I don’t mean to be super cliché, but skiing the Swiss Alps is a dream come true. Once I was accepted into the international program and I was officially going to Switzerland, my family planned to come visit me and the first place on our list to visit together was Zermatt – the home of the famous Matterhorn. We hadn’t been skiing together in years. So, we were all really excited to cross this item off of our bucket lists. (Although that excitement may have turned into a bit of weariness after telling my family about my first encounter with the Swiss Alps. But, their courage prevailed and we went skiing despite any fear!) I finished classes on Thursday evening and Friday morning we jumped on the train to Zermatt. It’s about a 2 hour train ride, but a beautiful one at that. I really never get sick of Switzerland’s landscapes.

Once we arrived, we dropped off our bags at Hotel Firefly (which we highly recommend – it’s absolutely beautiful and they have the best customer service), grabbed some lunch in town, and rented our ski gear so that we were ready for the next day.

We got up early the next morning so that we could get a full day of skiing in. Once we got to the top of the ski lift and skied around the corner, I saw the Matterhorn for the first time up on the slopes and I seriously could not believe it. It was breathtaking. After we soaked it all in, I mainly kept my eyes down on the slope making sure I wasn’t going to fall. Steve is a pro and was so patient with us. He gave us all some lessons and tips and skied with us a couple times down the slope. Then once we all felt pretty comfortable going down ourselves, Em and Steve went skiing on some crazy black slopes!

 

After skiing until our legs were shaking, we all met up at the end of  the day for dinner in town and games back at the hotel. Have you ever played Ellen’s “Heads Up” game? We played it continuously during our trip, even at restaurants! We really had the best time! Thanks family for coming to visit me in Switzerland! I had fun showing you around.

Zermatt from The Milly & Grace Girls on Vimeo.

(Making this video made me miss Switzerland so much. I cannot wait until I return again!)

Stay tuned for the Barcelona part of the Ott European Invasion…it’s coming up next!

I don’t know if you heard, but I had a major scare with all of my pictures. First, I lost all of the pictures from when my family came to visit me in Switzerland and our trip to Barcelona. Then, somehow I managed to get those back after some research online. But, when I got those back, the rest of my pictures disappeared. Luckily, I have Apple Care and was able to call them up once I got back to the states and they saved my life. It’s not the first time they’ve saved my life. Seriously, they are amazing. Anyway, now that I have all of them back I can post about the Ott European Invasion! Yay!

I was so excited to finally be able to show my family the town that I had called home for months. I remember walking to dinner the night before they came thinking ‘wait, they are going to walking these streets tomorrow’. I could not believe it was going to happen…but it did!

My sisters both sent me identical pictures when the Swiss boarder control let them in:

I showed them all around, gave them a tour of my house (you can see a tour here), took them to the Cathedral and to get the best swiss hot chocolate in town. We had picnics down by the lake, they visited the Olympic Museum while I was in class, and of course we had to have some fondue!

Then, we were off to Zermatt! Stay tuned for that post and more of the Ott European Invasion xo