An emergence of wintertime
December arrived promptly and brought winter along with it, dusting (then pounding) us in bright white snow and delighting our eyes with bright Christmas lights and sparkling sunsets. It is, without a double, very cold. Especially on the days that it snows two feet without stopping for days in a row. Every once in a while, the blue peaks out from behind the clouds and we’re treated to a few hours of warm sunshine. We soak it all up, stripping out of coats and jackets and stomping through mushy snow piles to find the best spot to bask, knowing that come nightfall the melted snow will turn to solid ice, and our morning sloped walk into work will be all the more treacherous. Fingers crossed we make it through the season mostly injury free.
Speaking of potential for injury, we tried out hand at skiing the Swiss slopes for the first time this weekend and were properly intimidated. Freddy, quite the optimistic learner, seemingly mastered the bunny slopes in no time, crushing his pizzas and french-fries without much of a second thought. Confident, and incredibly bored from the magic carpet riding, we decided to give the nearby blue run a go (our mountain features “easy” blue, “moderate” red and “difficult” black pistes) and it was quite the adventure. Freddy quickly adapted to a ski-across-the-slope, sit, flip-your-skis-while-on-your-butt, ski-across-the-slope-again method, while Shona held her breath and gave the surprisingly steep slope a go. We’d heard that the mountain was only somewhat beginner friendly, and may try to drive to a nearby spot to test out some slightly more gentle pistes.
We have only a week and change left before we head to Italy for some of our winter holiday time, and we’re looking forward to exploring Florence, Siena and maybe Venice too on our upcoming trip. Any (dog-friendly) recommendations welcome!
Love from Leysin,
sbmc
