Christmas '07 Courchevel

We dreamt of a White Christmas and all our dreams (and Christmas') came at once when we arrived to deep, white cover at Courchevel last week!

19 of Pete's relatives stayed together in Chalet Elan at Courchevel 1850 - Pete, Sarah, John, Clare, Humphrey, Sam, Hatty, Tabitha, Penny, Pete, Sam, Daisy, Dash, Oskar, Inda, Wilk, Becky, Clara and Lucy!

The village was well decorated with lots of pretty lights, carousels... and Santa was there too.

The weather was spectacular all week; no fresh snow but we had plenty of cover and the sun was beautiful.

...here's Sarah, Oskar, Becky, Dash and Pete B riding one of the last lifts of the day (nb: I think we managed to get last lifts every day - skiing down at sunset was awesome and we got to know the Ski Patrol quite well!).

The vistas were spectacular - this is a shot from the top of Courchevel, towards Meribel.

Daisy, Becky, Hatty, Hump, Sam, Dash and Pete at sunset...

Pete testing out the quality of the piste... it was goooooood!

On Wednesday the chalet staff had a night off, so we went out for fondue - yum!!! We had a big table down stairs at La Fromagerie.... from left to right, Clare, John, Daisy, Hatty, Dash, Sam, Pete B, Pete S, Sam, Oskar, Wilk and Becky.

Sarah loved the skiing so much that she couldn't stop smiling!

Hump and Pete playing with the TomTom - they had a GPS map that plotted all the runs and helped you navigate the mountain.

...John liked the piste too - never letting those kids get away and giving us all a gentle reminder of the benefits of a bit of experience...

Sarah and Pete at the top of Cime De Caron (3200m) - it was COLD!!

John and Sarah at Cime De Caron (with a view in the other direction)

Hump and Wilk just after lunch at the top of Chenus

Hump, Hatty and Daisy at lunch (with Oskar in the background)

Pete and Becky...

Sarah, Pete, John and Clare...

One day we had to rush back to our last lift and bribe the lifty to let us on after it had closed... we filled the 8 seater - John, Dash, Hump, Sarah, Sam, Pete, Oskar and Pete.

John enjoying the sunset (with Sarah and Pete in the background).

Pete and Clare at a the top of Saulire.

Oskar, Clare, Pete, John and Dash at the top of the Cime De Caron cable car (3200m)... the air was much thinner up there!

...and this is where the cable car came from - you can just make out the bottom station in the middle of the photo.

John, Pete and Wilk surveying the next fall line...

No week at the Three Valleys would be complete without attempting the Three Valleys Challenge (Les Trois Vallees Escapade!), which involves skiing the full extent of the Three Valleys (one of the biggest ski resorts in the world) in one day... The two of us completed the challenge on Thursday, equiped with a GPS tracking device to map our progress throughout the day - below is the image of our track (in red), with some key stats at the bottom (Total Distance 81.17km, Total Vertical 13,164m, Average Speed 32km/h, Top Speed 120km/hr).

What an amazing week - and a great start to the season... next stop St Anton (Austria) in February!!

Berlin

So we managed to squeeze in a long weekend in Berlin before we head to Courchevel for skiing over Christmas next week (sorry, couldn't help mentioning that (yes you heard right) WE'RE SKIING IN COURCHEVEL FOR CHRISTMAS!!!)...

Anyway, back to Berlin...

We went to Berlin with some of our Londoner (read "Aussie") friends and had a great three days getting to know what we could of it's amazingly colourful history.


We visited the Jewish memorial just south of the Brandenburg Gate - it was an amazing array of concrete blocks set on a big empty block, which created a really surreal effect.

We had a look at what remained of the infamous Berlin Wall. There are only a few sections still standing. This section was protected by a metal fence to stop wall pickers from stealing pieces of the wall.

This is a photo of the girls just before we went into the Christmas markets. It was more than just history on this trip - there was lots of eating and drinking to be had at the Christmas Markets. We went to the Gendarmenmarkt, which is situated between two identical churches right in the middle of the city. The food, gluhwein and decorations were amazing.

...Sarah loved the shopping.

On day 2 we went to visit a concentration camp about 1hr north of Berlin. It is called Sachenhausen and was one of the first camps to be built. We spent the day out there and had a fantastic guide who taught us all about the history of that period. It was quite a melancholy contrast to our Christmassy day before but we learnt a lot and encourage you all to visit a camp for the experience if you should have the opportunity.

Below is a picture of the memorial at the camp (it didn't seem appropriate to take photos of much else we saw there).

On the way back from the camp, we walked down Unter der Linden, the main street of Berlin (like the Champs Elysee) - the lights were awesome and brought us back into the world of Christmas cheer!

...and the Brandenburg Gate looking very impressive at night!

The queue to climb the Reichstag Dome is usually very long but it was comfortably short on that Sunday evening, so we made our way to the top. Its a cool structure - really modern against the backdrop of the rest of the old Reichstag building (nb: The Reichstag is the German Parliament).

We did a lap of the parapet after the dome and took this photo of the steam rising from one of the turrets.

On Monday, we walked through the park (Tiergarten)...

...to the Christmas Markets just south of the Zoo. These markets were much bigger than the previous markets (although maybe not as refined). Again we had more gluhwein, more bratwurst and more sauerkraut!!

After all that eating, we went to KaDeWe - the biggest of it's kind in Continental Europe. Sarah found a White Santa to ask for a few treats... ...Pete had a chat to him afterwards to set the record straight!

We had a very good time in Berlin. There is so much to see and so much more to learn about this city - one trip is never going to be enough. But I guess with the rest of Europe still to see, Berlin can wait another few years before we return - and by then, no doubt, it will have changed yet again!

Ireland - Ring of Kerry

Two weeks ago (yes the blog is behind but it's catching up!), we spent the weekend in Ireland - Dingle, Ring of Kerry, Killarney & Cork. We had a great time but the weather was, well ... Irish!

This is the Irish version of Palm Beach, a small penisula called Inch. It doesn't necessarily look very inviting right now but we would love to go back there in Summer.

No trip to Ireland would be complete without a Guiness... mmm.

On our way around the Dingle peninsular we stopped at an old fort that was built in the iron age - that's pretty old! The weather in this case making for a very dramatic setting.

We found some beautiful beaches. It was so nice to be on the coast again; a bit too cold for swimming, but it made us feel at home.

The coast line all the way around the peninsular was quite amazing, with steep cliffs and winding roads, and what appeared to be the occassional sign from the heavens...

We found a lake on our way back through to Killarney - it radiated an amazing blue (no Photoshop here - I promise!)

Another fort, this time in Kinsale (south of Cork) and slightly 'newer' than the one near Dingle...

The weather wasn't perfect and we could have done with a bit more time on the ground but we had lots of fun in Ireland (County Kerry and County Cork) and would like to get back there again.

...stay tuned for Christmas Markets in Berlin...