A wonderful New Year celebration

The view from our Hotel

It’s been a long time since I have come home from a night out and have had to hang my clothes outside because they smell so badly of alcohol and smoke (both legal and illegal I’m sure), well that was the case tonight.  We are celebrating New Year’s Eve in Lugano Switzerland.  Lugano  is a city of about 56,000 people which is very close to the Italian border - so close in fact that we all feel like we are back in Italy and have ever so quickly reverted to grazie rather then danke.

Ice Skating

Back to our New Year celebration.  Our Hotel is very close to the town square where we knew celebrations for the new year were taking place.  We left home around 7 and headed for the square where we had a pre-dinner drinks at a stand up outside bar (it is  a balmy  0 degrees so why would anyone sit inside) while watching Kaela and Josh ice skate.  Preparations had begun for some sort of concert so we were also entertained with bits of songs as they did their sound checks.

Dinner of course was Italian and then it was back to the square which had filled up enormously with the young people of Lugano, the older people of Lugano and even a few families with young children.  Somehow we ended up in the mosh pit part of the square with all the young people which was a tad embarrassing according to Bella.

The singer in pink tigh

The music started at 11pm and as the photos will attest it begun with a guy in pink tights, moved on to a group of 3 guys and then back to the guy in tights.  Who knows what they were saying or singing for that matter - occasionally they would sing a snippet of a song in English and they even sang Gangmen Style in Italian!!

Lugano Locals

12pm came around with the countdown which even with my rudimentary Italian I understood (Yes Frances I can count to 10). But at midnight everyone opened champagne which of course they had shaken.  Mind you if I was going to get covered in champagne I was glad it was with Veuve Clicquot - but I would prefer to drink it rather then wear it!

The other band

It is now 1.45am the music is still blaring outside our very lovely hotel but that’s OK it is the beginning of the New Year.  To family and friends happy 2013.

A night in an igloo

Dinner in an Igloo

Just for something different I thought it would be really fun to spend a night in an igloo on a snowy mountain in the middle of a European winter.  Unfortunately they couldn’t accommodate us while Zander was with us but we decided to go ahead anyway a few days later.  So last night it was Igloo night. 

Spending a night in an igloo sounds so exciting particularly in 35 degree Vietnam heat and it was BUT it also means never really being warm.  The temperature when we went up the mountain at 2.30 was minus 12 degrees and I assume it only got colder much much colder, or as Kaela said “minus really cold”.

The igloo was bigger then I thought - it was really an igloo hotel.  Our room slept 5 which meant on the slab of ice there was some kind of mattress with 5 sleeping bags.

The Restaurant

Door to our room

When we arrived we had mulled wine - which is really not that nice but after a few weeks in winter Europe I am starting to enjoy, mainly because it is warm.  We then had a tour of the hotel - the whirlpool which was inside but had no roof was strangely appealing but the thought of putting on swimmers and walking down the icy hallway was not so we all forwent that idea.  Dinner was in the dining room, where there were wooden tables with sheepskins on the stools.  Poor Bella just could not stand the cold even with a blanket wrapped around our legs.  Cheese Fondue was dinner, this involved dipping chunks of bread into melted cheese - thankfully I had already organized  spaghetti for me but I did think the others would like it - Oh how wrong I was!  The kids and Matthew all tried it but none of them liked it, Matthew and Mikaela thought it was edible but only just Josh didn’t like the cheese which I don’t think we will tell the Swiss and Bella just called it “fond spew” which I think tells her thoughts on it.

After dinner we had the option of going for an hour snow walk.  I had my work cut out for me convincing everyone it would be wonderful - but they all agreed to at least try the half hour walk.  (I don’t think it was so much my persuasive skills as the embarrassment of watching these little 3 and 4 year olds get ready).  

We then put on every piece of clothing we had brought with us - trackpants under jeans for Josh and Bella and trackpants over jeans for Kaela, extra tops and even my socks for gloves for Kaela (her glloves were wet) then Hats and scarves wrapped around our faces.  Snow shoes tied onto our own boots completed the outfit and off we set.

Our Bedroom

It was truly beautiful.  The only noise was our feet crunching through the snow, who knew the snow could make such a crunching sound.  Yes it was cold but not unbearable particularly when you were walking.  As we stood on the mountain looking down at the lights of the town of Engleberg below us, the full moon shining above us with a glass of schappes in our hands you could only wander at the beauty of our world.  

We were all so inspired that we continued on the walk - even Mikaela with her stitches in her leg choose to continue.

Once back inside warm tea really did only a little to warm us so it was off to bed.

Sleeping bags were never really made for people Matthew’s size.  Once he finally managed to get inside with Bella zippering him in he couldn't move, its times like this I am thankful for my small stature - I might get lost in crowds, I never can see what is going on over people’s heads but at least in sleeping bags I have room to move.

Besides feeling exceptionally cold for the first half hour I eventually warmed up and drifted off to sleep hoping (actually praying more like it) that I would not wake up and want to go to the bathroom - which was down the icy hallway and would require completely getting dressed back in my clothes, jacket, hat, gloves and scarves again.

I did sleep quite well.  The benefits of being a family were particularly evident, we were all so close I think we had room enough for another family on our bed of ice.

Waking up and getting dressed was only made easy by the thought of breakfast in a warm restaurant.

As we now head to Lugano we all agreed it was fun though noone is very keen to repeat the experience - Hotel Walter here we come.

Merry Christmas

Christmas 2012.

Christmas for us this year is in Splugen Switzerland, a tiny town at the foot of the Pizzo Tambo Mountain range on the Italian border.  We are staying in a beautiful old hotel which was built in
1722, I am in the lounge in front of an open fire whilst looking out the window to the snowy alps and the snow falling.
This morning we all put on our lovely Christmas sweaters and exchanged gifts in front of their Christmas tree.  After skyping family then breakfast Josh, Bella and I went skiing whilst Matthew and Zander took Kaela back to the doctors  then joined us.
Sitting on the chairlift in blizzarding conditions is not our usual christmas day but it certainly was memorable.  I guess the conditions were far from perfect which might explain the few people on the slopes but it was still wonderful.  It's been a long time since I skied but I have thoroughly enjoyed the last 2 days skiing (except of course Kaela's accident) but I still do wonder why they can't invent ski boots that are comfortable!
The hotel is having a Christmas dinner tonight which I am sure will be beautiful - if there table arrangements are anything to go by and we still have our Austrian Christmas cake to eat. Merry Christmas everyone.

Enroute to Innsbruck

Josh loving the snow

Today is the 21st December I only know that because of the date on the car dashboard display.  What I do know is that we have so far been to Vienna, Munich and Salzburg and this morning we had our first real snow.  In my excitement I grabbed my camera and raced outside to take photos much to the Hotel Proprietors amusement.  Salzburg under snow was just gorgeous.  OK maybe not so gorgeous when we had to drag our bags through the snow to the car.  Staying in the old city was beautiful just not very practical  with bags.

This snowball was thrown at Josh

Still it was worth it.  We are now driving to Innsbruck which if it lives up to its reputation will be beautiful.  
Our trip so far has been amazing we are truly lucky to have the opportunity to travel through Europe as a family particularly at this time of year.  The Christmas lights and decorations just make evening even more magical. 

The castle in the background almost completely hidden

Off to Europe

Europe in winter I am so excited.  We are flying with Emirates airlines via Dubai all the way to Vienna.  We do have a 6 hour stopover in Dubai but they provide a hotel room so it makes for a  a very easy trip.
On the leg from Dubai to Vienna the flight attendant brought me a cake on a plate.  I thought she was offerring me piece of cake and without taking my earphones off I declined, politely of course.  She then informed me that “no no its a present” .  I woke Matthew up and asked if he bought me a cake but no he didn’t, in hindsight a very silly question.   I hesitantly excepted the cake, they came took a photo of us with the said cake and then took it to refrigerate it until we landed in vienna. Neither Matthew or  I knew where the cake came from and I must admit as I entered Vienna carrying a cake I was just a little perturbed, as was the rest of the family - they all abandoned me as we went through customs.  Alexander did ask later when we regaled the story to him "why would you take an unknown object through customs?"  Point taken but I didn't really think about it at the time.

It did provide many a discusion point with us all so thank you to who ever sent the cake.

Christmas in Saigon

Near our House

I can't beleive it's Christmas again in Saigon.  You can't help but be impressed by the City of Saigon.  For a Buddhist counry they do a fine job of getting in the Christmas spirit.

District 1 

District 1