Switzerland trip - Day 3 - Skiing, mountains and loads of snow!

We woke up to a beautiful morning in Engelberg. The excitement of going skiing helped clear away out jet-lag. But first things first - breakfast!

Hotel Central has about 40 or so rooms. The dining hall where breakfast was served was relatively empty. The period that we were there (this pictures were taken on 29 January 2011) is considered off-peak as all the schools in Europe were in session. So, it any of you would like to take a trip to Switzerland, this is the best time to make the journey.

The food was good. Fresh juices and hot chocolate drinks were everywhere. Unlike what you find in the local hotels in Malaysia, breakfast in European hotels usually consists of different kinds of bread and cheeses.

Snow. Its on everything. The whole town was blanketed in white. Surreal.
 

The set of four (4) pictures taken below were from the balcony of my room. Note that this was taken at 8:00 am in the morning but you still don't see people on the street. The same weird phenomena witnessed in Zurich. Click on this link to read more about it. 

Mount Titlis!

My three kids was so excited to see and play snow for the first time that they were grinning from ear-to-ear despite the cold (below is two of them). At this moment, the temperature gauge at the hotel was recording -11 degrees Celsius. 

After breakfast, we walked a short distance from our hotel to the ski rental shop to get our kit. The choices were breathtaking.

At first I was worried that they would not have the equipment for my 4-year old but they do. In fact, the shop keeps stock for kids as young at 2-years old! Below are the shoes. Mind you, each one of them weight in about 3 kg or more!

The 5 pairs of shoes for the family.

Off the the slopes! Below is a picture of me in full gear waiting for the bus to take us to the slopes. Another interesting fact about Engelberg is that the town council provides free bus service during winter. It is part of their effort to promote the town as a ski resort.

The slopes that we chosen to ski is called Brunni. It is the opposite mountain to Titlis. Because of the kids and for safety reason, the slopes at Brunni is more suitable as it is categorised as a "low risk" slope. Below is a picture of our skiing guide Alan, who happens to be Scottish to lead us around the slopes. 

The kids have never skied before but after a two hour lessons they could do it. Sometimes it is just amazing to see how fast kids learn.  

The slopes around Brunni.

I couldn't bring my SLR with me. Which was a pity. I was only able to bring a small compact camera with me but even then, I could only take a few shots as most of the time we were skiing.

One other important fact: you need to bring sun glasses and suntan lotion. The snow reflects the sun rays completely and you can easily get sun burned.

Sun was about to set. You can see its getting dark at the slopes (see below). We were out on the slopes all day and by 4:00 pm, we were all dead tired!