Remind me to travel from Luton again. 20 minutes up the road, loads of shops and no way near as busy as Heathrow or Gatwick. In usual fashion we over estimated the time to get there and were sitting in the terminal with three hours to go… Breakfast was nice and there was plenty to do so not all bad.
Barcelona was also unbelievable quick. We were landed and out at the bus stops in around half an hour. I feel a city break coming on.
The only downer with Andorra is the transfer time. With traffic and a delay at the border it was about four hours. The views are spectacular which does offset it a little.
I was a little skeptical about our hotel being a five star as we did get it cheap! It is really good though. There are lots of lounge type areas with an open fire and as we discovered last night, a games room with a pool table and a vintage table football which provided great entertainment as Callan and I edged our Harrison and Amy to a 5-4 win.
The first days skiing was off to a slow start. We walked up to the Gondola to get our lift passes and realised we’d booked 4 adults. The next hour or two was spent trying and failing to get a refund (we’ll try again when we get home). Amy sorted the boys out with skis from a hire shop while I engaged the entire reception staff in speaking to the Grandvilira team.
Then we hit the slopes. Love skiing. Canillo to El Tarter was a breeze with a couple of nice runs on this side of the mountain. It took us a little while to shake off our ski legs although Harrison took that as an insult to his supreme skill 🙂 The weather and snow conditions were great. Bright sun shine but cold enough for snow to remain snow. We made our way to the top of the mountain and glided the 4 or so miles of Gall de Bosc. That was enough for us all to regain our confidence and we were off.
Callan is really competent this year. A little less kamikaze than previous years but with much more stamina. Harrison is parallel turning nicely and now wants to test his skills and push the distance he can ski. Amy was straight back into it. Her confidence returning quickly and she skied much longer than even she expected before tiredness kicked in.
We had a brief stop for coffee and cake in the mountains and then skied deep into the afternoon. It was nearly 5pm when we made a weary way back to the Gondola to head back to the hotel. This was the point that tired legs led to a few tumbles.
Harrison managed to roll into a snow drift with a fair portion ending up down his jacket and up his sleeves, much to his distress. Callan managed to lose a little control and skim a crash netting. This somehow pulled his pole from his hand with his glove still attached and left it swinging on the net. In the meantime he ended up on his back in deep snow. As I removed my skis to go and untangle him I sunk to thigh deep. With some concerted wading and a hand clung to the net I managed to extract him and send him back on his way.
It was a really good day. Cobwebs have been blown away and as I said before.. I love skiing (and so does everyone else).
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