Saint Paul Family Saveraid: Skiing and a Birthday

Zermatt, Switzerland is in the canton of Wallis/Valais (depending on if you are German or French). It's one of the most well known ski resorts in the world and was the destination for our final trip in Europe before heading back to St Paul. From Zürich's main train station it was only a 3 hour 14 minute journey to get within skiing distance of Italy on the southern border of Switzerland. We gave thanks to the ingenuity and talent of the tunnel engineers because it used to take 5 or 6 hours to reach the valley of Visp and Zermatt.

The weather was clear blue skies and sunshine as we boarded the train in Visp which took us up via cog railway to Zermatt. We wound our way along a steep gorge and through the town of St. Nikolaus, which of course boasted a church steeple decked out as Santa Claus that could be seen from the train station.

The town of Zermatt is car free..... which is true, we didn't see any cars, but you do have to watch out that you are not run over by an electric taxi or bus. These were everywhere and seem to assume that you know they are coming and should get over to the side of the road. More than a few times we were surprised by one zipping around us- you can't hear them coming very easily with those electric engines.

We stayed in a hotel close to the mountain gondola and away from the busiest section of town. It turned out to be the quiet time before the holiday rush, so we scored two rooms, one even with a view of the Matterhorn, for the same price as our one family room to share. Many of our hotel experiences in Europe have not been geared towards children or families, so this was a nice treat. The kids had a little drawing table set up in the hallway and they even placed some children's books in their room (although the TV turned out to be the biggest draw since they haven't seen one all year).

We rented a sled at the ski shop down the way from our hotel and this was their preferred method of transportation around town.

Monday was Leif's 10th birthday. 10 years old.! Travis and I are still adjusting to the idea. Leif is thrilled of course. We celebrated with presents and breakfast in the morning as a family. Then Leif and I walked down to the ski shop to pick up our boots, skis, and poles and boarded the electric bus (the Gruyere cheese bus of course) for Sunnegga Paradise. A cog bahn- THROUGH the mountain- took us up to the ski runs where we spent the remainder of the day.

After some warm up runs in the morning, Leif got into his groove and was in his words "bombing down the hill in front of mom". It was a warmer day than the previous one which was -18 C, but the wind picked up dramatically in the afternoon. The entire Italian side of the ski area was closed due to high winds. This freed up the slopes for us though, and what had started out as a crowed and fairly congested run we had nearly all to ourselves by the afternoon. We found ourselves making "just one more run" about five more times because Leif had discovered the thrill of higher speeds. It was definitely a great and memorable way to spend his birthday.

Travis, Hanna and Elisabet spent the day sledding the highest sled run in all of Europe from Rotenboden to Riffelberg, a 1.6 km run. Sledding requires a bit of finesse to control the direction and speed of your sled. Their first run resulted in Hanna getting stuck in the deep snow off the side and Elisabet with her face full of blown snow. Travis remedied the situation with hot chocolate in the lodge and then convinced them for another try. This time Hanna got the hang of steering and Travis put Elisabet behind him and they had so much fun they did it 4 more times.

With wind chapped cheeks and sore muscles, we topped off the day eating chocolate birthday cake and singing "Happy Birthday" in two languages.