There wasn't a lot of snow in Nendaz so the kids' ski school was moved to Sion, around the mountain. It was pretty disorganized for the little kids but Cole had one teacher for two boys and ended the week coming down the mountain on his own. Jesse covered all the trails and the rest of us enjoyed wonderful accommodations at the Hotel Nendaz, including the outdoor heated pool with a view of the mountains. We had raclette for Christmas Eve dinner and Santa found the kids in Switzerland.
When the week ended, we set off to the East in a blinding snowstorm that persisted for the rest of the trip. Brave Jesse drove up, over, down and even through (on a train) the mountains. Dad helped him to put on and take off the snow chains multiple times.
We spent one night on the hillside of Lake Thun but it was so snowy we could not see the lake, let alone the mountains across the way. The next night we slid into southern Germany and visited Neuschwanstein Castle in the snow, walking up the entire hill because they did not have the buses running in those conditions.
We continued slowly through the worst of the storm around Munich to Salzburg. The entrance road to the hotel was not even plowed so the snow chains went on again. We hired a turgid for a private Sound of Music tour and still need to write Rick Steves about how bad she was. But Salzburg is so beautiful that we still enjoyed it a lot. A warm and cozy dinner on the hill above the cathedral on a streetlamp-lit, snowy evening was a fitting farewell.
As we headed home, the snow finally cleared around Rothenburg ob der Tauber. We stopped in this little Christmas town and had a traditional meal in a beer hall for an early New Year's Eve dinner. Many hours later, we returned to Brussels and rang in the new year fast asleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment