We got up and out of the house fairly early, said our goodbyes to the super cute family running the Apart Korona and were on our way to Stuben, which was probably only a 10 minute drive from the hotel.

The guys were starving because they had gone out late the night before in town, and Francis hadn’t even eaten dinner!

The town of Stuben was adorable, so small and cute, with basically just one lift shooting up from the village and a few runs.

We searched around for a bit trying to find a sit down breakfast but because we showed up at 10:30, breakfast in town was shut down. So somehow we ended up at a really cute café/ski shop/grocery store, and had a grocery store style breakfast, which ended up being a super cool little place!

Then we headed over to the poma lift on the bunny hill of Stuben to play around a bit. We ended up getting some pretty sweet low speed turns in on soft snow since nobody had really skied over on that area yet. Again, had more fun on a subtoptimal condition/run than could be expected.

After some fun there, we headed over to the lift that takes us up Stuben, and took one glory run. It was pretty fun, had some soft snow on the sides (softer than any of the other resorts) and then headed back to the car since Francis had to pick up his girlfriend from the airport in a few hours.

We loaded up and got on the road, and guess what, clouds and precipitation started rolling in. OF COURSE. Because that is our MO. Every time we leave a resort, it snows right when we leave! It snowed/rained a little on the drive into Zurich, Switzerland, and it was actually really beautiful because everything was covered in ice/snow like a winter wonderland!

We got to the airport pretty easily, and Francis had to take off to catch up with his girlfriend, and he left us there so we could grab a rental car. We figured out our rental car, and then went into the airport for some dinner/late lunch. The airport at Zurich is really well planned, brand new looking, and basically seems like a mall, that happens to have planes fly to and from it.

We ended up having a sub-par meal that was outrageously expensive – like a $45 meal per person for something that wasn’t that great but meh, everyone warned us that Switzerland was hella expensive and they were right!

We got on the road, drove for a couple hours and finally made it to Verbier! We got into town maybe around 10/11 pm, and had no idea where we were gonna stay for the night. We had decided earlier that we were gonna play this one night by ear, because every trip needs at least one “adventure” where you fly by the seat of your pants! Thank god we did, because it ended up being the best night of the trip so far!

Once in Verbier, we parked, and decided to just walk into the downtown to try to figure out where we should end up for the night. We stopped into this amazingly cute antiquey looking bar called the “New Club.” Nobody was in the bar except the owner, and we were stoked!

He poured us a round, and we started chatting with him about the town, his history, the bar, etc. He was super cool – his name was JP – Jean Paul and his wife ended up coming out also. JP started talking to us about where we should stay for the night, and he was sounding a little concerned about whether or not anyone would be working the reception desk for any of these hotels at this late of night. Apparently, in Europe hotel receptions close at fairly normal business hours, versus in the US they are available all night long.

So Rhinehart and I decided to walk up the street in the downtown area of Verbier to check out a couple hotel options JP had given us. We ended up at a super hip/trendy place called the Hotel Ferinet, right in the center of town, on top of a club that was going off, and asked banged on the door when we saw someone through the window to see if he would let us in.

We got in, and asked the guy if we could get a room for the night (this is at midnight by this point) and he said yes, he had two twin beds in a room for $220 Franc per night (probably $250 US). Super pricey for two twin beds considering we had three people, but it WAS in town, and we were ready to experience Verbier and also didn’t have a lot of options left at this point.

We decided this was the place, and headed back to the New Club to grab Greg and get settled in for the night. We closed out with JP and his wife, and then Greg decided to serenade me on the grand piano. It was so hilarious, he was staring straight into my eyes with the most ridiculous look on his face, while Rhinehart filmed it. But, I have to give it to him, shockingly (but not shockingly because Hydle IS good at everything) he turned out to be a pretty amazing piano player despite never having taken a lesson. I was laughing so hard at the look on his face, leave it to Hydle to be over the top amazing and hilarious at the same time!

After that, we headed into town, got settled in quickly, and then headed out to get our Verbier party on! We started things off with the club right below our hotel, had a round of 4 drinks total for like $60 bucks…so insane, but everyone warned us Verbier is expensive!

The club below our hotel closed down at 1:30 am, but we had just started to party (and are partially still on US time which was the afternoon at home) so we headed to the real “club” after that right next door, The Casbah.

The DJ there was killing it, and we rocked it out and had so much fun. Hydle was a celebrity again and had lots of attention from people, including one really drunk girl who came up to him and in broken English said to him “You’re perfect” and then grabbed his earmuffs, hat and sunglasses and was kinda obsessed with him for a while!

We finally called it a night, and as we were leaving the club, we asked the bouncer “Where do we get burritos?” and he said “No burritos here, but the only place open right now is the secret bakery right up the street” and pointed up the hill. We started walking that direction, and definitely wouldn’t have ever found it even though we were constantly talking about how hungry we were (this was 3:15 am). A couple walking in front of us turned around and in a little bit broken English and said “Follow us, we will show you where the bakery is”

About 100 yards up the hill and to the right and down a staircase (kinda toward the basement of the building) there was a little window with a baker baking fresh bread. If you knock on his window, he comes up and makes you a quick sandwich on a baguette. Bummer for Rhinehart being gluten free, he only could eat meat and cheese, but the rest of us chowed down on one of the best drunk munchies sandwiches I’ve ever had, fresh baguette, meat and cheese! Apparently this is basically just a bakery that has found a side source of revenue feeding hungry drunk clubbers, while he is baking his daily bread at 3-4 am. Pretty freaking amazing!

We passed out in our twin beds, and woke up about 4 hours later for a big day of skiing at Verbier! So, while pricey, Verbier did not disappoint!

Cooley’s Video – Stuben – Mountain 17