Merry Swissmas!!!

So we decided a while ago that with the cost of transatlantic flights and the short time that we are here, we would not be travelling home for the holidays. Since we couldn't be with family, we thought it would be best if we went somewhere Christmassy, so we planned a trip to Switzerland. We hit four cities in five days, and had a generally wonderful time. Here's the brief recap:

Basel - 3 Countries in 5 Minutes

We left London for Basel on the 23rd. The city is on the corner of Switzerland, Germany and France, and was supposed to have the best Christmas Market outside of Germany. We flew into the airport, which is in France, and had a car from the hotel pick us up. Our hotel was in Germany, but we had to pass through Switzerland to get there, so we literally went through all three countries in a matter of less than five minutes. The odd thing was that they never really checked our passports. The Frenchy at the airport basically just waived us on by, and although we had to go through border checks every time we crossed, the cars we were in were always just waived through as well. So alas, although we spent the week in Switzerland, we never got a passport stamp, which was a little bit disappointing.

The city was great, though. The city was very decorated for Christmas. There were trees and lights and decorated shops all over the place, and it was a great kickoff to our Christmas trip. The Market was very nice. They had about 140 booths selling everything from nutcrackers to Swiss Army knives to cashmere scarves. We toured around the market, saw the main church in Basel (which was very nice) and enjoyed a wonderful German bratwurst and pretzel.

Interlaken

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we caught a train from Basel to Interlaken, which is in central Switzerland in the heart of the alps. It is a very nice town, stuck in a valley surrounded by mountains and in between 2 lakes. The town was very small (15,000) and touristy - lots of shops selling watches and clocks and chocolate. We spent the first day walking around town trying to figure out what exactly we could do. The area is famous for its extreme sports, but since we were only there for the 24th and 25th, we were a bit worried that we wouldn't really be able to do anything, which turned out to be mostly true. So on the 24th we got into our hotel (which was awesome) toured around the town, and decided that we would spend the 25th skiing. We ate at a local fondue place, which was actually somewhat disappointing. They cook the meat in oil rather than the wine/oil/herb deliciousness that we're used to at the Melting Pot back home. Not that it was bad (and the chocolate was pretty much to die for), but I think we set our expectations a little too high.

On Christmas day, we woke up pretty early and headed up the mountain to go skiing. We had bought warm weather gear, including ski pants, in anticipation of our trip, so we thought we were all set. It took a while to actually get up the mountain, and get outfitted, but we ended up on the lift by about 11:00. We were on the longest cable car in the world (or maybe Europe or just Switzerland - but in any case it was long), and the views of the mountains for the 30 minutes or so of the ride were incredible.

We realized very quickly once we got off the lift that maybe it wasn't the best idea to have our first ski trip in 8+ years be to the Swiss Alps. There were 2 signs pointing toward easy slopes. The first was easy all the way, but it looked like the first part was difficult and then got easier. The other sign said "TO" an easy slope, and it looked very easy to start off, so we went that way. Turns out that the "TO" piece of the sign was very important. It wasn't long before we realized that we were actually on a intermediate slope (which compared to the difficult runs we'd done in Colorado) which led to an easy one. We basically skied a little, tumbled a bit, and walked quite a ways down the mountain. After about an hour and a half we made it to the easy slope (probably about 100 yds from the start) and it got fun from there. We skied the rest of the way down and it was good. By the time we got to the bottom, though, Jenna was freezing and emotionally drained. We had the option of either going back up the same lift to the same spot (which Jenna refused) or calling it a day, so we went back to the lodge and enjoyed the views and some hot chocolate (one of MANY cups on the trip).

We eventually went back to the hotel, read the Christmas story, and watched "It's a Wonderful Life".

Bern (or Brrrrrrrn)

We hadn't originally planned to stop in Bern, but we noticed that our train from Interlaken to Geneva stopped there, and since the 26th is a national holiday (Boxing Day -we don't really know what that means) we figured Geneva would be mostly closed down. So we thought it would be best to just devote the entire day of the 27th to Geneva and make a stop over in Bern on the 26th. We jumped off the train in Bern and put our luggage in some lockers and were off.

Bern is the capital of Switzerland, and we read that it means "bear" in German (I haven't taken the time to verify that). Anyway, they have bears all over the place (signs, statues, etc). The best part was the "bear pit" right in the middle of the city. It has been there in some form or another for over 400 years, and is basically a big pit where some bears live. We only saw one out while we were there, but it looked mostly like what you'd see in a zoo, other than that it was right in the middle of town.

It was pretty dead being a holiday, but we were able to see most of the city. It was really just an old city and it was interesting to see the buildings, parliament, famous clock (overrated), church, etc. It was very cold that day, so we didn't stay too long - just about 2 hours - but since the city is small and most stuff was closed, we were able to see everything that our book said was important.

Geneva

The train ride from Interlaken/Bern to Geneva had magnificent breathtaking views. It was nice to sit back and enjoy the ride.

We got into Geneva at about 7:00, so we knew everything would be closed and it was too dark to see the city, so we just went up to the room and tried to find a place for dinner. Turned out that our hotel had a traditional Swiss country restaurant, so we decided to have fondue again. The restaurant was very interesting - decked out like a mountain chalet. They had a live band as well that played guitar, accordion, alpine horn, and cowbells. It would have been the whole package if the fondue would have been good. We just wanted cheese and chocolate. The cheese was fine, but the chocolate was crap. Jenna actually quit eating it after about 2 dips - which if you know her should say everything.

The next day (our last) we spent seeing the sites in Geneva. It is the home of the original League of Nations, and now houses the European arm of the UN. We went to see that building, but of course with the holidays it was all closed up. We got to see the building at least, and have pictures out front, so we'll probably tell our kids that we got to speak there or something. The other main site in Geneva is the church, where John Calvin and other reformers started their work. At this point, we're kind of over seeing all the churches. They are all great, and we'll probably continue to visit them, but they are pretty much all the same. All nice, but the reaction we have now versus the first one we saw is quite different. We spent the rest of the day walking around the city (which we did quickly and with more than one hot chocolate stop on account of the fact that it was freezing).

We got to the airport a couple of hours early, so we spent a while walking around the various shops and bought one last chocolate bar. When it came time to check in, Jenna gave the lady her boarding pass and instead of hearing the happy beeping sound, a red light flashed and it made a shrieking buzzing noise instead. I was a little worried until the lady said "Oh, I think you'll be happy...You got upgraded." I was then very happy to see that my ticket buzzed as well. We still have no idea what we did or why it happened, but we ended up in first class. It was only an hour and a half flight, and the seats were actually exactly the same as coach, but we got a nice meal and overall better treatment. I guess it was mostly the fact that we got upgraded, and now were just hoping it happens next time we fly to the US!! It was a great end to the vacation, and all in all we had a wonderful Christmas celebration (although I think next year we may end up at the beach instead!).