Cervinia part II

Wednesday morning around 9 on our way over the mountains to Zermatt. The sun is just climbing up and the pists are like manchester. Couldn't be much better.

A better view of Matterhorn from zermatt. Just like the Toblerone picture. Quite steep, can't believe people climbing that thing. Like mr Nilsson I believe.

A cup of hot chocolate in Zermatt. Sun is shining and Zermatt in the background. Nice.

Off post skiing in Zermatt. As no one is there to take my pictures skiing I thought I would take a photo of the tracks. Both are mine and they were nice indeed to make. Quite a few people go off post but still every now and then you find areas like this were you don't have to cross a single track on your way down. The ropes and flags are there to encourage people to go outside the pist. I think.

"I swear it was this big. At least!" Ulf boasting on the picnic STS arranged on Wednesday after lunch.

The picnic was a good event. Some 30-40 people at most in a sunny slope up on the mountain

Yes, we actually fell asleep on the top of the mountain after the picnic. Don't know if I should blame it on the warm sun shine, the soft snow or the beers we had for picnic.

View out from the mountain on wednesday. Pretty prefect.

On thursday we were back in Zermatt skiing. All of a sudden a train came up the mountain to somewhere around 3000 meters hight. Maybe SJ could make a visit to learn something about running trains in snowy conditions?

We came across an igloo village. It started early 90's with a couple of guys staying overnight on the mountain in igloos just to see the sunrise and be the first ones skiing. The rumor spread, more people wanted to try and today they have established a company with igloo villages on 6 different sites serving 10.000 overnight guests per year. pretty awesome.

Inside one of the igloos serving as bar and restaurant.

Today Friday was all white again. Windy and a lot of snow coming down. A lot like sunday but a few more slopes open though colder and more wind. The nose took quite a hit. We hope for better weather tomorrow when we will have almost a full day skiing before taking off to the airport.

This week I'm in Cervinia, Italy for some skiing with my father.

Sunday. First ride up the ski lift. Most of the lifts here are modern, fast and very comfortable.

Sunday afternoon. A stop for hot wine at Ullas restaurant. Ulla is Swedish and from what we heard met a ski instructor long time ago, stayed in Italy and opened this restaurant in the mountains.

To Sweden with Linjebuss. A great old poster at Ullas. Don't know how effective it has been to increase the tourism to Sweden though. 

This is pretty much what it looked like on Sunday. Massive amount of snow and all white and mist. Actually only two lifts stayed open and the skiing was rather bad.

Monday on top of Plateau Rosa, on the way over to Switzerland and Zermatt ski area.

Outside the restaurant in Zermatt were we had lunch on Monday. The weather was good on Monday and we had great skiing in Zermatt. I rented an avalanche kit (transceiver, shovel and sond) so I wouldn't loose my lift card when going off pist and we had several chances of making good use of the investment.

Matterhorn with the characteristic view from the Toblerone box (well almost at least).

Monday. Me on top of Kleine Matterhorn on the way back from Zermatt to Cervinia. They told us that this is the highest ski area in Europe, at almost 4000 meters above sea level.

Tuesday. After a very windy morning all clouds disappeared and we had great weather with a lot of sun shine. Here relaxing outside the restaurant were we had lunch while skiing in Val Tournenche.

A stop for coffee and biscuits before heading back to cervinia.

Wakasa trip

We made another trip to Maki's relatives in Wakasa on the west coast. We had a good few days relaxing, fishing and spending time with Maki's uncle and aunt. And I even got a few lectures in how to clean the fish and prepare Sashimi.

Mori building Roppongi

Today we went up Mori building in Roppingi. Everyone enjoyed. Except maybe for me (photos doesn't reveal how scared I am, especially up on the roof 240m above ground).

Street art Tokyo

Street art found close to Tokyo hands in Shibuya.


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Advanced candy

Yesterday when walking in Shibuya we came across this candy store. Seems Gränna have a few things to learn.


This massive log of candy mix


Is stretched and rolled and chopped up


And this is the result. Tiny but really sharp hiragana characters saying arigatou, thank you in Japanese.


Other types of candy with small figures.