Bluebird's Nest

One day after Christmas we drove back out to Valbella to spend time with my husband’s aunt, uncle, cousin, sister, and grandma. It was a snowy wonderland. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that much snow and almost the whole time we were there (5 days) it just kept on snowing. You might remember it as a green Swiss Alp valley. Winter time changes the scenery completely.

We had some wonderful times there.

We put the tweenager into skiing lessons for a day. She did great of course. The only problem is that they don’t really have lessons for someone that age (either young lessons or old person lessons – like me) so we put her in the young peoples lessons which might have been a mistake. She really enjoyed the first half of the day, but the second half was too easy. Check out the video.

One day we walked to Lenzerheidi to get some groceries and we took the lake route which was beautiful. They have a cross country track that goes around the lake so we had many discussions on the two different types of cross country, how hard it is, and how good it is for your body. My hubby’s uncle is a huge fan of it. It was gorgeous walking through the snow covered trees with the sun dipping in and out. We never once used the stroller but instead a sled to pull the wee babe around. She loved it and the fresh mountain air so quite often you would look back and she would be fast asleep. Of course I always worried about frost bite but she was completely fine.

Another day, myself, the wee babe, the tweenager and my aunt-in-law all went for a 2+ hour walk to get some nice coffee and sweets. It was again a gorgeous day but I don’t think I understood the distance we were walking in the snow, and wasn’t as well prepared as I could have been for the wee babe. Regardless, it was a beautiful walk.

While I was walking (and a couple of other days too), my hubby went snowboarding. He had a wonderful time high up on the mountains with his sister one day and his uncle another day.

One of the most memorable moments happened at the spa. But this ain’t no ordinary spa. Oh no. Let me start at the beginning.

My aunt and the tweenager had been to the “spa” and pool the day before. My tweenager wasn’t allowed to go into the spa area as she wasn’t old enough. I thought that was a little weird. Anyway, the next day my sister-in-law asked me if I wanted to go to the spa. “Sure!” I said. A little while later before we left, my aunt-in-law mentioned to me that the spa was a nudie spa. “Ok” I said “but the guys are in their spa and the women in theirs right?” “Nope.” was the response. They go in there together. Eep!

I began to wonder what I had gotten myself into. A few thoughts crossed my mind: I for sure wouldn’t know anyone there, if everyone is naked then they won’t all be staring at you cuz everyone is naked, I could wear my bathing suit anyway right (this isn’t allowed by the way), look at this as something that might make you stronger and something that you can say that you did! (you can blog about it!), Oh and maybe the spa will be closed.

The spa wasn’t closed. But first we did some “sport” and did some lengths in the pool where bathing suits were a must. Then we went into the spa area took off our bathing suits right there where the men were passing by. It seemed so strange. I was completely in my head for the first hour or so (maybe even the whole time). Let me paint the picture. So there’s about 7 spas that you can choose from. Hot, moist, dry, warm, etc… When you’re in the spa you sit on your towel, naked. When you’re walking to the next spa you have your towel on. Not so bad I guess. (I’m understanding why you have to be a certain age now though.) They also have a cold pool that you can run into after you’ve been in a hot spa. It’s supposed to increase your heart rate and be good for your health. It’s friggin’ cold let me tell you. My sister-in-law (who had absolutely no problems with all of this by the way) threw herself into a snow bank beside the hot tub just to see what it was like – let’s not forget she was naked right? Oh and one other interesting thing was that there was actually a woman who did wear a bathing suit and she stuck out like a sore thumb! You could see that she was very self conscious. I found that interesting that it worked the opposite way – that being naked you blended.

Anyway, the whole experience was very liberating and I really loved it for exercising my pyschie and just seeing how confident I was in my skin. Let’s not forget here people, that everyone in the spa was all within their ideal BMI. Oh and that some of the spas over looked the ski  hill so while you’re sitting there naked, you’re watching people skiing and snowboarding down the hill RIGHT outside the window (they can see you too by the way). Overall, I had a great time there.

Lastly, there was New Year’s night. After putting the wee babe to bed in the play pen in our room and grandma to bed, we drank some wine and then eventually headed outside to play in the snow and watch the fire works. It was great walking around the streets, playing on the toboggan and checking out all the fire works displays. I didn’t get any photos (drat) but we had a very memorable New Year’s night.

We had such a wonderful time with family, the food was as always divine (we had fondue on night – yum!), great wine, beautiful scenery, fun games, fresh air, abundant amounts of glistening snow and memories to last us a life time.

Thanks so much Claudia, Christophe and Nanou for having us up to your beautiful haven. xoxoxo

We were fortunate, recently, to be invited high into the Swiss mountains to a place called Bretaye. Bretaye is a quaint little mountain village about 1850 meters above sea level. It’s more of a skiing village. Before the snow comes, you can drive into your chalet but once the snow comes, the only way up is by train.

It is forbidden to do any additions to the chalets due to strict building regulations. It seems the Swiss like to keep their chalets and buildings as typical as can be. Additionally, they are also very strict on who can drive up to Bretaye with one very windy road that is only really fit for one car and you must register the cars that can have access to Bretaye.

The friends that invited us have a chalet up there so we headed up there Friday evening. During the drive, the wee babe didn’t really enjoy all the twists and turns and puked her guts out all over the car seat. I was a little nervous since I’ve never seen her puke so much all at once.

Once we arrived, it was dark and quiet. Just exactly how my hubby had described the area. You can see all the stars and not hear a single thing save for the wind whispering through the trees. The chalet was old and wonderful. Our friend’s grandfather bought it for $80 years ago.

Let me back up a bit. When we were organizing the trip up, my hubby told me that there is only one heater in the place and they turn if off at night. I asked what the temperature was in the chalet at night and he said 5 degrees. 5 degrees! He said, we travelled across Canada and now we can do anything. I begged to differ. Actually, I was really quite stressed about how the wee babe was going to do in that temperature and if I was going to have to sleep with her all night long. I hate sleeping with her. I chatted with our friend the next day and all was good, there was an electric heater in the room that stays on all night long so there was no need for me to worry. Thanks hubby.

When we arrived there were balloons for the hubby and the tweenager’s birthday, the fire was going in the kitchen, the gas furnace in the living room and the electric heater in the bedroom. It was cozy. We settled into crepes all around the table. It was delicious!! Shortly after that we ate birthday cake and after that the kids headed to bed.

The bedroom was small but we all fit so cozy. Bunk beds, single beds, and we brought the playpen/bed for the wee babe. The adults chatted for a little while and then we tucked ourselves in for the night.

The sleep that night was pretty good. A little early but all in all a good sleep. We had breakfast and got ready for the day. When I asked our friend before we left if we would be going for a walk, she said that her 4 year old wouldn’t last longer than about 20 mins so we could but it would be short. Well, let’s just say the plans changed significantly. I hadn’t brought appropriate footwear so I had to borrow some hiking shoes. We set out. It was supposedly a 2.5 hour hike up to the top of the mountain and then back down again. Eeep!

It was straight up. I don’t know if I’ve ever climbed anything that was ever so steep. It was almost impossible to climb it without falling backwards. The hubby was carrying the wee babe on his front thank goodness for me. It was like climbing Mt. Finlayson only harder I think. After getting to the first top, we negotiated along the top with drop offs on either side of us. It was a little nerve wracking. The tweenager said that she was shaking it was so scary. I was just trying not to think about it. Let’s not forget about the 4 year old that walked the whole thing by himself. I think if I was his mom I would have been freaking out. The Swiss start young here that’s for sure.

But the top was amazing. A beautiful view of the valley, lake, mountains… Simply stunning. Check out the photos and video to see what I’m talking about.

The walk down was through a cow field. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

We had lunch when we got back and then I took a snooze while the rest played Uno and frisbee.

Then it was dinner. My favourite – Raclette!! The only problem was our friends thought that there was a boneified raclette machine in the chalet but it wasn’t so. So they started calling around to the family and friends and as luck would have it, a light came on in the restaurant that was there and there just happened to be some people there fixing a computer and then just happened to have a raclette machine! Pure genious. It was by far the BEST raclette I’ve ever had.

After our bellies were full, the kids went to bed and the adults stayed up and played some Yahtzee. I lost horribly.

Another good night of sleeping and a low key breakfast. It was our last day in Bretaye so we went for a little hike around the lake and had some lunch. Then we were homeward bound.

Many thanks to our friends Alexandra, Mike, Adrien and Roxanne for inviting us to your little piece of heaven in Switzerland. We had an amazingly memorable time!!

Yay! We’re back on Canadian soil!!! Pretty happy to land back in my home country for some reason. I’m not even a big fan of Timmy Ho’s but we even made a stop there today. Oh and we almost stopped at Canadian Tire to pick up a new camp stove (our old one was leaking propane and it actually made a big fire show when my hubby tried to light it this morning to have our morning coffee. It’s awfully Canadian of us.

So happy to be back to regular cream in my coffee, not the powdered crap. What’s up with that anyway? I don’t understand why they don’t have normal cream in their coffee. Gross. Hopefully no American’s are offended when they read that.

So after a chilly night of camping in Higgins Lake we packed up and had a big long day of driving ahead of us. The nice thing is that the long days of driving are behind us and now we get to see the sights. We really wanted to make it to the East Coast to see all it had to offer and I think there’s a bunch of things to see over here

We passed the blue blue waters of Lake Huron today. I’m really suprised by how blue the water has been in all the Great Lakes we have passed. I’ve seen some nasty documentaries about how polluted some of the lakes are and it’s just not evident in the colour of lake that’s for sure.

We stopped for food at a Subway today while we were still in the States. I don’t know if they have these kinds of sandwiches in Canada but the have a turkey, bacon, avocado sandwich there and it’s oh so yummy. Had to try it.

We headed over the bridge back into Canada and stopped on the other side to give the wee babe a bit of a grass break. Like I said, it was a big long drive today. One mistake we made was thinking it would be easy to find camping on a Saturday no problem.

I was a little at my wits end as everything seemed to be full and we were so looking forward to staying put in one place for 3 days before seeing Allison in Ottawa (that’s right, we’re almost there girlfriend!!) so we were a little dissapointed that we couldn’t find anything. Finally we found something with a pool, grass, a little store, bathrooms, free showers but it’s unfortunately beside the highway. Sigh…

I think we’ll still park ourselves here for a few days just to be able to stop and relax rather than packing up again. The mozzies aren’t too bad.

Tomorrow we head out for a short day to Niagara Falls, probably a swim in the pool, and some relaxing by the fire but first we’ll start the day with a big breakfast.

I’m back in WIFI/network range again. Gawd it feels good !! No photos today. No time.

EXPENSES:

Camping: $32
Wee babe disposition: Pretty good. A couple of times it was hard to get her to go to sleep and at the end she had had enough. Long day of driving. Lot’s of Baby Beluga.
Weather: 28 degrees average, sunny with puffy clouds.
Stress level: Pretty even keel except for when the wee babe decided that she’d had enough and we weren’t ready to stop.