I remember you...in the mountains

After about a week and a half of living in Zurich, my wife and I decided to see what the big deal about the Swiss Alps was about. So we looked into it and we found out that the closest ski resort was only an hour and a half away by train and it had a twenty minute cable car ride from the train station. Clearly this was an opportunity that we couldn't pass up!

So we woke up early on a Saturday morning and headed to the train station where we missed the tram stop we were supposed to get off on. Thankfully the next stop left us within walking distance of the train station and we headed over to the station to find our train. We asked a few people where we were supposed to go and a nice gentleman confirmed that we were standing in the right place for the train.

Selfie at our train stop while waiting for the train. =D

We looked around and decided that he was probably telling us the truth since there were a lot of people standing around with skis/snowboards.

Clearly they were headed to the snow!

Once the train got there we quickly found seats and prepared ourselves for the long train ride.

Once the train started moving, we quickly left the big city behind. The lake was a constant companion on one side of the train for a long while.

 

Eventually we left the lake behind and entered some scenic farmland area!

After a bit we started seeing some amazingly beautiful mountains!

Before long we even saw a small lake at the bottom of the mountain range.

Finally we arrived at the train station located at the foot of the mountain where the ski resort was.

We took a ride on the cable car up to the mountain top and that provided us with a 20 minute window to talk to the people in the car with us. We had two people in our car, a father daughter team who were there for some skiing fun. When I mentioned that twitter would love all the pictures that I was taking, the guy got all excited and asked if I was on twitter. When I told him that I was he asked me what my twitter name was so that he could follow me. Sure enough he ended up following me on twitter and both he and his daughter were very friendly. His daughter was even a Whovian who noticed my wife's iphone case since it looks like a TARDIS. Just goes to show that Nerdery knows no borders and is universal.

The nice guy on the cable car who followed me on twitter. He is @dirkcverburg if anyone wants to follow him.

When we reached the top of the mountain, we got off the cable car and exited the station. It was so beautiful up there that it is still hard for me to describe it to everyone. Instead have some pictures!

We walked over to the ski store and rented me a bunch of snowboarding equipment so that when I fell, I wouldn't hurt myself seriously. Notice I said when I fell and not if I fell because lets be honest here, I fell a lot.

my snowboard shoes.

The goggles do nothing!

All suited up for snowboarding we did the logical thing: we took pictures of me looking so fly.

Well what's a boy to do when he is all ready for some snowboarding fun? Why go and actually snowboard of course!

The last picture is of me moving through the snow(at a slow speed since there were a lot of people nearby) and I had a blast. The first time I put on the snowboard and tried my hand at it I went like 20 feet before I managed to stop and that was awesome. Of course since my wife was too busy watching me to see if I was going to fall, there are no pictures of that trip but on the second try she managed to film me going and falling at the very end.

I fell a lot but since I'm too stubborn/stupid/courageous to give up when I am doing something and hurt myself, I kept at it. I enjoyed my first time snowboarding and I will definitely try it again several more times before we go home. I felt super sore the next day but honestly the experience was so amazing that it was worth it.