Désalpe 2009, St-Cergue

Every autumn in Switzerland, farmers bring their cows down from the mountains to winter in cozy barns. This event is celebrated in St. Cergue and other villages with local festivals featuring food, wine, traditional music, children's games, and of course, decorated cows and cow bells.

Visiting St. Cergue for Désalpe weekend has become somewhat of a tradition for us, if you can call two years in a row a tradition. We met our friends the Gibsons in St. Cergue and had a lot of fun. The weather was perfect -- a "bluebird" day, as they say.

Max, Daniel, and I went for a hike up the mountain, following a ski trail up and a hiking trail back down to the village. The views of the Jura are beautiful as you can see in the pictures and it feels great hiking in the mountain at this time of year (or any time of year).

Trockener Steg 2,929 Meters

One last day of skiing for me at Zermatt today. Snow was beautiful, in fact it kept snowing as I was skiing. Most the day was mixed sun, clouds, and snow. Went to the top, Matterhorn glacier paradise (3,883 m -- the highest point in Europe accessible by cable car) but the runs and conditions were better between Trockener Steg (2,929) and Furggsattel (3,365 m) so I kept taking that chair. Our season started on December 7 in Sainte-Croix and ended on May 4 in Zermatt - five months later. Of course you can continue to ski at Zermatt all summer long, albeit on a very reduced area. Maybe if I get the itch in July...

I posted a video below of the cable car ride to Matterhorn glacier paradise from YouTube (not taken by me) to give you a sense of the ride up.

2009 World Ice Hockey Championships

Attended the 2009 World Ice Hockey Championships held in Bern and Zurich Switzerland. We saw two games on consecutive weekends: USA vs. Latvia on April 25 in the preliminary round and USA vs. Russia on May 2 in the qualification round. Both were very exciting contests with USA beating Latvia 4-2 and Russia beating USA 4-1. USA eventually played Russia again in the semi-final round, losing 3-2. Russia continued on to beat Canada in the finals 2-1.

Aunt Jean and Uncle Bob visit Nyon.

We love visitors and had a great time with Aunt Jean and Uncle Bob when they visited us in Nyon in early April. Jean had work in London, so combined that trip with a few extra days "en Suisse". We're glad she did. During the short visit we showed Jean and Bob around the area visiting Lausanne, Montreux, Vevey, and of course, Nyon.

Top of the World, Ma...

Since we were unable to make our annual trip to Gore Mountain in the Adirondacks, we spent a few days at Zermatt, Switzerland. It is about 2.5 hours from our home and is known for the famous peak "the Matterhorn", which you will see in a lot of these pictures. It is not the highest peak in Europe, but it is the most dramatic. In Zermatt, I believe you can see 10 of the 11 highest peaks in Europe. The highest we skied was at 3800 meters, and top to bottom it is about a 13 kilometer ski.

Joyeux Noël

Our first Christmas in Switzerland is a mixture of the familiar and the new. We kept many of the family traditions, such as Dad being first up to check if Santa Clause paid a visit, setting holiday mood music, starting coffee, fire up the camera, and finally giving word to three anxious children that it is okay to come upstairs (in America, our bedrooms are upstairs, so you go downstairs to see what Santa brought). Pause at the top of the stairs for the annual photo, then let the ripping begin -- Legos everywhere. We miss having family here for this holiday especially. But we had a wonderful Christmas eve dinner at "chez Grant" with our Swiss family, the Gibsons, including Grant's mom Pat.

Montreux Marché de Noël

We had looked forward to the Marché de Noël (Christmas Market) for a long time, and we finally got the chance to visit this week in Montreux; we were not disappointed. Montreux hosts a very large Marché de Noël that includes endless wooden huts with vendors selling beautiful gifts, many hand crafted. I love the sight and smell of all the tradional foods, including the fondue we enjoyed for dinner, roasted chestnuts, grilled sausages, hearty soups, and of course, Glühwein, a warm spiced wine. And it would not be Montreux if there was not a jazz band playing favorite and familiar tunes -- I am looking forward to the Montreux Jazz Festival in July. Max, Ali, and I even rode a huge ferris wheel and got the birds-eye view of the market. It was a lot of fun and we were a bunch of tired puppies on the train ride home to Nyon.

Sledding at St. Cergue

If you received a Holiday card from us, the picture of Max, Ali, and Daniel was taken during this sledding excursion in St. Cergue, which is just 14 km from our apartement in Nyon. The kids had a lot of fun, as you can see; they even met some English-speaking friends.

One of the differences between the weather here vs. back in upstate New York, is that the temperature is relatively mild in the valley where we live in Nyon. There is no snow on the ground and the temperature is about 0° to 5° C (hovering around 32° F) at this time in early December. Yet, anytime we want to play in the snow, just go up in the mountains and it is a winter wonderland.

Aiguille du Midi... Top of the World.

Well not exactly "top of the world", but this is the top of the Alps. Aiguille du Midi (3,842 m), is right next to Mont Blanc (4,810 m), the tallest mountain in the Alps and western Europe. "La Dame Blanche" (the white lady) is home to a year-round glacier. This region is a great location for skiing (we are looking forward to coming back), as well as mountain climbing, hiking, and pargliding.

On this clear day we took a cable car up to Midi from the quaint village of Chamonix. There is no snow in the village at this time of year, but there is plenty up here! The kids had a lot of fun crafting their first snowballs of the year.

Happy Halloween

Halloween is not celebrated in Switzerland typically, however we got together with our neighbors and threw a tradional Halloween party for the kids. Games included mummy, donut eating contests, apple bobbing, balloon stomping, and of course, the kids all went "trick or treat" around the building. It was great fun and a reminder of home for the Americans and a maybe an introduction to a new tradition for the local children.