Charlotte and Adam really love skiing. Olivia is still a bit young for lessons and I’m not coordinated enough to attempt throwing myself down a mountain at 20mph down a hill and see what happens. So, we searched out some other winter activities that we could all participate in. And we found sledding. Or as they call it here, sledging.
Being complete novices at this, we took up an offer from some friends who had been several times to have them show us the ropes.
We joined them in the picturesque Albula Valley, which is the perfect destination to experience the thrill of sledging the beautiful Bergün Preda trail. The breathtaking scenery, the Bernina Express train track and the wintery terrain was enough to make my day and we hadn't even sled anywhere yet.
You start by taking the train up to the sled route. The train is also part of the panoramic mountain pass through the alps, so you board and there are also passengers in full evening gowns (at 1030am) enjoying a champagne brunch while we were in our heaviest winter sports gear. All part of the Swiss experience, I guess.
From the top, you walk a little bit to get to the main slope. It was probably about ¼ - ½ a mile, but when dragging the divas, it felt like 3 or 4.
Until you make them work for it on their own.
From there it is a 4 mile path which twists and turns its way back down the mountain through tunnels and viaducts into the Preda valley. I have a few pictures of us sledding, but I was not coordinated enough to steer the sled, hold a child and take a video all at the same time. There was a speed camera at one point down the path. Olivia and I hit 13mph which felt incredibly fast. Adam claims he and Charlotte were at 25mph. Not sure I believe them.
It was so fun we decided to go again.
The walk back to the car took longer than the walk from the car. I’m not real sure why…
Winter has been one of my favorite seasons for at least the last 20 years. I think it's because we don't get much of a winter back home in Dallas and I like experiencing different kinds of weather in different places. And while it's often easy to imagine what a place would be like on a bright summer day, envisioning the same place in the dead of winter under feet of snow is a bit more challenging for me. So I tend to take a lot of pictures in the winter.
But one of my favorite pictures from this winter was taken by someone else & posted to our town's Facebook page. Thank you to the person who captured this beauty!
Winter in the "Happy Valley" is also important for other reasons. Like family visits during Christmas with Hot Chocolate, Christmas markets and time with the grandparents...
And who can forget the fun winter activities like Ice Skating, Skiing, Sledding and building Snowmen!
Winter in Liechtenstein is a magical time and I think I can safely say that we have all found things we love about living here during this time of year. And with another month yet to go I'm sure we'll have more snowy updates in the coming weeks.
I don’t think I could have been more excited about this trip. We told the kids nothing about it besides we were going to ride on a train. Which, quite frankly, isn’t a lot of information because many of our trips right now involve a train of some sort.
We traveled to Montreux, Switzerland. It’s on the French side of the country. In fact, the other side of the lake in the pictures of the Christmas Market is France.
We got to our hotel and dropped our bags then headed into the market.
Usually when I tell her not to smile for a photo I get the biggest grin. Today I got a petrified cat.
Can we just take a moment and discuss how amazing fondue bread is as a dinner? They take a 10” French bread roll and poke a hole in the middle then fill it with fondue cheese. These people are geniuses.
After snacking our way through dinner, the highlight of the night was a flyby from the jolly old man himself.
How cool is that? Watch it again with the sound to get Charlotte’s full commentary and amazement. Remember, they had no idea this was going to happen. The surprise and excitement was the best gift I’ll have all season.
After the excitement of seeing Santa, the girls were about done.
So we sent the kids back to the hotel with Adam’s parents while he & I had a mini-date night at the market. We sipped mulled wine, browsed shops (and even touched things without worrying about being a bad example!), and rode the Ferris Wheel. All as grown ups. 10/10. Highly recommend.
The next morning the excitement level was way up again. It started with us boarding a beautiful cogwheel train up the mountain with exquisite views of the lake and Swiss alps on all sides.
This is the equivalent of "are we there yet?"
At the top of the mountain is Rochers de Naye - a little over 6700ft up. We disembarked the train and walked through a long tunnel lined with twinkle lights to reach Santa’s grotto.
At the end of the tunnel we got to visit with Santa. I was impressed at how well the set up worked. An elf stood at the entrance and pre chatted with the kids to pick up names and which language they were most comfortable in. Even I didn’t realize what she was doing at first. Then she would introduce them to Santa … e.g., ‘Bonjour Père Noël, c'est Timmy de Paris’ or ‘Hallo Sankt Nikolaus, hier ist Hans aus Berlin’ or (in our case) ‘Hi Santa, look! It’s Charlotte & Olivia from Texas!’ In our time there, I heard him speak English, Italian, French & German. How truly magical!
Each child got a few minutes with Santa to chat about Christmas wishes. Charlotte asked him if he’d received her letter, which was a surprise to me as I didn’t know she’d sent him a letter. Thankfully he said yes. I later found out that they’d written letters at school.
We then got to walk through a little side area where both my children signed a book certifying that they had been good all year long ... hoping nobody audits those records. They then received a little gift bag with some fruit, chocolates and a teddy bear included.
We took some time to enjoy a hot chocolate in Santa’s grotto and look around at all the decor before heading back down the twinkly walkway to the train.
waiting on the train to come back
it is coming back, right?
ah, yes, they just had to run the snow plow up the tracks
much better now
It’s going to take a lot to top this magical little Christmas outing!
