Ali headed off to the airport to collect the guests on Sunday evening and the girls tried their hardest to remain calm until they got here (not very successfully.) There was great joy as they arrived on board the girls were jumping all over Daniel he doesn't get much peace at all when the girls are around at least when we were home he had a room he could go and hide in when they got too much!
We had a few days in Barcelona before we headed up to the Pyrenees so the girls returned to nursery after the Christmas break although they really didn't want to only the promise that Daniel would come to pick them up from nursery got them there at all. Kaylee got a spewy bug which unfortunately for poor Ali we only discovered by her throwing up over his head in thew night! This resulted in Ali missing our night out that we had planed so Daniel and I just went alone which was probably a good thing as we went to maybe a better restaurant than we would have if Ali had been there and seen the prices..... It was a lovely meal in a Chinese restaurant in the middle of town where you sit on big tables with other people and just tick dishes off a paper menu which are all cooked just at the entrance to the restaurant so you can see how fresh they are! We had some wine and were on our way back to the metro when we got handed a flier for a free shot in an Irish pub, being suckers we accepted and found that with our overly priced Guiness we got a small shot of 'Sex on the Beach' certainly not worth it but we consoled ourselves saying that we had really wanted a pint of Guiness and it was a good one..... When we left the pub and headed towards the metro again we came across possible the worlds worst mugger/pickpocket he targeted Daniel ad kept trying to do all the things we had been warned about like shake his hand so he could get to his pockets or tumble Daniel to the ground the only problem (for him) was that e was far drunker than us and rather polite with his fumbling attempts to get into Daniel's pockets. He just wouldn't go away and we had to shout at him to get rid of him and almost run, not because we were scared just annoyed! The next problem was that I had forgot the metro stops running at midnight during the week and so we decided to get a taxi back to the marina which stripped our pockets bare anyway!
Whilst we were still in Barelona we took Pop and Granny out for a couple of walks, one down to the centre of town to go on the fabled cross harbour cable car - it still wasn't running! Then we went up to Las Ramblas to show them all the street artistes, mainly it was the girls who went up to them but granny decided to be brave and go and see Kaylee's favourite monster guy which was fine until he tried to grab her toorie hat!
We got the tram back and stopped for a look at the Agbar Tower on the way home too.
The last day or so was spent preparing for skiing, getting gloves etc that we didn't have I managed to get an outfit for very cheap at the super market, maybe not the coolest skiing out fit but when have I ever worried about that! Fergus came with us to pick up our hire car and we followed him back to the marina as he has sat nav and we have pretty bad senses of direction when on four wheels!
On the day we left the girls were stuck in the back seats with most of our luggage squashed in around them poor things it was going to be a long six hour drive. The roads on the Spanish side of the border were great and we managed to go on a toll free route, almost a miracle. When we got over the border we just took the shortest route on the map but should have realised that because it squiggled around all over the place it was a hell ride down through the trees and really steep drop off down the mountain at least it hadn't sowed for a few days and the snow was very well cleared!
Packed in! - note the crocheted blanket Rhoda had made for the girls to keep them warm up the mountain.
When we got to Luchon we realised we had no idea where our apartment was and after asking a few people in our best French we decided to head to the town centre and find the Office de Tourisme. When we got to the apartment we found that the seven person apartment was a little smaller than expected (not much of an improvement space wise on the boat!) and after a near mutiny from a couple of the family we sorted the sleeping arrangements to suit everyone, just!
It may have been small but it had a bath so the lasses spent a lot of the first couple of days playing in it as the last bath they had was in the mountains of Portugal!
Rhoda and I set off quickly to the supermarket as it was nearly closing time whilst Daniel and Ali went to get pizzas for dinner as we were all starving. We got an early night so we could get up and find out about the skiing the next morning.
We got up bright and early and Ali headed off to find the best deal on Ski hire etc. By twelve thirty we were all kitted out and on our way to the ski lift in the centre of town to buy our ski passes. We plumped for a six day pass for the first week and headed off up the telecabin, which thankfully you don't have to ski out of that because I got stuck in a cabin on my own on the way up.
Luchon from the Telecabin
Daniel was so excited at the top of the lift he shot off at high speed down the course and Ali tried in vain to get Alisha, Kaylee and I to get the hang of skiing. It was rather painful we all spent a lot of time on our bums and after an hour or two of trying to ski down a little path over and over again we gave up and went for a glass of coke! It was almost time to go and so we went over and booked the girls and myself into lessons for later in the week, Ali decided he would try to teach us one more day himself and then we would get lessons.
That night we came home to dinner ready cooked by Granny and Pop which was the basic routine for the rest of our time there, on the days we were skiing they would cook and either Daniel or I would cook on the days we weren't.
Another way of getting up the mountain.
The next days skiing went very slightly better, we found a small slope at the back of the resort hotel which the girls and I could quite happily plod up and slide down practising stopping etc. Daniel also stayed with us for the morning to help me (he must have been very exasperated!) After lunch we all decided to go down one of the runs, Ali taking the girls down one on either side of him holding onto his poles and Daniel with me. I got about a halfway down the first steep entry to the slope and had to give up! I climbed back up the slope, no mean feat with skis and poles and funny boots on..... I must admit when the girls made it back to me and had loved every minute of it I felt utterly defeated and didn't think I would ever get the hang of it.
Some skiing gangster bloke....
The next day was lesson day and we got up the hill particularly early so the girls and I could practise a little at the back of the hotel before we met our instructors. We were all led to the kiddie slope at the back of the Hotel which has little courses and moving floors etc to get you back up. I had a nice teacher called Alain and the girls had Claude, who unfortunately was by far the better looking......
The lasses and Claude.
We spent and hour practising turning and stopping and using small versions of each of the different lifts. By the end of one hour Alisha could stop and turn and I was crouching down to go under obstacles as Alisha is doing above, quite impressive! We had lunch with Ali and Daniel who had been relieved to get a chance to go off and ski together on their own for a while.
Ski masters at the if you go past here it's at your own risk sign......
We decided to try the same run as we had done the day before but for me it was a bit of a disaster again to say the least, I did get around it but at one of the steep bits Daniel said just take your skis of and slide down on your bum - I was that bad! It also included a chair ski lift which I got off very unceremoniously indeed......
Getting ready to get off and to try not to fall.....
By the time we got back to the top of the resort I was quite happy to stay with the girls behind the hotel whilst Ali and Daniel went off to do a couple of black runs and some off piste skiing.
This is what the girls and I made one afternoon whilst the boys were off skiing!
I think Daniel kinda likes skiing!
When I met Alain for my second lesson he said we shouldn't have done the run we did as it was too difficult and he took me on a different run - a green or baby run which I managed although a little slowly and felt really quite proud of myself. The girls were doing quite well too especially Alisha, her legs are a little longer so that was to be expected .The weather closed in that day so we all decided to bail out back to town and go for a walk around town instead and visit the bigger Intermarche for a look around, French supermarkets holding as much sightseeing value for me and Daniel as the historical buildings!
The next day was our last lessons and it was much better weather and because there had been a little fresh snow the skiing was much easier too. Alain took me down the slop which has beat me twice and I managed quite well and he said I should be OK now when the end of the lesson came he did take me on a button lift though and I managed to get entirely tangled with my poles and I had to go the whole way up in a bit of discomfort....
Me and Alain on the piste, Ali was in the ski lift when he spotted us.
The girls were delighted with how well they were doing too so after lunch we all set off down the runs again and although Daniel came with me I was getting so much better that I only fell a few times..... I did spend most of that day going very slowly especially when Alisha came flying past me from behind shouting Hi Mum. Ali was laughing but I couldn't look as she looked so small and out of control and there were steep drop off at the edges of the run. So proud of her but soooooo scared to watch her!
Another way of getting down the mountain....
We still had a couple of days left on our passes and we went up as early as we could and skied all around the courses that I could do going down round all the different combinations of courses etc. Each afternoon I would spend a while with the girls whilst Daniel and Ali went off together up to the top of the other peak where all the black and red runs were so Ali got a chance too as he still had Kaylee firmly stuck to his side on the way down the slopes.
Cheers!
The apartments we were staying in had a small pool, jet pool and sauna complex which we could use when we wanted so very often we went swimming after skiing, it was great as Alisha has been very scared of the sea and so hasn't done much swimming since we left home and she loved it by the end of two weeks she was diving in at one end and swimming to the other end like she could at home before we left. The jet pool was very good for tired muscles although I didn't feel as sore as everyone had warned me about after skiing. The one bad thing was that we weren't guaranteed hot water for a shower after the pool and one night we decided to dash back across the freezing car park. There was a lot of squawking from the girls and a lot of tutting from others when we got back to the apartment.
We decided to go for a run to a different town on the Saturday as we hadn't seen an awful lot of Pop and Granny and we thought they must have gotten a bit bored wandering around Luchon as it isn't the biggest of villages. We decided on Tarbes as it wasn't too far away and it looked like a big place on the map. The drive over was great very interesting especially for the older generation as it is prime farming land around there, lots of grise and geese - unfortunately for them all the signs said fois gras this way.....
When we got to Tarbes we realised it wasn't really much of a town being big was about all it had going for it, it did have a decorated Christmas tree
and a fountain
and a pretty church.....
We went to a cafe for lunch and got very small portions for quite a heck of a lot of money Pop treated us and the bill came to 100 Euros and I think a few of us were still hungry afterwards!
Lucky Daniel got to carry Kaylee around all day...
One thing we have noticed about France in the short time we were in Brittany in the summer and here in the winter is that the place is 'fair loupin wi dog dirt.' They all have very big dogs and Tarbes definitely tops the dog poo hot spots list! It means you spend more time looking down at your feet than looking at the sights. Daniel must have been paying more attention to the sights because he managed to step in great big lumps at least three times whilst we were in France, here is a pic of him washing it off in the river.......
On the way back Pop suggested we took the mountain route back through some small villages. They were very pretty Aurrau being very nice with a river running through it where we stopped for a coffee. All the little villages had churches even if it was only a handful of houses, you can actually do a tour of the churches of the Midi if that is your sort of thing.
We didn't go skiing for the next few days as the weather was pretty dreech Ali and Daniel went off to the next mountain for a day to see what that was like but it was pretty dreech there too and they nearly got lost on the slopes in the poor visibility. We went for a few walks around Luchon and had lunch in one of the restaurants one day which was nice. There were lots of little food shops selling pates cheeses and apertifs etc so we thought we had better get a bottle for a pre- dinner drink or two.
Winter wonderland.
We bought a three day pass when the weather cleared and had three more good days skiing which we all enjoyed if you had told me at the beginning of the previous week that I would be zipping off down blue runs myself and Alisha would be doing red runs on her own I would never have believed it at all, but we were. She was so funny as she just skiied along sometimes singing and sometimes licking an icicle she had found and seemed oblivious to all around her but if it looked like someone was going to crash into her she always managed to zip out of their way. I even did one red run by accident which wasn't my finest moment as I crept down at a snail's pace and fell over a few times. Ali said when I looked at the run at the bottom he was sorry for taking us that way but he hadn't realised it was a red, so I forgave him until I saw the video he had taken of Alisha coming down the run and him saying it was a red run...... Peerie monkey. We were all even managing to jump from the ski lifts at the end without hitting the deck so the skiing part of the trip was a definite success and we can't wait to go again another year.
We went out for a fondue one night and that certainly was a big eating night, we ordered just what we thought was right but it was far too much, yes even for me and Daniel! The camera had got a bit of a shock from being in minus temperature at the top of the mountain to the heat of the restaurant so the pictures came out all steamy. It was yummy though and the puddings were great, it was amazing that everyone managed their puddings after having to leave some of their mains because they were full.......
Alisha's sixth birthday fell whilst we were in France so we took her and Kaylee into town to choose cakes from the patisserie to have at tea time and had a run around town with them. We had lunch and them walked down to the park gardens where there are lots of really big trees planted when the village was just becoming known as a retreat for Parisian aristocrats 'taking the waters' of the thermal spas.
The whole town is very much still reminiscent of that era with the decorated houses etc if it is a little run down.
We learned when we were at lunch that there are still quite a few brown bears roaming the Pyrenees around Luchon and the girls felt very relieved that we hadn't run into any of them whilst we were skiing!
Alisha was delighted with all the phone calls and texts we got for her birthday it made her feel very special, and we surprised her with balloons streamers and hats for her 'party' at tea time. We had bought 5 small cakes from the patisserie but they were so rich they proved too much for us, amazing but true!
Alisha's birthday tea!
Alisha's fourth tooth came out whilst in France and she managed to get a hold of it before she swallowed it so that is two she has had to put under her pillow now, I certainly wasn't searching for the other two!
All too soon came leaving day which meant that we had to get the apartment all cleaned up before we left at 10am so it was a rushed morning with everyone getting in everyones' way as you would expect, and then another big squish to get back into the car. The forecast was for snow so we took the bigger road back to the Spanish border and once we were through to the other side of the mountains the sun was shining the whole way back.
It was fine to be back at the boat and it was 16 degrees which was like an oven compared to France. Alisha was especially delighted as the deck of the boat had lots of parcels lying on it all for her birthday sent from home so she would like to say a huge thank you to all of you who sent her presents!
The visitors only had a couple of days left so Daniel did some more sightseeing and Pop and Granny went for little walks around here and prepared for leaving again.
I am glad to say that Daniel's guitar playing has improved vastly since his death rock band days when he and his friends used to vibrate the house so much with their 'music' things were falling off the shelves upstairs!
Elevenses on deck at the end of Jan.....
The lasses showing off their rollerblading skills to Granny and Pop.
We went out for lunch at the same place Ali and I had been on New Years Eve on their last day but alas they didn't give us whole bottles of wine with our meal that time!
On the way home we went to the 'musical play park' at Park del Forum again and everyone had a shot of the toys.....
We all went early to bed on the last night as they had to leave the boat at three am to catch their flight home and needed some rest.
The lasses were very sad when they woke up the next day and Pop Granny and Daniel were gone.
I can't seem to upload a video to this so I will try later with a new post so you can see the some of the skiing etc.
And as one last note, there is actually snow lying on the deck of the boat as I write this and we can hardly believe it! There have been strong winds tonight and thunder, now the swell has set up in the harbour and we are bobbing around all over the place. Sunny Spain indeed!
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