Our last meal in our winter paradise get away. We tried to use up all the extra little bits we had left in the fridge. We had our sandwiches all made, fruit and goodies packed along with our jam packed suitcases. This time around we got lots on nice souvenirs. I got a cookbook on Fondues which is pretty big in Switzerland, but I wish now that I would have gotten a really nice fondue crock. Kevin got his standard beer stein which seemed to be quite expensive but it was in Francs which is like dollars and compared to what we've spent on previous ones in Euro it was about even I guess. Harrison got a genuine Swiss army knife that we had engraved with his name. Addison got her traditional porcelain doll that she begged to play with, but we enthusiastically said no.
Harrison was chillin' out while we scampered around the apartment to make sure we had everything. I still can't believe how mesmerizing his eyes are.
Just a quick glance back at what our living room looked like with are cute little Christmas tree.
Here is Ashley our hostess for the week. She is actually English and from the Stratford-Upon-Avon area. She was so wonderful to us and helped us out so much.
One last look out our bedroom windows with our great view of the Matterhorn.
Sally cleaning up our kitchen.
We got a really nice picture of the kid with Grandpa Mike and Grandma Sally out on our deck over looking Zermatt and the Matterhorn. Had to make this a quick shot since it was about -15 C outside.
Our chalet - we stayed on the top floor on the left side. It was a split level apartment so we got two balconies. The owners of the chalet actually live on the second floor with the windows. They were in Austria this week so we didn't get to meet them.
Our little family in front of the really, really big Christmas tree in the square of city centre Zermatt. They actually have full sized plates painted up and hung on the tree as decorations.
We headed into the train station around 8:10AM to catch the 9:22 AM train out of Zermatt and to start our long journey home.
Everyone got all nestled into our seats on the train.
Going back we actually had day light for the trains through the mountains and the views were amazing. It was fun watching the train snake its way down through the mountains with all the snow.
Our train made a stop in a town called St. Nikolas and they turned their tower into a huge Santa Claus.
As we grew closer to the Swiss/French border the villages scattered along the hillsides in between all the vineyard fields. They have found a way to utilize some of the most difficult land and make some good wine!!!!
We we got to Lausanne it was horribly cold and we saw that our train was delayed 20 minutes - not too bad, but then it turned into 30 minutes then 45. We only had two hours in Paris to make our connection and with a 45 minute delay we were still okay but after our little episode on the way here I didn't like how close it was.
As we travelled on the TGV train from Lausanne to Paris the weather got really bad and the snow was really coming down. I decided to text my friend Sarah to see if she could pick up a pint of milk for us so the kids could have breakfast when we get home. She text back and said she asked if we were meant to come back on the Eurostar because she had just heard on the radio that all travel through the Chunnel was suspended. My heart sunk and that was when the chaos and what I'm sure a 50 GBP mobile phone bill started.
With the Eurostar supposedly closed we tried to think of other ways to get home. Sarah worked with us for almost 2 hours via texts to try lining up ferry tickets, train tickets, rental cars, and taxis. Our train was delayed into Paris almost 2 hours, the weather was awful every where, the motorways were closed into and out of Dover, it was an absolute mess and after a week a paradise we just wanted to get home....
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