And it’s Zero Dark 30 yet again
Once again The Walters family (And Alex) found themselves rising at an ungodly hour in order to get to the airport for the annual Skiing trip. We had travelled down the evening before to the Travelodge at Birmingham airport and parked in Car Park 7. I can highly recommend this. I got a special offer on the rooms at the Travelodge of £26 (TWENTY SIX POUNDS PER ROOM!) and Car park 7 costs only £28 per car in contrast to Car park 1 (well known to Alex) which was around £70 per car. The nice lady at reception told us that the bus runs every 30mins, quarter to And quarter past the hour. We had decided to get the 3.45am bus (I know), so the alarm was set for 3am. And we were tired, oh how we were tired. We had had a hard day.
24hrs earlier.
On 1st Feb 2019 snow came to England. Not up North where men are men and we can cope, but down South where the softies live. I texted Vicky to see if she had any. "I’m snowed in" was the reply. "And Alex is working from home". The problem being that Vicky was collecting Alex from Chippenham And meeting us at the airport. Kathy and I were busy trying to relax at the hairdressers, but the southerners were getting more worried. At 11am Vicky was sent home from work.
She struggled though the snow back to her flat and, dragging her case behind her (why?!), ploughed on down the hill (hold that thought) to her car. One dustpan And brush treatment later she was out of the car park and away up the hill. The hill had other ideas. She got stuck half way up and went into panic mode. She phoned me Putting me and Kath in panic mode, and I tried to calm her with suggestions of reversing or phoning Alex dad. I then told her to phone ian, who tried to calm her by shouting at her. Luckily some lovely men came along in a Land Rover And freed her by talking her through a reverse down THE HILL. It was akin to the fellowship of the ring being defeated by Caradhras. She managed to get to Chippenham and pick Alex up. (Alex having struggled to Brizzle station to get the train home) before putting Car park 7 into the sat nav. Unfortunately The sat nav led them to Car Park 1 And a never ending rotisserie of roundabouts. More stress. Eventually they escaped and found Car Park 7, arriving at exactly the same time as us.
So sat 2nd of Feb found us totally unrefreshed catching the 3.50 (it was late) bus to the airport. We usually go with Crystal, where every plane queues up at the same check in desk and carnage occurs. Your flight draws ever closer and you keep getting more and more frustrated until (about 10 mins before departure) a woman shouts "Grenoble!" and you have to charge to a separate queue and check in before hurtling to your gate. That would have been the last straw for Vicky. This year Ian had chosen Neilsson, who use Thomas Cook planes. We strolled into the short queue where a nice lady ticked us off a list. We relaxidly checked in and deposited the skis at a close by large item desk. Sailed through security with no searches (other than Chris’s left ankle) and still had time for a Costa breakfast (or two in Ian’s case). I had bought Kathy some rescue remedy drops to try, so she greedily gobbled down several drops over the limit. We strolled to the gate and boarded. The flight was on time, smooth, and very short. Kathy was only slightly freaked out by a large cloud. We queued a while in passport control in Grenoble before collecting all our cases and skis and boarding a bus for Les Deux Alpes
It was a lovely, if slightly scary, route, up through the mountains, and at about 12.30 we were checking into the Hotel Aalborg, a Neilsson own brand Hotel. We are at ground level with a little balcony and can look out over the slopes to see the button lift and the fallen. It’s lovely. Much better than our usual ski hotel. It even has nice toiletries. No Bathrobe And slippers though. One day. We parked our bags and dashed up to the pretty bar for som lunch. Afterward a nice young man fetched round platters of cake, tarts and cookies, all freshly baked. Time for a bath and a nap. Lovely bath, lovely nap.
Time for a welcome meeting wher about sixty staff introduced themselves and told us what they did. The expert skiers booked into a special Neilsson Mountain Experts Session with the rep on Monday afternoon. Vicky and I found out about a glacier viewpoint and ice caves we’d love to visit. We booked in for tea at 8pm every night, due to afternoon tea being at four. Then the guys and Vicky settled down to watch rugby and I started this blog.
.
24hrs earlier.
On 1st Feb 2019 snow came to England. Not up North where men are men and we can cope, but down South where the softies live. I texted Vicky to see if she had any. "I’m snowed in" was the reply. "And Alex is working from home". The problem being that Vicky was collecting Alex from Chippenham And meeting us at the airport. Kathy and I were busy trying to relax at the hairdressers, but the southerners were getting more worried. At 11am Vicky was sent home from work.
She struggled though the snow back to her flat and, dragging her case behind her (why?!), ploughed on down the hill (hold that thought) to her car. One dustpan And brush treatment later she was out of the car park and away up the hill. The hill had other ideas. She got stuck half way up and went into panic mode. She phoned me Putting me and Kath in panic mode, and I tried to calm her with suggestions of reversing or phoning Alex dad. I then told her to phone ian, who tried to calm her by shouting at her. Luckily some lovely men came along in a Land Rover And freed her by talking her through a reverse down THE HILL. It was akin to the fellowship of the ring being defeated by Caradhras. She managed to get to Chippenham and pick Alex up. (Alex having struggled to Brizzle station to get the train home) before putting Car park 7 into the sat nav. Unfortunately The sat nav led them to Car Park 1 And a never ending rotisserie of roundabouts. More stress. Eventually they escaped and found Car Park 7, arriving at exactly the same time as us.
So sat 2nd of Feb found us totally unrefreshed catching the 3.50 (it was late) bus to the airport. We usually go with Crystal, where every plane queues up at the same check in desk and carnage occurs. Your flight draws ever closer and you keep getting more and more frustrated until (about 10 mins before departure) a woman shouts "Grenoble!" and you have to charge to a separate queue and check in before hurtling to your gate. That would have been the last straw for Vicky. This year Ian had chosen Neilsson, who use Thomas Cook planes. We strolled into the short queue where a nice lady ticked us off a list. We relaxidly checked in and deposited the skis at a close by large item desk. Sailed through security with no searches (other than Chris’s left ankle) and still had time for a Costa breakfast (or two in Ian’s case). I had bought Kathy some rescue remedy drops to try, so she greedily gobbled down several drops over the limit. We strolled to the gate and boarded. The flight was on time, smooth, and very short. Kathy was only slightly freaked out by a large cloud. We queued a while in passport control in Grenoble before collecting all our cases and skis and boarding a bus for Les Deux Alpes
It was a lovely, if slightly scary, route, up through the mountains, and at about 12.30 we were checking into the Hotel Aalborg, a Neilsson own brand Hotel. We are at ground level with a little balcony and can look out over the slopes to see the button lift and the fallen. It’s lovely. Much better than our usual ski hotel. It even has nice toiletries. No Bathrobe And slippers though. One day. We parked our bags and dashed up to the pretty bar for som lunch. Afterward a nice young man fetched round platters of cake, tarts and cookies, all freshly baked. Time for a bath and a nap. Lovely bath, lovely nap.
Time for a welcome meeting wher about sixty staff introduced themselves and told us what they did. The expert skiers booked into a special Neilsson Mountain Experts Session with the rep on Monday afternoon. Vicky and I found out about a glacier viewpoint and ice caves we’d love to visit. We booked in for tea at 8pm every night, due to afternoon tea being at four. Then the guys and Vicky settled down to watch rugby and I started this blog.
.
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