A quick weekend but a wonderful weekend in the Swiss Alps.

Public transportation in this part of the world is spectacular -- and it runs so smoothly. Despite not knowing any French, other than "merci" and "parlez-vous ainglas", we navigated the train station and boarded the proper car. There was a very sweet man who helped us sort things out. He spoke no English and we spoke no French so our "conversation" was actually a game of charades. Good thing Todd went to the Colorado School of Mimes!

By the time we arrived in Villars, most of the shops were closed so we took a quick spin around town to get the lay of the land. Again, the language barrier proved challenging. Mental note -- learn key phrases prior to arriving in a country where you don't know the language. Fortunately, most of the people in the shops could speak some English (as opposed to our non-existent French) and we were able to come up with a game plan for the next day.

Just in time, too. We were hungry. Something I am learning is that most places, if not all, require reservations. We showed up at a pizza place thinking it would be easy to get a table and found out that we would have 1 hour to eat before the next "booking". So, we ordered one pizza to eat in and one to take away!

The next morning we woke up in anticipation for a big day of skiing and snowboarding. Todd had his eye on "Glacier 3000" which was "the best skiing in the world," according to the boy at the rental shop. Unfortunately, the conditions were less than stellar. The snow was wet, the winds were high and much of the advanced skiing was closed. Todd had to be creative in his piste (that's what they call ski runs) selection -- good thing he's got such a strong sense of adventure!

The conditions didn't bother me because it kept the crowds away. At times, I had the pistes to myself and could practice riding fakey. The pomme was the biggest challenge and i think my arms are more fatigued than my legs because I was holding on so tight in fear of catching an edge and clogging up the works. North American skiing is much more civilized in this respect. The chair lift is a phenomenal invention. You can relax and enjoy the view instead of holding on for dear life. Perhaps this is the point of view of a novice snowboarder but that's my story and I'm sticking to it for now. :)

Since the conditions weren't fabulous, we decided to spend Sunday walking around town. It turned out to be a spectacular idea. Temperatures reached 10C and the sun was shining all day. We sat on the porch of Club Med for much of the morning soaking in the sun and then headed toward Bretaye for a little hike and a snowball fight -- I won! :) Afterwards, we enjoyed the sauna in the hotel and watched the sunset over the mountains with some lovely French wine and bread.

So we had the best of both this weekend -- snow and sun. This is the life!