The Arrival!
What a start to our trip. The landing into the London airport was rough, and I got a bit sick. That had Ma and Pa distracted. We had a longer layover, so we were not really in any rush to get off the plane. I did what I needed to do, and we ended up being the last ones on board. Finally, Pa stood up to grab our overnight bag from the overhead compartment and…uh oh! The bag was gone.
And in that moment, I learned a few new words.
The flight attendants were very helpful in trying to run through scenarios for what might have happened. There was another bag, kind of like ours (but not really) a few rows back. Someone had pulled an ole’ switcheroo. The flight attendants took that back down to the baggage claim in the hope that they weren’t already off on another flight. In the meantime, we headed on to our next flight. Long story short, they found the person and switched the bags back, but then they had to turn our bag into the claims department. We…yes we…had to pay to have the bag shipped back home. To Texas. This bag had Ma and Pa’s winter coats. And as you can see in the pictures, we were headed to Switzerland in winter.
Wild start I know. I have never experienced anything quite like that in all my years of travel ;). We arrived in Zurich, left the airport, and headed to a hotel for the night. Ma and Pa got themselves a large cocktail (Pa’s drink was smoking – no, seriously, see the video). After breakfast the next morning, we went in search of some groceries – and some coats – before heading to the house we rented for the week.
The House
The house was amazing. It was in a small town called Alvaneu. We were right across from a church and had an amazing view of the Alps. Given everything that happened on our travels, we decided that we were just going to take it easy on our first day there. In the morning, we went for a walk to explore. It was unseasonably warm and quite nice outside. Just down the way from the house, we found a nice trail and a small sled run. Thankfully there were a few sleds in the house we could use. We grabbed a couple and away we went. The sled run didn’t look like much, but it was fast! I mean really fast! We zoomed down a few times, but then Pa got tired of having to carry me and the sleds back up the hill. I could have gone on all day, but Pa might have passed out in the snow if we did any more runs.
Landwasser Viaduct
In the afternoon, we headed out for a short drive and a short hike to catch a glimpse of the Landwasser Viaduct. It turned out to be a pretty cool hike to get to the viaduct. Pa and I kept throwing snowballs at each other. His were bigger than mine, but I did get a few shots in (with Ma’s help). We walked until we got a good view of the viaduct. We took a few pictures and then started to head back to the car. Just then we heard some noises off in the distance. We stopped and listened. Slowly the sounds were getting louder and louder. And then it appeared. Off in the distance, we saw a bright red train working its way towards us. The train tracks were right next to our trail, so we waited. It was the Glacier Express! It zoomed past us on its way through the Alps to St. Moritz. What a cool sight to see this bright red train against the white snow.
I didn’t realize it yet, but the next day I would get to cross the Landwasser Viaduct on the Bernina Express on my way to Italy!
Bergun Sled Run
After we returned from that trip, it was time for more sledding. It was Pa’s birthday, and he wanted to take on the Bergun Sled Run. This place just sounded cool. The sled run was so long that you had to take a train to the beginning. We hopped on the train for a 10-minute ride up to the starting point. The run is normally a road during the summer, but during the winter the road stays covered in snow. It is almost 4 miles long with a few turns and some long straights. If you are brave, you can get up some pretty good speed.
Pa and I decided to take easy, not go too fast and stay in control. I had Pa’s phone and filmed the whole thing from my point of view. Yes, you can hear me say go faster and crash! What you can’t see is, moments after I put the phone away, we did crash, right into a snowbank. Eventually, we made it back to the town in one piece. We jumped back in the car and headed back to the house for some much needed hot chocolate.
St. Moritz
The next day we headed to the Top of the World, St. Moritz. St. Mortiz was the site of the 1928 and 1948 winter Olympics. It is a very glitzy town with lots of high-end shopping, but that is not why we were there. We were taking the funicular to the “top of the world.” After lunch, we hopped on and started our journey. And it was a long one. We climbed nearly 4000 feet to get to the point where people were skiing. There were incredible views overlooking the city and lake below. I was fascinated by all the people. I hope on my next winter trip I will be able to ski like everyone else. We hung out for a while and got some hot chocolate, because why not!
Snowman
Since that was Pa’s day, the day after that was all mine. I had been begging to make a snowman and finally, it was time. We headed down to the field across from the house and began our snowman adventure. It was not the best snow to make a snowman, but we pushed through. He was not big or round, but he was my snowman. We gave him a hat, some arms, and a nose. He looked good. I was very proud of our snowman efforts.
Liechtenstein
Our last day we had to head back to Zurich. Ma declared this to be her day and decided that we would detour into Liechtenstein. We wanted to catch a glimpse of a couple of castles and get a cool stamp in my passport for visiting my 12th country. The whole country is smaller than the city I live in. That is just wild.
Our first stop was Gutenburg Castle. We could not go inside, but we took a nice stroll around. It was built in the 12th century on top of a hill in Balzars. There were really cool views of the city below and neat architectural details on the castle.
We then jumped over to see Vaduz Castle, home to the royal family of Liechtenstein. Again, we could not go inside, but it was cool to see. I mean, what person doesn’t want to stop and look at every castle that you drive by? They are all incredible.
Finally, we headed into Vaduz to get some lunch and the all-important passport stamp. This was officially my 12th country, and I needed it to be official. The stamps are a couple of Euros at the tourist office, but I batted my long eyelashes and the nice lady gave me mine for free. You must stop in this country if you are near. It was really fun last afternoon on our trip.
We made it back to the hotel in Zurich for a night before our flight in the morning. It was a whirlwind trip. From trains to lost baggage, to a snowman, to sledding, it was a full adventure for this little boy. But there was one last thing: we had to finish our trip with some traditional Swiss Fondue. Ma said it was basically melted cheese that is served warm so I was all in. Pa showed me how to stab the bread and then dip it into the fondue. Whoa, it was yummy. No better way to end a trip than being fat and happy with a full stomach.
