In search of Kate and Wills in Windsor, UK

A few weeks ago, I went to Windsor in the UK. Given my obsessive love of castles, I was delighted by the fact that I might be able to check out Windsor castle... and track down Kate and Wills, obvi.

Windsor is known for being the queen's "weekend" residence. We actually think she was home when we were in town because the flag was flying on top of the castle, which is typically the sign to the public that she is present.  Anywho, queen aside, Kate and Wills must not have heard of my arrival (sigh), alas, I decided to explore the castle's vast expanses for a few hours.

Changing of the guards parade in "downtown" Windsor

I also spent part of a day in London

The new meaning of "ski chalet"

A few weekends ago Ryan's coworkers planned a ski weekend in Chamonix (the Mont Blanc area as previously mentioned a few blog posts ago). Being naive to the meaning of a true ski "chalet" I just thought we were renting a house for the weekend... but I was wrong (in a good way)! Chalet Tissieres is a full service chalet, which means that included in your room price is champagne upon entering, a private chef that cooks a 3-course dinner and breakfast, free wine, rides to and from the mountain, someone to CLEAN after you, ski rental store that comes to the chalet to rent your skis to you, and a gorgeous chalet (and hot tub!)

After doing a ski weekend this way, I don't know if I would ever go back to the traditional rental, it was a TON of fun and actually a really good deal. Here's a little secret, if you come visit in the summer, Chalet Tisseres offers a summer special, for 40 Euros per person/night (yes, this was my obligatory once-every-blog post, "come visit us" shameless plug!)

Here are some pictures from the weekend....

Starting out with appetizers at dinner time at the chalet

Lunch time at one of the Chamonix ski resorts, Grand Montets

On the chair lift in the ski area,  Les Houches, with Mont Blanc in the distance, it looked a lot more impressive from this side of the valley! 

Winter wonderland

The world's best invention has arrived

This is probably one of the most exciting announcements I've made so far on this blog... get ready for it...WE FINALLY HAVE OUR OWN WASHING MACHINE IN OUR APARTMENT!

Before you go and make fun of me for this terribly exciting announcement, let me explain. For 4 months, every time we have needed to do laundry, on our weekends we have had to stuff our dirty clothes into our big suitcases, drag them 8 minutes down the road, up and down curbs, across puddles, and across streets, and into the laundromat to do laundry with bums. The worst part is that it was $40 each time we did laundry!! Highway robbery, I know.

Clearly hating the laundromat

So after a long time debating and researching different brands of machines, we finally decided on a Siemens washer/dryer combo.   Combo machines have a bad rep for being able to actually dry clothes decently. So buying a combo machine was a bit of a risk in the first place. The second risk was buying it from the shadiest retail store in town, 'Maxi Discount'...

Here's how delivery day went down.  Our landlord required that a professional, certified plumber install the washing machine in the apartment to avoid any mechanical issues that could arise with a less experienced person installing the machine. So....

1. I call Maxi Discount the day before to say that we only need delivery service, not installation service.
2. But of course the next day Maxi Discount still arrives at the apartment with an installation guy.
3. Ryan (who is home to let the delivery guys in) insists that their installation guy is not allowed to install the machine based on the requirement of our landlord. 
4. Maxi Discount guys proceed to threaten Ryan by saying that we will lose the warranty on the machine if they don't install it. 
5. Ryan calls me and ask me what to do. I say that I have no idea, try to ask some colleagues with experience and they say they have no idea. So Maxi Discount guys leave and we lose the warranty on machine. 
6. Professional plumber arrives an hour later and tries to install machine, and surprise, surprise - its broken (it cannot drain any water).
7. Professional plumber speaks no English so Ryan calls me, hands the phone to the plumber and I hand the phone to my secretary at work and they speak to each other in French and eventually everything is translated and the message is conveyed that the machine is definitely broken and we need to call Maxi Discount guys again to have them deliver a new machine (keep in mind Maxi Discount guys just told us that we lost the warranty on the machine, so there is no way they are going to bring us a new machine now...) 
8. We decide we have had enough of this ridiculously frustrating machine already and we leave it half full with water to go skiing for the weekend and decide to just deal with the headache later.  
9. We return to the apartment on Sunday night and Ryan pushes the on button and it works PERFECTLY. No idea why it was broken one day and fixed the next, but oh well... just another day in confusing expatriate paradise! Somehow every process here ends up being extremely frustrating but rewarding at the end in a strange, surprising way :)

The punchline for those that were bored to tears by my story above - we now have a washer/dryer combo (which dries excellently) that you can use whenever you come visit!

A day of skiing in Chamonix, France

Today we went with a few friends to the ski area of Chamonix which faces Mont Blanc, the tallest mountain in Europe (approximately 15,000 feet). Chamonix is only an hour drive from Geneva, so its a great day trip. Skiing here was a really fun experience, the weather in our area has been absolutely gorgeous and warm the past few weeks which means no snow (which is a big change from the super rainy November/December we had). Although the snow was a bit slushy, you really can't beat skiing in 55 degree weather with these stunning blue skies and views in my mind! I am looking forward to exploring more of the ski areas in the Chamonix/Mont Blanc area this coming winter, there are apparently many to choose from.

One strange observation I had though is that as we were skiing and looking across at Mont Blanc, after all of the "hype" it receives for being Europe's tallest mountain, it didn't seem all that high to me.... I actually asked Ryan at one point whether it was possible that I was just getting de-sensitized with all of these amazing views (horrible, I know!). So after we got home tonight I started researching this odd observation.  I found that this was because we were in fact skiing at already around 9,000 feet and therefore the additional 6,000 feet didn't seem that much farther up. Oops, I guess that should count as one of my blonde moments of the week. The good news is that after my educational googling session, I REALLY want to come back and check out this whole area more extensively in the summer, it is covered in a permanent glacier so in the summer you can walk onto the glacier and walk through "glacier" tunnels and check out the fantabulous views (and yes I just made up that word), how cool! 

Lunch on the terrace of the ski restaurant mid-mountain

Cheers to new friends and a gorgeous day of skiing! (Mont Blanc is behind us 

The view from the top of the Chamonix ski area, you can see where the snow begins and ends in the valley below

Cheesy mountain top picture :)

More views...

All day the very top of Mont Blanc had this "halo" of a tiny cloud around it

Breaking in the afternoon for crepes and a drink on the summit

Clearly this is a google image, but this is the glacier that I want to come visit in the summer!

Again another google picture and again another item on our summer must-do list, you can ride a cable car to the very top of this mountain top and look out onto the glacier and Mont Blanc.... unreal! (Mom, this is the summit from the Rick Steeves special...)

Home for the holidays

This past week we flew home to NH to spend the holidays with family and friends. It was a quick and busy trip but it was wonderful to spend time with those that we love that we haven't seen in a few months. Its crazy to realize how much we have missed everyone in just a few short months. As much as we love living in Switzerland so far, our hearts will always be in the US with our family and friends!  We spent the first half of the week in Gilford and the second half of the week in Manchester/Bedford.

My family

Ryan's family

Since most of the people reading this blog are probably most interested in hearing about our adventures after we left to the US: after 3 planes, 2 trains, 22 hours, and a fabulous trip in Envoy class back to Geneva (thanks Susie!), we arrived back home just in time to celebrate the new year. Ryan's coworker and his girlfriend came over to our apartment for a traditional Swiss raclette and chocolate fondue dinner. After dinner, we walked outside of our apartment building to enjoy the city's official new year's eve "party". Coincidentally, the street that our apartment is on was the epicenter of the party, so there were several concert stages and bars set up on our street. Also, the amusement park called "Luna Parc" that has been located on our square for the past few months was in full swing, so after we rang in the new year in the square with some champagne with the crowd, we decided to check out a few of the rides and games....

Champagne at midnight in the square

This was quite the thrilling ride if you couldn't tell by our faces :)

Happy new year and "Bonne année"! I hope that 2013 brings you much love, happiness, and joy :)