ski holiday – trippingdifferently

Yep, that’s what we did for the February sports holidays here in Switzerland. We went searching for snow. Why? Because global warming/climate change has meant that this alpine nation, once known for great skiing didn’t get enough snow for the season!

So we went up to a mountain we had never been to before, having heard that they might have more snow than others – we went to Crans Montana. Not somewhere we would usually go because it’s a bit further away and has been known to be expensive.

While there was little snow in the village, just a short up the way you could see the white stuff so it was not too bad. We had an okay time. The husband and son said the snow was not good by the afternoon, so they returned early and decided not to ski the next day. Lexi and I had a wonderful walk across the mountain; the views were amazing. But I took a tumble on an icy patch near the end of our walk; that sort of put a damper on things.

The hotel we stayed at was nice, the staff lovely and the food pretty good. So no complaints there. We left early on the 3rd day and made a pit stop at Fribourg, the university city in the French part of Switzerland. It was nice to see this city again after many years.

Here are some photos of our trip:

SYC

So here’s Part 2 as promised… if you missed Part 1, you can read it here.

This second trip we went back to Wengen. We were up there for a whole week with a good friend last year. You can read about it here.

So this time we chose to stay only 3 nights which meant that booking a self-catering chalet was out. You have to take a full week when renting holiday chalets. i got us booked into a nice hotel about 5-10mins walk (depending how fast your child would walk) outside of the main town of Wengen.

The Hotel Bellevue is a lovely hotel, which hosts the Lauberhorn Ski World Cup Competitors every January. Don’t expect to find rooms at that time. It is run by a very friendly couple, the service is very personal.

The room we were given was nice and big and very comfortably sleeps 3. i dare say it could sleep 4 even. It is well-advertised as a TV-free hotel which is great when what you have come to the mountains to do is to get away from it all 😉 We were picked up at the Wengen Train Station by the very nice owner himself, in his yellow electric taxi. Guests can store their ski equipment in town at the Central Sport, free of charge. Which is great as you really want to do as little dragging around of your skis as possible, especially with child in tow.

Here’s a view of the hotel itself:

i love the traditional look of the hotel. — i love how the hotel looks perched on the edge of the mountain.

i’m sorry that i don’t have nice pictures of the room we stayed in. We had all settled in and the room was already messy by the time i remembered i wanted pictures. But there was a feature of the hotel which amused me – the fire escape on every floor was out a window at the end of the corridor, usually covered by a plant. See…

And on either side of the fire escape on our floor, there is a toilet on the right and shower room on the left ;) — And on our floor, there is a toilet on the right and shower room on the left 😉

The view from the hotel is amazing. Have a look:

Left: View from the breakfast room, Right: View from our room window - it would have been better if it had been sunny that first day. — Left: View from the breakfast room, Right: View from our room window – it would have been better if it had been sunny that first day.

So what do people do to entertain themselves if there was no TV? Well, there is one TV, which is located in the lounge/bar area. But we only watched it for like 30-mins one of the evenings we were there.

A nice relax area. — A nice relax area with a full bar.

What i did love but didn’t have a chance to use was the very lovely reading rooms. Gorgeously decorated with Victorian-styled furniture, you could read all day in here. They even provide the books and board games.

i absolutely love those chairs! — i absolutely love those chairs, especially that big red one!

There is also an outdoor Jacuzzi, which again we didn’t use and a nice balcony area where you could soak in that amazing view i showed you before.

Jacuzzi with a view! That's the life... — Jacuzzi with a view! That’s the life…

The evening we arrived we went to visit Walter’s Uncle who runs a Chinese Restaurant on the other side of the valley in the resort town of Mürren. It was yummy Chinese for dinner, made more yummy by the fact that we had to travel out in the very cold evening for a good 40-mins before tucking in. It’s called Tham’s Restaurant and is the only Chinese Restaurant there. So if you are ever in Mürren, i highly recommend going there for great food.

Here we are having some fun while waiting for the train to take us back down to the valley and then another train back up the other side to Wengen.

Being silly in the cold... — Being silly in the cold…

We came back just in time to watch the Wengen Ski School put up their annual ski show. We watched this last year but it was really fun so we decided to watch it again this year. It was too dark and we stood too far for good shots of the show itself but the fireworks made great photos. They exploded as the trick skiers and snowboards jumped the ramp.

Fireworks always amaze me... — Fireworks always amaze me…

That first day of skiing was great but the weather was terrible. So much fog. We could hardly see where we were going on the slopes, quite scary for some parts. Tobias and myself gave up by about mid-afternoon and headed back. Walter stayed for a little longer.

The second day was fantastic! The weather was beautiful and the snow was good. Plus we had good friends come up and ski with us. The slopes are wide and long which makes for great skiing with a large group.

This was taken just before that fog cloud lifted... then it was clear all day! — This was taken just before that fog cloud lifted… then it was clear all day!

Here’s a shot of all the kids who were with us that day (oh no, we are missing one kid… she was skiing with her dad):

They were all great skiers/snowboarders.

At the end of the day, we went back down to Wengen, had a hot drink and then caught the Rescue Dog Show. It was interesting and all of us love dogs so it was a great way to end the day. The youngest of the Hartkop children, Juli, even volunteered to be hidden in the snow and wait for the dog to come rescue her! Very exciting for us to watch.