Christmas and New Years 2010/2011

Hi all

So as you know over Christmas I had Maria come to visit me for a bit and then we headed off to Switzerland for a few days of snowboarding and fun before I left on Dec 31 to spend New Years in Milan and then on Jan 1 I flew out to Belgium with some friends where we spent the night and then returned to Amsterdam late on Jan 2.  Over all the trip was a lot of fun but I must say that I was absolutely enthralled with Switzerland (I think that the mountains are so beautiful) plus it was great being able to spend a few days on the slopes.

The view from the place in Savognin where we were staying, this town was in the mountains about 2100 m up.

This is the view of the town at night, the building lit up in the background was one of the churches in the city.  The city was about 1000 people and it was charming as everyone was either related or knew each other.

A picture with myself, Maria and the gentleman who we went to see (Fadri).  Fadri is a 5 star chef who was working in Geneva and had just quite and was waiting to start a new job in Singapore, needless to say we ate really well while we were there.

Doing a little night skiing with ski bikes.

The view from the ski lift coming back to town.

The place where we were staying in Switzerland, it was built about 80 years ago and had the feel of a hunting lodge.  The place was located just above the town and had a beautiful view of the town and sounding mountains.

A castle in Ballizona, this is a small town right on the border of Switzerland and Italy.  As you can see the city was very old with a few beautiful churches and this castle.  I was only in the town for a few hours so I was not able to take many pictures but these are the highlights.

This is at the battle field of Waterloo.  Lynnette you probably know the history better then I do but we found out that the battle of Waterloo took place about 50 kms from Brussels so we decided to head out and see the battle field on Jan 2.  The battle of Waterloo is where Napoleon was defeated for the second time in 1815 and over the course of 24 hours an approximate 70,000 men were killed on this battle field (which is only about 3 km wide and 5 km long).  During the battle the prince of The Netherlands was wounded in the shoulder and they built this giant hill (which you can see behind me and in the picture below) to commemorate him for his bravery.  Just imagine what they would have built if he had been more seriously injured.  There are 235 steps to the top of the hill and let me tell you about 1/2 way up you start thinking about how unpleasant if you were to slip and fall as there would be a lot of stairs to hit on your way down.  It was funny because upon reaching the top you just had a better view of the fields below, I am not really sure what we were expecting but it was a little anti-climatic.

A view from the plane while flying over Switzerland for those of you how have not had the pleasure to fly over this country yet.

This is a picture of our Christmas dinner and below you can see the chicken which we made with stuffing.  Surprising it all seemed to work out pretty well and we had lots of left overs but we had a good time making and eating the food and it reminded me of Christmas past.

Above are pictures of the mountains as we were heading up to a mountain pass.  These were pictures taken by Maria because I was in the back of the car trying to concentrate on not being sick.  In the end i was not successful (I guess I fail at being swiss) but the scenery was beautiful so I figure that it was all worth it.

A proper swiss breakfast involving cheese and chocolate and all that is missing in a cuckoo clock.

As I am sure that you have noticed the majority of my pictures focus around Switzerland with not too much for Milan or Brussels.  This was because I found Switzerland so beautiful and I was there for the longest time, also I had been to brussels a few times before so I didn't really feel the need to take many pictures.

Anyways this was a small view of my Christmas and New Years trip for 2010/2011.  I hope everyone is having a fantastic week and hopefully I will be able to talk to everyone sunday.

Love

Wes