St Moritz

A view from the cable car:

You know you're in Switzerland when the street signs look like this:

This was the view from our hotel. Yes, that's a swimming pool in the bottom left. It's heated.

Sleighs! Ponies pulling sleighs! Well, actually horses. Don't you love their head feathers?!

It snowed for the first half of our trip. Which was nice, but resulted in a lot of this:

I suddenly realised that it has been two weeks since I last got around to posting on here, and it hasn't been for a lack of things to say that I haven't posted, I've just been busy! I went to Switzerland for work for a few days, which was lovely. The first day I was pretty miserable, standing about watching other people skiing while it is snowing, in boots that your feet aren't used to, with a dripping nose and streaming eyes is not fun. Especially when you've forgotten to bring your money so can't even go in to the cafe and buy a hot drink. And to get there you have to fight your way though terrorists on snow (aka skiers). PMS was not improving things either. However, the second day improved things. The weather for a start! I also didn't have to stand about for ages, I had some free time to explore the village, which was neat. It's pretty small, and it really reminded me of Wanaka in New Zealand. Stunningly pretty mountain village, with the misfortune to be near excellent skifields. The shops were all Gucci and Prada and god knows what that I didn't really notice, with the occasional restaurant and cafe. I had a delicious hot chocolate, sent some postcards, and then it was time to be working again.

They have delicious food in Switzerland! Or possibly that was just the swanky restaurant we went to. But NOM NOM NOM I hadn't realised that I like veal, or that it is possible to cook spinach in such a way that it is TOTALLY DELICIOUS. Not that I have anything against spinach cooked normally. Or at least I didn't, until now. I shall have to infiltrate their kitchens and steal their secret powers of making spinach more delicious than anything, ever. It's a pretty good secret power, when you think about it.

Day three provided me with some time to discover the swanky hotel's 'wellness' area. "Wellness" Sam thought to herself. "Sauna, here I come!" I spent a happy hour lounging about in two different saunas, which I enjoyed greatly. This was definitely my best hour in the whole trip. I did spend a few minutes contemplating what I should wear in the sauna though. I am aware that some people *glances sideways at Finnish friends* don't wear clothes in the Sauna. I am aware that other people may or may not be greatly offended by this. I am aware that Europe tends towards public nudity at any given moment. There was a lot of naked people in France. Switzerland is next to France. Close enough right? As it turned out, I didn't actually find out, because I had the WHOLE THING to myself the WHOLE time, it was awesome. All the ski bunnies were outside enjoying the cold sunshine.

I later checked on the internet and discovered that my uncertainly as to clothing ettiquette was entirely justified. One could more or less flip a coin or roll a die to figure out which European countries favour nudity, and which think you should be dressed. And they're all pretty set in "their" tradition about it, and get mighty upset if you get it wrong! After quite a bit of reading online I came to the conclusion that Switzerland was probably on the side of nudity, but wouldn't be too offended if you wore clothes. Although I guess that was the point of the ladies only sauna, if you don't want to get naked in front of the opposite sex. Hard luck if you're a particularly modest bloke, it was either ladies or mixed! I did read the 'sauna guidelines' notice on each door. None of them at any point mentioned their position on this mixed topic, so I really honestly can't be sure what the appropriate state of dress was. Luckily I didn't have to find out the hard way!

Anyway, off to bed for me now. There is more exciting travel planned in the near future. And no, I don't know where to!