Monday morning we dressed warm because Monica warned us it would be really cold, and jam-packed the kids and the sleds in the car and crossed the river into Germany.
It was so beautiful driving up there. I didn't take any pictures, I'm not sure why, I suppose I thought I'd take them on the way home. It was snowing giant, fluffy flakes and about 20 minutes into our drive the roads were snow packed. For a minute Richard and I wondered if it was smart to keep going, but there were plenty of others headed where we were, so we kept on. We stopped at a small grocery store to buy some snacks for lunch and there were so many delicious looking cookies and biscuits, I wanted to buy them all. But I'll tell you exactly what there wasn't. Not a bag of potato chips/crisps to be seen in the entire store. So I just bought more cookies.
We had trouble finding what exactly it was that Monica told us we were looking for, but we did find a ski hill, with a sledding hill next to it so we thought we'd give it a shot. The car was telling us it was -8 Celcius, which is about 17 degrees Fahrenheit. BRRRR!
We put all our snow clothes on and hit the hill. The kids were having fun, but we learned an important (and probably obvious, really) lesson quickly. Wellies are fabulous for keeping water/moisture out. But they are not adequate for keeping COLD out. Our poor toes were frozen in about 20 minutes. So we went back to the car to warm up and look for other sledding options. We had heard of a tube hill so we decided to try and find it.
This is a good place to mention that the Swiss people were so kind. They always gave their best effort when speaking English, rarely gave themselves enough credit for how well they spoke it, and if they didn't speak it at all, would bend over backwards to find someone who did or to help us in any way they could think. (Case in point, above.)
To make a long story short, we decided to go back to our original spot and give it another try. By now the temperature had warmed up to -4° (26° F) and the snow had packed down better and for some reason our feet stayed warmer the second time around.
When we told the kids about our holiday in Switzerland in the weeks and days leading up to it, we really talked up the snow. I think the sledding day lived up to their expectations and it's the thing they still talk about when the subject of Switzerland comes up. It's a bit hard for me to not be frustrated that they don't mention all the other neat things they got to see, but Richard reminds me that they are kids after all. And I'm glad that I have him to make sure we do things besides cathedrals and museums.