New Year '09 in Champoussin

And it was onwards and upwards to the mountains of Switzerland, and when we say upwards we really mean it!! We had to take a tram from the last train station which wound it's way through the mountains so the nearest town from where we had to catch a bus to the little village of Champoussin. And we must say that we could not have gotten closer to the mountains if we had tried.

So after having travelled through 3 countries on Hennie's birthday - another first - we arrived at our final destination and moved into our little swiss apartment, unpacked and then made our way out into the snow to wait for the 'Gaby Mobile' - a snow plough - to take us up the mountain to the Swiss restaurant where the evening birthday celebrations were to take place. So we celebrated in style with a traditional cheese fondue - another first for Hennie and very yummy!! And then the 'Gaby Mobile' returned us back where we were very glad to see our bed!!

This time we were very much surrounded by skiing and snowboarding so we decided to venture out and partake of some lessons (complete with fractured elbow and all :) When we asked if there were group lessons that we can join the lady looked at us and very politely said that as yet they had not yet had an adult beginners class so she suggested that we take some private lessons. In other words we were quite old to begin skiing as they started teaching the little people here at two 1/2 years old. The private lessons were actually just what we needed and Hennie was able to learn the ropes and get to grips with the fact that he had two long pieces of equipment attached to his feet and I was able to touch up on all that I had learnt before and I must say that I was feeling much more 'in touch with the mountain' and confident after. So that was the first two days and boy did we discover muscles that we never knew that we had :) But we did find a lovely little restaurant where we went to rest our aching bodies and nurse when with hot chocolate and cuppacino's :)

We had a couple of days where there was endless snow and rain throughout the day so that was a forced and very much enjoyed relax :)

On one day we ventured out of our little secluded village to the next village - at the end of the tram line - and wandered around and scaled the mountains via cable car :)

We had a lovely New Year's dinner at one of the restaurants in the village and then stood outside our room watching the fireworks that came from all around. They are definitely fans of fireworks over there and although the display is very informal it was amazing to see the fireworks coming from all directions.

And then just to go out in style, ,we spent our last day (Friday) on the slopes - yes we spent a whole day skiing :) Hennie managed really well and we are pleased to say that he did not break anything else or do any further damage to the already broken bits :)

Well that was enough to sell it to him and if it wasn't for the fact that our legs were screaming at us we would have been there till the lifts closed. So there are definitely plans to do another skiing holiday, this time without any previous injuries :)

And then as they say, all good things must come to and end and so we made our way back to London via Zurich.

It was an amazing holiday all in all and we just loved the time together and felt ready to take on a new year :)

Christmas is Oberstaufen

Well the holidays had finally arrived :) It really felt like the end of the year by the time we left for the airport on Saturday but it sure felt like the holliday had started when we landed in a very cold and snowy Munich.

We had been delayed by an hour taking off from Heathrow so we just managed to catch the last train to our final destination - Oberstaufen. It was a very chilly -16'C when we arrived at Oberstaufen station at 11:30pm and boy were we glad to see the taxi that delivered us to the resort where we were staying and it was even better to walk into a very well heated and cute apartment where we collapsed into bed briefly saying that we were looking forward to going exploring the next day!

We awoke to a winter wonderland - more snow than these 2 South Africans have seen before :) And so we doned our new ski-wear to take it for a test drive. We were nice and warm and dry as we ventured outside to walk to the town which was 20 minutes away and made sure that we walked through as much snow as possible despite there being a very nicely cleared path :)

We had a magical week in this part of Bavaria and hardly noticed at all that we were not on the ski slopes.

We visited the fairy tale castle of King Ludwig on the Monday, went toboganning and hiking up the mountain to a mountain-top restaurant in the dark and descended with torches on Tuesday. Wednesday was visiting the nearest Christmas market n a neighbouring town and discovering some very yummy Bavarian delicacies. Thursday was exploring Oberstaufen itself and participating in the traditional Christmas eve goings-on and Friday was Christmas and we couldn't have asked for a more typical white Christmas as we had a wonderful day complete with pressies, spoils and snow. We had a wonderful Christmas day dinner in a traditional Bavarian restaurant.

And so the week in this magical place had come to an end :( but there was more to look forward to as we packed and got ready for the next adventure in Switzerland.