Wellness-Resort Alpenrose

UNESCO skiing paradise

by martin_nl

Riederalp is a small town in the Aletsch Gebiet (area). Aletsch is a 23 km long glacier that is really beautiful. So beautiful even that in 2001 it got a place on the UNESCO world heritage list!! And for a good reason, since all you have to do is look around and see for yourself. Other towns in the Aletsch Gebiet are Belalp, Bettmeralp and Fiescheralp. From any point in these villages you have such great views as we enjoyed in our apartment.

Riederalp

by martin_nl

For weeks I had been looking forward to this vacation. Before I had never been on a skiing/ snowbaording trip. 7 days in the lovely snow surrounded by beautiful and even famous mountains, like the Matterhorn.

I went to Riederalp with two friends; Laurie and Martijn. Lucky as we were we could stay in the house owned by Laurie's parents!! Thanks again!!! Finally on January 11th we took the train to Switzerland for the adventure to begin.....

"Aletsch Gebiet: UNESCO listed"

After a 10 hours trainride we arrived in the city of Brig, from where we had to take a bus to Mörel. Luckily this bus didn't take us a long time, so after 20 mintues we were there already. Mörel is a small town with nothing to do really, but it is here from where you have to take the cable-car up to the town of Riederalp.

Riederalp is a small town in the Aletsch Gebiet (area). Aletsch is a 23 km long glacier that is really beautiful. So beautiful even that in 2001 it received a place on the UNESCO world heritage list!! And for a good reason, since all you have to do is look around and see for yourself.

We arrived on Saturday evening and we just unpacked that evening, drank a glass of wine and went to bed, tired of the train-ride. The next day there were not too many things we had to do. The only things we had to do that day, were signing up for lessons at the wintersportschool, rent snowboarding shoes, buy a ski-pass and do grocerie shopping.

Other than these obligatories we had the day off, so we decided to walk to the town next to Riederalp, which is called Bettmeralp. Walking there in the snow takes about 45 minutes, but the views are really stunning!!

"Weekly overview"

Monday to Friday Martijn and I had skiing and snowboarding lessons from 10:00-13:00. Laurie didn't need these, because she is well trained already. Lucky Laurie, because she could sleep-in every morning + she had the fun of laughing at us every time we fell on our rears ;-)

Everyday after the lessons had ended we went home, which was only a five minutes walk from the trainers lift to have lunch. This lunch was usually a bowl of very nice soup and some bread. During the afternoon we went to the trainers lift to practice some more, or during the last days we went up the Moosfluh (name of the piste) to see if we could ski down by ourself.

After the end of the first day, the only thing you can think of is: "My God, do I have to do this for another four days!!" I felt really a zillion times on my bum and arms. Those four days that we still had, seemed like quite an awful long time on that first day. However the week passes by very quickly and before you know it on Friday you wish it was still Monday. But you know how these things go, don't you?

After every day it was time for a glühwein or something else that contained alcohol and then off to the house again to have dinner served with excellent wines!! Since Riederalp doesn't really have an après-ski happening we stayed home during the evening and played some games and drank tea with some more alcoholic drinks .......mmmmm....... are we alcoholics???

Saturday it was time again to take off and do the whole 10 hour something trainride back to the Netherlands again, only in different direction. Anyway the trip was an unforgettable experience and I can recommend everyone to go to Riederalp!!!