We went skiing in the neatest place! It's called Murren -- there should be two little dots over the "u" but I don't know how to get to the German alphabet -- anyway, it's in Switzerland, smack dab in the middle of the Alps. On a clear day, you see the Jungfrau; on a foggy day, you may see across the street. We had half clear and half foggy days, and each had its charm. Murren is on a cliff, and the only way there is via cable car. To ski, you can take a train, a cog railroad, a cable car, or a chair lift. We did all of those, plus our 1st encounter with a rope tow, which neither the Professor nor I ever wants to see again! (Can you say, humiliation???) The snow was so incredible; it was like skiing on velvet.

We arrived on New Year's Eve. Our hotel had a dinner consisting of Swiss specialties. This pineapple was one of the specialties -- who knew! Then we had the Big Name Entertainment.









There were about a dozen people with these huge cow bells, which they rang for several minutes. This chases away any bad sprits lingering from the old year, and keeps new ones from coming in. They did this at every hotel in town, followed by free shots, yet they still managed to ring the bells in synch.








The bell-ringing was followed by a rock concert, consisting of an accordion and a concertina, with piano accompaniment. The piano had to provide the oom-pah-pah, since there was no tuba. The highlight was the wooden spoon solo. The yodeling wasn't bad, either. As the only Americans in the place, the Professor and I set a very bad example by tearing the paper decorations off the chandeliers and draping them on ourselves. In no time at all, the Swiss & Brits had followed suit. Just after midnight, they played what I suspect was the Swiss National Anthem on an alpenhorn -- I couldn't get far enough back to get the whole thing in a picture.

This is a lot harder than it looks! You hit the end of the broom on top, the middle of the broom underneath, and then over your head to hit by the straw. You do it fast, and in time with the oom-pah-pah.

So now you know what the Swiss do to entertain themselves through those long winters. I'm being a little sarcastic here, but I actually enjoyed the evening enormously. Guess it helps to be half Swiss, huh!



I am convinced that Heidi's grandfather had his cabin just up the mountain from Murren. This is a typical house. There are no cars in town, except for a snowplow and a truck to haul out the snow. They use wooden sleighs to carry groceries, and babies, and suitcases. They do send freight up on the cable car, but I still haven't figured out how you get a new couch or refrigerator.






This was the view from our hotel. The road was just to the left, and we could ski to the train station, the cog railroad, or the cable car with only minimal poling. Our room was on the 3rd floor -- which was actually the 4th floor, as they don't count the ground floor in Europe -- and there was no elevator, so between climbing the stairs and getting to the ski lifts, we definitely got our exercise.




Someone was feeling playful and painted this fire hydrant to look like a nutcracker. I also liked the collection point for stale bread, which gets fed to the wild animals. I was surprised to see a lot of birds, and we spotted quite a few tracks from the chair lifts: certainly rabbit, probably mink or ermine, and some large predator -- wolf?

Anyway, it was a terrific place and we had a wonderful time. Hope everyone's New Year was great. Now it's back to the grind.....