So on the last Saturday of January, while Husband was off helping a colleague move, Son and i went to see the International Ballooning Festival in Château-d’Oex, Switzerland.
i had heard about this festival a couple of years ago and always wanted to go but we either had something else to do or were not here for it. So this year, i decided we just had to go. And we went.
The day started out lovely, cold but nice enough. We took the train from Montreux up to Château-d’Oex. The scenry went from this…
…to this in a space of 30 minutes!
It was lovely to be up in this winter wonderland. We haven’t had much snow at our level.
However, all that snowfall (it kept on falling in big fat flakes while we were there) means that it is bad weather and poor visibility for ballooning, the balloons were not going to take off. But they did inflate them so that the people who did come to see them will have something to see.
Here they are inflating the famous Scotsman. i was taken aback at how huge the balloons were.
Here’s the Scotsman, fully inflated.
So we stayed till they started to deflate some of the balloons and we went inside the big ‘warehouse’ and had some lunch. (Tobias got his first taste of cotton candy – he had fun but i don’t think he will be asking for one too soon.)
The whole village takes this ballooning thing very serious. They have a special display or it could be called a museum just for the sport of ballooning. We did not see this because i don’t read french and had thought it was only meant for organisers and information only. i realised too late that it was opened to public.
Here’s a little display in a bakery window which i like very much – just to show you how much they are into this ballooning thing.
Tobias really enjoyed himself, even though it was cold and mummy was a little grumpy about it. So all in all it was a good day out.
i would recommend it to families with kids who are fancinated with flight and flying. Oh, people brought their little sleds with them, there was a little hill next to the launch site where kids could sled. Next time we’re bringing ours.
syc
trippingdifferently 