Last day in Paradise

This is it, last day in Zermatt. Snowboarding days are behind me, and the big party is up for tonight (Bernie's 50th birthday) to end the show. It has been a wonderful 2 month, a never ending rollercoaster for me.

For my last day, I was not planning on resting, even if I had a pretty late night at the SchneeWittchen (a club in Zermatt).

I take my freshly bought avalanche gear and join Viktor and Karl to get a last couple of off-piste runs!

First, we start with a crazy colar, down Gornergrat face #2

We continue with the narrowest colar I've done in my life, called the Grünsee Colar


We go back up again for another ride down Gornergrat face #2
(See me in action, middle of the picture)

After a nice day on the mountain, we get set for the big party.

We start with a little beer to celebrate the nice day on the runs
(Me and the three Swedish guys: Viktor, Anders and Karl)


I have to pack my suitcase because tomorrow i'm going back to Lausanne, back to University.

After a big season, you can see my board has been used a bit...off piste

Still, I managed to get a couple runs with Bernie last friday:

Just before going down the Rothorn Face

This is it: Cheers for the great time spent here in Paradise!!

Eurotrip #4 - Carnival in Germany!

Crazy week end!!

On my birthday, I met a couple, Moritz and Denise, who live in Düsseldorf, Germany. Later in the week, I meet Moritz in a lift on the day I did the All mountain ride (see previous post). After work, we go out for a beer, and that's when he propose that I go back with them to Germany for Carnival, which is about the same as OktoberFest for them. At first, I think its drunk plans; no way I can skip out of Zermatt for a week end, 700 km away. But finally, things turn out good, I get the time off, and here I found myself in the car with them, direction Düsseldorf, Germany.

In Switzerland, they have radar everywhere, boxes that flash you when you pass by, and send you a nice letter with a fine in it. But in Germany, free for all!! No limit on the highway, so Moritz pushed the Mercedes (a family type car) to an AVERAGE speed of 200 km/h, with highs around 250 and 160 in traffic. No problem, because in the fast lane, that's almost the normal speed! If I had the Charger....!

Anyway, we get there, and the next morning, after a brunch, we get dressed up for Carnival, and we are set to take the train to Cologne

Me, Moritz and Ufuk

There, we start off with a couple funf deci bier, the town Beer, Diebels (11h in the morning).

We arrive in Cologne at the hauptbahnhof, next to the Dom, a giant Church:

From the side

From the front

People are already partying, and the bars have line ups!! Crazy!

The parade in town

After a couple hours walking around in town, we cross the parade to get some drinks on the street


The parade was well guarded by police officers!
Nicest looking cop I've seen in my life!! had to take a picture...

Later on, we get to the Früh brewery for a couple beers
Here are a couple locals, disguised for the event


After that, we continued partying (without Ufuk, he paled out around 23h) till 6h in the morning.

We had to go by the church another time to catch the morning train

Then, sleep 3 hours, and fight my way back to Zermatt: 9h30 travel time, because of the changed schedules, and the late train in Cologne.

Just Another crazy EuroTrip!!