Mt. Pilatus

Last weekend (23rd Feb) we woke up to a beautiful, sunny day. We decided that it would be a perfect day to visit Mt. Pilatus, near Luzern. The five of us drove into Kriens, a suburb near Luzern, from where we would head up to Mt. Pilatus. This is the starting point of the gondola trip up the mountain.

It was a steep, thirty minute ride in the comfortable gondola and we experienced lovely views of the city of Luzern on our way up.

Once we reached the top of the 2132 metre high Mt. Pilatus we were greeted by two men playing Swiss horns, which really set the scene. This music, combined with the stunning scenery, was everything we could hope for. We walked up a snow-covered stairway to reach a viewing point, from where we could see the most magnificent vista of snow-capped mountains in the distance and the gorgeous city of Luzern by the lake.

The restaurant out on the terrace was too tempting to resist, so the girls enjoyed a hot chocolate, while Mark and I had a beer (naturally). We soaked up the Swiss atmosphere as a folk band played in the background.

It was time to leave this panorama, but we know that we want to come back again.

The Girls' Ski Camps

From Sunday, 10th until Saturday, 16th February the girls attended the Dagmersellen School Ski Camp. Zoe went to Disentis 3000 and Alexandra and Madeleine went to Elm. Here are their accounts of their time at camp.

Here is Zoe’s perspective of the School Ski Camp

Hey everyone,I have just got back from my WEEK AWAY ski/snowboarding camp! We arrived in Disentis 3000 at 10:00am and it took 4 and a half hours to get there, and when we did get there (by the double -decker bus) we went skiing/snowboarding (snowboarding in my case) straight away! Thankfully my snowboarding teacher speaks English. Only 3 girls (including me) did snowboarding so I was put into a group of three. At 4:30 we started to WALK back to the BIG house (which was a steep long pathway) and then chose our beds and had our showers. We got an hour of free time then dinner which was yummy soup and DELICIOUS spaghetti! After the scrumptious dinner we had a night activity which was a BIG LONG 2 HOUR hike! I was exhausted when I was in bed and didn't appreciate the 7:30am wake-up call in the morning! Everyday we did basicallly the same thing as above but had different night activities like relaxing Massages (that I personally liked!), a traditional Swiss activity which is wrestling with dirty old trousers on!, outdoor snow games, movie (Flushed Away and they kindly put English subtitles on for me) and a Casino/Disco night that was alot of FUN!, and there we did Casino games with fake money and the disco we just danced our bottoms off! Now lets talk about me snowboarding! We'll I did LOTS of face plants, learnt how to turn backwards (which I am still not too good at and learnt how to go up the hurting Tee-bar (which is a thing that takes you up to the top of the mountain and is very likely that you will fall off!(We'll for me it is anyway!) On Wednesday we all came back early because we had a half of a day Ice Skating! It was good to do something different! On Friday night (the last night of the camp) me and the girls in our room stayed up untill 12:00 and ate LOTS of lollies and chocolate. So overall the camp was ok/good, but some of the time I felt like I wanted to come home!


Here is Alexandra’s perspective of the School Ski Camp

Where to begin… the word to describe this week would be interesting. I had some great, OK, boring and sad moments throughout the camp. As soon as we got there Madeleine and I were isolated in the corner, while everyone else was sleeping on the other side of the room. We started the camp by getting into our groups and taking the bus up to the mountains. It was my 4th day on the snowboard and I was feeling pretty confident about controlling the board. There were many options; you could either go up the small T-bar or on the long T-bar, the small chairlift or the long chairlift. The first day we started on the small T-bar. How to describe it? Painful but fun, you must have good balance and just let it pull you up…and after 32 times I finally got up!! YEY!! It didn’t help changing my feet to being a goofy (there is regular or goofy depending on which foot is in front). The snow wasn’t the best, most days it was very slippery and hard to turn. Some days we tried different slopes. At 11:30am we would have a lunch break where we would go to the restaurant and order what we want. At 4:30pm we would go down on the gondolas to the bus.
NIGHT ACTIVITIES:
The camp was the footy theme. Every night we would get into our group and rotate doing different activities, e.g. Soccer, relays, sled races and word games. It was hard for Mad and I to participate as some of the time we couldn’t understand. One night we went to the mountains and enjoyed sledding. I went on with Mad and I was driving. One word: FREAKY. I couldn’t drive and we were always crashing into the edge and were very, very lucky not to go off the mountain because I didn’t know how to steer. I thought it was pretty funny and laughing all the time, but Mad was very scared and thought she was going to die.
The other night there was a movie put on which we couldn’t watch so we just sat in our room and played UNO, which was the entertainment for the week.
KIDS: Most of the time the other children did their own thing in their groups, but occasionally they would include us in a game or two.
One thing that really surprised me was how open everyone was. People would just change their clothes right in front of everyone without any thought whatsoever. As for us, we would make sure we knew who we were changing in front of.
Overall the camp wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be and I am happy that I have improved my snowboarding. Rating: 3 stars.

Here is Madeleine’s perspective of the School Ski Camp

Well, what can I say about the school camp? From the beginning I was dreading it. I wasn’t particularly good at snowboarding and I still couldn’t speak German. I might just say I was a little worried. Myself and Alex got up at 6:15am to be at school for the bus at 7:40am. We both got a seat next to each other ready fro the two hour drive to the snow. When we arrived at the camp it was absolutely freezing. We were starting snowboarding that very day so everyone collected their snowboards ready to go. The ski mountain was only a short bus drive away so off we went, wasting no time. Luckily for Alex and me our snowboarding teacher was my class teacher, Herr Husli, who speaks near fluent English. When we got to the mountain and travelled up the gondola we got straight into boarding. As we’d had 3 previous days of lessons we were able to get down the short hill to the chair lift with only falling over a couple of times. We proceeded to go up the chair lift which had a great view. I was scared out of my mind while looking down this slightly steep mountain. Throughout the day I improved quite a bit just by being pushed to continue down the mountain. At 4pm the bus arrived to take us back to our accommodation. Time for our showers! Myself and Alex were worried because the showers were open. Luckily, we waited until we thought there was no one in the shower and we scooted straight there. No one came in and we survived our first camp open shower. That night there were activities outside and inside split up into groups with different countries for names. I was in the group of the Schweiz. Each day was pretty much the same except we started snowboarding at 9am. We got woken up everyday at 7am a couple of times by loud crowd noises made by a cd player up loud and other days by some teachers walking around the room banging pots and pans. The meals were just average but we did have hot chips twice which, of course, was great. The nights were the best even though Alex and I were stuck in the corner playing UNO while the other girls talked and ate lollies. The camp summed up into one word would be an EXPERIENCE. There were always new experiences around the corner, such as night sledding and girls stripping right in front of your eyes. I thought the camp was OK but if I had the choice, I wouldn’t go again.

A Holiday In The Snow

From Tuesday 4th until Saturday 9th February we stayed in Mark and Marianne's cosy holiday house in Sorenberg, which is in the Swiss Alps. The view from the lounge-room while eating our breakfast was superb, as we could watch the first skiers of the day come down the slopes. The location is ideal, being right across the road from the first T-bar ride up the mountain.

On the first day there Alexandra, Zoe and Madeleine made a miniature snowman. We then walked into the township to organise Mark’s and my ski hire and get some food from the supermarket.

After snowing on our first day the weather was sunny and we even got too warm whilst snowboarding a few times. We ate our lunches outside a couple of times, at a restaurant at the top of the gondola run.

The girls and I had three snowboarding lessons over three days. After a dubious start on the first day, we were able to negotiate our way down some slopes by the third day. Between us we had many bruises and sore muscles to come home with. Mark was a whizz at skiing, although a bit lonely as he had no skiing buddy.

On Tuesday night Marianne's (our exchange partner) parents treated us to a traditional Swiss dish called Raclette. This is a social meal where a portable griller is set up in middle of the table and each person gets a mini pan where we place cheese, ham, tomato and onion. This is put into the griller and when it is melted it gets poured over steamed potatoes. It tastes wunderbar.

On Thursday morning we decided to travel in a large gondola up to the summit of Brienz Rothorn. This site overlooks a panorama of peaks on the other side of the valley (where Interlaken is situated). We enjoyed a hot chocolate while taking in the spectacular view.

We all had a fantastic time in Sorenberg, both on the slopes and in the cabin. It was an experience to remember.

Our Visit To Germany

During the days from Thursday 31st Jan and Monday 4th Feb we went to Glessen, Germany, to visit Mark's relatives and we had a wonderful time.

Irene (Mark’s cousin) and Ecki were magnificent hosts and they made us feel very welcome with plenty of Kolsch and delicious meals and huge breakfasts each morning. It was lovely to see Mark’s Aunty Netty and Uncle Jupp, who are kind, warm people.

A dinner was put on for us to catch up with Bernd (Mark’s cousin), Connie and Hetty. Madeleine, Alexandra and Zoe were thrilled when Hetty told them that she would stay in Glessen with us for a few days.

Irene organised a visit to see Mark’s cousin, Ushi. She was pleased to see us all. We then drove over to Uncle Ferdi and Josie’s house. After cake and coffee we had a tour of the house and the garden which is immaculately kept. It was terrific to be able to see so many relatives on our short trip.





We visited the Dome in Koln (Cologne), which is a magnificent old cathedral. It was Karnival time there and people all over town make a super effort to dress up in crazy costumes and makeup to celebrate. On the way back from Koln we rode in a double-decker train. The upper level is reserved for first class passengers, but we stayed up there anyway.





On Sunday, the Glessen parade day, we all dressed up for the occasion, with crazy costumes and some make-up and facial stickers. We lined the streets as the parade of musical bands and floats went past. Lollies were thrown into the crowd and our girls ended up with a mountain of chocolate and lollies. It was fantastic fun.

After the parade Irene and Ecki put on a Karnival party in their courtyard and many of their friends came along. We were warmed by Ecki's potato soup that was made available from a big electric pot to all who attended. Not to forget that many Kolsch (pronounced Kirlsh) beers were also digested. The atmosphere was very festive, with plenty of Karnival music and decorations.

We stayed for four fabulous nights and were sorry to leave.