Cold Toilet Seats

What do I remember most about Christmas in Switzerland? Not snowboarding in the shadow of "The North Face", not the Christmas Markets and gluwein, not meeting an international cast of characters you wouldn't believe, and especially not waking up with pneumonia on Christmas morning. What I can't get out of my head is the freezing, frigid, forbidding, frosty feeling toilet seats. I'm not kidding. Those things were like giant frozen doughnuts. There's no relaxing with a magazine when you're covered in goose bumps. But I guess that's just the price of admission, so to speak. Switzerland was amazing!

I went to visit my friend Jen from high school. She lives in a town called Basel, in northern Switzerland on the border with Germany and France. Actually, on my first day there we went shopping for groceries in Germany where it's cheaper, then went to France to have lunch at an Italian joint. That day was a whirlwind tour with stops in Kenya, Holland, Switzerland, Germany and France. You know me...bound to ramble.

The day after I arrived we took off with our snow gear and started a trip to Bern for sightseeing and then to the Interlaken area for snowboarding. Jen's friends Dina, Richard and Marcelo came along. We took a train to Bern, the capital, to see the city and a Christmas Market. I found out about gluwein at the Bern Christmas Market. I'm not sure what I did all my life without that stuff! It's a hot spiced wine with cloves and orange juice. Wow! Mom, Dad, you never told me about this stuff when I was a kid and we used to go to Christmas Markets in Germany.

A really cool hostel put us up that night, complete with internet for the bargain basement price of 15 min. for 2 Franc. The city was really nice, especially in contrast to almost every African city. It reminded me a lot of Germany from when I was a kid. There are cobblestone streets, and Christmas decorations, and there's even a bear pit. Yes, you read that correctly, there are bears right in the middle of the city. But they were sleeping when we were there so no pics. Imagine that, bears sleeping in the winter time. Bern was just like every other square inch of Switzerland in that it was immaculately clean. They tolerate graffiti a bit but don't look for a discarded ticket stub to wrap your gum up in. And don't even think about spitting it on the ground.

I saw an amazing thing in Bern. Someone had actually taken a genuine, authentic picture of Santa Clause. And he looked exactly how I always thought he would. Apparently he's a man after my own heart. A connoisseur of sorts. ;)
Anyway, after a nice rest we proceeded by train to Lauterbrunen where we checked in to the Valley Hostel. A fantastic cozy little place. Our home for the next two nights.
Lauterbrunen is a beautiful little town tucked into a valley in the Bernese Alps. There's a really tall and thin waterfall on one side of the valley and spectacular Alpine vistas all around. That's something there was definitely no shortage of up in the mountains. I've never seen a place so hopelessly beautiful.

The first day in Lauterbrunen Jen, Richard, Dina and I went hiking way up on one of the ridges lining the valley to a high town called Mürren.
Along the way we stopped at an unexpectedly cool little mountain tavern-type place for a beer. We were always stopping for a beer...on a hike, at 6 pubs along a city walk, in the middle of a ski run. Seriously. Oh the joys of a European Christmas. But at this place on the top of a mountain there was a trampoline. And wouldn't you know it, Jen and Dina had to jump on it. Kids.

The next morning it was off to Kleine Scheidig for a day of snowboarding. I really doubt if you could find a place to put a ski lodge with more stunning scenery. It was enough to take my breath away as I snowboarded down trails that took 25 minutes to finish. The scenery and the cold both worked to leave me breathless several times. And, of course, we stopped at all kinds of taverns along the way down to grab a beer, which I hear is the best remedy to bring back one's lost breath.

An example of the awe inspiring snowscape I found up there was the view of the world famous Eiger Mountain. The Eiger's north wall is the inspiration for the name of the outdoor equipment & clothing company, The North Face. That's it right behind me. I snowboarded in its shadow for two days. Just incredible.


So we made it through two days of winter wonderland fun with only Jen suffering a semi-serious injury. Silly Jen. Then the sun set on our ski weekend and we took the train back to Basel, satisfied.
On Christmas Eve Jen cooked a phenomenal seafood alfredo dinner and hosted a party with a bunch of her friends. I felt like I was in a United Nations conference discussing what the world needs to do to about something. There were 2 Americans, 2 Australians, a Swiss guy, an Uzbek, a Tartar Russian, a Moldovian and a Chinese chic. It was incredible, like everything else about my Christmas this year.
I think the one thing that everyone needs to remember, besides the fact that your cheeks will freeze in Switzerland, both sets, is this...be sure about it before you invite me to come visit. Because I'll do it.