The drive around the mountains was beautiful. Tiny villages dotted green hillsides, framed by the snow capped mountains in the distance. Around lunch time, we arrived at our destination, Adelboden. We followed the directions from Google Maps up a narrow road through the town. Once we started up, we realized it was probably a bad idea to take such a narrow road, but there was no turning back. At the top of the hill, the tires started spinning, and we couldn't go forward at all. We got out and kicked the snow and ice out from under the front of the car and tried again. (Okay, I admit it... this was mostly my husband. I supervised.) After a few tries, we finally made it onto the next road and to the Bristol Hotel. After checking in, we grabbed a very pretty lunch at a restaurant at a neighboring hotel.
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| Lunch |
After lunch, we decided we didn't have enough daylight left to start skiing, but we could at least start the process of getting our lift tickets and our ski gear. After that was taken care of, we walked through the town and had a cup of hot wine at the festival that was going on for the beginning of the ski season.
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| Gathering Crowd at the Opening Day Festivities |
The next day, we started with a fairly large breakfast at the hotel buffet. It was a good thing, too, because somehow we forgot to bring any cash or credit cards to the lifts, which meant no lunch for us.
There is an interesting system of lifts and gondolas, with the area being relatively large, so we tried to map out a plan. Since Mr. Traveler had never been skiing before, we thought we would start at the "baby slopes", as the man at the hotel so nicely called them. We planned to take a couple gondolas and then a bus to the area with the beginner slopes. However, when we got to the stop on the gondola where we were supposed to get off, the man riding with us told us that it was the wrong stop. We stayed on and the gondola rose further and further into the clouds until we could see nothing around us. When we got off at the top, we saw everyone putting on their skis and heading into the fog. We couldn't even tell where each slope went. Quickly, we got back on the gondola and headed back to our original destination.
When we arrived at Gelis, the location of the baby slopes, however, we couldn't find a small slope anywhere. We hiked up a little hill to see what was on the other side. At the top, I shouted down to Mr. Traveler, "You're not going to want to do this", seeing a ski lift below. Not seeing any other options, though, Mr. Traveler agreed to try the lift. As we got further and further up, however, we could both tell that we'd made a big mistake. We were now even further up in the clouds, had no visibility, and when we finally got to the top, there were only Red (medium) and Black (hard) slopes. Mr. Traveler looked incredibly scared and started backing toward the lift, "No, no. No!" I didn't see any options other than down the slope, but he went and talked to the guy running the lift, and he let us ride back down on the lift. I'm sure everyone at the lift got a kick out of our stupidity, but it was better than ending up with a broken leg.
Back at the bottom, we decided we needed to ask someone where to find an easier slope. The woman at the gondola pointed out a slope that we could ski down from the top of the gondola. It was a Blue (easy) slope, according to the map. We realized by this point, that the baby slopes were actually closed, so we figured this was our only chance to ski. At the top, I tried to tell Mr. Traveler everything I knew about skiing. The slope was a little steep, so I encouraged him to go back and forth instead of straight down. I've only been skiing a few times, myself, however, and I don't think my explanations helped too much. Soon, Mr. Traveler was face down in the snow with his arms and legs sprawled out around him. He picked himself up, and repeated the process over and over. Some of the falls were pretty spectacular, and I'm glad he didn't end up with anything worse than bruises on his body and his ego.
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| Mr. Traveler Skiing |
By the time we made it to the bottom, Mr. Traveler was definitely wishing he had taken the advice of his coworkers, the people at the ski rental shop, and the employees at the hotel, and gone ahead and taken lessons. To be fair, the slope was quite challenging (I would compare it to a harder medium slope in the States), and had I known that the slopes were going to be so much more difficult than those I'd skied before, I probably would have insisted on lessons for both of us. Luckily, I ended the day with only a single fall on the skis (and one more walking with the ski boots down a hill).
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| Mr. Traveler's Response to Skiing |
After a few times down the very long slope, Mr. Traveler decided to sit it out, while I made one last run down the mountain.
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| Pic from the Top of the Mountain (After the Fog Cleared) |
We had just enough time to shower and return the skis before dinner, which ended up consisting of a 5 course meal. The first course was an appetizer of a pepper-filled puff pastry with a green sauce. Then, we had a salad, followed by a carrot and coconut soup. Our main course consisted of a veal steak with stuffed potatoes and a pouch of green beans and cauliflower wrapped with bacon. Finally, we had a crepe with ice cream and whipped cream for dessert. Even without considering how much our other meals had cost, it was an amazing dinner for a good price.
Next, we head back to Geneva and finish up our trip.
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