But first, (since it´s been a freakin month since I last did an episode) some final thoughts from Kandersteg:
The Gemmi Hike N Sled
This is a trip we do for guests, but me and Soren from Denmark never got the chance to lead on. So we did it ourselves. The walk up took us three hours up into the mountains to a hotel and gondola at the next valley over the pass. You can check the video and pics (links below) but I do not envy the poor buggers who had to build the thing. When I say it´s on a cliff, I mean if you slipped you´d have time to phone the insurance company on the way down. The sled back down was more fun than the walk up, though we were in a bit of a rush after dozing off for 90min at the top of the hill...
Frauenfeld with Irene!
The Rovers will recognise this name: me and Jake met Irene from Switzerland at the last Oz Rover Moot, she tagged along to Surfmoot last year and since I was heading her way, we planned to catch up over a 3 day weekend. I didn´t realise she´d worked out a whole itinerary! We visited one of her local girl scout groups, saw some local nightspots, museums and met some locals. One definite highlight was the Library and Church at St Gallen. Incredible. I know I´ll be seeing some churches in Europe, but so far, this was pretty awesome. I´ve never seen so much detail and gold in one place.
The KanderCrawl
At the Scout Centre there used to be a record book where all the aspirations of the bold, foolish, and drunk were immortalised - eg. the record for the most people on one moving T-bar is 10, and you can fit 14 marshmellows in your mouth if you really try. But the book was lost! (Probably to prevent another choking incident).
We decided a new one was due, so what better way than the greatest pub crawl of all time: The KanderCrawl.
Me, Alex from UK, and Swedish Kris made a list of every bar in Kandersteg. There were 23. We made it to 13.
Particular highlights were:
- #3 The Alpenrose - we discovered this was not only the only Western-themed bar in town, but also the local gay club. Awkwardness ensured.
- #5 Des Alps - where we ran into Dominic who was trying to show his family the beauty of the Swiss Alps. He got us instead.
- #9 The Adler - where I found out Kris had gotten off concussion meds that morning. Here my feeble German had degraded so I couldn´t remember the word for ´small´anymore, so managed to order us large beers again...
- # 10 The Royal Park Hotel - Kandersteg´s 5 star resort. Where we dumped our bikes in the driveway, stumbled into the foyer and demanded tequila. In an attempt to not get thrown out, I spent the next 15min harrassing the waitress with ´sophisticated´questions like "Who was the artist of this fine piece of work?". They got us back though. 2 shots of tequila: 18 Swiss Franks ($22).
- The loooooooong walk home - I´d rather not go into the details but let´s just say it was messy. The worst part? We were home by 11.30pm and walked straight into the boss. And insisted on taking a photo with her. It seemed like a good idea at the time...
Big shout out to Alex on this one. If it wasn´t for our support crew, Kris would still be frozen to the ground at the last bar and I´d have been arrested for gratuidous art questions.
Guest breakages
That´s right, I managed to break another guest. And this time I did it right!
I was asked to guide a solo Dutch fella on his last day of skiing as his other guide had a day off. There was fresh powder, but visibility was poor. My dutchy decided it´s not for him and "after this last run we´ll leave". Sure enough, on that run he takes a spill and starts yelling he´s broken his leg. Awesome.
4 hours later I´m on the phone at the hospital trying to explain to the guys what I managed to do to the guest this time. Turns out a decent break to his ankle.
Score 2 for me!
Which brings us to now.
The last few days at Kandersteg were pretty great and it was sad to see everyone leaving. Our staff day out to finish the season was at Shilthorn ski resort, which some may recognise from one of the 007 movies. Plenty of drinking that night, and for once, I´m not the one with the silliest photos! Full credit to Canadian Geoff for his monkey impression - they´ll be up on Facebook soon!
So now I´m in Demark staying with Sonja, one of the other short termers I was working with at KISC. Demark is definitely defferent and has a new charm from Switzerland. For one thing, I can actually see a horizon for the first time in 3 months, as Demark is totally, completely, FLAT. The highest point here is 174m above sea-level. They call this the ´sky mountain´ in Danish, so you can see it´s a bit of a contrast for me, heh.
Sonja´s been showing me the local sights, but the most awesome thing was today, when her Dad took me for a climb up the local wind turbine. WOOHOO! An enviro-nerd I may be, but it definitely ranks as seriously good fun. Photos and video to come soon...
Photos and Videoes
Plenty more up there since last time, including pics and video for the aforementioned KanderCrawl. The áfter´video is well worth the watch...
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Just a heads up to you all, since I´m no longer comfortably placed at good old Kandersteg with free and instant interenet access, I´m likely to be a little slower on the replies (yes, surprisingly it is in fact possible for me to be slower than this). Nevertheless I expect to be on every couple of weeks or so, so keep those emails rolling!
What cheer!
Gordon
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