Snowboarding in Disentis...

Our first snowboarding trip finally happened!!

Switzerland didn't have much snow for a long time...well still doesn't have a lot but yeah...but a few weeks ago there was a bit in the mountains so we decided to go. There was 6 of us who went on this trip and it was a lot of fun!

Matt and I ready to go!


First of all I guess you all need to know some of the details........

Brian is a snowboarder and is good. I on the other hand have tried it a couple times years ago. Therefore am not that good. But there was a HUGE SALE on snowboarding equipment here so we bought all the gear that I would need and some new stuff for Brian. So now I am determined to learn and get good while I'm here....or at least get ahead start here. And Brian has volunteered to teach me! YAY!

Photos of the hill and chair lift

On January 13th & 14th we went to Disentis (a town and ski hill here in Switzerland), with a few of our friends here, for my first attempt!



We went with Pat, Mike, Brandon, Paul, and Matt. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast in Disentis, which was super nice and definitely worth the price, so we could get in 2 days of snowboarding! On the second day our friends Taryn and Tom also joined us. We even got a Suisse fondue meal for supper made by the cook there; that was sweet!

Fondue supper @ B & B

View from B & B balcony

Let me just say it was an amazing weekend for me! I really enjoyed snowboarding and am starting to pick it up pretty fast. Of course there were many of negative moments and a lot of falls but I was still having fun whether Brian thought so or not! Brian had a good weekend too; I'm sure he would have enjoyed it way more just snowboarding down the hill with the other guys that are good but he was very patient with me. He said that he would rather stay with me now at the beginning so I can learn faster and then eventually I'll be joining him as well and he would rather that! So that worked for me. I was and still am very thankful he is helping me and sticking with me because he doesn't have to at all; so I am happy about it for sure!


The snow that weekend wasn't the best but the first day it was pretty good at least. The second day it was starting to melt quite a bit. It was either icy or slush after lunch, but oh well. Other than that it was a beautiful, sunny day....probably even too hot and the scenery and view was so amazing that is was worth it just to see the area! The mountains and valleys were just gorgeous!



I can't even tell you how stoked I am for our next snowboarding trip!

Our Christmas Vacation (Part 5)

LATVIA

Riga was our last planned stop on our grand excursion and it was pretty nice as well. It really reminded us of Tallinn in some ways...mainly the old town...which is a good thing!!


So in Riga we walked around the town a lot in the old town and the new areas. We went to the Latvian Occupational Museum which was good as well and very informative. Other than that we didn't do a heck of a lot; just checked everything out.

Here are some pictures of the old town:

Here are some Christmas pictures from the old town and the new town:

Since we were here for more than enough days we decided to go to Lithuania for the day to a town close by. We got on a bus earlier in the morning and headed to Siauliai. This was a very small town and not that touristy but it was quite nice and just great to squeeze in another country! It was a really nice change in the scenery and change of pace for us compared to Latvia. In Siauliai we just walked around a bit....not that much to see, hung out in cafe's to warm up a bit and that's all really! It was fun though.

Here are a couple pictures of what we saw there:

Brian and Louise hope that you have enjoyed the pictures and info from our Christmas adventure in Eastern Europe and look forward to hearing your comments about it and see what you think!!

Soon to be posted are photos from Switzerland, our first Snowboarding trip here, and the Poland and Belgium trips! Also there will be photos of the children, Emma and Leo, soon as well!

Our Christmas Vacation (Part 4)

RUSSIA!

Out of our whole trip we think St. Petersburg was the best for many reasons.
The New Years celebration was amazing and so cool to witness! The main parts of the city were incredible; the buildings were so beautiful! The churches and cathedrals were so gorgeous and different than everything we've seen because of the Russian style of architecture.
Well those are some of the reasons!

Here are some nice pictures of the city:

These are some of the different styles of churches and cathedrals in St. Petersburg that we saw:

The famous Church On Spilled Blood - extremely cool and unique on the inside and out:

St. Isaic's Cathedral - This is my favorite cathedral out of all that I have seen in Europe so far. It is so amazing on the outside...we didn't go inside it but it was just sweet to look at:

These are pictures of neat buildings we saw around the city center:

On the right is the Winter Palace/Hermitage Museum
(the rest of the buildings were neat but we don't know what they are....)

And this is us during the New Years festivities; what a gongshow that was!



Last, but not least - Riga, Latvia is up next with Lithuania as well!

Our Christmas Vacation (Part 3)

ESTONIA

Unfortunately we didn't take as many pictures in Tallinn as we would have liked to but here are some of the ones we do have.

We found some "look out" points with the help of our hostel and saw the most amazing views of the old town.


It was really beautiful everywhere because of how Christmasy it was. We enjoyed that a lot; seeing all the decorations and Christmas trees like this one.


Tallinn was a very relaxing part of our holiday. We wandered around the old town a lot admiring the cool buildings that reminded us of good old Switzerland. Other than that we hung out at the nice hostel we were in and did a lot of saunaing! That was great! What a good and fun way to warm up from the cold.







Here are some more pictures of the old town in Tallinn:



Next to come is St. Petersburg, Russia - Where we spent New Years!

Our Christmas Vacation (Part 2)

FINLAND

Even though we did not enjoy Helsinki as much as the other places it was actually still a nice place looking back at the pictures. We saw some of the most amazing sunsets and sunrises since there was only sunlight with us from 9:00 - 16:00. I guess that was a sweet bonus to only having light for so long.


Here are some pictures of the nice churches we saw:

Senate Square Cathedral ----------------------- Uspensky Cathedral
(Where we sang Christmas
Carols on Christmas Eve)

Temppeliaukio Church (Rock Church - where we went for morning mass)

Sibelius Monument

These pictures are from the Suomenlinna Sea Fortress:



Here are some more pictures from around the city:

Now here are a couple photos of us in Helsinki:


Hope you enjoyed the photos!

Stay tuned for Estonia!