Dashing through the snow...

Merry Christmas everyone! The picture above is from one of the prettier Christmas markets I saw (and I have seen many), this one in Basel.
Giselle has been getting very excited about finally getting to Our Chalet and meeting up with girl-guide types, more so than about Christmas ​
Right now I'm doing the washing, having already enjoyed a lovely Christmas morning brunch here at Our Chalet. The washing!...yes, well, you have to take advantage of laundry facilities when and where you find them. It is a beautiful morning here in Adelboden but first I need to catch up on Nuremberg and Basel.

Nuremberg

An earlyish start in Berlin, to the station to validate our Eurail passes and catch the train. We arrived in Nuremberg soon after midday and luckily were able to check straight into our hotel. We walked through the old town, past the Ehekarussell or Marriage merry-go-round fountain, through an open air mall up to the market square. There was the usual Christmas market going on but also a more standard food market - fruit and vegetables, delicatessen items and so on. We saw the Schöner Brunnen (Beautiful fountain) but it was surrounded by stalls. 
At Albrecht Durer’s house we opted for the tour with a guide who portrayed herself as Albrecht’s wife, Agnes . It made the whole experience much more engaging, particularly as she made great effort to engage with us, Giselle especially - she’d asked at the beginning what interest we had in Durer and I said that Giselle was studying art. The house is genuinely medieval being one of the very few buildings that was not damaged beyond repair in WW2. Built in the late 1400s, not by Durer, it looks Tudorish, lots of timber beams, low doorways etc. It was a rich man’s house demonstrated by the extensive windows, made up of lots of small sections. The stories Agnes told about Durer’s life and work were very interesting, particularly how difficult it was back then to make paint and the effort that had to be gone to to get different colours, it makes you wonder that anyone bothered! Durer also created woodcut and copperplate prints and we were treated to demonstrations of both of these being printed, the second by a local artist who makes and sells prints on site.
Next was the Toy Museum which was more extensive than I expected although there was a lot of very similar things for example many very realistic dolls houses and lots of trains, cars and dolls. Not so much post WW2 stuff, was mostly 18th, 19th and early 20th century. Worth a visit.
From there we wandered back through town, to the Handwerkerhof which is a number of craft shops in a medieval setting, supplemented at this time of year with Christmas market stalls. There was a nice glass shop, leather, timber, metal, vintage toys etc. but we didn’t buy anything.
A counter meal! We ate sitting at the bar as the hotel restaurant was fully booked. I had my first schnitzel, finally,  and we shared Gingerbread mousse (parfait) and apple strudel with particularly nice vanilla ice cream for dessert.

Basel

Two trains to get to Basel, first to Frankfurt and then to Basel. The trains were crowded with people with lots of luggage, heading home for Christmas no doubt. The second train gradually emptied and we had our compartment to ourselves for the last little bit. There are two Basel stations, one in Germany and one in Switzerland. On the map you can see a spot on the edge of town where the borders of Switzerland, Germany and France meet.
Our hotel in Basel is a “smart” motel meaning there are no reception staff, you have to deal with an annoying machine instead. Doesn’t make the room particularly cheap but it is nice and only up one flight of stairs instead of four like in  Nuremberg. Swiss plugs are slightly different to other European ones so one of my adaptors won’t fit. When I went to the ATM I was given two 200 franc notes (about $280 Australian each) - I knew I’d have to break one of those before going to the Christmas market we’d walked through so we went into the first random biggish shop to find something to buy. It was an electronics shop so I found a UK to Swiss travel adaptor so I can now put a usb charger into the UK adaptor and put that into the new swiss one. Annoying! Annoying getting such large notes from the ATM but the money is very pretty. The notes are large and quite stiff, difficult to fold into three to go neatly into my wallet.
Basel has a lot of very long trams that only go in one direction - ie there is only a driving compartment at one end, like the trams in Lisbon. In front of the station there are a series of platforms, about 8, with trams coming and going in all directions. What with driving on the right it’s all a bit fraught when trying to cross the road. All hotel guests staying in Basel get a special public transport pass for free public transport - there’s an idea Melbourne!
When we left the hotel we headed to the Museum of Paper, writing and printing. Unfortunately we were too late to go into the museum (the train arrived just before 4pm, by the time we got there it was nearly 4.45) but we had a look at the shop which had a lot of lovely paper and writing things, inks, pens and the like. Also cards, prints, calendars etc. I bought a wood-cut print of Basel and Giselle bought a metal seal (for using with sealing wax). We then walked along the river (the Rhine) toward the old town. We came across Basel Minster, a gothic protestant church with origins dating back to the 9th century. There was a large crowd of people queuing to get in, perhaps a special pre-Christmas service or just the regular Sunday evening, not sure. Beyond the church there was a very pretty Christmas market (pictured at top) but we realised there was no point looking around until I’d been to an ATM for cash. We kept walking along a very pretty cobblestone alley down to a shopping area. We then walked across the Mittlere Brücke, an historic stone bridge. On the other side we found another market, mostly food, which we walked through and then discovered a craft market up a side alley. 
By the time we got back to the first Christmas market it was almost 6pm and it seemed all the stalls were packing up! Not sure if this was because tomorrow is Christmas eve or if it is a Sunday thing. Back into the shopping area and walking back toward the station and the hotel, we came upon yet another market area but they were still going strong although some of the food suppliers seemed to be saying that they were selling out what was prepared now and not making more of things.
We bought some candied nuts and Giselle found some sealing wax to go with her seal. Finally back near the station it looked like many cafes and restaurants were already closed. We went into an Asian cafeteria-style restaurant and had a rather expensive very ordinary meal.

Adelboden

Had a bad night’s sleep - between overheated room, despite window open, and noise from outside, because window open, it was a restless night. Woke to fairly steady rain so instead of exploring a bit more of Basel we just had breakfast and hung around in the room until it was time to catch the train.
An hour and a half to Spiez, via Bern. Past a Lindt factory in a town, while between towns the scenery was pure chocolate box. Went through quite a few tunnels and clearly were climbing as my ears popped often. Changed trains at Spiez and again to a bus at Frutigen where it was raining. Bus fare extortionate - 10.40 chf each (about $13), for a trip no further than Macleod into the city, but there was no other option.
As we travelled along we first saw some snow and then it became obvious that it was no longer raining but actually snowing! Quite magical. We were picked up at Adelboden Oey by Tania the Our Chalet manager. Fortunately we were not expected to walk up the hill in the snow (we were only promised a luggage transfer). 
We settled in and met a few people in the lounge, including Tee who Giselle met on the cruise last year. The girls involved in the program that Tee is doing then went orienteering and after a while we realised it had stopped snowing so we went out for a bit of a walk and snow play. The sun was trying to come out and the scenery was just spectacular, so pretty.
The special Christmas Eve dinner was at 6pm. There are about 10 guests at the moment plus perhaps 15 volunteers, interns and staff. They are expecting 70 people for a program next week so I think we are lucky to be here at a quiet time. There were introductions,  a sung Grace - the Our Chalet grace in French! Dinner was three courses, bruschetta followed by full roast chicken dinner, potatoes, carrots, a really nice bean dish, cabbage, sprouts, stuffing, gravy etc. Then tiramisu, chocolate cake, cheesecake for dessert.
After dinner we joined in some activities in the lounge. We made up an Australian team with Tee and Nes, one of the volunteers. A series of puzzle/thinking challenges, none of which I was any help at, we only scored on one. Then a charades game where we did much better as in the end we won, despite me giving away answers to the opposition a couple of times!
The lounge is well-stocked with puzzles and games. I think this is going to be a very relaxing interlude in between the frenetic go go go pace of being a tourist.
This morning there was a special Christmas brunch and then no other planned activities until this evening's hike to the magical tree. Giselle and Tee are working their way through the activities to attain the "Our Chalet" badge, at the moment doing some community service which involves chipping ice off pathways. Soon I will join them for a walk into the township where they have other activities to complete.
A very different Christmas for me, but very pleasant none-the-less. I hope you have enjoyed yours, wherever you may be.