After the last Team America adventure in Germany for the Christmas markets, we had our next adventure in Switzerland :) Zack and Lauren drove down from Belgium (an 8 hour drive!!) and arrived Thursday morning (right after Arian left) on Feb 17th. Taylor made a delicious lunch that we gobbled up before heading up to our first mountain for some sledging and snowshoeing. We didn’t make it in time for sledging, so we walked around the town and stopped for some hot chocolate! Then we met our nice guide Lisa and headed up on the gondola to begin our snowshoeing adventure. It was a little muddy at first since it has been warm in Switzerland (and you need to be in high altitudes for snow), but after a little bit we hit snow and threw on our snowshoes. It was another beautiful day and night, so the mountains looked AWESOME! We hiked up to a part of the mountain that overlooked a lake and with the full moon it was an amazing view! 
So we took a nice little Gluhwein and brownie break to enjoy the views of the sunsetting on one side of the mountain and the full moon rising on the other side (SO COOL!). After the breathtaking view, we hiked (I was out-hiked by 8-month pregnant Taylor!!) back to the lodge at the top of the gondola to feast on the best fondue (second for the week) I have EVER had! It was the perfect night and after dinner we hiked back down the mountain and headed back to Bryan and Taylor’s for a fun little sleepover/pyjama party!!
The next morning I went into work for a half day then was picked up by Lauren and Zack and we headed out to Engelberg for the next big adventure :) When we arrived there we met up with Bryan and Taylor who took the train (we all couldn’t fit in the car!) and took the gondola up the mountain and awaited our next adventure. We had some yummy hot chocolate at the lodge and then our tour guides came to lead us all to the IGLOOS!!! That’s right – we were spending the evening in an igloo!! So after a nice little German introduction (Taylor translated the best she could for us!) we dropped our things off at the Panda Room :) This year the Igloo people decided to have an Asian theme for the igloos (a lot of Asian tourists come during the day to visit so they thought it might be a great way to entice them to spend a night there!)…anyways, we had the Panda Room, which was awesome!! It had a bamboo ice carved ceiling and lots of Panda ice sculptures around the room – it was pretty amazing (and we totally had the best igloo room!). There could be up to 55 people staying in the Igloo pod and there were 14 igloo sleeping rooms, plus 2 bathrooms, a bar area, dining area, and Jacuzzi :) So after walking around and checking out everyone’s igloo rooms and celebrating with a warm drink in the bar area, we sat down to dinner for yup you guessed it – more fondue (third for the week!)!! We tried the tomato fondue and our table neighbors had the Mexican so we tried that too – all delicious!! 
After dinner, we all headed outside for a little snowshoe adventure around the lake and it was another beautiful night with a huge full moon – it really was surreal! I felt like I was on a movie set and the background was a green scene it was so perfect!! So we walked all the way around and headed back to the igloo where it was our turn for the Jacuzzi so we hopped into the warm room (you don’t want to change into a bathing suit in the cold – brrrr!!) and got into our bathing suits, then ran quickly to the Jacuzzi! Since it’s a hot steamy room the ceiling is open so you can look up into the stars – it was really neat! After that we all got cozy in our pj’s and back into our snow gear to go back to the panda room and climb into our sub zero sleeping bags and cuddled up next to each other!! Just your face is a little bit cold, but it was a really unique experience! And then the next morning we were awakened by the tour guides that bring you hot tea directly to your sleeping bag to wake up refreshed. We packed up our things and left them in the bar area and then walked over to the lodge for a hot fresh breakfast!
After breakfast we said our goodbyes to Taylor and geared up for some skiing and snowboarding! It was another beautiful day! The sun was shining real bright and the skiing conditions were perfect! I was able to get a half day in of snowboarding and then said my goodbyes to the gang and headed back on the train to Zurich to pick up my next guest – Matty B from Russia!!
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