Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: Our Avoriaz and Verbier Ski Holiday

We made it back safe and sound from our French/Swiss Alps ski holiday adventure! The scenery was amazing, the food delicious and the company - well, I may be a bit biased, but Dave's a pretty fun travel buddy and ski partner! =)
As funny as this may sound, we were a bit excited to try out the UK public transportation system in getting us to the Birmingham Airport. So, we walked out of our front door, to our bus stop, bus stop to the bus station in downtown Derby, walked about a half mile to the Derby train station, grabbed a coffee and mocha and jumped on the train to Birmingham New Street, from Birmingham New Street we switched trains to go to the Airport. Whew! And we were there!

Dave on the train, getting ready to take a picture of the British countryside


British countryside from the train

Once there, we checked in, picked up our Swiss Francs and Euro's and grabbed some food - oh Burger King, how I haven't missed you! Haha! Believe it or not, it was the only decent choice!

View of the Alps from the plane!

Our flight from Birmingham to Geneva was about an hour an twenty minutes - short and sweet! Our one checked bag thankfully made it and we were off to find our Hotel Les Rhodos transfer driver. Thankfully a lot of Brits work seasonally in Geneva and in Morzine for the resorts, making communication easy! Although, I must say, I picked up, "Bonjour, parlez-vous Anglais?" very quickly!

Our transfer from the Geneva Airport to Morzine (France) only took a little over an hour. Once in Morzine, we stopped off at the Ski rental place to get fitted for our ski's and snowboard gear. And we were all set! Except for the fact that it was 7:00pm, and the slopes close at 4:30pm. So, we settled in for the night in our teeny, tiny room!

We were up bright and early and had some breakfast. Then, headed to the slopes of Avoriaz!

The Avoriaz gondola

Did I mention that I am terrified of heights?!


View from the gondola on the way up the mountain!

Once we reached Avoriaz, we took some pictures and geared up to ski right back down!

This was our first run on the piste - not as friendly as it looks! Me, just happy we made it to the top!

After a few runs, we stopped to check out where we wanted to go next - aka - find a "greener" piste for me! On a side note, I haven't skied since we went to Montana in 2008, so I think I deserve a little leeway here!

Beer and map time! View from our table!

After a few more runs, it was time for a snack! Among the resorts, there were a cluster of restaurants to choose from. This is a picture of us outside the Brasserie. We had an order of frites!

(This isn't even half of our pics, or adventure, but I wanted to update you all with something. More coming soon!)

A few fun stops along the way

Happy Wednesday everyone! Today, I decided to venture out and tour a bit of my newly adopted hometown! I also may have been in need of a haberdashery for a hem repair for one of Dave's suit pants, but who's counting, really?! Anyway, thought I'd show you all a bit of the neighborhood as well as our lovely bus stop!

Here is a sign that is all over town - so watch out!!!!! They may be coming to a neighborhood near you! Ironically enough, the elderly do get around pretty well and walk everywhere! I'm quite impressed to see them out and about - more so in the elements! You don't see that in Indy!

Next is a photo of our bus stop! It's the East Avenue Stop and we take either the Red line or the Blue line. The cost to the City Centre from here is £1.70 for a one way, so not too bad!

The next shot is of our neighborhood pub - The Great Northern Pub! It's great as they serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and although a pub, I would not classify their food as "pub food!" We enjoy going every now and then to visit with the locals.

Next is on my walk to Tesco (grocery), which is also my running path - I try to do 4 miles, four days a week through the Mickleover neighborhood. Anyway, thought I'd show you a snip-it!

It's a really pretty run and quite hilly - although you can't tell on this particular picture!

After venturing to town and finding a haberdashery - I explored a bit and upon returning home, captured an amazing picture of the moon at dusk (by the way, it was 4:30 when I snapped this pic)!

Beautiful!

It's been too long!

Dear fellow blog readers,

I must apologize for being so delinquent in writing - we've been a little busy traveling! Before we made the big move, Dave and I decided we would not be making a journey home for the Christmas season and would instead go to Egypt for a winter vacation. We had scoped out and gotten quotes for a few hotels and travel packages and had told our parents all the details...Although a last minute decision, we decided we'd much rather go home for Christmas and be with the ones we love so much. So, we secretly planned our trip home!

I have to say, the surprise is probably one of the best I've ever planned/witnessed! It was priceless!

The day started early - 3:30am England time and I don't think I slept a wink either because of excitement or fear of oversleeping - or maybe a little bit of both. We got up, showered, ate some left over pizza and loaded up the car. I have to pause here to once again pat myself on the back for getting us packed and ready the night before - our bags waited for us by the front door ready to go! We were ready for our two hour journey to Heathrow Airport. Although the snow had just melted in our village of Mickleover, London was a completely different story! As we progressed south, more and more snow appeared and I began to worry if A) we would make it to the airport on time and B) if our flight would take off on time! Once we got to the airport - we searched the signs for the car hire return. Not to brag, but we had never had to drive ourselves to Heathrow - we always had a driver, so navigating Heathrow's busy airport at 5:30 on a busy Saturday morning was more than overwhelming! All of the airport signs had a thick layer of snow covering them up - no doubt from the snow trucks rushing by to clear the freshly fallen snow. Anyway, once we found the car hire return, we waited for the bus to transport us to Terminal 3. We managed to squeeze onto the bus and made it to the Air Canada gate to check in. Once again, Dave was on the "no-fly" list and they had to call Toronto to verify he was indeed, not THE David Anderson on the list. Among other things, this process was holding us up and we were beginning to wonder if we even had enough time to catch our flight! Once we were clear - we rushed through security - I'm pretty sure I would have stripped down to my undies if they'd asked as long as we made this flight!

Anyway, we made it on the flight and all was well. I was very satisfied with Air Canada's service and staff. I didn't have to ask for a whole can of diet coke - they just gave it to me!

Fast-forward 8.5 hours later and we landed in Toronto! Much to our excitement, the captain came over the loud speakers to say that we were THE last plane to leave Heathrow before they shut the airport down! WOOOHOO!! People actually started clapping (I may or may not have been one of them)! However, my attention was quickly turned onto our next problem: we had to A) clear Canadian Customs and B) make our connecting flight. I wouldn't have been so worried, but having only about 3 Customs workers and a plane-full of passengers needing to get through did not make for a good time! Not gonna lie, I started sweating. The girl in front of us heard Dave and I bantering back and forth if we should tell one of the Customs workers that our flight had already started boarding and she offered to give us her spot. We thanked her but declined, hoping and praying this line would move faster!!!!

Once we got up to our Canadian Customs person, she asked us if we were going home for the holidays, etc., etc. - the usual stuff - and I swear Dave turned into a robot! She would no sooner get the question out, and Dave would answer her! I think she could tell we were in a hurry, but held us up long enough to say that she felt "somewhat attacked" by Dave's responses. We looked at each other like - ??????? And were glad to move on. We grabbed our suitcases and threw them up on the conveyor belt, went through security and ran to our gate. Just made it and......found out the flight was delayed! While relieved at this point, I didn't care anymore! Enough with the delays - I just wanted to go HOME!!!!

Thank goodness the flight was short and sweet! We landed in Indy and it felt different - the same, but different in a way. Needless to say, it felt good to be HOME! After talking with Amy to see if my parents were home - she and her husband left the Butler game in enough time to distract them before their holiday party so we could make our surprise entrance. We thankfully had all of our luggage and got our rental car. It took no time to get to the North side of Indy and we were about two minutes away. I was getting nervous! I couldn't wait to see everyone's faces! After all - we were in "Egypt!"

I rang the door bell and I could hear my parents' dogs barking. Then, my little sister, Carolyn came to the door and was unlocking it - she peered through the window and we could hear her say, "it's David!!" Upon opening the door, she noticed me and just said, "Oh my gosh!!!!" Once we got inside, my parents yelled from upstairs what was going on, and quickly came down the stairs, saw us and started crying!

Everyone was so shocked! It was, as the Brits say, "brilliant!" After catching up for a bit and more hugs and kisses, my parents needed to leave for their party. We said our, "see you tomorrow's" and were on our way to our next stop - Gary and Vickie's!!

We were cruising up Keystone and my heart was fluttering with excitement and anticipation! We quickly made it up the driveway - although stealthily enough to go undetected. As we rang the doorbell, we could hear Gary through the door say to Vickie, "Are we expecting someone?" Dave stuck his head in the front door window and as Gary opened the door, all I remember hearing him say was, "Oh shit!" Then we hugged - pretty sure I saw a tear or two on Gary's cheek - and ran to find Vickie - who was making dinner in the kitchen. We turned the corner and Dave said in the most nonchalant way possible, "So, what's for dinner?" To which Vickie, who was rendered speechless and overcome with emotion, stared at us! Once it registered it was us and were were here - HOME - she began to cry!

BEST....SURPRISE....EVER!!!!!