand-made candles...

Large bread ... That loaf was as long as me!

Hand-made soaps that smelled SO good!

Hand-made manger scenes...

And of course, chocolate and candy...We bought some good gifts, ate some good food, had a lot of laughs, and by the end of the day, we were tired! So we took one last look and one more picture before heading back to our home away from home.

Basel at Christmas Time

Even though we didn't spend Christmas Day in Basel, we were able to get a good feel for what Christmas is like there. Since the Swiss don't celebrate our American Thanksgiving (obviously), they jump right into decorating the city for Christmas at the beginning of November. Some people may think that is a little too early, but since Christmas is my favorite time of year, I loved it. It definitely helped Nate and I get in the Christmas spirit!

The streets were lined with REAL Christmas Trees...

The trams were decorated with garland and bows. Some of the drivers, like this one, even dressed up as Santa!For those who have studied German, you know that the language has the longest words in history, but this one surpasses them all... Johann Wanner is a world-renowned Christmas tree decorator from Basel and the word under his name says something like "Christmas-ornaments-and-lights-and-tree-decorating-store" ... Wow, that is a mouthful!
One of my favorite pedestrian streets, lined with Christmas trees and lights...

Downtown had pretty arches with snowflakes on them

They lit up everything, including churches and stairways! Nate is posing so nicely for the camera...

Christmas Markets in the oldest square, Barfusserplatz Even our bank was lit up!

Market Square. And me & Jake...

The other side of Market Square. This place is packed with people buying all kinds of goods and fresh produce during the day, but on a freezing cold night like this one, it's empty, because all the smart Swiss people are inside staying warm! Walking home to get warm... Jake looks frozen stiff!