THANKS to be GIVING

As posted a few blogs back, I had mentioned that Ryan and I were going to skip the traditional Thanksgiving deal and head to Zermatt, Switzerland with the Tannenbaum Ski Club.  Now, when I originally posted this I thought it would be a whirlwind trip with ZERO focus on the ingredients of family, food, festiveness or tradition.  Not true.

Zermatt was a pleasant surprise.  I knew this trip would be fun no matter what.  Heck, we were going to Switzerland which; is our favorite country in Europe.  It was a heinous bus ride down; switchbacks in a chartered bus and a bunch of complainers saying the bus driver was out of control.  He got us there and back, doing just fine and I truly would not want to trade him.  Regardless we go to our lovely hotel that lined the face of the Swiss and Italian Alps.  Rough life.

The Matterhorn with minimal visibility

Our hotel

View from the patio of our hotel...Matterhorn in the distance...village of Zermatt

Thanksgiving day we were up and at em’ for our first day of skiing.  This was a huge moment in my marriage to Ryan and this is something I have always wanted to do with him; ski in Switzerland.  EPIC!!!!  We suited up, gathered our gear and took the bus to the gondola station.  I was nervous as could be as it had been a few years since I skied, but the view was unreal.

We took the gondola all the way up to glacier paradise, which is at about 10,000 feet.  You could see the Matterhorn at almost eye level.  More on that later.  One thing I love about Ryan is his kindness in teaching.  He has been great with stick driving and golf.  His sense of patience during skiing is one more thing to add to that list.  WE started slow and took our time down the runs.  This was nothing like Colorado skiing.  There was not much powder and things got a little icy (they now have nine feet on the mountain…total BS) but Ryan stopped and wait for me, or encourage me to go ahead so he could track me down the hill.  All was fine and dandy til we got to the tow-bar lift.  I HATE TOW BAR LIFTS!!!!  I came in too fast and skied past the point where you catch the bar.  While trying to get back (in skies) I tried dodging an incoming tow bar and SMACK in nailed me right in the head.  Here I am frustrated/crying, and my loving husband is busting out laughing.  I was pissed but could understand where he was coming from.  I was a pathetic sight to see.  I am laughing hysterically about it now.  Moving on, after a morning of skiing, we found ourselves at the ice bar mid-mountain and had ourselves a hot chocolate and gluhwein.  YUM!  I encouraged Ryan to go on his own and not wait all day for me.  I dinked around the smaller slopes and had some Italian pizza on the Italian side of the alps.  AWESOMENESS!!!!

Ice Bar

Italian Pizza

glacier paradise...matterhorn

That evening was the Tannenbaum Thanksgiving Feast.  They actually brought turkeys under the bus and gave the chefs recipes for stuffing, gravy, mac n’ cheese and good ole’ green beans with bacon.  They even had the jiggle cranberry sauce in a can.  They brought the turkeys out with sparklers lit and presented them to the room.  It was a sight to be seen.  Reminding us that we were not alone on a family holiday, everyone toasted to how lucky we are.

Something else interesting about Zermatt is that it is a car free town.  They want to preserve the beauty of the Matterhorn view, so they have electric taxis, buses and service vehicles get to and fro when needed.  Otherwise, you get everywhere on foot.  One place I found while exploring was the Zermatt cemetery.  Some may think this creepy, but my father always said that cemeteries tell a story of history.  This couldn’t be more true.  They take pride there in burying their loved ones with heather and pine.  But what really caught my eye was the special attention to those climbers who died while ascending or descending the Matterhorn.  There were two memorials with people’s name, dates and hometowns that died while journeying the mountain.  There was even a section of the cemetery strictly devoted to those climbers.  See pictures below with captions.  It was sad to see so many young people and friends who died together do something they so obviously loved.

rive through Zermatt...it was glacier runoff so it was the most beautiful blue water

heather and pine decorated graves

memorial to the climbers

american climber

a very unique grave...1938

climber from Denver, Colorado

three friends from Cambridge went climbing and never came back...during the rescue they found an unknown climber who had died.  They buried him with the three friends.  SAD

First to successfully reach the summit of the Matterhorn

The last memorable thing to our Swiss trip was the fondue day.  Nothing says Switzerland like fondue swiss cheese.  A few of us went out to get an appetizer fondue.  A simple pot and basket of bread with fondue cheese drizzled with truffle oil.  Melt in your mouth deliciousness.  But no, we couldn’t stop there and met up with more friends and this turned into three more pots of cheese.  Gorgonzola, Brie and mushroom.  It will be a long time before I eat that much cheese again.  We had fun sampling it and tell good tales of things we saw and did while in the charming village nestled in the valley of the alps. 

truffle oil fondue...my favorite

brie, gorgonzola and mushroom

meat platter also wonderful

Ryan and I out and about in Zermatt

Ryan and I are already looking forward to coming back this spring/summer to another swiss town.  We love the clean air, friendly people and the indescribable beauty.

People complain that it is expensive here, but I assure you, it is worth every penny no matter what time of the year you come.