Easter Sunday brought sunshine and happiness to the land of Switzerland and everyone hit the road to enjoy either time with family or the great outdoors!

We made our way to the mountains to the town of Leysin and took the cable car up to go as high as we could to about 2 000 metres above sea level.  Skiers went a little further to make the most of the shrinking snow caps but we contented ourselves with eating fries and drinking shandies ( lemonade and beer mixed).

There were some really cute birds called choughs up there who were keen to share our lunch. When they weren’t keeping a sharp eye on our plates they were having the time of their lives taking off and gliding around on the up drafts from mountain to mountain. Apparently Sir Edmund Hillary had them following his expedition in the hope of gleaning a few crumbs from their alpine picnics.

As we left to make our way back down the mountain three young men emerged from the cable cars with huge packs on their backs. As we stopped to watch, it became clear to us that the packs contained parachutes. Each of them found just enough space to spread out their chutes, untangle the strings and harness themselves on. They were watching the cavorting choughs, experts in the field of thermodynamics and discussing ways of making their way down to the valley around the mountain in front of them. The first fellow took off, or tried to. His parachute did not fill with air properly and fortunately he was able to scramble back up the take-off slope only to have to start the whole setting up process all over again. We held our breath as each of them leapt off the mountain and into the wide blue yonder and were relieved when they were all safely in the air.

After this bit of excitement we decided that we needed to de-stress and made our way back down the mountains to the valley below to soak in Les Bains de Lavey. These are indoor and outdoor bathing pools with spas, jets of water coming in from every angle, Turkish baths, saunas and warm showers. They are heated by a thermal spring and are gloriously warm and relaxing.

Everyone slept soundly last night after all the fresh air, sunshine and excitement. Next stop, Roma!