Introducing Max to Switzerland

It's lovely being on holiday in one of the most beautiful places on earth. It's even better when being in the company of one's family: Dot, Rebecca and Max. And the latter has had a wonderful time for the mostpart. A couple of days ago he found himself at an altitude of 3600m at Mittelallalin throwing snow (ice?) balls at us> The ersatz snow was culled from the lingering remans of last winter's falls, though they are fast thawing even at this exalted level. This is testified to by the raging torrents of water flowng down the mountain sides. He also enjoyed the massively long gondola rides up the mountain from Saas Fee (1800m), the steep railway journey at the end, and the ice grotto (built into the nearby glacier).

The first picture shows part of the sbowball fight. The follwing day was altogether better weather - crystal clear and sunny. This time we ascended to Kreutzboden on the other side of the Saas Valley. This was half way to summit of the nearby peaks at over 3500m. There Max found a great adventure playground and first tried his luck on a climbing wall. As far as I know he's never been climbing before and I stood horrified as he rushed, successfully, up the face (shown in the picture). The three-storey climbing frame came next, followed by the flying fox and encounters, sometimes fraught, with a herd of cows grazing the summer pastures. They looked mean and had large horns; and on several occasions Max looked apprehensive! Still, these events receded into the background when he made friends with a little boy exactly his age. Better still, he could speak English well as he came from Singapore. Beck exchanged email addresses with his parents. All told Max had a wonderful but tiring day.

Today was equally inspiring weather-wise and we headed off to see the Matterhorn - the first time Phillip has seen it cloud-free. More about this comes in  a later BLOG report. Meanwhile, Max has been scoring presents, such as purse to hold his accumulating Sfr and cents. I might need him to bail us out financially as this is an expensive spot!