A Well Kept Man

I would like to interrupt this series of posts on Rome to tell you about one of our adventures this weekend. On Saturday, we drove into the Alps (Les Mosses) for a unique experience of watching sled dog races...it was much more fun than either of us thought it would be so we were very glad we went. After having trouble finding the site of the races, I finally gave up and listened to my wife which enabled us to immediately locate the venue (weird how that happens). The first group of racers were competing in skijoring, a form of cross-country skiing where one attaches a leash to their waste and is aided in their skiing by a dog (although recently we heard of a similar event that involved horses, but something about skiing behind a horse just doesn't sound safe to me). I don't really care for cross-country skiing as it requires too much physical effort (which of course leads to sweating), so I'll stick to gravity-aided downhill skiing.

The main event was the dog sledding, which involved a racer on a sled pulled by five to eight dogs. The breed, age, and number of dogs pulling the sled determined in which group you were competing. Most of the dogs were what you would expect, Siberian Huskies, Alaskan Malamutes, and Greenland Sled Dogs, but there were also German Shorthairs, Vizlas, and others that I failed to classify (I never quite finished my online dog breed identification degree...). The races were all Sprints with lengths varying between several kilometers and several kilometers times two (if only it would have been 20 km, I could have used the word "score," instead, I am stuck confusing my readers with odd terminology...er, races varied between about 7 km and 16 km). The dogs were quite vociferous, many jumping all over the place vying for attention from their owners.

The dogs attached to the sleds are the starting line also were extremely anxious to get going. I was amazed at how strong some of these dogs were in their ability to pull a person and sled with little perceived effort (I guess that's what momentum is all about). The common experience however was no matter how hard or fast the dogs started the race, they mostly returned to the finish line with their tongues dragging on the snow and at a pace more aptly described as a saunter or light jog. A few of the dogs immediately rolled around in the snow after finishing, while others had snow dumped on them to help cool them down...which they appeared to enjoy immensely. The weather was perfect for the races, and the sun provided ample heat to make the mountain air comfortable (we also managed to avoid the yellow snow, which was probably a good idea).

(P.S. Don't forget to click on the pictures to enable you to view them in a format that doesn't require a magnifying glass or bifocals)

A few weeks ago we ventured back to the small town of Château D'Œx for the 31st International Festival of Balloons. The town is about an hour drive from our apartment, and is nestled in the pre-Alps. Our excitement peaked as we passed into the valley where the balloons were taking off. After parking, we quickly made our way into the area where the balloons were being inflated...it was amazing to see the myriad of colors and types of balloons, and in some cases, shapes.

There was a hen, rooster, turtle, and even a Scotsman (who never really inflated...too much air for the bagpipes I guess). As you can tell it was a sunny day, and we enjoyed it by sitting on a ledge of the town's main church on the hill. We packed our lunch (per usual) and watched as the many different balloons passed overhead. The festival lasted for a week, with various activities and contests such as balloon races, aerial demonstrations, passenger flights, and balloon chases.

This event reminded me of the Battle Creek, Michigan Balloon Festival, although one could argue this one in the Alps was a bit more picturesque due to the snow covered peaks and Alpine chalets (although the Tony the Tiger balloon does go a long way to making a close contest). I counted about forty different hot air balloons, although the program indicated more than fifty balloons. In the main launch area we saw many balloons fail to take off as the day progressed, most likely due to increasing winds that seemed to change the balloons direction during the day.

At one point sky-divers leaped from balloons and performed aerial acrobatics while parachuting back to Earth. I think you have to be a little bit nuts to jump out of anything that high in the air, but they compounded their craziness with purposely spinning themselves around and performing circus-like maneuvers. The event was a very relaxing one, as we just enjoyed the beautiful scenery and allowed our minds to float up into the sky with the balloons....

Alli and I made our second ski trip last weekend to Villars-Gryon, an area about an hour from our apartment. The weather below 1000 meters was dull and gray, but as soon as we crossed through the clouds (which I never seem to tire of) we were treated to clear skies and an inviting sun. After parking at the base we trekked up to the gondola (about 400 m or so) in our ski gear, boots and all, to buy our day passes. The nice thing about skiing in Switzerland is the prices tend to be fairly reasonable (relatively speaking) because you have so many options of competing mountains. A day of skiing for the two of us is under $100 USD, which you would be hard-pressed to match at a comparable resort in the United States (I'm thinking in the Rockies, Lake Tahoe area, and Utah). Also, our pass allowed us access to the adjoining resort of Les Diablerets, which took about 20 minutes of skiing and chairlifts to reach.

We had a wonderful day of skiing with our highest peak topping at 2120m (6955 ft, or 1.3 miles high). Some of the runs were extremely long, which induced some lovely burning sensations in the thigh and calf areas. No mishaps were reported aside from the one time I looked back to see if Alli had wiped out, causing me to wipe out (very briefly, nobody saw it happen, so it really didn't happen...). We definitely needed the off day that followed as our legs weren't in any shape to walk, let alone ski. We hope to make a few more runs in the mountains before our big ski week in Zermatt towards the middle of March, which if nothing else will give me more opportunity to wipeout and build up some padding in the form of contusions.

One thing that amuses me about skiing here is the contradictory technology usage. On the one hand, our lift tickets are snazzy RFID cards that you just put in a pocket and wave near a sensor to let you on a lift. On the other hand, a majority of the lifts are the old fashioned kind where you hang on to an overhead cable as it pulls you up the mountain (Picture a pick-ax attached to a rope that on the rope end connects to an overhead cable system that pulls you up the mountain, and the pick-ax end goes between and behind your legs to reduce the amount of holding on you have to do...There's also a variant of the pick-ax where it is replaced by the equivalent of salad plate. Would it hurt them to at least make it dinner plate size?). I find this odd as the Swiss have some of the best ski chair technology in the world (as evidenced by ski adventures in Utah, Montana, Colorado, etc.) but they don't seem to use it much in their own backyard. It kind of makes you wonder...

We are running around Paris today trying to find the best tasting crepes (maybe...Alli probably has more exciting ideas).

As I have nothing interesting to write about, please check out these pictures from my trip to the Jungfrau Mountains.

Click Here

Hopefully this link works...if not, let me know and I will post the pictures on the blog upon my return.

Oh yeah, funny story (not funny haha, but funny in the sense that it proves that I couldn't find my way out of a paper bag). I led our guests onto the wrong train the other morning on the way up to Wengen. Long story short, I realized it about two seconds after the doors closed (which was exactly two seconds too late). We wound up traveling thirty minutes away from from our final destination, which caused us to miss our connecting train. Thankfully there were other trains that allowed us to make it to Wengen, although we were about two hours behind schedule due to the various departure times of trains (we also wound up having to travel on some local trains rather than the express trains, as well as having to purchase additional tickets to make it back to our original starting point). Next time, I will pay more attention to what the signs say at the train station rather than relying on my keen sense of direction (which apparently isn't so keen).

I will be off for the next few days on adventures. Today (Monday) through Wednesday afternoon I will be in Wengen, Switzerland. We are staying in a small mountain village that is accessible only by train (no cars allowed!). Hopefully I will get a chance to sample some mountain fondue, and chance marmots around. This is supposed to be one of the most scenic areas as it is home to the Jungfrau (Maiden), Mönch (Monk), and Eiger (Ogre) Mountains. I don't think this is where Shrek was filmed but I'll keep my eyes on full alert.

We are traveling via train which is ,supposed to extremely scenic. The train is called the Golden Pass and it provides panaromic views of the entire journey (which starts down by the Eastern edge of Lake Geneva and winds it's way up through the Swiss Alps to Interlaken, about three hours, where we will then switch to local trains to complete the journey). I will be with our friends Kim and Andy (separate rooms of course) so I will probably be up late at night as they are night owls. Nearby to this town are the cities of Grindelwald (residence of Richard Wagner according to the infallible Internet) and Interlaken.

I hope to snap some great photos to share with you all...Enjoy working hard America!