Not even trying

I have come to the conclusion that blogging is best done with more regularity than I have been displaying, because after a month, where would I actually begin to catch up?! I promise to try and do better in future.

Suffice to say, a good chunk of that month was spent here

 with Snowface who gallumphed happily through the glittering snow, ears flying, and subsequently displayed a prodigious appetite! 

It wasn’t all Narnia-like – but even on greyer days, it’s fun to think the Snow Queen might have been staying at this hotel  or may even have moved into this multi-million $ chalet with rather extraordinary garden decorations (well, for a ski resort!)  We had lots of nice walks and – very carefully, that bridge is HIGH – took some pictures of the Clemgia gorge (this is the River En, which becomes the Inn when it gets down the valley to Austria and goes on to flow through Innsbruck)  We had hot chocolate at sunset – I love the crisp outline of the mountains just after the sun has gone down, like cut-outs  and found a 3km ribbon of ice for skating through the snowy woodland and next to the EnI thought this covered bridge was an attraction, giving access from the old mountain road to the village and then, taking the trouble to read the history of the village, discovered that the little grey and cream stone building on the left there was the “tower” for the original bridge – and yet in those days, the river was twice as full (before the hydroelectric plant down the valley was built in the 70s), so no wonder that by destroying the bridge (multiple times), the villagers had to save themselves through the centuries: fighting off the Catholics and Protestants (the church was reconsecrated several times), the Habsburgs, the French (Napoleon’s troops) and then the Austrians again… and yet tragically, slaughter was still done and the Plague still got in, too.  I hadn’t seen this oven before – I would have thought keeping heat in was more of a priority than not burning the house down (sort of)… I obviously have my priorities wrong! Remember this pretty square from last year?  Well, I found some more, different house decoration in the upper part of the village, Vi –  and learned that fish and mermaids were used for decoration because of the importance of water to be able to survive in these mountain villages:  Amazingly, there is little more than an hour between this  and this  Tarasp Castle is pretty imposing – although the village remained a Catholic enclave throughout all the religious toing and froing, the family died out pretty early on and it was rebuilt at the turn of the 20th century by a millionaire whose fortune had been made with mouthwash (he was the “Odol-König”!)… 

Of course, this was ostensibly a sports holiday, and we swam in the beautiful thermal baths and walked the paths, but we did also do some sledging  Yes, with the dog on my lap – she can’t keep up and the icicles get between her toes, so she sits with me, ears to the wind… quite a vision, I assure you!

Incomprehensibly, the ski pistes were practically empty – we were on our own on the widest, most popular pistes, in the most gorgeous sunshine, for most of the time!  I’m afraid this encourages the following behaviour in snowboarders, shocking, really –   though resuscitating skiers is probably worse –  but with a pretty good view! The best experience was when the weather did this There was a slight sprinkling of snow being blown around and it was so cold that sunlight caught each and every snowflake and made it twinkle – just as if it was snowing stars! Magic.

See, I distracted you with lots of eye-candy…clever, eh?! Back soon!