Trychelzuge Tradition on New Year's Morning!

I rarely Blog in the morning but Bud and I experienced a tradition in this region, Bernese Oberland, that needs to be seen by you! We just happen to wake up at 6:00am and 6:30am respectively! Now all night just scross the way snowmaking machines line the ski slopes and make snow all night long. Pretty noisey! I am not sure I could handle it if I lived right near it. But anyway, the noise got louder and louder and louder, sort  of like an unbalance wash machine! Very Very Very Loud! So I get out of bed and look out upon the very very very dark streets of this little town and what should my wandering eyes see, a column of marchers carrying huge I mean huge cow bells! They are strapped to a straight rod and two huge bells hand on each side of each man!

Then they stop off at our little restaurant owned by Joseph and his family and they group of men sing!

And an hour later when the sunrises over the little town, they are still singing and ringing the bells and playing the drums!

These traditions are so fun to be surprised by!!! What a wonderful, if noisey, way to be awakened on New Years Morn!!!!

Another Day in the Sun and Snow St JoHann, Switzerland!

We are living the dream as Travis would say! Today the guys go skiing! I am not going as I do not want to break anything and I know my knees and legs would not make it! So I plan on catching up on my blog and watch "White Christmas" and read! Best laid plans of mice and men, it didn't go! First we get up and eat breakfast!

Bud and Travis go rent skis, I go to to take pictures!

While we waited for 12pm when they would start skiing, a hot air balloon rose up from the village north of us and floated across the mountain tops! And we were there to see it, AMAZING!

Bud and Travis started skiing and I made a video of the bottom of the ski run!

Bud was able to make one run with Travis, it was a Black Diamond run! But he had a great time and the view from up top was amazing!!! And since Bud didn't use his skis all day, Chloe was able to use them and ski in the Alps with Travis!!!

How do I know that the view from the top was Amazing? Because I went up there! Carleigh and Chloe paid the $24.00 Swiss Francs to get up there. But I wasn't going to, but when Bud stopped skiing he thought I should be able to use his ski ticket to get up there. But I just paid the $24.00 Swiss Francs and Travis rode up with me in the cable car. Oh Boy! When I saw that view I just snapped pictures!

 Travis and Chloe!!!

 And while I was up there, I went into the restaurant that was on top and I copied Travis and Carleigh and Chloe and I had french fries and catsup and mayo mixed and I had a coke, cost me 11.00 Swiss Francs...Priceless!

 And then when I went back down on the cable car, Bud met me at the bottom and we caught up with Shannon and Branden who had been sledding!

And they took pictures of us!

Then we went into ou

 Then we went back to our Gasthaus to warm up! Went to dinner, played two games of Farkle and at 9:30pm we were ready to chill!!! Thank you St JoHann Switzerland!

Our Days in the Sun! St JoHann, Switzerland!

When we were planning the trip, Travis said he wanted two nights in the Swiss Alps so he could ski. So I started looking for a place that would be close to Zurich. He picked Zurich because there are trains that go directly from Zurich to Paris. I found a small village called St JoAnn which had skiing which he could walk to from a little gasthaus I found to stay in, Gasthaus Schafli! The gasthaus was exactly as shown in the pictures online.

The building on the left with the cute little tower is the restaurant and the matching brown building on the right is the gasthaus!! It was so very nice! And Joseph is the son who runs it with his mom and dad and it has been in their family for 5 generations!

This is our room:

This is our view:

This is what the town looks like:

When we arrived it was too early to check in so we put our luggage in the hold section of the Gasthaus and went into the restaurant and had the BEST cheese fondue ever!!!

We then checked into our rooms and kicked back for awhile then we walked around town! The little shop there that sells skis and ski clothing sold Columbia Sportswear!

Pictures later showing dinner!

We are so enjoying this restful spot of fresh air and relaxing atmosphere! There is a small grocery store and a ski area and that is about it! Two stores that sell ski equipment but they are very small!