Back in Sydney, “hitting the snow” is a luxury only to be had during a small window of opportunity in winter and in very limited locations towards the south of New South Wales or in New Zealand. Though not bad (I love Blue Cow), the choices tend to get a bit boring after a while. The warm climate there also doesn’t help as a lot of the time, the snow comes from snow machines rather than the sky! As such, we just had to make the most of our proximity to the world renowned ski fields in Europe during our first winter living in the UK, and where better to go than the Swiss Alps!
Our first stop was Geneva. This is the city that most people fly to before hitting the Franco-Swiss Alps. Being somewhat of a watch enthusiast, I was excited to be visiting the city whose name can be seen on the face of almost all of the best watches in the world. However, watches are well known to be more expensive in Switzerland than abroad so I wasn’t expecting to be taking home any new prized possessions!
We arrived in Geneva on the Saturday night at around 6pm. The trip from the airport to Gare de Cornavin (Geneva’s central station) took around 6 minute by train and was free as there are free ticket dispensing machines in the baggage collection area at the airport (something that Irene found out from reading the easyJet in-flight magazine). After leaving the station, we had to walk about 20min up a painful slight incline to get to our hotel – NH Hotel.
NH Hotel did not look too shabby but the first room we got had a foul smoke smell so we asked for a different room. Unfortunately, the hotel was probably booked out or didn’t have non-smoking rooms and so instead, the guy at the reception changed us to a junior suite. The junior suite we got was not a non-smoking room but was probably used less and so did not have as strong a cigarette smell. In general, the room was pretty nice but there were a few annoyances, such as pillows that lacked any support whatsoever, and a very weak shower.
Prior to coming, Irene found out that Geneva had a promotion where guests of any hotel or hostel are entitled to a free transport card that entitled the holder to free use of Geneva’s extensive transport system. Sure enough, we were given our card when we checked in at the hotel. With our card in hand, we headed out to Geneva city centre after dropping off our luggage. This time, we took the tram to Gare de Cornavin and went in search of dinner.
Walking around the area, we found many restaurants but they were either unappealing or really expensive (in the coming days, we would find that Geneva is probably THE most expensive place to eat that we’ve been to). After almost giving up and wanting to walk into any random place, Irene spotted a rather nice looking and bustling restaurant so we decided to settle on that one. The restaurant, Les Brassuers, was a bar-restaurant and turned out to be very good. We ordered a cheese fondue, something that Irene had long wanted to try, and a mixed beef rosti. I also ordered one of their house brewed pure malt beer, which was quite nice and refreshing. The cheese fondue was really nice but by the end, Irene was cheesed out. The mixed beef rosti was also superb, with the saltiness of the beef complementing the cheesy potato rosti really well.
After dinner, we strolled around Geneva, heading down Mont Blanc road and over the main bridge that crossed a narrow strip of Lake Geneva to the south side of Geneva. We were hoping to get to see the famous Jet d’Eau as we crossed the bridge but sadly, it was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the only glimpse of the fountain that we saw in our few days in Geneva before going to Saas-Fee was through the windows of the UN building on Monday!
Geneva, like many European cities, was almost completely closed on Sunday. Luckily, we still managed to find enough activities to make the most of the day. We spent the morning strolling through the almost empty old town before heading to Musee Ruth where there was a watch and clock making exhibition. After that, we took the tram to central station and bought some train tickets to Montreux to see the Chillon Castle. This was recommended as a day trip as Montreux is on the opposite end of the massive Lake Geneva. Living up to its reputation as an expensive country, the return train tickets cost us over CHF100, which took us by complete surprise. However, we weren’t going to let that ruin our trip so we handed over our hard earnt cash to the eager looking attendant who was already holding us to ransom with our train tickets in one hand and an open palm on the other.
The train trip to Montreux took over an hour with the train cruising relatively quickly along the scenic Lake Geneva on the right and the Geneva countryside on the left. After getting off at Montreux and asking for directions at a hotel, we took a bus to Chillon Castle, getting there by around 3.30pm. Chillon Castle was amazing! It sits right on Lake Geneva and so had magnificent views of the lake and the mountain ranges behind it. The self-guided tour was really well organised. Upon paying our entrance fee, we were given a leaflet that explained the castle and outlined the walking route. This was supplemented by numbered signposts all the around the castle. Following the recommended route, we toured the castle almost in its entirety, from the basements and dungeons to the many rooms, courtyards, and balconies/walkways. The whole tour took over two hours and by the time we finished, it was around 5pm, time to jump back on the train to Geneva.
Back in Geneva, we grabbed some dinner at a relatively inexpensive (by Geneva standards) pasta restaurant. The concept of the restaurant was to serve freshly made pasta in fast food style. I ordered a Tagliatelle Bolognaise while Irene got a Tagliatelle Salmone. We were quite surprised by the quality of the pasta – its freshness was obvious and its taste was top marks too!
Our last day in Geneva before hitting the slopes at Saas-Fee was spent first at CERN, and then UN. We were going to get some breakfast at the McDonald’s near our hotel but to our surprise, they don’t open until 10am! In the end, we got some pastries and ate on the tram on our way to CERN. Prior to the trip, I wanted to book a free public tour at CERN but it was all booked out. Luckily for us, when we got to CERN and enquired about the exhibitions that they had there, the guy at the reception asked if we wanted to join their guided tour as there were still two places left; obviously we jumped at the opportunity. The tour was quite interesting; our guide, who is from Bristol University in the UK, explained a lot about the experiments at CERN and took us to the ATLAS research centre where we saw the office where people monitored the ATLAS particle collider. By the time the tour was over, it started snowing (something that we were waiting for since we came!!!).
After CERN, we went to the UN building and joined a guided tour there. That too was very interesting as we were given talks about the history of the UN and was shown several of their conference rooms. The last room we went to was even set up for a coming weapons disarmament talk and had the name cards of all the countries involved, including Australia.
Being the only day during our first couple of days in Geneva when shops are open, we decided to head into town after UN to check out the shopping experience in Geneva. Knowing how expensive things were, we did not expect to buy much and only ended up buying some chocolates. Since we had to wake up early the next day to go to Saas-Fee, we decided to have an early dinner. Annoyingly, restaurants don’t usually open for dinner until around 6.30pm-6.45pm so we strolled around for a while before going to a pizza restaurant recommended by Guidepal (a free travel guide on Android that we use a lot). That restaurant was supposed to have the best pizza in town and sure enough, the pizzas there were fantastic.
Next morning, we woke up early (6.30am) and started getting ready to check out. Out of curiosity, I opened the curtains and to my surprise, the whole street, including cars, trees, roads, footpath, etc, were covered in inches of snow! We then made our way through the snow to the train station, got some breakfast, and headed on the train for our three and a half hour journey to Saas-Fee.
Our nice comfy train ride came to an abrupt end when without notice, the train pulled into Visp station (our stop). Having just got my PSP out thinking we still had half an hour left on the train, I had to quickly throw it, and everything else I had out, back into my luggage, wake Irene up from her sleep, and grab hold of everything and rush off the train. As it turned out, our trip to Saas-Fee from Geneva consisted of about 2.5hrs by train and 1hr by bus, not the 3hrs by train and 0.5hr by bus that we thought.
The bus ride took us through some windy (as in bendy) roads up the mountains. After the bus pulled into its garage at Saas-Fee, we made our reservation for the return bus trip, and headed to the Information Centre to ask for directions to our hotel. Our hotel, All-in, is located about 10mins walk from the Information Centre (and about 20min walk from the snow fields) but apparently there’s a phone outside the Information Centre that people can use to call up their hotels to get them to pick them up. Sadly, our hotel is well known for having an unmanned reception desk and as a result, we never got through to our hotel on the phone and had to make our way there by foot.
After dragging our luggage for what seemed like much more than 10mins, and having passed by several concerned looking locals who obviously felt great sympathy for us as they tried to offer us directions (but in German/French which wasn’t particularly helpful), we finally stopped at the bottom of a hill and decided that Irene should wait there with the luggage while I went in search for our hotel. It took a bit of wandering up and down the hill before I found someone to ask for direction. Luckily the couple I ended up asking spoke English and knew exactly where we were on my map and so from there, I was able to make my way to our hotel.
The entrance to our hotel was very dark as the lights were off and with no one in sight. Then out of the corner of my eyes, I saw the reflection of someone in the adjacent room so I went over to see if I could get some assistance. The guy who I found is probably the sole worker in the hotel as he turned out to be the person who picks up guests, serve breakfast, etc. After telling him I was here to check in, he called who I think is the owner, who then came to the reception desk to give me the keys to my room. He then sent the “sole worker” guy to go with me to pick up Irene and our luggage.
Despite the poor first impressions, we ended up quite liking the hotel. Our room was nice, big and comfortable. It had some nice big ceiling to floor windows that allowed plenty of natural light to come in and through which we could see the surrounding snow covered land and buildings, and the massive snow covered mountains beyond. We also had a balcony that served well as a platform for us to take photos, as well as an area for us to leave our perishable goods out to refrigerate/free in the natural freezer outside.
After we dropped off our luggage in the room and ate the sandwiches we bought for lunch, we headed out to pick up our snowboarding gear. We then went and bought our lift passes and headed straight up the mountain on the Alpin Express to an altitude of over 2000m. The trip down the mountain took well over 2hrs, especially with all the trips and falls that we suffered. Irene fell so much that she had a bruised knee by the time we got to the bottom.
Bruised, battered, and extremely tired, we made our long trek back to our hotel, carrying our snowboards and all. The walk up the hill to our hotel was particularly painful, especially when having to carry our snowboards and walking in our snowboarding boots! After we dropped off our gear, we changed into more comfortable clothing and went to the supermarket just down the hill to buy some essential supplies, including water, lemon ice tea, and various snacks. We then made the painful trek back up the hill to drop off our shopping before heading back out to find a restaurant for dinner. For dinner, we went to this cosy looking pizzeria where we ordered a pizza and a pasta to share. After dinner, we headed back to the hotel, showered and slept shortly afterwards.
The next morning, we woke up at 7:30am after a long 10 hour sleep, got ready, and then headed downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast wasn’t fancy but was decent enough. Having filled ourselves up, we went back to our room and changed into our snowboarding gear to head out for another day on the snow. On our way out, the hotel owner told us that the best way to the slopes is to catch a free bus at the bottom of the hill and on our way back, we should catch the Coca-Cola bus as it stops right outside the hotel. It was a relief to know that we didn’t have to climb with hill carrying our snowboards again!
That morning, we took one of the free buses to the ski-school that we booked a 2hr snowboarding private lesson from and confirmed the booking. We were to meet the instructor, a Brit who is also called Kevin, at 12.30pm so we had the morning to do a few runs. At 11.30am, we went and got some lunch before making our way to the meeting point to meet Kev!
Kev was a great instructor. The goal of the lesson was to learn to turn both left and right (ie, turn back facing the mountain and turn front facing the mountain). By the end of the lesson, we had learnt all the basics for doing the turns and was left to practice them over the next few days. In the course of learning to do the turns, Irene got more bruises and battering and so hung her boots for the day after the lesson. I, on the other hand, was keen to practice my new learnt skills so practiced a bit more while Irene filmed me.
We decided to eat cheap that night and after returning to our hotel on the Coca-Cola bus, we went out to buy some pastries, bread rolls, and ham for dinner. We finished dinner before 7pm, in time for my MBA lesson on Economics. While I sat through the lecture, Irene fell asleep on the bed. Afterwards, I did some studying before I too went to bed for another long night’s sleep.
By now, we were aching all over, with Irene faring worst than me, having both her knees swollen like tennis balls. This was a side effect of taking lessons, as even though we had a good grasp of the basics, learning to do something new would inevitably involve many failures in the process and for snowboarding, this meant a lot of ground hugging! To help alleviate a bit of the inevitable pain that was to come as we continue practice our new found techniques, we went in search of some knee pads for Irene. Surprisingly, not all rental places have them for rent but we managed to find a pair through the same store we got our other gear.
With her added protection, I thought we’d have a good day of practice before heading to higher grounds but things never go that smoothly. Despite the relief on her knees from using the knee pads, Irene still managed to find places to injure herself; this time, she tripped and sprained her ankle and leg. Though the sprain wasn’t too bad, it was still a concern as it meant her leg was more vulnerable to further injury. Despite this, Irene pushed on and we spent the afternoon snowboarding down from a height of 2500m. Being the amateurs that we were, that took us over 2hrs, with many aches and pains being accumulated in the process.
For dinner that night, we decided to treat ourselves and went to this cosy hotel restaurant. The staff there were very nice and all spoke decent English. We ordered two traditional Swiss dishes to share, a rosti and a spatzli (or something like that). Both were very nice and high in carbs, filling us up to our limits by the end of the meal.
Given Irene’s sprained leg, we decided to take it easy for the remaining one and a half day at Saas-Fee. On Friday, we took our time and hit the snow late in the morning. We went up to the 2500m part of the mountain again, but only snowboarded down to the 2000m part of the mountain, where we grabbed some lunch at the cafeteria. We then took some photos before heading back down via the Alpin Express gondola. After getting off the Alpin Express, we returned our boards, went on this mountain luge/roller coaster hybrid type of ride, before heading back into the village. Back in the village, we bought some ham and sausages for dinner, window shopped a bit, before jumping on the Coca-Cola bus to head back to our hotel. For dinner that night, we ate the cup noodles that Irene brought from London, Austrian sausages, and a variety of ham. This was supplemented by the mountain of snacks that we have accumulated over the week.
Our last day in Saas-Fee was spent up at the highest point in the mountain that the gondola and mountain tram thing could take us. This was at an altitude of 3500m, where the air was thin, making it difficult to breath. It was also extremely cold – the coldest that I’ve ever felt! Irene had her hand out of her gloves a couple of times so that she can handle her camera and phone, and in the end, her hand was a bit red, like it had rashes or something. We then made our way back down the mountain, returned our snowboarding boots and Irene’s knee pad, and headed to the bus stop for the bus to Visp train station. As we got there earlier than anticipated, we ended up getting on the earlier bus, which was a good thing as there was a problem with the overhead cables somewhere between Visp and Geneva and we had to change to a bus for a section in between.
After finally getting to Geneva, we headed straight for our hotel. The guy who checked us in earlier in the week was there and he remembered us, which made the check-in process much quicker. He also helped us find a smoke-free room, which made such a big difference compared to the room we had before!!! After getting our room, we headed straight for the Patek Phillipe museum.
The Patek Phillipe museum closes at 6pm so we were running a bit short of time. By the time we got there, it was about 4.30pm, giving us 1.5hr to tour the museum. That turned out to be a bit insufficient and so we had to skip/rush through a few things. The museum was quite impressive, both in terms of what it housed and also the building itself. After visiting the museum, we then headed for dinner.
Geneva was extremely cold and walking to and from the bus and tram stops almost became unbearable, especially when it was windy. After changing from tram to bus and braving the extreme cold, we finally made our way to Cafe du Soleil, which is supposedly one of Geneva’s oldest restaurants. As we didn’t book, we only got a table until 8pm, leaving us with 1.5hrs to order and eat. Irene ordered a potatoes and bacons baked in two types of cheese, which is only available when it’s in season, while I ordered a steak and frites. Both were delicious! Irene’s baked cheese dish is sort of like a macaroni cheese bake but instead of being baked with pasta, it’s baked with potatoes. My steak, though medium, was still oozing blood but it was very soft and tender. The homemade butter went very well with the steak and the large portion of very thin and long chips was delicious!
After dinner, we went back to our hotel and started getting ready to head home. The trip was one of the longest that we’ve been on since coming to UK. It was also a very relaxing and enjoyable one. When we woke up the next morning and turned on the TV, we found, to our surprise, that London was covered in snow and, as a result, caused chaos at most airports. Luckily for us, we were flying to Gatwick, which was the least affected airport in London, and our flight got us back on time. This was only to be disappointed by an hour long wait for our luggage! Nevertheless, we were glad to be home!
