Having moved more than 20 times in my life it comes to no surprise that I will be relocating again next year.

Well, this time it won't be far off and the reason is because I just bought a beautiful new home in the capital of Valais that will be ready to move in next summer. I took a couple of photos of the town with its castles and Souther atmosphere recently, check out the Sion Gallery.

Winter did broke free today for a couple of hours and painted a beautiful picture of early sun and late snow into the valais.

Today we went sledding on a 13km slope coming down Fiescheralp towards Lax. The view was stunning. The slope was slow though (new snow over night).

With just 90 minutes to drive I can't believe I haven't made it to the Lago Maggiore yet since my relocation back in September. I used some downtime this weekend to catch up, have a look.

More in my Picasa Album for that trip.

About 15 minutes from home I boarded a cable car in Fiesch to challenge my digicam with a stunning view up top acrosss the sunny Valais alps.

Find the complete collection at my Picasa album or a more artful selection at my FlickR account.

Some folks in my old home town really took it all the way with the fire crackers this year.

Next to Martinstor, Mekong Vietnamese Restaurant staff pushed the envelope with their fire cracker display December 31st 2009. Enjoy the show (part 1 - part 2). Actually my iPhone microphone gave out in the 2nd part.

I spent a wonderful December afternoon at the nearby Gibidum reservoir. Totally frozen over this beautiful water reservoir soothed my moodes after the lively Christmas days quite a bit.

The Gibidum reservoir was built between 1964 and 1967. It holds a volume of 9.2 mio qm, the dam height is 122 m and the crest length is 327 m. Along the 1.4 km length there are many trails some of which are only used very rarely.

I woke to the gospel of light this morning. Even after months living here the landscape and views amaze me every day.

From my balcony I have a view towards the Italian Simplon line which belongs to the Lepontine Alps. Monte Leone is one of the massives I view from home and the impression changes almost by the minute. These picture were taken 11am on a December morning. What could be better than a coffee in sub-freezing temps with e view like that in the morning?

After 5 years in Greensboro, NC and five years in Blotzheim, France plus five years in Freiburg, Germany now another move to beautiful Valais, Switzerland.

This lovely town amazes for the every changing view upon the Alps depending on season, time of day and weather. The mild, dry climate accounts for some 300 days of sun/year.

A neat little intro video clip here and some pics from my balcony below. Loving it!

Railway station Brig, last one before the Italian border, Italian Alps in the back and the river Rhone. The Stockalper Castle can be seen in the town of Brig as well.

Neighborhood with one of the Southern Mountains.

SC Freiburg finally did it this year and moved up to the German Soccer Bundesliga (highest league in the country) after closest runner-up for the past two years.

The team celebrated the promotion with specially made t-shirts stating "Wir sind dann mal oben!" or: "We're gonne be up there then!". This season they will be playing the likes of Bayern Munchen, Werder Bremen, VfB Stuttgart and Borussia Dortmund then.

See a couple of great photos of the celebration below and find tickets at their web site here.