more snow and the monkeys

 every day we woke to fresh snow and it snowed most of the day, great for the skiers, and good for me rugged up walking around the village, drinking coffee and eating some of the specialties from the bake house, We had eaten some tapas food one night when we couldn't get into a restaurant and Chris found there was a restaurant upstairs and they would serve us a 10 course vegetarian feast, well worth the price just to see the beautiful look of the food on the plate,  and this photo only shows the appetizers.

on the last day we were busy, the boys went back skiing and Chris and I took another walk through the village, and visited the site for the fire festival with the men busy at work in the snow, the previous day the men had dragged the tall trees to the site, the trees had been cut the previous September, this photo shows the ledge where the men sit while waiting for the other group of men to try to set fire to the logs. its much taller when finished.

 We had a quick hot steam bun lunch and then it was off  to visit the snow monkeys in the afternoon, a 50 minute bus ride, a 1.6 km walk uphill and along a path through the snow to get to the viewing spot, I nearly decided not to go but with Chris helping me over the icy spots on the paths and steps we stepped into a different world, worth the effort of the walk.

the monkeys frolic in the snow and then jump into the onsen.  a notice with the rules for visiting says they are not in our family tree

a great way to keep warm. We got warm on the trudge back to the bus, enjoying the snow scenes as we drove back to another Italian meal, I had ordered the day before, they were fully booked but when I said we would come early and only eat pasta and pizza they agreed.  The food was so good be ordered more and then had sweets to finish off and give us the energy for the fire festival soon to start