The final blog....

Well, it's only 2 more sleeps until we return God willing and this blog has no news about exciting adventures or places we've visited...
It's simply some of our recollections of the ordinary, special and unique events or experiences we've had during our time away (compiled during a brainstorming session one evening over dinner)...
We've played in the snow, picked and eaten blackberries, scraped the car when it's frosted over, survived -1 to -14 degrees weather, slid in the muddy, waterlogged fields at the park, fellowshipped with many different brethren and sisters, shattered some ice on a large pond with the top layer frozen over, seen the sun go down at 4pm and not rise until 8am, tried various cuisines, ski-ed, driven for hours together, slipped on black ice, climbed mountains, crossed rivers (by bridge!), walked miles, seen beautiful forests and waterfalls, been awed by the grand mountains, walked in the tropics of Singapore, seen the night sky of the northern hemisphere, sung together, felt overwhelmingly homesick at times, prayed for you all, been encouraged by brethren and sisters along the way, cooked meals together, eaten out so much we're sick of it, seen snow making machines on the ski slopes, seen a single snowflake with it's unique design, played indoor hockey and badminton at the gym, endured squad twice a week in a 25m pool, watched the rushing of the River Dee after torrential rain, waited for an hour in traffic to drive through the flooded motorway, driven in mist, ski-ed in the clouds, seen red deer, laughed at Mase as he fell over in the mud, eaten cheese fondue, tried mead (Irish) and Gluhwein (Swiss), devoured too many Swiss chocolates and Dutch salted licorice, had days with no central heating or hot water, made use of many different toilets, driven through the Highlands, felt what it's like to land in new snow, had fingers, toes and face numb with cold, gotten used to the drip that's always on the end of your nose in the colder climates, experienced the silence of the snowy mountains on a chairlift, been thankful for safe travel, watched trees heavy with snow bend under its weight until finally the snow slides off, appreciated a comfortable bed and a warm shower, been confused by the traffic signals near roundabouts, eaten a bridie, had 'frosty' moments when discussing direction in the car, split our sides laughing together, read together, eaten many tatties and rosti, used the underground train system, lost (and then found) each other, been locked in and kicked down doors, survived long distance schooling, made flapjacks, sleep walked in a London hotel, taken thousands of photos, watched a backyard fireworks display, played in a ball pit after the meeting, been to Sunday School during the meeting, played on the percussion instruments at Aberdeen, woken up to the stairs creaking as Dad went to work each morning, eaten curry in the car at Inverness, hit our heads on the low angled ceiling upstairs and the stairwell in the bathroom, eaten mushy peas, stovies and orange cheese, seen Highland dancing, tried haggis and black pudding (Mase), endured the narrow, windy roads, driven at 70mph, marvelled at the huge grocery stores open 24hrs, toured castles and their gardens, been to a country fair, shot clay pigeons, lived in a two-storey house, gotten used to parking on the road at the front of our house, learnt some new words (by the noo, wee, aye), eaten baguettes in Paris, lived in the typical Aberdeen grey, granite house, thrown stones in the rivers, tried curling, used different currencies, enjoyed Wed Bible class in homes, driven on the A90 countless times, seen the unending stone walls in Scotland and Ireland, observed carnivorous plants, tried haddock, chips and turnip mash, touched sleeping grass, been up close to the huge Angus cows and much, much more.
What will I miss most? Definitely the Wednesday night Bible classes where 5 or 6 of us got together to do the readings, listen to a tape or present a talk. For me that was the highlight of the week, as there was always interesting discussion, debate or opportunity to talk about life in the Truth. It was also where we got to know Joe, Vernon, Tony and Jack and appreciate their wit and wisdom. (It will be a very special memory for me.)
But I think we'll also miss the cold, refreshing water straight from the tap, the quiet evenings together during the week, the grandeur of the mountains that make you look up and consider their Maker and the cold air on our faces when we're out running/walking...these are a few of our favourite things!
God be with you, till we meet again....

From Zermatt to Geneva

Saturday, 5 Dec was the beginning of the ski season for Zermatt - fortunately we were leaving that day (before the village was invaded by skiers) and hadn't had to contend with crowds of people. Once we'd packed up we wandered around the village - took a few more photos of some of the older style houses and one of Matt holding a piece of ice which he told us was the Matterhorn! Here's a few more photos of the village and surrounding mountains (note the house on the side of the mountain) and then headed for the train station for the long trip back to Geneva. We remembered to get out the pack of cards this time and so the time flew quickly as we played 500's and snap and other games with the kids - Mase took the opportunity to take in the grand mountain views as we made our way back...We arrived in Geneva and checked in at the hotel and then caught a bus into the city - it was vibrant and busy - there was a street market - few photos attached. Lots of big name stores which I thought some of you would know the names of! Couldn't ignore the garden clock in Switzerland of all places. There were some mirrors set up in the english gardens along the river foreshore where we stopped and had fun watching our body shape change depending on where we stood. Later we saw the last stages of a fun run with various groups of competitors - the serious runners and the ones who got dressed up - here's a few photos of the 'runners' - mice, sumo wrestlers, nurses, skeletons (might be an idea for a HCP Fundraiser). By this time (5pm) the streets were beautifully lit up with xmas decorations and there were heaps of bystanders lining the streets

Amsterdam, Netherlands

Picking up from the last blog...we're on the plane from Geneva to Amsterdam on Saturday, 5 Dec. As we descended for landing I caught my first glimpses of the Netherlands and I was prepared for canals and water but not like I saw...wow!! The country was a mass of water canals - like roads - covering the landscape.
We landed at Schiphol (larger and busier airport than I expected) and caught a train to Amsterdam Central where we had a five minute walk to our hotel - A Train Hotel. We arrived at the hotel too early (10.30am) to check into our room so we left our suitcases there and headed out for a walk. We'd had breakfast in Geneva at 6am and now Matt let us know that he was starving hungry. We foolishly tried to hold him out until midday which rather spoilt our walk along the main streets and some of the canals. We saw signs to the Anne Frank House (the place she and her family hid in for 2 years) and also to a few other places of interest. However Matt was not letting up, so Mase introduced the kids to the Dutch street style chips - hot chips served in a paper cone topped with mayonnaise - they didn't like the mayo (and I don't blame them, there was too much of it) but they devoured the chips (photo attached). We then decided to book a 24 hour open ticket to cruise the canals in the inner city area. Unfortunately it was raining and windy and the windows were fogged up, so we couldn't see anything really. When we finally got a seat near a window, Mase opened it to try and reduce the fog and got some annoyed from people nearby - so no photos that day. We did learn some interesting facts though. We had noticed that many of the buildings looked like they were tipping over or at least not vertical. Well we had this explained. Apparently because the houses were tall and skinny, it was impractical to carry shopping/large items up the narrow staircases, so when they built the houses they installed a beam with a hook from outside the top floor - this was used to lift larger items up to the top floors. However this presented another problem - the items could damage the buildings/windows - so they built the houses in such a way that they were wider/larger at the top than the bottom to prevent items knocking against the house as they were raised. Also - while the houses are tall and skinny, they don't exceed 4 or 5 floors because the ground is so soft and muddy and require deep pile foundations. Another interesting thing is that some old wooden pile foundations had rotted and caused houses to sink so now they use concrete. Apparently Amsterdam is called the Northern Venice and we did see a row of houses built along the canal where doors/windows opened directly onto the water...see photo. We headed back to the hotel around 3pm and spent the afternoon there - researching places we'd like to visit with the kids on the next day. Our room was rather interesting - top floor (3rd level) of the hotel, accessible by a very narrow spiral staircase up which Mase had to haul three big, heavy suitcases. We had a split level room - attic area with 3 single beds for kids, then downstairs two single beds for Mase/I and a small cot on the other side of the room with a kids play area which had a kitchenette and table/chairs for them - so Jo and Matt cooked us some wonderful meals while we were online. While talking about the hotel, you'll remember it was called A Train Hotel - apart from being a stone's throw from the central train station, the hotel was furnished as if it were a train. As you entered the foyer there were train tracks leading to the 'carriage' which served food and then on to the private carriages (bedrooms) for patrons. There were train seats in the foyer and eating areas, with old suitcases stored on the overhead rails, pictures of trains, miniature trains, memorabilia, boomgates that opened when the breakfast carriage was in use and many other 'train/rail' features to make the experience unique. Just backtracking slightly, my first impressions of Amsterdam after a few hours walk thru the city were: loads and loads and loads of bikes - everywhere (I thought Paris had heaps but that was nothing compared to Amsterdam as the two photos prove - yes, it is three floors of bikes!); consequently they have separate bike 'roads' next to the main traffic roads; also trams in the centre of the roads; chips in a cone with mayonnaise; lots of beautiful flowers; city of canals (never imagined it would be like this); marijuana cafes as you wander down main streets; immorality confronts you on/in many street shop windows; heaps of eating places to tempt the tastebuds....I have to say that as a city it didn't really impress me greatly but that may be because I didn't visit the right places. Here's a photo of one of the types of bikes the mothers with young children ride...
Sunday morning we continued our canal cruise which was to take us to the Jewish History Museum. On the way we saw NEMO - a huge boat shaped building (called the 'Titanic' by locals) which houses science exhibits and activities for children (similar to Scitech) - see photo which has an old pirate ship in the foreground. We also saw some of the typical tall skinny houses - photo. The photo of the large building surrounded by water was built in the mid-1600's in a record 9 months - due to the need for munitions storage. Anyway, we'd seen info about the Jewish History Museum on the web and it promised to give the history of the Jewish community in the Netherlands, as well as having a Kindermuseum - designed to be child friendly and it was. We went thru the kindermuseum first with the children and it had all sorts of interesting exhibits, movies, pictures, books, a Jewish kitchen (with blue/red divisions) etc. Then we moved into the main museum - we didn't have time to go through all the areas but it was extremely well laid out and gave options for pursuing particular subjects in more detail via audio or visual aids. They had a whole floor dedicated to explaining the internals of a synagogue - layout, some of the rituals, furniture and furnishings. Very interesting reading (but no photography allowed). Time was limited by our evening flight, so we then went to an indoor kids play area where the kids could run around, play soccer, climb and play on slides, bikes etc to wear off some energy before sitting in a plane for a few hours. Photos attached. Then back to our hotel via the canal cruise boat to collect bags and head by train to the airport. I must say that by this time I was very ready to be heading back to Aberdeen with the thought always in the back of my head that every day was bringing us closer to our return to Perth, God willing...which makes me ponder whether I am counting the days, with the same longing, until the return of Jesus Christ - as Paul said in Hebrews 10 - 'for he that shall come, will come'...

Last Days in Zermatt

Today's Friday and our last day of skiing....We woke up to find it snowing lightly and the mountains were enveloped in cloud but we were going to ski no matter what! We headed up to Riffleberg ski point to try the slope we'd done the day before - we could hardly see anything the cloud was so thick...this meant for a challenge ski down the mountain. Here's the view from the cable car - gives you an idea of the height of the cars... Off we went and it was a very different experience to the day before when we'd had clear blue skies. We were all very cautious and did lots of traversing to control our speed as we had no idea of what the slope was like - if the snow was smooth, rough, uphill or down - it was horrible. I couldn't wait to get down but the good news is we all did it without a stack despite the conditions - that's impressive! Anyway we reached the bottom and I said I wasn't doing anymore skiing until we could see where we were going - here's a photo taken from outside the restaurant towards the slope - visibility was about zero! However Mase and Jo were keen to retry and then Sam and Matt agreed to go too. I stayed in the warm restaurant and waited for them to finish. This time visibility was even worse and all the children stacked it in some way or another (Sam in particular completely missed a turn and shot off the side of the run!) ... Well we'd had enough of Riffleberg and so we decided to go back Sunnegga at Matt's request because as he put it 'I've got that track all worked out in my mind and know how it goes and I just want to do it'. I opted out of skiing until conditions cleared and spent the morning wandering round Zermatt village - seeing the old wooden style houses they lived in, the church, the patisseries, the tourist trinket shops etc - quite boring all on your own but I got a feel for the place. It's a car-less village but they do have taxis and buses so it has quite a quaint, old worldy feel to it in some ways. The snow covered paths that were steep made life interesting and I slipped and nearly fell over a few times. At 1.30pm we all met for lunch at Sunnega - rosti and egg or ham and cheese - is a very traditional Swiss food and is served in all the ski restaurants. We shared a couple of plates between us and it was nice - a little bit oily - but otherwise nice. Rosti is basically seasoned grated potato and the kids liked it so much that I've promised to make it when we get back to Perth God willing. After lunch, as conditions had cleared and there was a nice blue sky I joined the children skiing down Sunnegga beginner's slope and Mase headed off to Rothorn to try an averagegrade slope on his own. He made it from the top of the mountain to the bottom without stacking it (a vertical drop of 1700m) - so that's an achievement in 4 days. He did admit to having pretty tired/sore legs by the end of the run. Apparently the views were magnificent up there - way up the top of the seeable world, on a snowy white mountain top with cloud below - sounds spekky. Meanwhile the children and I went down our slope three of four times and I only stacked it once. The kids took the steep slopes faster than me but my greater weight would catch them up on the slower runs, so generally we finished about the same time which I was very pretty happy with. Jo's fastest time was 4.22mins to do the whole run - Mase did it in 3.20mins. The rest of us didn't time ourselves but approximately 5 to 6 mins would be fair for me - so we've all improved and had a great day. So that's it for skiing - we've returned all our hire gear and now are resting our weary legs.
Friday night was our last night in Zermatt and we decided to have a Swiss meal. We shared a cheese fondue - served with bread and steamed potatoes to dip in the cheese - this was a new experience for all of us. Jo and Matt didn't like the fondue so they ate bread/potato. Mase, Sam and I thought it was alright but nothing to rave over. As Mase said, it's just another excuse for the Swiss to eat bread and cheese. They eat it for breakfast, they eat it in rolls for lunch and for dinner as fondue. But back to our meal - Mase and I tried veal sausage with rosti and salad for our main course. Jo and Matt had chicken schnitzel with rosti and salad, Sam had ham and cheese rosti. Over our meal we discussed the week's adventures and Mase awarded Sam with the best stack, Jo for most improved at traversing, Matt for his speed demon approach, me for facing and conquering my fears and we decided he was best all round skier in the family. The kids said they wanted to ski again and Mase jokingly said 'maybe in 10 years time'....Matt didn't forget this because at breakfast on Saturday Mase asked if they wanted to go and play in the snow for the last time before we left and Matt said he didn't want to. Mase suggested he may not see snow again and Matt quickly replied 'yes, we will - in 10 years time'....apparently they're not going to let that line pass! Anyway, we had an interesting Swiss experience - rosti is definitely something we'd try again. We've also enjoyed some other Swiss foods - melt in your mouth Swiss chocolates, some lemon shortbread cookies, bircher muesli, plum kucehn (similar to a light custard tart with plum) and appfelstrudle (spelling?)...
Now it's Saturday and we need to pack up and train back to Geneva, where we stay one night and then catch a plane to Amsterdam early Sunday morning.

Zermatt Ski Experience - Days 2/3

Well we've all had a big learning curve at different rates over the last two days - but I think I could say we're all pretty confident on the beginner slopes now. Mase is going to give one of the medium slopes a try by himself but the rest of us will just stick on the beginners runs. Day 2 (Wed, 2 Dec) we had Andrei the ski instructor for another three hours. However it was really only me that needed his instruction as the others were all keen and able to ski down the beginner's slope...so I was glad to have his undivided attention and he was no doubt frustrated at my slow progress. After a while Andrei decided it was time for me to try the beginner's slope (as in photo). Starting down it I can only say I was petrified and stacked it heaps of times - luckily Andrei was there to retrieve me from massive piles of soft snow. I did have one nasty stack when I caught the ski stick under my skiis and instead of sliding nicely along the slope I crunched my neck and shoulder - but I can still ski despite the stiff neck. As for Mase and the kids they had piles of fun while I was facing my fears and trying to 'climb every mountain' and so here's Mase's recount of their day... he took each of the kids down the beginner's slope individually first to see how they coped and they all had a stack or two. Then they all went down together - Sam is the most accomplished of the kids and is pretty good when it comes to speed and confidence. He is also pretty good at traversing and taking corners to keep his speed under control but because he's so light he can generally get away with going straight down. As for Jo - she can snow plough down the slopes really well because she's so light and low to the ground but she needs to work on her turns and traversing across the slope. She's quite happy to go as fast as possible because she's able to stop really well. Now to Matt - he's so light he can get away with going straight down the steepest slopes in the snow plough position without traversing across the slope. Many times throughout the day the kids have said how much they love skiing - Matt was even prepared to stop eating to get back to skiing which says volumes!!

In the afternoon we took the cable car and then the chair lifts up to the highest point in the Zermatt Alps - the Matterhorn Glacier. Riding in the glass lifts gives a great view of the area below and around and the height we climbed from Zermatt (at 1620 m above sea level) to the top was more than 2000 metres. So when we reached the top we were at 3883 m above sea level. The ride was freezing - my toes and fingers were numb - and the temperature at the top was around -14. The views were spectacular - a world of white mountains with streaks of black now and then, the sky was blue and we were as high as we'll ever get in this life! (Here's a couple of photos to prove we got there.)

When we were talking at the end of Thursday and saying we only had one more day's skiing left they all said they wished it was longer! As for Thursday (3rd day skiing) - we all started out together for Gohnergrat where they had a beginner's slope. Mase and the kids took the chair lift to the top of the slope, while I waited at the bottom to see if it was wide enough and easy enough for me to attempt. While they were gone I tried skiing on a small slope to the cable car to see if I could still remember yesterday's lessons - I made the slope but by the time I got to the bottom (about 3 mins later) I was shaking all over. I then had to climb back up the slope and just as I was about to retry the slope Mase appeared and I was saved. Only to face a worse option - apparently the slope was wide and would be fine for me to try....
The kids were not too keen on my going up with them because I'd slow them down so they went on ahead and Mase kept me company going down. It was very daunting but we made it with me stacking it only twice - the kids took 10-15 mins whereas I took about 35 minutes. This slope had some fairly steep slopes and all the kids had some pretty unglamorous stacks when they couldn't control their speed but they loved it and did the same slope about 3 or 4 times. From my point of view it was worth the challenge as I was able to practice my traversing and turning and build my confidence. The photo is of us at Gohnergrat taking a break from the mornings work! The weather was much better than forecasted (light snow) and we had good visibility, almost clear skies and temperatures around 0 to 5 degrees depending on where we were.
Here's a photo of Mase and Matt sitting in a comfy snow seat while we waited for the bus to take us to Sunnega for the afternoon. Once there we all went down the beginner's slope at varying speeds. The kids are now pretty accomplished on this one but it was my second time down and this time I was all alone...I did it 4 times and on two of the runs I didn't fall - soooo exciting - I was getting better and faster and my times were improving from about 30 minutes down to 15 minutes - still slower than the kids but definitely gaining in confidence - yay! I think the kids were even slightly impressed that I went down some slopes without slowing my speed. One thing I should say is how magical it was to be sitting on the chair lift, all alone, looking out over the valley and mountains and the quiet/peace was amazing - a very special moment. Unfortunately Mase hasn't been on the chair lift alone but he's planning to try one of the medium slopes tomorrow by himself and hopefully he'll have a similar experience. Oh and one other thing - Libby wondered if we had sore muscles after Day 1 - we didn't - but by Day 3 - absolutely - my inner thighs are sooo sore!! Mase says he's fine apart from a few blisters on his feet from walking in ski boots too much and the children seem to have taken everything in their stride.

Here's a photo of Mase and the boys beside the river (which doesn't have much water at the moment as the water source is frozen). Then Mase and Matt sitting in a comfy snow seat as we waited for the bus to take us to Sunnega. So as you can see Day 3 ended well and everyone was pretty happy with their achievements...

Zermatt, Switzerland

How do you describe in words what it's like to see and touch snow for the first time? Here's some words that came to our minds - soft, white, light, fluffy, cold, silent, powdery, crunchy, slippery, ethereal, white blanket, compacted, hard ice....this covers many of the stages of snow we've seen in the last couple of days.
We flew into Geneva on Monday morning and caught a train to Visp, then another to Zermatt - took about 4 hrs. The weather forecasts which Mase has been following for the last few weeks and especially the last few days forecasted possible snowfall on the Sunday night but otherwise maybe one or two clear days. Our trip is not within the usual ski season times - tho' only a week early - so skiing couldn't be guaranteed. Well as our train took us up into the mountains we saw some very light snowfall commence. When we reached our train connection to take us the last stage we got out into wet light snow which the kids thought was good but it melted as soon as it touched us or the ground. Anyway, on the train to Zermatt the snow began in earnest and when we stopped at one of the stations the kids and I jumped off quickly and grabbed a handful of snow each - wow! We were amazed at the feeling of it - so light, so powdery, so nothing - Jo says it was much softer than she thought...anyway the kids then ate their snow and got a huge mouth freeze when they didn't swallow it immediately - that was a laugh! At every station stop after that we hopped out and grabbed snow and tried to make snowballs - which was harder than we expected - we had to compact it a lot to keep the shape of a ball. During the train ride there was at least 10cm of snowfall and heaps more fell during the afternoon - it was up to Matt's knees that evening and up to Sam's knees the next morning. It was the first major snow for Zermatt this season (apart from 4cm in early Nov) and so we were very fortunate to be here to see it. Driving through the mountains and seeing the snow fall silently and thickly - creating a thick white blanket over everything - cars, houses, trees, fences, wires...the view of the mountains and the pine trees was absolutely beautiful.
Finally with much excitement we arrived at Zermatt - all kitted out in gloves, beanies, rain jackets...with the snow falling. The kids were desperate to have their first snow ball fight but we held them off until the got to the hotel and got them dressed in their snow suits etc - then we went downstairs and it was free for all. Sam quietly made his snow balls and would throw them with silent accuracy, Jo would thrust a few lumps together and throw wildly at whoever was nearby and Matt made snowballs and threw them at our faces at point blank range wherever possible....he was a snow plough for a while, then he lay in the snow but Sam and Jo were a little more concerned about snow up their arms but that didn't last long. Soon they were lying in the snow, digging holes, burying their heads, making snowmen and having a ball. When we put them to bed that night it was with great anticipation and excitement about the next day's skiing lessons and experience.
So now our first day skiing - Tuesday, 1 Dec - the learner's ski area wasn't opened until about 10.30am, so we waited for about at hour and then took the ski train up through the mountain - probably takes 5 minutes to get to the section where the ski area was and I we had to adjust to the air pressure as we gained height. Finally at the top we then had to get our gear organised and then take another ski car down to the actual learner area. Andrei our instructor then showed us some basic skiing tips for the next three hours and the time just flew by.
You can just see all four of us learners in the photo (I'm in all the foreground in black, Matt is going down the slope and Sam and Jo are coming back up the travelator). We were too busy too take many photos and this was the best - hopefully we'll do better tomorrow. The white gusts of snow in the photo are from the snow makers. Anyway, back to the story - Sam and Matt picked up the idea quite quickly but Jo was a bit slower and I was even worse - but eventually we all mastered the learner's slope. Mase having ski-ed before took a refresher course and did pretty well. There were a few stacks - but I'm proud to say my only stack on the learner's slope was when my skiis got stuck on the travellator... At the end of our lesson the instructor took Mase and Sam halfway down a beginner's slope to have a try and they did pretty well - but both had some stacks along the way.
At this point I should say that kitting up to ski is a laborious process and the gear is heavy and cumbersome to carry around..the boots are weighty and you can't walk normally...not something I'd want to do all the time but we all loved our first attempt at skiing.
Matt says his first day was heaps fun! Jo says it was boring because she could only do the learner's slope and couldn't go as fast as she wanted to and Sam says he doesn't know what he thought - but I think he had a great time and picked up some skills really well...and that was our morning.
We had some lunch and then headed back to the slopes for more practice on our own. Mase had ski-ed down a beginner's slope to meet us - it was pretty steep and he had to really control his speed to avoid stacking it.
I felt pretty comfortable on our learner's slope and was keen to try something a little harder - as were the kids. So Mase took Sam up to the top where he'd just ski-ed and they came down together - Sam did pretty well but stacked it once when his speed got a bit too much for him. Then Jo went up and she and Mase slowly made their way down, then Matt with a little more speed. Not to be outdone I then said I'd try it and all the kids clamoured to come down with us. Well from my point of view it was a bit scary and I stacked it three or four times coming down - which means I really need to practice stopping a bit more and remembering which way to turn on the curves - but it was fun and we're all looking forward to tomorrow - God willing.
Just to explain what the snow is like here though (you can ignore this bit if you're bored) - yesterday when it was snowing it was easy to walk and you just had to watch out for harder, compacted snow that was slightly yellower in colour as it was more slippery. There are machines constantly pushing and spraying the snow out of the road and pathways and that makes walking more treacherous. However today, as it hasn't snowed much in the day the roads/paths are even more slippery which brought my downfall literally. I was taking some bags of washing to the laundry and had just stepped out of the hotel and hadn't started thinking about slippery pathways and as I put my shoe on the steps outside, my foot slid out from under me and I landed on my backside - oooh, that hurt...Our hotel room is on the third floor and we usually race up the stairs - but now I can feel my bruised bottom as I run up - I'm expecting to see a massive bruise in the morning.
We're still struggling with wearing the right clothes for this weather - we rugged up far too much for skiing this morning and the kids ended up in singlets and snow suits out on the slope. When we went out this evening Matt and Sam had on short sleeved t-shirts which we told them wasn't suitable. With many complaints Sam got a jumper and Matt a thermal long sleeved shirt. By the time we came back Matt was freezing - hopefully he'll learn to take a jacket..
What else is there to say? This afternoon when we came back from skiing the sky had cleared and the mountains were really majestic - rising up 500 metres or more above the village where we are. Zermatt is 1620 metres above sea level and the Matterhorn glacier is about 3899 metres above - we hope to get up there tomorrow and try an easy slope - we'll be on top of the world. I really feel we're experiencing another whole world of God's making with it's own unique beauty - amazing.
When we woke up this morning the view over the village and up to the mountains was beautiful - smooth snowy blanket untouched by human footstephs - so still and clean, cold (freezing doesn't sound quite so enviable), crisp air - it was a special moment.
We had a Swiss breakfast this morning - rye breads, cheeses, cold meats, eggs, fruit, muesli and cereal - an interesting and welcome change to french breakfasts.