rachael's birthday

31/1/15

 Today I have to wish Rachael a happy 23rd birthday!!

Lots of the events of today happened as a result of it being Rachael's birthday, but I will get to those in a minute.  After morning meeting, we started our jobs for the day.  I was on cleaning bathrooms... yayyy.. We helped Katrina with stock take of the shop for January by counting the postcards in cupboards (omg we have over 6,000 postcards).

Ana made lunch at 12:30.  She had prepared nachos and pizza bread. I had to teach her how to make nachos because she had never made them before.  They turned out really well!

After lunch and lunch clean up, we had 'Snow Patrol' at 2 pm.  Snow Patrol is when all the volunteers who are working, meet up with Migue and clean up the walkways and carpark areas of snow.  We spend most of the time chipping away at the ice.  Today we focused on the path from the Main Chalet to Stockli, and the car-park between Main Chalet and Spycher.

Rachaels friend's, Alice and Annie, arrived on the 2:54 bus.  They were staying with us for a couple of days to visit Rachael.  Rachael had requested 2 things for her birthday - to play party games (preferably a treasure hunt) and a rainbow cake.  At 3:30 we met in the kitchen of Stockli for the first of those two requests - the treasure hunt.  Sarah had prepared a treasure hunt which took us all over the Chalet, from the freezer (where the clue was frozen in a bucket of ice) to the Main Chalet attic eaves.  Eventually the clues lead to the flag pole which was where our final treasure was hidden. Sarah had buried the treasure two days before... and quite a bit of snow had fallen since then.  Rachael had to dig out the treasure with a snow shovel.  Inside was our 'bounty' and the birthday hat for Rachael to wear.

 

Finding the clues in the attic

 

Digging out our 'bounty'!

After we found our 'bounty', we headed back to Stockli for cake! It was definitely a team effort for the cake though - Ana had made the batter, Katrina had made the butter cream to cover and put inside the cake and I made the plastic (fondant) icing decorations on the top.  It was a rainbow cake, as requested, with the feminist symbol and '23', again as requested!  Rachael got very excited about the fact I had found the feminist symbol all by myself and that the cake was a rainbow.  Well as rainbow as we could get with our limited resources.  

Dinner was Cottage pie with Peaches and Cream for dessert.  We didn't start cooking until late and for a while we were worried that the meal would be late.  But in the end we were on time; as per tradition, we got out the pots and pans and the tea cozies.  We had previously decided that we would sing before dinner instead of before dessert, because Rachael wouldn't be expecting it then!  During dinner it started to snow heavily.  Katrina, Sarah and I decided that we would complete another 2 points of our staff challenge by sledding down Hohliebeweg (the Chalet hill) at night time.  It was quite a hard walk up to the top of the hill, at some points the snow was up to our waist and never below our knees when we weren't on the road.  We walked right up to the top of the hill, almost to where the restaurant. From there we sledged down to the Chalet drive way.  It was snowing quite heavily whilst we went down and there were a few times I ran into the piles of snow on the side of the road!  

an afternoon in thun

30/1/15

Thun, pronounced 'toon' (now the title makes sense hey), is located approximately 30 km south of Bern.  It lies where the River Aare flows out of Lake Thun and has about 44,000 inhabitants.  The town encompasses both banks and the island inbetween them, covering an area of approximately 22 km square.  

It take a little over an hour to get from the Chalet to Thun.  After having a lazy morning, I caught the 10:54 am bus to Frutigen and then a train from Frutigen to Thun.  I was there by 12:01 pm.

 Thun is a beautiful little town, I had borrowed a map off of Chloe so I set about following the train that that laid out. First it lead me over the bridge to the island in the centre of Thun, where I walked down the main shopping street.  The side walk is raised up above the road.  I'm not sure why there was confetti every where though!

  

  

    

I ate the Ginger Bread Mum bought me :)

"Schloss Thun" was built by the Dukes of Zahringen shortly before 1200.  The roof dates from the Bernese period of 1430.  The Great Hall of the castle is one of the best preserved and representations of Great Halls of the medieval period.  

Here's the veiw

 

After walking up and into the Castle I headed back down to the town centre.  Thun is the closest town with proper department stores.  So I enjoyed an afternoon of walking though the town shopping.  Mostly window shopping!  I finished the afternoon with a walk along the river and a hot chocolate before boarding the 3:01 pm train back to Adelboden.  

One of the reasons I was so keen to get home, was dinner.  Tonight we were having Cheese Fondue!  The dish is indigenous to parts of Switzerland.  We heated it and then dipped food into the cheese. 

 

After dinner, we had a training in the new WAGGGS Thinking Day Game.  By training I mean we played the game!

 

Our Piece 

spa day

29/1/15

 My plan for today didn't go as planned as it should.  I had planned to go skiing the night before, packed all my gear and everything.  I knew it would be sketchy as the predicted weather the night before was windy but I thought it would be ok.  However when I woke up this morning, it was more than a little foggy, snowing quite heavily and winds higher than expected.  So there was no skiing for me.

Instead I did nothing.  I spent the morning around Stockli (watching Gossip Girl), in my pajamas, until about 11 am.  Then I finally got dressed and actually did something productive - put a load of laundry on!

After lunch, Mara, Katrina and I walked down the hill and then caught the gondola up into town.  We were headed to the Spa at one of the hotels in town.

 

 

  
 We swam in the indoor pool, and went in the four saunas downstairs.  Then we swam in the 34 degree heat outdoor pool, and looked at the scenery and the snow falling.  It was a marvelous view and I never thought I would have a use for my bathers I bought with me or that I would be swimming whilst it snowed!  We finished up the afternoon in the Finnish Sauna.  As per Finnish tradition, Mara and I sat in the sauna and then ran outside and cooled down by rolling in the snow.  The sauna was 80 degrees, so it was only cold the first couple of seconds when you threw yourself into the snow, then the snow just melted right off.

After we had had a final shower (I had so many showers, because you have to shower before and after each sauna!), we headed back into town for coffee and cake at one of the local tea houses.  I had the nicest lemon cake and a very frothy cappuccino.

Dinner was Lasagna with meringues, berries and whipped cream for dessert.  

When we got back to Stockli there was a lovely card for us for Thinking Day.  Thank you to the 3rd and 4th Heath Hayes Brownies from the UK!