I had great plans for this winter. I wanted to spend every weekend in the mountains and finally learn to ski. I've been living in Switzerland since 2011, so it's about the time to put the skis on. I also wanted to enjoy the snow and drink liters of mulled wine. And I wanted to spend time with my friends and have fun.
Instead, I was sick for 3 weeks in January, busy at work in February and I spent the entire month of March worrying about the current situation in the world. If this wasn't enough, I had a medical emergency and ended up in the hospital where they didn't treat me very well and where I got infected with Covid! My husband got infected too and we spent one more week in bed with serious symptoms. I cannot remember when was the last time that I was so happy to be feeling strong enough to start working again. I wonder what the rest of the year will bring us.
How many weekends did I spend in the mountains? ZERO!
Last weekend, we were finally able to welcome our friends from the Netherlands in our home. I was so happy to see other people. The girl is originally from Suriname and she has never seen the snow before, so we decided to go to the mountains and spend at least one day before the season ends. And we had a blast!
We visited our favorite Churfisten. It's easy to get there, there is a winter hiking route, the views are breathtaking and the restaurant serves delicious food and wines from the region.
There was no snow in the region where we live, so our friend was skeptical and didn't believe that there will be much snow in the mountains. The closer we got to the destination, the more excited she was as she saw that there was more and more snow. When we got out of the car she was happy that we convinced her to take gloves and a hat as it was windy and so cold.
We purchased our tickets and enjoyed the ride up the hill. It's special to see people so excited about something what is normal to you. She was running around the cable car, taking way too many pictures and her eyes were shining.
This changed as soon as we got out of the cable car as it was much colder and the wind was blasting snow in all direction. It was difficult to breath and it took her a couple of minutes to adjust. When she was ready we started our hike.
I was convinced that it would be an easy hike as we already did it one summer with my husband. What I didn't realize was that it would be different with snow.
It was challenging for us as we were not strong enough after Covid but our visitors couldn't catch the breath as they were not used to the conditions. They had to take dozens of breaks and it took us ages to finish the hike. We were lucky that we asked our other friends to join us too, so I could walk in my own rhythm and didn't have to stop with them every time.
Luckily, we had some snacks to power up during the hike as otherwise we would have to leave them there 馃檪
They were brave and didn't complain too much. Actually, who could complain with such views? Wallensee is one of my favorite places in Switzerland. Its water changes color based on the light and it can vary from emerald green to deep blue. It's always beautiful regardless the color though.
It looks like there is just a bit of snow but it's unexpectedly deep. We were surprised to see that the signs that are in this place are covered. There are also benches in summer which were covered too. I will return here in the summer so show you how the place looks like.
Looking at the pictures it's difficult to imagine how cold and windy it was. They all look so peaceful, like a perfect winter day.
It was not only our friends who were excited. My husband was rolling in the snow like a little boy and was carrying this piece of ice/snow for quite a long time.
We didn't have so much fun in a long time. And we both needed it to reset our mind and recharge our batteries.
As usually, me and my friend were leading the gang. At some point we couldn't wait for them anymore as it was way too cold and we just wanted to go the restaurant and order some tea. Of course, we ordered wine instead but that wasn't our initial plan 馃檪 I swear I wanted to order a cup of tea but when the waitress asked me what I wanted I panicked and order a bottle of wine 馃檪 Don't worry, I shared it with the group!
You would say that the path is flat, right? Don't let the picture fool you. It was quite steep! I haven't had so much cardio in a very long time! We were powered by delicious banana bread that my friend made so it wasn't that bad at the end.
After the lunch, we said our goodbyes to our friends from Zurich and drove back home for our evening adventure. We only had a couple of days to show our Dutch friends as much as we could. Since we live close to the Rheinfall it was the obvious choice. The waterfall is impressive during the day but you can feel its real power much stronger in the evening.
You can go down to the water and it's somehow impressive and terrifying at the same time. It's impossible to describe the feeling with words. You need to be there to understand.
There are several viewing platform on the way down the hill. I still remember how excited I was when I was there for the first time. I was also scared as I'm afraid of deep water and such strong current so close to me gave me shivers.
The last platform is the most impressive one. It looks like the water is going to consume you. You are so close to it that you get sprayed with fine drops, feels like gentle rain. We walked around the platforms, took tons of bad quality selfies, and then went back home.
We had a lot of fun but it was a tiring day. My watch was showing more than 20000 steps! We went back home, had dinner and went straight to bed. Our friends were happy to experience new things and see a bit of Switzerland, and we were happy that we finally got outside.
Hope, you enjoyed our trip too!
Thank you for reading!
Cheers,
Martina
