So I have been back a little over a week now and not written about this, but I finally managed to get a ski holiday in this season, and I got to do it somewhere complete new, Andorra! It was pretty exciting as a ski holiday had already been put off at least twice since dec and it was looking more and more likely that nothing was going to come of this plan either.
The main issue’s have been:-
a.)trying to find other people to go with. I went last year on a mystery holiday with people I have never met before, and I did have a good time (till I broke my rib), but you can’t beet going away with actual friends, especially if you have moved to another country and you don’t get to see them any more!
b.)being in another country means you can’t do the same package holidays as people from the UK, you can normally book a person as self travel, then you need to book your own flights (not to difficult) then your own transfers (or try and sneak on the transfer bus). This got particularly difficult when my friends found a good deal but I couldn’t find a room at a good price, plus would have to had used public transport to do a 3-4hr journey!
c.)and of course the normal problems you get with booking ski holidays…. do you wait for a good deal, do you wait for snow reports, which bit do you book first when doing self travel… basically ski holidays are a nightmare to book, I think mostly due to them being more expensive than normal holidays generally and dependent on more factors than say a pool side holiday.
Luckily though with the help of the interweb, a friend at work explaining to me dutch people don’t fly to Toulouse to get to Andorra but Barcelona instead (the price difference was about €200 at least) and some VERY good friends who were willing (I think) to pay a bit extra so we could holiday together instead of them together and me somewhere different but perhaps in the same country; I think they calculated it as the cost of keeping me as a friend (I’m very cheap I think); we booked! Well sort of, we booked flights at the same time-ish on the wed night I think, but decided it was late and people wouldn’t book the triple hotel room we had seen between about 1 in the morning and 10 when I could once in the office and I could ask my Spanish friend to ring the hotel and try and work out some special deal (He speaks the local dialect, Catalan, I thought this might butter them up). I was wrong, when he tried to call and we couldn’t find a working number I went back online to find the room gone… fun. Luckily there was another place that had a triple room and was actually a little cheaper, with 1 less star, but more importantly a room! That done I booked the car, a little problem there, but mostly straight forward. I was pretty excited, a road trip, a new country, skiing and see friends… score!
I had wanted to visit a new ski area for a while so now I have skied in Canada, Italy, France, Austria and Andorra. Hopefully I can add to list again this year, maybe.
The holiday itself was really good, nice drive through northern Spain using a borrowed TomTom with all the newest features, in-fact just driving again was nice, albeit on the wrong side of the road and in a car that could have fit my old smartcar into it about 3 times. Then actually finding the hotel (TomTom’s coverage of Andorra is not the best, I will have words with them) and then finding out that the hotel room was a 5 person room (don’t get me wrong that doesn’t mean it was massive) with bunk beds! WOOHOO! I got the bottom bunk and made a little base with covers from the top bunk. Reminded me allot of who I lived for about 4 months in France while sharing a room with 2 other guys and a girl friend.
The ski was good, when I was actually doing it, my shinny new super dooper ski boots nearly broke my feet! Both big toes got really sore (when not numb) and the top of my right foot was very painful. I have spoken to the boot fitter and he has said when we can meet he will fix the issues. Also there was some issue with my friends boot bindings being to small for their boots… if only there was a way they could have foreseen that issue…. I’m looking at you Shell! The region itself was really nice, very picturesque, even if Andorra as a whole did have a funny smell. I would definitely go back and this time maybe a day in Barcelona as well.
I took some pictures and routes with GPS while there, they should be bellow and in my picasa web album which is linked to on the right.
Ski day, Andorra
but just to watch 
Also planned is a steak night, spicey KFC night….. ummmm cycling….. I need a few more ideas as well obviously!