We’ve made it through Winter! Well, sort of. It’s officially Spring and the daffodils are starting to poke out of the ground, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. After living in New England for most of my life, I finally decided that the only way to appreciate winter is to attempt to embrace it - find activities and beautiful places that are spectacular in Winter and make the most of them! Last year, my partner Mark and I embarked on this attitude by snowmobiling up in the Great North Woods of New Hampshire, just miles from the Canadian border. It was a blast, and we even saw moose tracks in the snow, which was just about all I needed to see from a moose!
This year, we caught wind our friends were going to ski in Zermatt, Switzerland, nestled in the heart of the Swiss Alps. They had gone the year before and raved about it, and said we were welcome to tag along this year. I quickly became obsessed with the idea, and convinced Mark, who’s a beginner skier, that he could totally handle it (in all honesty, I had no idea, but I wasn’t missing this chance. Sorry, Mark!)
So for the last 2 months, I was curating and coordinating my ski outfit, reading blogs and a book about Zermatt, and dreaming about all the painting inspo (more on that later!)
Our trip began with an 8-hour flight from Boston to Zurich, then 4 hours of trains across the entire country of Switzerland to the southern border with Italy. My jaw was on the floor as we began to approach the Swiss Alps. I’d never witnessed mountains like this, so you can imagine my amazement as I caught sight of this National Geographic-worthy landscape. To give you some context, the highest ski mountain in New England is Killington, VT, which stands at 4,229 feet. The Swiss Alps, which span Monaco, France, Switzerland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria, and Slovenia, have 3,000 peaks, with 82 peaks over 13,000 ft! The majority of these 82 peaks are in Switzerland, but the rest are just within 12 miles of the Swiss border - so you can imagine how densely packed and magnificent this region is.
We arrived in a foggy state of jet lag, but made it swiftly to our hotel thanks to the little electric taxis that traverse the streets of Zermatt. This is a small village with narrow streets, which don’t allow any combustion engine vehicles, let alone, outside vehicles. This means the only vehicles you see are public works, buses, and taxis, and everything is electric! The town is so walkable, and it’s nice not having to breathe fumes from cars. Although the cars that are there very much have the right of way. It kind of felt like a Mario Kart game with the electric taxis.
The view from our hotel was quite spectacular. Snow-covered cottages and blue skies with the Swiss Alps in the background - what could be better?
Once we had recovered from the jet lag and gotten a good night's sleep, we took a train up to Gornergrat, one of the peaks in the region. This opened in the late 1800s and was electrified from the start. Something that I marveled at is the sophistication of transportation in Switzerland. The trains are always on time, a fact which Swiss people hold a lot of pride in. And the entire process is very smooth. Sigh, says Boston T-goers.
What we loved about Zermatt is that there are so many options for non-skiing, as well. Being it our first full day there, we wanted to take it easy and get the lay of the land before hitting the slopes. The train was a lovely 30-min ride and also had many stops at which you could get off and hike. There were designated walking and snowshoeing trails, which allowed us to become surrounded by the vast, white landscape of the Swiss Alps. It really felt like we were on the Moon!
It wasn’t long before we reached an empty and quiet spot, at which, drumroll please…. Mark proposed!
We took in the moment by plopping down in a snowbank and marveling at the Matterhorn, an infamous peak in the Swiss Alps region. Mark picked the perfect spot, and it was so us! We spent the rest of the afternoon perusing through the streets of Zermatt and picked up some celebratory Swiss chocolate.
The rest of our trip was spent like this: breakfast, ski all day, a little après, hit the spa, dinner, and bed. It was quite exhausting, but so thrilling. Mark had a rough first day on the slopes that included standing at the top of a hill for 10 min then finally deciding the only way to get down would be to fully send it straight down (he didn’t know how to turn well). After that heart-pumping fright, things got drastically better. Mark was practically beating me down the slopes by the end of our trip, and now we finally can share and love this winter activity together! The only casualty of the trip is my toes - some of my toes are still numb after being home for a week. Oh well…
On our last day of skiing, we decided to take a little photo opp to recreate the engagement with a self-timer (and the Matterhorn behind us, of course!). Much to our surprise, a bunch of little rainbows showed up in the photo 🌈
From the Alps to the Easel
Now this is an artsy newsletter after all, so I’m sure you’re wondering what art will come out of this trip. I decided on 3 landscapes to make up a mini collection. I’m trying to make more of an effort to create art in batches like this. Something that surprised me this past year is how well my greeting card sales are going, especially those packs that have varied designs in them. So creating multiple pieces that can not only be sold as originals and prints, but as a pack of greeting cards, makes a lot of sense for my business. I’m also entertaining the idea of print sets. If I have the energy, I might add a 4th piece to this collection. Here are my initial sketches…
And here are some progress photos...
I can’t say enough good things about Switzerland, the Swiss Alps, and the charming alpine village of Zermatt. If you have any questions about this trip or traveling to this destination, feel free to reach out!
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