Switzerland
We’ve been living in Zurich for about 10 days so far and it’s awesome. My wife’s work is about a 25 minute walk and mine is about 5, which is really nice compared to home. So far the weather’s been a little chilly but not too bad. There was a little bit of snow one day last week, which was awesome.
Last weekend we went to Leukerbad. Public transportation here runs like clockwork. We took a big train, little train and bus and all of them left within 30 seconds of their scheduled times. Also, they allow plenty of time for transfers, which means that you won’t get stuck in the middle of nowhere but also having a book handy is key. Speaking of which, the people we’re renting from left an absolutely hilarious book called Xenophobe’s Guide to the Swiss, and I’m tempted to get the California edition to see what’s said.In Leukerbad we rode a cable car up to the Gemmi pass and rode sleds up there for a few hours. After that we sat in the way overcrowded hot springs for awhile to warm up, before eating some awesome Hawaiian style rösti with pineapple and cheese on top. The next day I went snowboarding on Torrenthorn, which is about 9800 feet. I forgot my snowboarding pants so instead went in my fleece pajama bottoms (the cheapest pants were 200-300 CHF!) which actually worked pretty nicely.
It was the first time I’ve used T-bar lifts, and I managed to eat it the first time. Using it on a snowboard was tricky because you need to stick it between your legs so that you can go up the hill facing sideways. I saw a few snowboarders fall off part way up and then need to scurry out of the way before they were run over by the next people. Craziness. Overall pretty cool though.