From the second we arrived in Switzerland, we knew we wanted to go white water rafting.
Eager beavers, we chose the first company that popped up on Google, H2O Experience.
A very sorry Swiss apologised profusely through the crackly telephone connection, and said that there just wasn’t enough water this week for the rafts. Hearing our wails of disappointment he quickly mentioned that perhaps we might like canyoning…
White water is white water in my books! We immediately said yes, and he started backtracking a little.
“Uhh, it iz very cold you know? You like ze cold? Because it really iz very cold, like ze ice.”
By this point nothing could deter us, we were ready for a fresh adventure. Canyoning was canyON!
We wriggled each other into neoprene.
First dungarees, then a long sleeve baby grow top, followed by moist, cold boots.
Who needs fashion week, eh?!
We jumped into a rickety minibus and hurtled down the valley.
After about half an hour of alternating French pop and German hip-hop, we pulled into a lay-by and jumped out.
Here we got a whole lot sexier.
Accessories are everything, darling.
We were lead down to the river and jumped right in!
We swam, crawled, climbed, hurtled and jumped our way along the gorge.
These are all stills from a video camera on our guide’s helmet, I’m going to try and cut it all into an actual video… but for now these give me more than enough chuckles!
After three hours my limbs were about ready to fall off. I stood by the side of the river doing star jumps, the H20 man was absolutely right… it was like ICE!
We climbed back to the bus, significantly weathered, but very, very happy.
We shivered with chattering teeth, hugging the bus heaters that coughed out puffs of warm air now and then.
I really can’t recommend a canyoning trip enough if you’re in the area… but just don’t listen to them when they say not to bring a towel/jumper on the bus.
And take a GoPro! The views are quite literally breathtaking. We floated along on our backs in the calmer waters, just looking at the leafy canopy above, listing to the birds twitter and sing. I so wish I’d taken mine (but it was sitting comfortably back in London).
We arrived home blue (in colour, not mood) and famished. We made a beeline for lunch.
We started with the “starter buffet”, a delicious concept that means you get to try absolutely everything!
Before moving onto mains.
Fish for Watson:
Chicken for me.
Cooked in rosemary & salt and drizzled in gravy.
Still a little frost nibbled, we ate hurriedly, pulled on fluffy white robes and went to cook ourselves in the spa.
Here we lay out and baked ourselves in the blistering sunshine…
…Ok, not really!
Instead we put ourselves in the capable, magical hands of the spa staff.
We went to The Hammam.
Here you’re scrubbed, rubbed, sloshed and steamed… before being left to bathe in Turrell like blue light.
We swam in the pool, which is heated to the temperature of a nice, hot bath, and looked out over the snow topped mountains.
Very tempted to make a joke about Phoebe’s love of beans here ^… but I wont.
Mr Matthews, you are a lucky man!
We drank enough mint tea to float a battle ship and finished our cooking in the sauna.
For supper we wandered down into Gstaad, but everywhere was either dead or chockablock.
Deciding to be utterly lazy tourists, we walked right back up to the hotel… and had exactly the same meal we’d had the night before!
Starting with two peach bellinis.
There are a number of restaurants at The Palace, but we plumped for The Grill.
A delightfully old fashioned place, with a live band and charming waiters in penguin suits.
We each had steak with bearnaise.
Followed by the most enormous soufflé I have ever seen!
We didn’t really intend to order it.
When we sat down the waiter said “Just so you know, if you’re thinking of the soufflé… we need an hours notice so please let me know as soon as possible.”
Clearly taking this as some form of diner challenge, we looked at each other, nodded and said in unison “we’ll have the soufflé!”
I am so glad we did!
Deliciously gooey & chocolatey, it comes with ice cream, custard, chocolate sauce & raspberries.
The soufflé for two is more like soufflé for a small family, so it took us some time to get through!
By the time we’d finished supper the restaurant was almost empty, the band was still strumming away and the candles were burning down into their holders.
We climbed the stairs to our room.
Slipped into the miraculously soft sheets, sank our heads into the enormous marshmallows they call pillows and drifted off into dreams of white water & caves.
The best day two girls could ask for.
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