Never Get Bored 'Cuz We Can Go Boarding!

So since it was a new year, we decided to start it off right--by snowboarding in Switzerland . . .

I took the train up to Luzern, where I met up with my nephew-in-law Luke to make our train to Engelberg.











Luzern is Swiss for 'very picturesque'.













Notice the Swiss flag to the left--I kept thinking, wow, there's a lot of First Aid stations in this country!


As our train took us higher and higher into the Alps, we realized we'd come to the right place.















It was dark by the time we arrived, but you could still sense the grandeur of the Medieval cloister we were staying in.


















The Central Courtyard.


Morning confirmed we were in an idyllic setting.










The view from my window.



Priorities being priorities, over the next few days we investigated the surrounding slopes.

You could go up very high.









One of the lower gondolas--you can't quite make out the lodge at the top of the ridge in the background.



Up high you could see far.










Which was epic.
















Needless to say, we were very cheered by the opportunity--












We're going to have to come back here . . .
















The Benedictines were outstanding in their hospitality. We joined them in their daily liturgies (the first was before six in the a.m.!) and meals--which were eaten in silence with a reader (reading in German, as were the prayers). Saturday night they had a symphony (Beethoven's 3rd) in their beautiful baroque chapel, and since we had the inside track, Luke and I were able to enjoy the entire performance from the organ loft. Sunday was Epiphany, so we had an extraordinary dinner with the prior and the other guests of the monastery. We had a printed menu, so Luke and I were trying to decipher the German, and we asked one of the monks what 'kanguru' meant, and he said, 'the animal' . . . and I had always thought they were from Australia, not Austria . . .

Great way to start the year!