Klosters

Since our flight home for the holidays isn't until Monday, we decided to spend our last weekend in Switzerland exploring the Alps. We headed for the town of Klosters, which is near one of the biggest ski resort areas in Switzerland - Davos. In fact, the ski areas of Klosters and Davos are linked. Supposedly, Davos has better skiing, but Klosters has the better town.

We had a suite booked at the Silvretta Park hotel in Klusters. It was the only place that could take 5 of us on short notice. The reviews on Trip Advisor were mixed, but it did get high ratings from families, so we decided to give it go. We loved this hotel! We had a suite which consisted of one bedroom with a typical Swiss double bed (two twins shoved together) and a living room with a small kitchenette and fire place. The hotel had set up 3 rolling beds in the living room for the kids, but there was still plenty of room for the couch, chair, and table. There was a small bath with a tub and a shower. (Pictures of the room are included in the slide show at the end.) The room came with "half board." We weren't entirely sure what that meant, but reading the Trip Advisor reviews led me to believe we would get breakfast and dinner. We were right! The food was great, and the kids loved having all-you-can-eat options. It reminded them of dining on the Disney Cruise. Dinner the first night consisted of a buffet with a cheese bar, 2 soups (one a great mushroom, dijon mustard flavor!), salad bar, cold salads and cold cuts, fresh bread, and hot entrees such as spaghetti, moussaka, chicken piccata, vegetable lasagna, and many more. Breakfast the next day had a cheese and bread spread, croissants with homemade jams, bacon & sausage, made to order omelette, cereals, yogurts, etc. Again, very tasty with plenty of options for everyone.

After we checked into the hotel Friday night, we walked around town. As advertised, Klosters was really cute with some fun shops and restaurants. On the walk, it dawned on us that we had a problem. You see, we decided to bring the dog with us. Friends had assured us it was really easy to travel with the dog in Switzerland. They told us to just leave her in the hotel room when we went skiing or sledding. It seemed like a great idea at the time, until we realized that we were checking out Saturday morning and couldn't leave the dog behind. We decided to stop at the tourist information center to see if the dog could go sledding with us. Yes, this request would be met with disbelief in the States, but the friendly people at the tourist center didnd't find it an odd request at all. In fact, one of them said that she had taken her dog in the past, but it might be hard on a Saturday as the slopes are busier and some people don't like the dog running around. We figured with no other choice, we'd give it go.

So on Saturday morning, after checking out, we took the local bus (ticket included in the hotel cost) to the resort of Madrisa. We went to the ticket counter and explained that the 5 of us wanted to try sledging (the English word for sledding) and we had brought our dog. The agent said, "Well, the dog is free, but she will have to walk or run down." Hmm. We'd never considered the idea of renting Lucky her very own sled! And that was that. Oh, the price was great -- we paid for a "family" pass for 55 CHF. Here's Lucky checking out the view from the gondola.

At this point, John and I busted up laughing. We were imagining a poor ticket agent in Lake Tahoe after we explained that we'd brought our dog along for the day. I'm thinking they probably wouldn't have been so accomodating!

At the top of the mountain, we rented sleds for 12 CHF each. John and Abbie decided to share a sled.
The sled run was gorgeous. It was 8km long and took an hour to get down. On our first run, we saw 2 other people, both hikers, the entire way down. We asked the first hiker to take a photo.
The scenary of snow covered trees and mountains was absolutely gorgeous.
Lucky looked a bit tired towards the end, so I gave her a lift for a few minutes.
The run exited in the town of Saas. From there, we caught a bus back to Klosters and gondola ride back to the top.
Lucky didn't want to get into the gondola the second time, but we just picked her up and tossed her in. We had lunch at the top where we ran into a family from Australia (although the husband was Scottish) we had met in the morning at the hotel. We convinced them to try the long sled run, so we did see them at times on the second run. Otherwise, we didn't see anyone.
Poor Lucky went from being 2nd down on the first run to dead last on the second run, so we decided not to kill her and make her run another 8km. That was a good decision, because it took an hour for the bus to come! We wouldn't have had time for a 3rd run anyway. You return the sleds at a sport shop by the bottom of the gondola -- very convenient!
On the way out of town, we drove up to Davos. Davos has some great hotels, and I'm sure the skiing is wonderful, but we were glad we chose to stay in Klosters. John is already talking about heading back for his 40th birthday weekend. Of course, that's ski week and there aren't too many places available. We will definitely do more sledding! It's a lot of fun, and a great way to exercise the dog. She's very calm this morning.

Here's the slideshow of the rest of the photos.