Drive-By Swiss Update

Friday night I was out with this crowd until 2am at Bar Rouge on the 31st floor of the Basel Ramada. It's the 2nd tallest building in Switzerland. We were able to bring "Sexy Back", along with a lovely selection of dance favorites from the 70's, 80's & 90's. Us Americans were very easy to spot in the crowd and the bouncers kept a close eye on us all night.


I also used the facilities in Bar Rouge, on the 30th floor and snapped this lovely shot. Yes, that's a full length window over looking the city and an eerie reflection of me taking a picture. Good thing I took the picture AFTER I was finished...

On Saturday, we checked out a local skating rink for an afternoon of ice skating outside in the sun. It was still chilly, but not too bad. I was even able to skate backwards for a bit...

On Sunday we travelled down to Zermatt. It is almost directly south of Basel on the other end of Switzerland, right on the border with Italy. On the 3.5 hour train ride down we saw lots of mountains and lakes by Thun:

We saw the town of Zermatt:

And we saw the Matterhorn. It's amazing. While the pictures are beautiful, it does not give it justice for seeing it in person. It was absolutely breathtaking!

We saw other Swiss Alps from Gornergrat, which was at the top of one of the peaks near the Matterhorn. It sits 3100 meters (1.9 miles) above sea level. It was about 16 degrees F up there too, with about a 20mph wind that kicked up. We even walked up the ramp to the upper observation deck and I wiped out on the icy pavement and banged up my knee. (That's gonna leave a mark!)

The clouds rolled in after lunch and "stuck" to the peak of the mountain, but we were able to take plenty of pictures before then.

On the way back down the 5 mile ride on the mountain, several of us decided to try sledding. It was about a 3/4 mile track down the mountain. The trail was like a ski run and it ran fast. I was in jeans and Nike's with knitted gloves, careening down the mountain on a sled that required me using my FEET to steer - BRILLIANT!! I laughed the entire time, when I was not screaming for dear life. This is on the list of "to do's" again very soon!! (the run is along the tracks in this spot)

Late Sunday night after a full day of sun, snow and sledding, I headed home for a hot bath and to watch the first 30 minutes of the SuperBowl here:


It was a full weekend and I have about 150 pictures in all and about another 100 from the last weekend here. I'm already starting to plan my next weekends back here and what we can do.

See you this weekend in St. Lou...