A new year has begun with two really great trips. In mid-January, I went with 36 other Mountbattens to Interlaken, Switzerland. We rented a large house that could fit 40 people, so things weren't too cramped. The skiing was great - it snowed a couple days before we got there and we had 3 days of perfect weather on the slopes. The runs were not too crowded because everyone was watching in Skiing World Cup which was taking place on one of the three mountains. About 50,000 people were in town for it! On the last day, we took the gondola up to the Schilthorn (above), which had great views of the valley and mountains around us. It's also where one of the villains lived in an old James Bond movie. We were able to ski all the way down the mountain from the peak.
Two weeks later, I went with 9 other Mountbattens to Iceland for three days. We stayed in a hotel in the center of Reykjavik with easy access to the town. The first day we took a coach tour that hit many of the natural wonders of Iceland, including geysers, hot springs, a continental divide that is slowly tearing the island apart, and a huge waterfall (pictured - those are people standing way out on the ledge to the left). That night, we booked a Super-Jeep tour and spent 4 hours chasing the Northern Lights. We finally saw them at around 1am. That was really the whole reason we wanted to go to Iceland, so I'm glad that we saw them. On the second day, four of us rented a car and drove around. The initial plan was to drive about 2 hours along the southern coast to a glacier, but that ended about halfway there when we got caught in a blizzard, and could barely see anything along the icy road. Thinking of our mothers, we decided to turn around and head south of Reykjavik to that coastline. 
We caught the sunset (the sun rose at 11 and set around 5) and then drove back into town in time for the Super Bowl. On the last day, we went and swam in a hot spring before heading to the airport. This was a great trip, but I would recommend coming in the summer - there really isn't much to do when the sun goes down.I don't have any more trips planned until late April when I go to Egypt, but I'm sure something will come up over the next few weeks. Everything else is still great here with work and life in general. Can't believe it's almost been 6 months!
