It’s fair to say my sister and I are close. There’s two years or so between us, we share mannerisms and speaking style (i.e. quickly), and when my hair was dark at my wedding, for the first time people identified us as siblings. But more than that, she’s been a close friend, travel companion, gossip confidante and wine time buddy over the years. Our sweet babies were born within four months of each other, and although we didn’t live in the same cities in Australia she has been a constant in our lives (not least due to many middle of the night ‘does your baby do this or is mine broken?’ text messages from me). I had been counting down the days until she arrived (by which I really mean the arrival of my nephew’s cheeks).

After a day of catching up, wandering around Lucerne and strategising about jet lag, we decided to capitalise on the crystal clear day and head up to Pilatus. The last time Motsy and I went it was foggy and while beautiful in its way, did not even nearly compete with the stellar views we caught yesterday. It was an awesome welcome to Switzerland.

We caught cable cars to the top, and then walked the five or so flights of stairs to the summit, slipping a little on the iced ground and crunching through deposits of snow. Although a stunning day, the chill was in the air and winter was evident all around. We looked down on Lucerne, arguing about the location of our digs. Given my poor eyesight and  poor directional sense I don’t know why I bothered (but I was right). We stayed at the top for a hot chocolate (cough wine) and entertained the kidlets with bubbles, because apparently the Alps weren’t spectacular enough.This week sees them on a trip to Interlaken, Tim back to Waiblingen and us all hitting France in time for the girl’s first birthday this weekend. I’m quite happy, though, to spend my days watching the two cousins play together (or at any rate near each other, Fletch trotting across rooms and making animal noises and Laidey zipping around with her one-knee-up crawl, still inappropriately uh-ohing). It was worth the wait.