Sledding in Switzerland

We are now calling Switzerland our "vacation home". Many families we know in Barcelona have vacation homes, so we sometimes to feel left out. Afterall, we do frequent Switzerland, and although it's not our home, it is our family's home...so close enough! At the end of January, we headed to Lugano to spend the weekend with Sarah and Peter in our (their) vacation home (real home). Sadly, at the last minute, Peter was called upon to do some work elsewhere, and couldn't be with us that weekend. He was very missed!

Our original plan was to recreate last year's winter weekend there by skiing in the Alps on Saturday.  But everyone knows that Switzerland is not so nice on the wallet... so we opted for a less expensive option this year - sledding! Nara is a popular skiing/sledding hill, with a 5km course through the thick forest, and an amazing little snack shack halfway down.  We rented the simple old-fashioned wooden sleds and had a real blast trying to use our feet to steer straight and not go too fast over the bigger humps.  The views all the way down were stunningly beautiful, with clear skies and wonderful contrasts between the snowy caps all around and green valleys way below. 

The view from Sarah's apartment that never gets old.

Once back in Lugano, we met up with a group of friends for our annual trip to Splash and Spa. This place has swim-up drink bars, wild water slides, a wave pool, and an outdoor hot tub with 360 degree views of the Alps. There was plenty of variety to entertain us for hours! But once our fingers were thoroughly wrinkled, and the venue was ready to shut down, we all headed back to campus, and continued hanging out. We have grown to really love our friends at TASIS and always look forward to time that we get to spend with them! 

The weekend was a great time of reconnecting and relaxing in one of the most beautiful places on earth.