Chocolates, Snow & Fondue (I) - Dec 2015

Cable Car to Flumserberg

Zurich in early Dec wasnt snowing yet but the temperature was cool. We have planned to try skiing on the Swiss Alps and I did some research online trying to see which ski resort would be good for novice skiing. A lot of forum pointed to this Flumberg, and it is one of the nearest skiiing resort from Zurich (90 mins away). Reaching the mountains require cable car or gondola or chairlifts - and it was a struggle to decide which mode to use based on the available means of transport at the resort.  

We took train and cable car up to Flumserberg (About 1400m above). It was low peak season and it was a nice ride up - though I was a bit tensed up in cable car - thank God there was no need for chairlifts.  My wife was happily walking around, and standing here and there in the cable car taking photos, commenting how nice and high the mountains were. The aerial view changed - from small wooden huts which looked so beautifully in harmony with green pasture to snow capped mountains. Brave girl.

Flumserberg

There were some skiing activites at Flumserberg. What caught our attention was a big tentage with "Toblerone" chocolate - didnt get any toblerone to eat though. The info centre staff said "no tracks suitable for beginners" much to the relief of my wife. Honestly speaking, my wife was happy to hear that as it was quite expensive to ski - Rental plus ski pass etc cost more than CHF150++.

We trekked a bit around the area looking for photo spots, and we have our signature shots there too. Wanted to shout "Ricola" like the ads, but didnt do so to disturb the peaceful atmosphere. At least we saw snow and threw some snow balls - swiss snow experience or else our snow hat and gloves a bit under-utilised. Go switzerland should have snowing experience - I always associate Switzerland with snow capped mountains.  Even in hotels, there was a special skiing channel showing skiing activities at the alps. Skiing is part and parcel of Swiss people, I believe.

Ski Lessons

We saw some children learning to ski. As we were not skiing, we sat along the side of the path looking at these children learning to ski. I rem describing about my experiences skiing in Korea and how to walk and stop and change direction in skiing.  My dear mentioned that we dun wan to "malu" in front of the professional and it was ex to do so - Swiss Franc is more dear than Euro and may not worth it for beginners like us.

We saw a strange-looking snow man - we were too lazy to build one though as the depth of snow wasnt really thick enough.  The snow were not as fine as hokkaido snow too. Being in different snowy places, we seemed to be our own experts in different "grades" of snow. Hey, do you want to build a snowman? Well, I choose Hokkaido fine snow now.