Ski Trip 2009 - Tignes and The Espace Killy

Here are some of our photos from this year's ski trip to Tignes and the Espace Killy. Given that I'd run out of annual leave, we had to wait for April until we could take some time off, which meant warm days, great (but variable) snow, and quiet slopes. All in all a recipe for success!

After a white-knuckle drive to the airport first thing in the morning (we were the last to check-in) we had a smoother, more uneventful flight to Chambery, and transfer up to the mountains. You can see the weather that greeted us above. Thankfully we arrived to plenty of snow, however as it was early afternoon we decided to take it easy and save the boots for the next morning.

The view over the lake to Tignes Le Lac.

'Trolles' - the black run we would later conquer coming back down into Tignes. The photos doesn't really capture the steepness of the slope. At the top of the slope it looks like you're looking nearly vertically to Tignes. A little nerve-racking the first time!

To our surprise we got several snow showers in the first few days. This meant that we were lucky enough to be skiing powder on the piste for a day or two.

The photo above is looking over the beginning of Val D'Isere, after our arduous decent down the Santons run, which, in these conditions, was basically a valley of knee high slushy moguls. Like skiing through a slurpy. Oh, we also had a close shave with a small (and I repeat small, mum) avalanche, which slithered across the piste about five metres behind where I was catching my breath. Needless to say the piste was shortly closed thereafter!

We really enjoyed the chalet we stayed in. Surprisingly everyone was really nice and got along really well. Above is me after big night on the wine....not feeling that great!

Looking up to the Tignes glacier. The highest point in the area, with some great red runs with some of the best snow in the resort.

Piste H - a tribute to Harry (and Henry of course!)

Me at the bottom of the Face, the olympic black run down to Val D'Isere. Bloody tiring in that snow.

Above, the infamous Folle Deuce - dancing on the tabletops was a requisite, doing it naked was optional!

'Elsewhere'.....the view from our chalet in Les Carroz. The view from the hot tub I should say!

My little snow bunny!

There she goes!

Tartiflette -oh yeah...

Outside our room...

The views over to Mont Blanc were spectacular.

Coming down the monumental Cascades run - 14km in total, one of the longest in Europe. It took us over an hour to finish!

Chalet Calluna....ahhhhhh.

The Chalet Calluna...

Aubin and Jackie, our lovely hosts - nothing was too much trouble for them - the food was especially good.

Henry the movie

Fiona's Birthday

Here are some photos from my Birthday weekend and Easter. After a leisurely sleep-in on Good Friday and a chat with the folks back home, Shannon suprised me with a horse riding lesson in Richmond Park. Shannon was keen to join me, but unfortunately they said he was too heavy for the horses (all muscle of course!) so he had to watch from the sidelines. The weather was a bit drizzly, but it didn't matter and in fact it was quite nice, as the park was very quiet and peaceful. I rode a lovely big horse called 'Mrs T' who took very good care of me. My instructor taught me how to trot and rise in the saddle, and we had a lovely time trotting around Richmond Park, past the deer and through the meadows and woods.

Yes, the helmet is pretty cool, but apparently Madonna wore the same one when she went horse riding in Richmond Park!

My birthday present from my lovely husband...

My present from the Smiths was a night out to go and see Billy Elliot. It was just fantastic and made me want to put my tap shoes back on.

I worked on Easter Saturday, but it was pretty uneventful. On Easter Sunday we went for a walk through Wimbledon Common and made our way over to the Wimbledon Village for lunch. We didn't see any Wombles but we did see a couple of Easter Bunnies. The Common is just lovely, there's acres of woodland and walking tracks to explore, it's amazing to think it's all right there in the middle of West London

On Sunday evening, Shannon took me out for dinner to Le Pont de la Tour, which is a lovely french restaurant on the Thames near Tower Bridge. We had a lovely meal and a nice bottle of Burgundy. We stopped at the 'Anchor Tap' for a pint first, which is Shannon's local pub close to his work. They serve very good beer at bargain basement prices, which is a rare thing in the middle of London. Shannon reckons you can get 3 pints for under a fiver. The beer was very good indeed!

La Tour at night...

Thank you everyone for your birthday wishes! Now, only 10 sleeps to go......

6 weeks

Stockholm

Back in February, after getting homesick after our trip home, we decided to make the most of our return with a weekend trip to Stockholm. While we were there, we caught up with one of my best friends from Queensland, John Lock, and his girlfriend Steph.

Because we were departing early on the Saturday morning from Stansted, we decided to stop for a night at the airport hotel. The photo above shows the bar in the main lobby. They keep all the wine in this tower, and when someone wants a bottle, they send up these girls cartwheeling up via a series of ropes, pulleys and the like.

Our hotel room in Stockholm.

It was a cold and misty day so, as usual, we found a nice little place for a spot of lunch. This is Backfickan - "The Hip Pocket", a tiny little counter eatery attched to the opera house. They specialised in beautiful, traditional local dishes such as pickled herring, and Swedish meatballs.

It was obviously pretty cold.

The orange building on the right make a mean hot chocolate!

That evening, we met up with John and Steph in the Belgian restaurant below our hotel. It was a great night - really enjoyed catching up with them and hearing about their time in Stockholm.

We caught up with them again the next day and had the royal tour of Stockholm.

The band back together...

The Vassar, a massive 17th century warship that while looking extremely impressive, was actually pretty rubbish once you put it in the water. It sank a few minutes after it first launched.