A white Christmas

Passing the time before the flight with a touch of airport football!

With some cheap European airfares and our pending return to Australia, we were inspired to have one last 'cold' Christmas and feel very fortunate to have spent the last few weeks in Switzerland and France. We returned to Cyprus yesterday, and now the final work begins to get packed up for departure in a couple of weeks time.

The village of Wengen

Our skiing week was spent in Wengen Switzerland, which is a small village high above the Lauterbrunnen valley in the Jungfrau region. It's a beautiful village without cars, which adds to its charm. The ski runs come right into the village, and travel up to the top each morning is via cog railway or a large cable car. 

Part of the skiing area sits just below the Eiger, which is a very well known (and somewhat notorious) mountain for rock climbing. The area is also famous for the Lauberhorn World Cup downhill race which is held in Wengen each year. Skiing in Switzerland reminded us again of what it like to ski on long runs, with some more than 12km in length. The kids all had a great time, despite the fact that it was very cold on a few of the days. Anna was a trooper and skied well, but even she succumbed on a couple of the days and decided it was just too cold for skiing. She also developed a somewhat frustrating habit of just sitting down on the slope in the middle of a very steep run and taking her skis off, declaring that she was tired! Both Jessie and Sam took great strides in their skiing, and Angus spent most of the week snow boarding off-piste, enjoying the lovely powder provided with all the fresh snow.

Christmas day was spent on the slopes, and presents this year were just a few chocolate eggs and coins (the main gift was the trip itself). We stayed in a lovely 120year old chalet, which was surrounded by green at the start of our week, but by more than 2 feet of snow by the end. It was lovely to see the landscape transformed.

On our way to Paris

After our week of skiing we then caught the TGV to Paris, where we spent four days taking in the sights, meeting with friends and enjoying the chance to celebrate new years eve in a beautiful city. Some good friends Gene and Boris came across from Belgium with Gene's son Pierre, and also some other former Cyprus friends Thomas and Gabriella and their four children travelled across from Hamburg.  So we were a large group, but had a great time together despite lots of crowds around the city. An added bonus was the chance to briefly see an old friend of Ross', Dave Moffitt who was in Paris on his honeymoon with his new wife Shane.

For both Sarah and I, the trip was a chance to step away from our normal routine here, and in the midst of packing up to relocate was just the tonic needed to maintain a good perspective and headspace.

Jessie has once again put together a movie showing some favourite parts from the holiday, so you can enjoy it by clicking here or via the link below.  There's also a few other pics to follow.

The majestic Eiger

Our Wengen accommodation

Rugged up and ready to go

A chance meeting with Dave & Shane

Thomas, Gabriella and family (Anna and Kasper somewhere
out the back!)

Boris, Gene and Pierre

New Year's Eve on the Champs Elysees