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| Me and my swiss sister |
We had six days of skiing planned and I planned to take full advantage of
it. We had two glorious days of sunshine to start the week of on a high. I was pleased with my skiing - I still remembered
how - and the glorious snow certainly helped. The Schneiders aren't big on going too hard out and take regular re-fuel
stops at the cafes, but I was keen to ski, ski, ski, so while I did a lot of skiing with Jacques and Mounia, I also did a
lot on my own.
Tuesday I wanted to take a lesson to remind myself what I was doing wrong
but discovered that in Switzerland everyone knows how to ski, so adult groups lessons aren't really available, so I took a
private lesson with Daniel, a local ski instructor. It was a good investment as he had me change a couple of bad habits, which
helped me ski better for the rest of the week.
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| Mounia the ice skating queen |
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| Mounia and Jacques enjoying the sun and snow. |
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| The French side of the mountain - even more beautiful than the Swiss side? |
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| Left to France, right to Switzerland! Decisions, decisions... |
Most days after coming day off the mountain I relaxed for a while
watching old episodes of "Friends" in French before freshening up for dinner - one night swiss fondue, another night
italian pizza - we ate well! Mounia and I also took full advantage of our complimentary pass to the local sports centre,
taking two saunas and trying ice skating too. Out first sauna was a bit of an adventure as we discovered with a shock that
despite having booked in, we were faced with quite a few "hommes a poil", or in English - naked men! Old men! Arrr! We
resorted to being giggling young girls as we dashed out of the changing room and waited until the coast was clear!
We had two days of foggy weather on Wednesday and Thursday but the
upside of bad weather is that people stay away in droves and for two days we didn't have to queue for the lifts at all. Friday
it was once again sunny and today we took the opportunity to go a little further - into France to be exact! Nothing like
skiing from one country to another, three times in one day! Over this side of the mountain was some of the most awe-inspiring
mountain scenery I have ever seen: clear blue skies, crisp white snow, staggering rocky mountains and snow covered trees.
Awesome.
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| Mounia, expert skiier |
Reluctantly on Saturday I dragged myself off the slopes, tired and
satisfied after a fabulous week skiing. We headed home and celebrated my last night in Switzerland with a meal of raclette,
washed down with more white wine. Sunday was another long, but stress-free, journey, back to Strasbourg to fly home,
ready to start my second week of my new job. And I am sporting a tanned face with not too much of a sunglasses mark!
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