Villars - Switzerland

Well, three days of blue bird skiing and three nights of eating and
drinking too much and it's no wonder I haven't remembered to post an
update.

All the things I remembered about skiing in the Alps compared to the
states have been fully vindicated. It's not hard to appreciate the way
they do skiing here, gorgeous scenary (especially when you see blue
skies all day), long slow lifts (and when I say lift I mean T-bar or
"pancake") followed by long groomed runs and dont forget long lunches
with a bottle of wine (and European service of course). You might say
everything is "long" or slow, but maybe that's the charm of European
skiing.

I'll be the first to admit, I've had it pretty good this weekend. The
chalet is great and on the slopes (hard not to be up here), the
weather has been perfect including fresh snow to greet us Wednesday
night, the food delicious and the slopes empty ( that is until today
when the locals came out to enjoy the sun, I can't blame them, we were
spoiled). I could give a recap of each day but it would be pretty
simple, especially when the middle six + hours could be described as
"skiing". I'll try to fill in the rest.

Wednesday was my travel day from AMS to GVA where I flew EasyJet for
the first time ( think southwest but even MORE budget). I met my
cousin at the airport and we did the 75 min drive to his chalet with a
car packed with 7 people, including three kids, one on my lap :). We
drove up the mountain in the snow, so we knew we would have good
conditions. We skiied all day thursday, one big happy family of seven,
including the typical lunch stop with wine for at least an hour. After
getting home we jumped in the hot tub to make sure our muscles were
ready for the following day. However, it gets better as our plan for
dinner involved us sitting at the table and being served by a chef
brought in for the night. We had a wonderful meal, the most memorable
dish being the homemade banana cheesecake, wow.

Yesterday was much the same, wake up, go skiing, eat a long lunch with
wine, ski more, jump in the tub and eat a good dinner. What made
yesterday interesting is that we skiied over to the next village (most
ski areas in the alps are connected and include 3,4 or more individual
towns) and got a different view and terrain. The children went home
around 15:15, but I continued skiing with Sebastian until closing at
17:00 which ended up being a full day. The only hitch with a ski in,
ski out chalet is that you have to know how to get home in order to
take advantage of the "ski in" aspect. We didn't so Philip came and
picked us up down the road. Oh well. We again stayed in for dinner,
but we just ordered in this time. After two days of skiing for the
first time this year I definitely felt sore (even more so tonight) and
look forward to getting into better "ski shape".

Today was our last full day on the slopes, and we were dissapointed.
Not really since the sun still was shining, providing spring like
conditions, but it is Saturday so the locals came out in full force.
We were truly spoiled with open slopes and fresh snow for two days.
Like yesterday, we went over to a different part of the area and found
less crowds and nice snow, just not a lot of variety. We got a lot of
good skiing in before lunch, the children and mom went with the
instructor while the three gentlemen skiied hard. We made our back
after, and again Sebastian and I continued for another 90 minutes or
so, including a beer break. (Did you know they serve 25cl beers? Like
8oz. Funny and kind of nice for those one beer moments, even if they
are few). This time on the way down we actually found our way back, so
today was officially ski in ski out. A quick hot tub preceded dinner,
which was down the road in town. We chose a place known for their
raclette, which is a very typical regional dish of melted cheese
scraped off the block eaten with potatoes, dried meat and bread.
Similar to fondu in the melted cheese aspect, except here a block of
cheese is held in front of a fire and then scrapped onto your plate
and brought to you. Unlimited portions so if you don't have a
cholesterol problem, bring an appetite. Very tasty and fun, I wonder
if a place serves raclette in Chicago?

Tomorrow I'll ski a few hours and then head back to Geneva where I'll
spend the night before grabbing my flight back Monday. It's been a
great first ski trip of the year, hopefully a sign if things to come.
The weather has been perfect, the mountains stunning and the food
everything you shouldn't eat unless you are on vacation. Also, any
passionate skiier in the US should make one pilgramige to the alps,
where skiing was born. Long quad burning runs from town to town with
slow lifts up to enjoy the views.

Many thanks to PJH and Marianne for the unbelievable hosptiality, even
though I'm taking a year off, it will be hard to go back to "reality".
Unless somethig crazy happens (knock on wood), I'll update when I get
back home.