Family. Shortly after returning from fall break, my family arrived in Prague. We had a lovely long weekend in Prague visiting the castle, eating great meals and doing lots of walking. It was very good to see all of them. Plus, dave’s mom was there as well so it was a family affair!

Grammy, Dave's Mom, My Mom, Me, Shelley and Grumps

Berlin

The following weekend my mom and I hopped on a train and headed 4 hours north to Berlin. Train travel really is the way to go. You don’t have to worry about getting there 2 hours before departure time or waiting in security lines. As long as you figure out what train you are supposed to get on, it is very pleasant. Our first day we decided to take the New Berlin free tour. I was absolutely fascinated at how much important history the city of Berlin has been the main stage for. Now most of you know I am not one to be interested much in history, but Berlin’s history is so overwhelming: Hitler, the Nazis, and the Holocaust then Communism, East and West Berlin, the Berlin Wall and so much more. Our tour started at the Brandenburg Gate (on the East Berlin side looking through to west Berlin):

Then we got to see the new Holocaust memorial. The designer said that he got his main inspiration from the Old Jewish cemetery in Prague. Here is my mom in the middle of the memorial:

This building was originally built to be the Nazi Headquarters, then it became the Communist Party’s Headquarters and now it is the Tax Department of Germany:

Since Berlin was such a war center, the oldest buildings they have were from the Enlightenment period (18th -  early 19th Centuries). That night my mom and I found our way to Potsdamer Platz. Apparently this used to be the main center of the city, but it was completely bombed. So now they have the Sony Center there which was one of the more impressive modern structures I have ever seen. My mom described it as a clean version of the Bladerunner set:

The Berlin wall is marked in the city by a row of double cobble stones laid into the floor. So the next day we decided to be adventurous and follow the stone path east hoping to eventually find the East Side Gallery (the longest remaining portion of the Berlin Wall). After walking for a long time, we found it! They call it the East Side Gallery because they keep it up as a public art domain, like Five Pointz in Brooklyn, NY so it is completely covered in graffiti.

Bullets in the side of a building:

Old building and East German tv tower:

Berlin was such a huge city that I would have needed at least a week to really get to see everything the city had to offer. I am glad that I got to at least see a bit of it especially because Prague is so close.

Zermatt

Two days after returning to Prague, Dave and I were off on our big adventure to the most infamous Swiss Alps. We were headed to a small ski town called Zermatt located over 5,000 feet up at the base of the Matterhorn on the Italian – Swiss border. Our journey was a long one:

• 1.5 hr flight from Prague to Milan
• 1.5 hr bus ride to Milano Stazione Centrale
• 2 hr international train ride to Visp, Switzerland
• 1 hr regional train up to Zermatt

From door to door it took us 10 hours, but it was well worth the journey. We arrived at midnight to a silent mountain town and we made our way to the Matterhorn Hostel. The next morning we woke to a snow storm. The town was completely covered in fresh snow and it continued to dump all day long. We decided to spend the day hiking on the winter trails in the surrounding mountains. We made it up to a small ski lodge town at 6500 ft. Thanks to the heavy snow, we could not see much of the surrounding mountains and the Matterhorn was nowhere to be found. Here are some pictures of the town of Zermatt:

Due to bad weather, we spent a lot of time in our cozy hostel room:

We were disappointed when we woke up Saturday morning to see it still dumping snow because we had planned to ski that day. Apparently the winds had picked up, so the entire mountain was closed. We spent the day walking around town shopping for souvenirs and swiss chocolate. Dave and I ended up buying each other Swatch watches for Christmas presents. They are pretty snazzy. That night we went to bed hoping that we would wake up to clear weather because it was our last chance to ski. Also, we had yet to see the Matterhorn (which was essentially the entire reason why I wanted to visit Zermatt). We got up at 7am to see this:

It was absolutely gorgeous and breathtaking and everything I thought it would be. Seeing that the weather was going to be good we hurried back to the hostel to put on our gear, we rented skis, boots and polls from the shop at the base of the main gondola and we proceeded to ski the swiss alps! It was really great. Since it was still early in the ski season, we had to take 3 gondolas up before we reached the open runs high up on the mountain:

Once we reached the top, the views were spectacular, not to mentioned that the runs were all under the base of the Matterhorn. The skiing was very different than Mammoth, the runs were so expansive and sometimes rather flat. The alps (you can see one of the chair lifts at the bottom of the picture):

At the top portion of the mountain, you had to option of skiing down into Italy or staying in Switzerland. International skiing! No border patrol at 10,000 feet.

The Matterhorn at the beginning and end of the day:

I was so happy that we decided to go to the alps. It was so beautiful up there and nice to get out of European urban cities for a long weekend.

Upcoming. Tomorrow I leave for Copenhagen, Denmark for the weekend/. Then we have one more weekend in Prague and then Dave and I stop in London before we head back to the states. My time here is quickly running out and so is my bank account.