It’s incredibly beautiful here. The city is in a valley with mountains surrounding. It’s Christmas Day and everything is closed. Finding a cup of coffee proved to be quite challenging. We walked to the shopping district in search of coffee. We found a small bar that was open so we popped in to grab a coffee. The bar was so disgusting, I wanted to run out the door. Alec actually did. It was filled with cigarette smoke, like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. There were about 5 older men in their 60’s or 70’s, all smoking, who had apparently been drinking since the night before, perhaps this bar is open 24/7, I don’t know. The smoke was so nasty & thick & old & gross, I seriously had a headache & was nauseous instantly. We (me & Mason) toughed it out long enough to get 2 coffees to go. Mason said turnover of workers there must be high, they probably die within a short time of starting to work there. But we enjoyed our coffee as we walked back to our apartment. It’s finally NOT RAINING!!! Hallelujah!!
Today we went bobsledding on the Olympic bobsled track. It was used most recently in the 2012 Junior Olympics. To begin, we gathered at the finish line. They loaded us all in the back of a truck that transports a bobsled & drove us to the starting point. It’s exactly like you see on TV, there’s a timer above the starting gate. It’s sort of like being on a roller coaster. They throw a helmet on your head, strap on a seatbelt…except for Mallory, they didn’t belt her in. She told the guy “Hey! I’m not belted in!” & he shrugged & said “that’s ok, just hang on”. They told us to “keep your hands inside the sled or you have no more hands!”. Then a guy at the starting line shoved us over the edge & we were off! The speed reached 80mph and it took us slightly less than 45 seconds to complete the run. Each bobsled holds 5 passengers & a driver. No, they didn’t let us drive. The kids loved it. I thought it was a bit of a rough ride.
After bobsledding we visited a local castle & museum. We also took in a light show and visited the shopping village. The village is super cool, small walkways leading to the center of the square with a huge Christmas tree. There were balconies on several of the colorful buildings. There were shops & restaurants on the ground floor of each building & hotels, restaurants & apartments on the upper floors. At 5pm a group of trumpeters began playing Christmas music from a balcony, it was beautiful. They only played for a couple of minutes & then another group of trumpeters began from a second balcony on the other side of the tree. They also played for a very short while, then 3 large windows opened from a third building & a whole room of trumpeters began to play. They continued in that fashion, playing short songs & then the next & the next. It was like a dance off, only with trumpets. So cool.
We had dinner at a restaurant in the village. We had pork with mushroom gravy, spaghetti, pesto dumplings and a variety of meats. The food was delicious, the beer was great & the company was exceptional. We’ve yet to have a bad meal. I was thankful we found a great place for our family Christmas dinner. We are missing our family today. We’ve never spent the Christmas holidays away, so it’s very different and doesn’t really feel like Christmas. We called Grandpa when we returned to the apartment. It was good to hear his voice & we wished him a Merry Christmas.
The card game tonight was Golf. Dad won with a last minute, come-from-behind win over Mallory & Shane who were neck & neck with one hole to go. Mom took last, as usual. It was a wonderful Christmas, we are blessed.
