The flight from Auckland to London via Hong Kong (for 2 hours) was as good as can be expected considering it was cattle class for 24 hours. Rowan got through most of the crappy girly movies that Nic will never now be forced to see (Sex and the City, Enchanted, Twilight, Australia, High School Musical 3). Nic slept.
Smooth journey to hostel apart from the 4 flights of stairs with all our gear when we got there. Did a lot walking round London seeing the usual stuff (see pictures). Had our first meal and cultural experience in a very old (1600s) pub courtesy of Garth and Emily. Visited Victoria and Albert and Natural History museum (not quite as good as when I was a child). Found several paintings we would like to hang (prints of at least) in our house in the National Gallery.
Flew to Geneva Sunday morning which turned out to be quite a highlight. On boarding there were several (at least 4) policemen at the entrance to the plane. Didn't think that much of it having been forced to remove shoes at airport security. As we were at the back of this economy British airways flight we were almost the last off except for a group of 5 people still seated further up the plane who we both glanced at as we walked off. Both of us and the other commoners ahead of us in the aisle were slightly dumbfounded to see Prince William sitting there (think his girlfriend was also there but only really noticed him). Poor guy is already balding and looked slightly exasperated at me doing a double take. According to the Daily mail which I had just been reading he is going to the slightly posher resort of Klosters.
Chamonix is amazing. Huge mountains that look unskiable with their steepness. Club Med is a cultural experience in itself. French style dancing in the evenings with the staff puttting on shows. We are the most linguistically challenged people around. Yet to meet anyone here who doesn't speak at least 3 languages – actually the French toddlers maybe at our linguistic level. Bit embarrassing especially when French (with a bit of English) guy from the Cameroons thinks that we are from Zealand in Holland and can't understand why we only speak English (eventually got the message through).
Skiing is amazing. Nic's leg works which is a good start (the compound tib-fib fracture was only 7 months ago)! There are so many gondolas and lifts, no queues and the slopes are amazing with views to Mont Blanc (highest mountain in Europe). And we have only been on one of the ski areas in Chamonix so far out of 4! True spring skiing – blue sky, very warm and slightly slushy in the afternoon. No wind. Skiing beats celebrity sitings hands down. Our group is an international mix of an ex-Russian (now American for 20 years) physician, a lovely French couple who are very patient and supportive of my attempts at Francais, 79 yr old French man who I was trying to help up after he crashed (not badly) but could not understand, a 20 yr old Israeli woman (who is the best bet for translating) and a German couple who are the other English speakers and good to chat too. Christoph our guide/instructor sometimes translates instructions but seems very nice and really there is not much to say but “follow me” which is usually pretty obvious.
Anyway the other point on Club Med is the food. Watch out for ever expanding photos of us as there is a buffet breakfast and dinner, bar all inclusive, 3 course lunch on the slopes with wine (improves skiing technique) and pre dinner crepes. We are telling ourselves that if we eat now then hopefully we will not have to buy food for the next 3 weeks in Italy.
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