Florida Coalcracker Chronicles: Spending Our Winter Holidays in a Winter Wonderland

Sunday, December 18, 2022

Spending Our Winter Holidays in a Winter Wonderland - Wengen Switzerland High in the Alps

This is Lulu in front of our chalet.
Really - we rent the 4th floor penthouse.
Note her carrying groceries and her walking pole.
It is quite a trek to the 4th floor.

This is the view from our living room window.
We are at 4200 feet - those mountains go up to 12,000 feet.

I am sorry I have not posted more stuff - we have been busy. We spent a week in London - then the last 4 nights have been in different places - London - Paris - Basel - Wengen. Like Yassar Arafat - a different bed every night - to avoid my enemies. It took us 4 trains to get from London to Wengen.

We arrived Saturday at noon and will be here until Friday. My son rented a Swiss Chalet - really just the top floor. It has 6 bedrooms and 6 bathrooms - just on the top floor - if you count the locked owner's bedroom and loft. I guess the other 3 floors are similar. It is really constructed very well - lots of wooden beams and insulation. I expected it to be drafty and cold with all the glass - but it is quite toasty with heated floors. They request you leave all boots - skis - etc - in the mudroom on the ground floor. So you walk up 6 flights of steps bare footed. We're tough old coal crackers - so we can handle it. Once up here - we have porches on 3 sides - some are glassed in. The house faces east and the sunrise.

High up in the mountains - the air has less oxygen. Lulu and I get winded easily - carrying groceries up 6 flights of steps. I am sure we could use the exercise.

The kids have taken skiing lessons - and we all have tried sledding. Liz and Keith took long ski runs for several hours this morning. We took the cable cars up to the Top of Europe. Our chalet is at 4000 feet - went went up to 6800 feet today - and there are a few horns that extend to 12,000 feet! It was really nice up on Mannlichen - sunny - 20s - no wind.

Wengen is served by a cog railroad. It is the only way into the valley surrounded by Alps. No cars are allowed in town except service cars - and they are small. All food and materials come up the cog railroad. All garbage goes out the same way. With that setup - I expected the groceries to be sky high - but they were milder to me than London. You do spend Swiss Francs here - not Euros.

I am guessing I would not have come here - except the kids requested we come along. We were in the Alps in the summer - it is very nice then - but this is really Christmasy. I did bring along 4 bags of Ricola cough drops just in case.

I am not used to wearing so many clothes to go out. Really it is overkill. I wear long johns all the time. Then I bought Beatle boots. I bought 3 pairs of long pants. I brought hat - gloves - scarf - that I had at home. Back in Florida - you roll out of bed - put on shorts - tee shirt - sandals - and could fake it thru the day. Being retired - no one expects much of you. Also - in Florida - we wear our shoes in the house. Here they expect you to take them off in the mud room - and hike up to the 4th floor in stocking feet.

I like the chalet - it is really overkill - I like something more basic but it is nice seeing the differences. I will post a video of the chalet in the future. You may remember we built a 1000 square foot chalet in Tamaqua completely of cedar wood. It was easy to heat and in 30 years we never painted it - stained it once.

Everything here has steep slanted roofs. That helps the snow fall off.

Switzerland is neutral. They have a standing army - but even in World War II - with Hitler being next door - they managed to stay out of it. A few Jews sought refuge here. Supposedly Hitler wanted to invade but his generals said the Swiss were too well prepared. For a country of 5 million people to have a well-prepared army of 500,000 - would have cost Hitler too much for too little. I have seen so very few memorials on the streets. I look for stuff like that. Switzerland is a wealthy country - I wonder if it because they do not waste all their money on B-21s and nuclear missiles.

I have a former student - Steph Green - who lives in Basel. Out trip passed through there - but we could not match schedules. Next time.

I like staying in one place and exploring a bit. We will stay in this chalet until we take the train back to Paris on Friday for Christmas.

Lulu and I have been pushing our luck - we have had 4 covid shots - 2 flu shots - 1 shingles shot. any time I see a sign in a pharmacy window - I get a shot if I can. I have not been sick - not a sniffle - since covid hit. Lulu had a cold in Australia in October. She did not miss any work. We believe in science and anything opposite of what trump says.