December was a pretty busy month for us. Jodie stopped working and began to pack up the flat, to send all our belongings home. I finished work a week later and we headed off to Europe for a 2 week holiday before our reintroduction to the sun.
We spent time in Swizterland, Germany and the week of Chrismas in Austria. We spent plenty of time sightseeing, and taking it easy. We flew into Zurich, and dined in a small local restaurant, which was in the typical european style (before any PC laws or regulations got imposed) with no english speaking staff, and everyone smoking like chimneys.
The next day we drove to Lucerne, where we spent 2 nights. We were suposed to go up the mountains in a cable car, but the weather turned and we decided to spendthe day in the city. About 8 inches of snow had fallen, and our car was parked on a slope, which meant we couldn’t get the car out.
We walked through the old part of town, looking through shops as it was really cold, and we needed to warm up every so often.
After our 2 days in Lucerne, we headed for Munich. It was grey and cold and felt a little depressing. We still had fun, eating in a Mexican restaurant the first night, and then walking the 5kms into town to see the sights. We stood around like idiots waiting for the glockenspiel to play, only I think we had missed the performance, but were standing around looking up at it for ages.
We climbed the church tower to get a better view of the city before heading back to the hotel.
The next day we headed for Schwangau, which is the little town in Bavaria, at the base of the mountains. The area is made famous by the Neuschwanstein Castle, click the link and read all about it. The castle is what the Disneys’ Magic Kingdom castle is modelled after. It was built by the crazy King Ludwig II, who was infatuated with swans, hence the name, which means “new swan stone”. I should add that the hotel was more of a retiree rest and recouperation village than a hotel. We must have been the youngest people there by at least 30 years. We were probably gawked at for not having crutches, a cane or a walker.
The last stop before the long journey home, was 5 nights in St Anton, in Austria. (That’s 2 Chistmas’s in a row in Austria).
I booked in for 3 days of snowboarding school, while Jodie headed up for 3 days of fun in the snow. Next time we go I’ll be able to keep up !
Most evenings were spent trying all the different restaurants, but the highlight was Chrismas eve dinner. We splashed out and went for an 8 course meal at one of the plush hotels. We had a great night, except imade Jodie wait with me downstairs for the taxi, when it was -10 degrees.
On the last day of skiing, we went up the mountain together. We had goulash and strudel on top of the mountain for lunch, before the long decent to the village.
Our last day was an early start. I had to warm the car up, and remove the ice from the INSIDE of the car, as well as the outside. it was -14.
We drove back to Zurich, to fly to London. We spent the night in a hotel at Heathrow, before the usual 24 trip back home. We avoided an 18 hour stopover by checking the flight booking in Singapore and changing it, with just 45 minutes to spare.
We’ve been home for some time now… and loving it !
