Next we continued on home to Switzerland. My grandma invited the whole family for 10 days of skiing and snowboarding to the Swiss Alps for her 85th birthday. Naturally we also went home for Christmas to celebrate with the whole extended family. My mum, dad, brother and sister also flew in from Australia which was awesome as I had also not seen my immediate family for almost a year.
Home for the holidays!
December 18th 2013 – January 11th 2014
Our Swiss Christmas involves cheese. When I say cheese, I mean a lot of cheese. I can honestly almost say we had cheese for every meal. I was able to indulge in what I miss most about living here, which includes cheese, good bread and grandmas cooking. It was super funny watching Graham enjoying at least 1kg of cheese per sitting and washing it down with a shot of 60 year old and very expensive kirsch. Kirsch is a cherry liquor which is supposedly meant to help with digestion as it helps to prevent the cheese solidifying back in the stomach. Norbert, my sisters companion, on his first visit to Switzerland followed the Swiss appetites bravely, however suffered the after effects the following day. Guess he didn’t take enough shots of kirsch. He also did not take our warnings to heart about finishing his plate at all costs, as he was super embarrassed when grandma picked up his plate and finished the last few spoonfuls he did not finish. We warned him! Christmas in Switzerland with the Weinachtsmarkets, falling snow, raqulette, cheese fondue and fleischkaese is how I remember it as a child and it was absolutely wonderful for me.
As we always do when we come home to Switzerland, we visited mums best friend, who owns one of the biggest diary farms in Switzerland. We milked cows, ate cheese and played with their house pets, at this time mini pigs. Their last pig was so huge that every time she laid down in the chicken pen she squashed three chickens. Who needs a vacuumed cleaner when you have pigs? They responded and obeyed commands like dogs would.
Our ski vacation began after the Christmas festivities in Arosa, a ski destination comparable to Davos and St Moritz. Our ski resort was once upon a time a retreat for patients with lung conditions that would go up into the Alps for respite. It had a wave pool, hot tubs, steam rooms, infrared rooms, saunas, hot/cold pools and solariums, all fantastic for sore and tired bodies after a day on the slopes. The skiing and snow boarding was amazing, with perfect weather, fresh powder and beautiful scenery. Not everyone was this lucky though. Graham somehow managed to fracture his foot on the third run on the first day, so with two doctors and one physical therapist recommendation, he was set to enjoy the rest of the vacation minus snowboarding. He was beyond devastated as you can imagine. He did enjoy the other activities like the food, the pool, sleigh riding, curling, board games with grandma and sledding. We also took a snow slope groomer up the mountain one night for an intimate fondue dinner on top of the Swiss Alps. The ride felt like a strange and chilly rollercoaster but a lot of fun regardless. New Year’s Eve consisted of not much more than food and drink. After an eight course meal we were all happy to hit the dance floor or go to bed by the time the new year came around. Never the less the company was nice and food was delicious. For an eight course meal you might imagine how small each course was, which I believe was one of the hotels tactics to keep everyone glued to the dinner table.
The getaway of amazing powder and fine dining soon came to an end, as my little brother drove us all back to the comfort and hominess of grandma’s house. Our drive down the slopes was however not uneventful. We were flashed with headlights by many oncoming cars on numerous occasions, until finally my brother and Graham in the front seat decided to pull over on the highway and check if the tyres were flat or something. Both their heads and chests leaned simultaneously out the windows to check when suddenly an unmarked police car pulled up behind us. All five of us sat in the car wondering what to do as there were no sirens, no flashing lights, just a BMW sitting behind us. Finally it pulled out in front of us and a screen with Swiss writing reading’ follow us’ appeared. So follow we did. My brother had no idea what he had done. He was definitely not speeding, as here you are more likely to be pulled over for driving too slow. After finally coming to a halt the policeman came to my brother’s window and my brother with broken Swiss German greeted him very politely. We tried to explain that we were in grandma’s car, heading back from ski holidays. Luckily my brother also had his Australian drivers license, which he handed over with a big grin. Finally we found out that as of the 1st of January it was mandatory to have headlights switched on at all times while driving. Due to us constantly switching the radio to English music, I not once was able to hear and translate this news to the driver. Somehow we got away with a warning and avoided the fine, to only later find out this is actually very rare and we were very lucky.
Eyes became watery as the time came to an end in Switzerland. It was very hard to say good bye to all the family but especially the grandmas, as it’s hard to say when I will see them again. Graham had already told grandma that at the next reunion there will be one more addition to the Forshee family, so you can imagine the smile that beamed on grandma’s face as Graham tried to communicate this in Swiss-English. With very overweight bags filled with Swiss spices, I made the dreaded trip to the airport. To my surprise Turkish Airlines allows you to check two bags per person up to 55lbs each. It won my vote, this is almost unheard of these days. The last time I had to wear every piece of clothing in my bag onto the plane.
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