The weekend of Thursday 25th to Monday 29th March saw Tim and I make our now annual visit to a friend in Geneva for a spot of skiing. This year Steve was our host, and a very good host he was. Arriving on Thursday evening, Tim and I realised our frequent mistake of arriving in Geneva with no map or directions to our destination. Having done this twice before you would have thought that we would have learnt by now…. maybe next year…? Once we had finally found our way to Steve’s apartment we were treated to a rooftop barbecue before heading to a local bar for a beer or two.
Steve had to work on Friday, so Tim and I took the ski-bus to La Clusaz for the day. Last year we hired cars in order to get to the ski resorts so were a bit unsure about taking the ski-bus. Having done it for this weekend, I would not hesitate in taking one again, as it means you have time to sleep on the way to, and more importantly the way back from, the ski resorts. Friday morning treated us to heavy snow showers, leading to poor visibility on the slopes.
Can you spot Tim?
During the afternoon the skies started to clear and we enjoyed skiing in the sunshine – our only sunshine of the weekend!
Blue sky on Friday afternoon
On Saturday we took the ski-bus to La Clusaz again, although this time we were accompanied by Steve and Anneleen this time. Again we had snow showers on the slopes, although today they didn’t stop. I did, however, have my first lunch on a ski-slope. One thing I am not too sure about is the drinking at lunchtime before spending all afternoon skiing – or maybe it was just the amount we consumed that was the problem? Within 30 metres of leaving the restaurant after lunch, Steve stopped and turned back up-slope only to see a rather large bright orange object (aka me) flying through the air towards him – rather like a flying torpedo. Fortunately for Steve I landed only a foot away from taking him out. The first I knew that I was flying towards Steve was when I heard him shout in surprise as he spotted me!
On Saturday evening we headed out for ‘Gambas a-go-go’, which is basically all you can eat king prawns! Very nice but expensive at the same time.
On Sunday we decided to head to Flaine. Before heading to bed on Saturday night we remembered about the clocks going forward overnight and so set our alarms accordingly. Isabell, however, did not. We ended up having to distract the ski-bus driver for nine minutes as Isabell rushed across Geneva in order to join us for the day! Fortunately the driver insisted on giving everyone a speech on not eating on his bus as he did not want to have to clean it and Isabell made it just in time. Again we had more snow fall during the day but this ensured that we had good snow conditions – we were just unable to to see the undulations in the terrain again.
Due to having issues with my boots on Friday, and again today, I ended up sitting out for a couple of runs. Rather than just sit and wait, I sit with a beer and took a few photos!
On Sunday evening we met up with Nick, who we stayed with on our trip last year, and headed to a Fondue restaurant by the lake.
My skis in Flaine
The beer I enjoyed whilst the others went for another run
On Monday Tim and I enjoyed a cultural day around Geneva, visiting the Jet d’eau (a 140 metre tall jet of water pumping 500 litres of water per second!) and a selection of chocolate shops before heading to the airport to catch our flight back to the UK. I learnt that if you stand only a few metres from the base of the fountain then you get very wet!
Jet d’eau de Geneve
Me standing too close to the Jet d’eau de Geneve
More photos are available at http://photos.andywicks.com/SkiingMarch2010.