Extended Holidays in Indiana

Kyle and I were so blessed to be able to go back to the States for a visit just a few days after Christmas.  Kyle was able to stay for almost two weeks, and I stayed for about three.  It was wonderful to extend the holiday season and get to have Christmas with our families in person instead of over Skype!  It was also a lot of fun to spend New Year's and my birthday with friends and family as well!

We had a nice, uneventful flight from Stuttgart to Atlanta, and then on to Indianapolis.  For our first full day in Indy, we had Christmas with Kyle's family.  Cory and Lynn live in London, but they were also in Indy at the beginning of our trip!  It was really nice spending a relaxing "holiday" with the whole family!

A quick visit with Isaac before heading to the Guynn's

Cory at the front of the food line...nothing's changed!

Mmm, the Guynn Christmas dinner with everyone's favorite delicious potatoes!

The following day was New Year's Eve.  We did some ice skating that afternoon with Cory and Lynn.  We all hadn't been ice skating in a really long time.  They took off like they do it everyday.  Meanwhile, I had a death grip on Kyle for quite a while before I finally let go.  (I have an irrational fear of falling!)  It was a lot of fun!  That evening, our good friends Jason and Lydia hosted a New Year's party.  We had a wonderful time with great food, and great friends!  (I stole the next two pics from Lynn :-)

Heading to the party!

We hadn't seen the Guynn side of the family in way too long, so my parents and I hosted some of the Guynn's at their house for a New Year's Day get together.  Kyle's dad is one of 15, so we didn't get to see the entire family, but it was so nice to see the Guynn's that came!  I really wish we could see them more often!

We had three January birthdays to celebrate!

Everyone was entertained by Rashida's stories!

That night we had the first round of snow which was about five inches.  Kyle got out and got some nice pictures in the city.

My birthday is on January 3 and Jason's is on January 7th, so we have a long history of celebrating our birthdays together!  This year we celebrated at a wonderful Latin American fusion restaurant called Delicia.  The food was awesome, and being there with friends made it even better!  I think this is the first year we ever had birthday flan!

We also had a Christmas celebration with my family, which was special since it was our nephew, Isaac's first Christmas.  It was really nice that Kyle's parents joined us for a delicious prime rib dinner.  Mmmmm, beef!

Sisters!

I think the most memorable part of our trip was the crazy snow storm and frigid temperatures.  The snow started in the morning, and it pretty much looked like a snow globe outside all day.  The temperatures were not bad at all during the snow, so Kyle, Mom, my sister Kari and I went on a long snowy walk.  It was quite gorgeous with all of the fresh snow!  We got about 11 inches on top of the old snow.  That night the temperature dropped to below zero, and stayed there for several days.  The high the day after the snow was negative 11F.  For the high!  It was insane!  The roads stayed pretty bad for a long time since it was too cold for the salt to work.  We were pretty much stuck inside of the house for three days.  We got a bit of cabin fever!  Kyle and I were at my parent's house for the first two days, where we lost power for just a couple of hours twice.  We were lucky compared to Kyle's parents who lost power for 52 hours!  We drove over to their house on the third day, and the roads were still horrible.  Needless to say, with those frigid temperatures, their house was also frigid!  We went out to lunch to warm up.  The power finally came on that evening at about 6:30.  It took a really long time for the house to warm up after that.  We could actually see our breath in the house!

Bundling up for our walk

This is what happens at the Joest house when we get bored and cabin fever sets in...

This is what happens when you throw boiling water into subzero temps...

A wet sock frozen solid after 20 minutes

Meanwhile at the Guynn house...

Cold? What cold?

Finally getting the power restored

This frost and ice was on the INSIDE window of the guest room...

Here are some more snowy pics that Kyle got when he and his mom went for a drive around town.

Kyle had to leave January 10, which is the day we had "Thanksgiving" with my extended family.  My cousin, Erin (that got engaged in the last post) was still studying in Ireland and wasn't home for Thanksgiving, and neither was I.  She was craving a big turkey dinner, so that's what we did!  It turned out really nice.  We also had some Christmas and birthday gifts thrown in there, so we hit a little bit of everything that night!

I headed back to Germany on January 16.  Little did I know what kind of trip it would be when Dad and I headed for the airport that morning!  I was there plenty early.  I was waiting at the gate when the plane pulled up, unloaded, and there was an announcement that the plane was having pressurization problems. They worked on the plane, and kept telling us that they would know more info in twenty minutes.  The time kept getting pushed back further and further.  I wasn't concerned at first, because I was supposed to have a three hour layover in Atlanta, but then I got a bit more concerned as time went on and we still weren't in the air.  We finally boarded the plane, then had to sit while they de-iced it for 15 minutes, then had to sit while they cleared a slick spot on the runway for 10 minutes.  We finally landed in Atlanta at 5:35, and my flight to Stuttgart was supposed to leave at 6:00.  I tore through the Atlanta airport from the A terminal to the E terminal just in case the plane was miraculously still there.  It wasn't.  I went to the Delta counter feeling defeated to re-book my flight.  They booked me on a flight to London which left in three hours.  I asked for an upgrade since it wasn't my fault that I missed my flight, but of course that didn't happen.  I waited at a bar in a seafood restaurant that had wifi.  I had crab cakes and a couple glasses of wine to console myself.  Finally on board the plane, I was seated next to a person, while 6 rows of people had a row of three seats all to themselves.  How is that fair?  Anyway, once I got to London I had about 5 hours before my flight to Stuttgart.  I waited, moving from seat to seat while reading my book, trying to get comfortable on those hard plastic chairs that ended up leaving a bruise on my spine.  I made it back to Stuttgart, tired and 10 hours later than originally planned.  It was so nice to get home and take a long hot shower!  I was very happy that Kyle had cleaned the house and taken down the Christmas decorations, though!

Gizmo was anxious for me to come home

Despite the brutal trip back to Germany, we had a wonderful time back home in Indiana.  It was a pleasure to have some leisurely time there instead of running around like crazy trying to squeeze everything in!  We got to meet a new family member of some good friends, and I got a lot of time to spend with my nephew!  We ate a lot of really good food, caught up with people we haven't seen in far too long and spent quality time with our friends and family.  We're very anxious to see friends and family out here in Germany this spring and summer!!

Winter Fun in the Swiss Alps

Kyle had a stretch of several days off of work, so we had to do some traveling!  We tried to find someplace that would be warm, but as it turns out, there is nowhere even remotely warm in Europe in February.  Instead, we decided to embrace winter by heading to the Swiss Alps.  We stayed in an apartment in a very small town in eastern Switzerland on the northern edge of the Alps.  It was only a two hour forty minute drive from our house.  We rented a great apartment in a new chalet, complete with a fireplace and hot tub.  Sounds like the making of a great trip!

The apartment

We arrived around 3 in the afternoon on our first day.  As we were making our way to the apartment, we couldn't believe the road that it was on!  The road was very narrow and only one lane as it twisted around hairpin turns up the side of a mountain.  At first we wondered if we were driving on a walking path!  The road was very steep, so it had containers of grit and snow shovels strategically placed. The further up we drove, the more the snow started to accumulate, making Kyle very happy! We spent the first evening relaxing by the fire and hot tubbing it, while we figured out a plan for the rest of our trip.

Night view from our place

We were very close to the border of Liechtenstein; the country of only 36,000 people and 62 square miles, which is slightly smaller than Washington DC.  We headed there our first full day. On our way, we stopped in the quaint little Swiss town of Walenstadt on the Walensee lake.  We walked around and admired the clean little town, and made our way to see the lake.  It is absolutely stunning. The sparkling, crystal clear water is surrounded by mountains and vineyards.  There were a lot of ducks, loons, and a couple of swans to entertain us there for a while.  We love watching birds, and I always kick myself for not bringing along stale bread!

The town of Walenstadt

Beautiful Walensee

From there we headed on to Liechtenstein.  It is a beautiful country with the Rhine River running through the center of a valley surrounded by mountains.  It was a gorgeous drive, and we enjoyed stopping to take pictures of castles looming above the small towns.  We crossed the Rhine valley and then the mountain ridge on the other side.  As we climbed in elevation, the snow once again started to pile up.  We saw a bus of school kids unloading, all wearing snow and ski gear.  What a different life than we knew when we were kids!

Liechtenstein

On the other side of the mountain was a complete winter wonderland.  We parked in tiny town called Steg and were ready for lunch.  We were heading to a restaurant in an Inn that we had heard about called the Berggasthaus Sücka.  We bundled up in the car, then headed up the kilometer long path uphill to the Inn, since you can't get to it by a road! It was a fun and beautiful little hike.  The entire time, there was a gentle snowfall.  They had about three feet of snow on the ground already!  As we made it up to the Inn, you could hear kids playing and tobogganing down the hills.  At that point we were cold and hungry, and a pot of bubbly cheese fondu hit the spot perfectly!

Tiny town of Steg

Hiking up to the Inn for lunch!

View from the Inn

Perfect little snowflakes!

Mmmmm, hot, bubbly cheese!

After lunch instead of hiking back down to the car, we tobogganed down the toboggan run instead! You borrow one of their old fashioned wooden toboggans, and leave it in a shed at the end.  It was both of our first times tobogganing, so it was interesting!  We rode down together, with Kyle in the front filming as we went, while I was hanging on to him shouting and being a backseat driver.  It's actually quite a bit harder than it looks, but definitely a lot of fun!  Kyle got a nice big hunk of snow up his pants leg!

From Liechtenstein, we headed back to Switzerland to Mount Säntis, the highest peak in northeastern Switzerland at 2502 meters above sea level.  (On our way there, I got locked in a bathroom.  There wasn't even enough space for me to crawl under the door!  What fun that was!)  Since Säntis is on the northern edge of the Alps, it takes the brunt of the weather from the north.  It has it's own micro climate that makes it snow there A TON!  As we were climbing in elevation to the base of the mountain, the snow was getting higher and higher, until finally it was higher than our car!  It was like driving through a canyon of snow!  (Kyle's level of giddiness directly correlated with the height of the snow.  If you know Kyle, you know that he's a snow-aholic and this was his dream come true!) The roads were in really good shape until we were about 2 kilometers from the base of Säntis.  Our VW Jetta was really put to the test getting up to the parking lot!

Once we were parked, the first thing we had to do was snap some pictures of the snow that was higher than our heads! It was pretty unreal! We actually couldn't see the huge mountain right in front of us because it was still snowing really heavily. We went into a hotel called Berghotel Schwägalp, which is pretty much the info center for the area, since there's not much else there. We had some coffee and Black Forest cake in the restaurant before heading out for our evening hike.  In the forest area by the hotel, they have a loop trail that they light by lantern on weekends.  The snow was falling gently in big, fluffy flakes, and it was so quiet and peaceful.  There was about five feet of snow on the ground, so you're actually walking on packed down snow three or four feet above the ground! Walking along the lantern lit trail during twilight was like finding Narnia.  It just seemed surreal. About halfway through was a snow covered hut magically set up with hot orange punch,  just in time to warm up our numbing fingers!

The snow was over our heads!

Our beautiful, peaceful lantern lit walk

Warming up with hot punch

Hello, Narnia!

The next day we headed out for more winter fun!  We went to another snow paradise called Rigi Mountain, very close to Lake Lucerne.  We parked at the base of the mountain, and took the cog train up to the top.  The train had a few stops on the way up the mountain, in tiny towns and guest houses buried halfway in snow.  We passed waterfalls made of blue tinted ice and of course, more and more snow as we neared the top.  It was like a blizzard at the top of the mountain.  You couldn't see very far because of white out conditions.  That doesn't stop the Swiss people from having their winter fun! On Rigi mountain and throughout Switzerland there are tons of places for skiing, tobogganing, cross country skiing, and snow shoeing.  

At the top of Rigi

Since we grew up in the flat lands, we haven't had much opportunity for skiing, so we went for the tobogganing and are saving the skiing attempts for less dangerous conditions, preferably where we won't be able to fall off the side of the mountain!  However, the tobogganing was pretty intense!  The course was just over four kilometers long (about 2 and a half miles) down the side of a mountain. There were a lot of twists, turns, jumps, and steep hills and an edge with nothing to stop you from going over the side of the mountain!  (In the States, they definitely would have made you sign a waiver!)  It was snowing really hard and pelting you in your face the entire way down, and at some points you just really couldn't see!  I did some feet dragging to avoid going off the side, and Kyle went over a big hump in the path and ended up rolling down the hill for a ways!  Despite all of that, it was a lot of fun and quite a rush!  We rode the train around a bit more, and got off at a small village not far from the peak.  It had a hotel with an awesome thermal bath outside, a lot of amazing chalets, and of course, tons of snow!  That evening we really made good use of the hot tub to take the chill out of our bones!

In the little chalet village on the mountain

We spent our last day of winter fun back at Säntis.  When Kyle knows that there is someplace near with that much snow, just try and keep him away!  The temperature at the base of Säntis was about 17 degrees, and we were heading to the top via cable car, so we were bundled up in many layers.  I had on  long johns, jeans, snow pants, a t-shirt, a hoody, a down coat, a scarf, a hat, a hood, leg warmers, snow boots and three pairs of socks!  I was grateful for every layer at the top!  It was frigid with a really strong wind.  It took about 10 minutes to reach the peak by cable car.  We were lucky and had some sunshine while we were up there.  We were above the clouds, and could just see the highest peaks rising above the layer of clouds.  It's like we were on top of the world!  There was 19 feet of snow at the top, which kind of blows my mind.

Can you find the door we used?

Check out the hiking paths of some crazy people!!

Weather station.  I'm guessing the wind comes mainly from one direction!

The hotel, closed for the season for obvious reasons

Once we got back down to the base of the mountain, we headed out for a nice winter hike through the 5 feet of snow.  They keep several paths through the snow packed down, so that hikers can make it without snow shoes.  It was a beautiful hike, and it didn't stop snowing once!  We warmed up with apple strudel in the hotel afterwards before heading back to the apartment.  There was quite a bit of snow at the apartment while we were gone, and we had a lot of trouble making it up the road.  We even had to put our new snow chains to use!  Remember it was a one lane road, and as Kyle was trying to put them on (first time ever putting chains on a vehicle) two cars came from the other way. That made it a bit of a stressful situation!

Geared up for a winter hike, on about 4-5 feet of packed down snow!

I spy, a barn roof!

We definitely found a winter wonderland, and will probably head to Switzerland every winter that we're here.  We did learn a few things about the Swiss people while we were there.  They're very nice people, but really mean drivers!  They tailgate like mad, even up steep, snowy, winding mountain roads.  Not cool.  They also really know how to live it up in the winter!  When we lived in Indianapolis and Maryland, if the weather forecast called for five feet of snow over a week or so, we all know what would happen.  First, people run to the grocery store and pick the shelves bare of every last morsel of food.  Then everyone would run next door to the Lowes or Home Depot and buy all of the shovels, blowers, flashlights, generators, and all batteries, whether they had anything to put those batteries in or not.  Then they would fill their bathtubs with water and watch the news about the weather and tweet about it while huddled under blankets.  Not in Switzerland.  Five feet of snow? Just another average day for them. It's just a good excuse for them to get outside and have fun!  I guess they have to embrace it, or they'd be in for it!  Kyle would love to live somewhere that regularly has five feet of snow on the ground.  I guess he'll just have to settle for visiting it, which is fine by me!