Ouvrez La Voie

Zosia wanted to see the place where she was born and Dominik had work to attend to at the research institute there where he’s worked for lots of years, so we packed up eight pairs of skis and took a 7 hour train trip from Chamonix to Davos, Switzerland. Through the five train transfers, Dominik lugged two verrrrrry heavy ski bags on and off trains while the girls ran ahead onto each train to find good seats and I trailed behind overflowing with bags of food and activities for a day of travel.

Davos, was just as we remembered it: a small town full of friendly people and pretty mountains. The girls have gotten used to the huge mountains of the French Alps and when we got to Davos Zosia said about the Swiss Alps, “it’s beautiful and I don’t care that the mountains where I was born are small.” A highlight of the trip was seeing old friends and familiar faces. On one of the first mornings there, I walked into the bakery that we used to go to every morning when I was pregnant with Zosia and the same friendly bakery lady was there and looked at me for a moment to place me and then suddenly exclaimed, “ohne baby!” (without baby!) Dear friend Ladina, who has lived in the Davos valley her whole life, introduced the girls to aerial yoga and they’re determined to set up a silk in our living room when we get back to Princeton.

When the girls weren’t upside down, they were outside in the mountain air. The snow dumped on Davos during our trip so they got their first experience skiing in powder that came up to their hips. After a few puffy crashes in the snow, they got the hang of it and declared it was the best ski of the year.