Here we are back in Meribel Mottaret. The good news is that the Eurostar was so uneventful I’m not going to blog about it… We are staying the other side of Mottaret to the part we have stayed in for the last few years. Here is the view from the window.

The cute thing about these rather faceless Pierre er Vacance apartments is that they are connected to the main centre of Mottaret by a lift which runs 24 hours, so we have easy access to shops and restaurants.

The weather was OK today but a breeze at altitude. We went to La Sittelle (known as Tarte o pomme…) cafe for lunch but it has been taken over by the same people who run (and ruined) Pierre Plats.

The really good self has been replaced by a rather overpriced restaurant. When we came here 25 years ago it didn’t even have inside toilets! This company now owns 6 places in the valley… we will be avoiding them. Really good family run cafes where you can get  a decent lunch are a really important part of skiing for us. They are always expensive, but you are getting good food half way up a mountain! If they are all going to end up the same poor value places then that is rather worrying…

Other than that a great day’s skiing if you don’t mind the 50mph winds on top of Saulire…

Found a much better place for dinner… where is everybody else though?

…

Our last day of skiing dawned grey and dreary, sadly this had been forecast all week and the forecast was accurate for once. We went up to see if we could get above the cloud, but although we saw one inviting hole in the murk to ski in, we ended up skiing from the very top in clouds so thick you could not see from one piste marker to the next. On several occasions we had to stop to discuss which way was down. Much coffee was drunk….

In the afternoon we skied below the trees to be able to have some chance of seeing, which limits us mainly to the easy slopes. We stopped by the Inuit trail area set up for kids. If we gloss over the minor issue of foam penguins on a piste marked “inuit” I am really impressed by these areas. When DD1 and DD2 were small we took them to Norway where they do a lot for families and children. At the time none of the French resorts we were familiar with had anything at all but they seem to have spotted the opportunity and now Meribel at least has two areas set up as fun ski trails for kids and one has an area with swings and snow slides where they can take a break from skiing and just play. As we went past there were some Huskys that had been brought over for children to see and pet. One or two of the dogs seemed to be enjoying the experience but others seemed to be wondering when they could leave and do some running around…

Not the best day’s skiing to end on, but all in all a good week, we skied 244.5km according to my Navionics app, over 88 runs and we got on a lift 82 times…

And so the next morning down to Moutier for the Eurostar home..

It is a bit of a pain lugging all the luggage ans stashing it on the train but you don’t have to touch it again until ashford… Usually. About 30  minutes before we got to Lille they announced that there had been a security problem and all the checks must be re-done at Lille meaning we would have to take all our bags off, have them x-rayed again and then load them back on. As we pulled into Lille we got all the bags out of the racks ready to get off. Then a new announcement, change of plan, they are just going to bring sniffer dogs on, so we put all the bags back, then silence for a bit. Then a new announcement [have you guessed] another new plan, we do need to get the bags off…. So eventually we get everything off the train and lug it upstairs (no escalators switched on) and wait in a queue while 700 people have their passports checked and bags scanned…

We roll into Ashford 2 hours late, with a good chunk of this time being spent listening to announcements apologising for the problem at Lille. Now when BA messed us about last year they left us to argue for weeks before giving us compensation. In the case of Eurostar, at 10AM the next morning I get this email:

Hello,

First of all, we’d like to apologise for the delay to your recent Eurostar journey. We’re always working to make sure our trains are punctual and we’re very sorry that yours arrived late.

To apologise for the inconvenience, we’d like to offer you some compensation, which you can claim quickly and easily at compensation.eurostar.com. All you’ll need is the booking reference and individual ticket number (which are both on your ticket) to make a claim. If you’d like to read up about our Compensation Policy, take a look at our Help Centre at eurostar.com.

If you’d like to claim for any expenses, please get in touch with your travel insurance provider, who’ll be able to help you with your claim.

Once again, we’re very sorry for the delay and hope we can welcome you on board again soon.

Kind regards,

The Eurostar team
—————–

Bit of a difference?

The compensation will partially fund us traveling with Eurostar again next year I expect. No travel service can be perfect, how you deal with the problems defines how your customers feel about travelling with you again.

Day 3 of the sunny interval promised on Sunday that started on Tuesday dawned bright and clear.
We headed over to ski La Face, the run built to be the ladies downhill for the 1992 winter olympics. It is a nice black run but was quite challenging as it had not been bashed recently so the snow was quite bumpy. Over in this area we found our first real lift queue. We probably waited just over 5 minutes, which is not really a queue but longer than we have seen up to now.
The other interesting observation is the absence of snowboards. There was a time in the late 90s when you might have thought that snowboarders would soon outnumber skiers. But we now only see a handful of them, even in a snowboarding stronghold like Val Thorens. Can you spot any here?

The other things we have noticed is that almost everyone wears helmets, but you’ll find more non helmet wearers in Val Thorens and Courcheval than in Meribel we have no idea why this is. You’ll find vastly more fur trimmed hoods in Courcheval as well as a little more retro 80s skiwear. I’ll make a chart….

It is possible that the lack of popularity of snowboarding is linked to the rise in popularity of freestyle skiing, and certainly the number of ‘fun parks’ continues to grow. In Courcheval 1650 they have made a ravine into a massive half pipe like run. You cannot imagine what this does to your knees.

In Courcheval 1850 today we came across one of the “giant airbags” that you can use for jumping into wearing skis, but also one that you jump onto sitting in a giant innertube.

Despite all of these distractions we still managed to ski a lot today.

We went to our favourite restaurant around here last night. It has been redecorated since we were last here 2 years ago, they have some antique skis on the wall. Nothing odd in that you might say.

That is until you realise that these skis would have been current at about the time I learned to ski! We still have a pair of about this age.
Of course the other thing that has changed over that time is how much artificial snow making equipment there now is. I was amazed how much the canon outside or apartment had made in one night.

That is a mound of snow about waist high. A couple of bashers came and flattened it out over the piste.

Until you would never know.

Anyway, another sunny interval that lasted all day saw us head over to ‘Courch’, as apparently we now call it, 1650 via the runs around Saulire. They have reclassified some red runs as blue and black as red… although they have not actually changed the runs or all the signs. I feel for the confused nervous brits, I was one once.
We skied ‘Mur’ which I was assured many years ago by people who really should have known meant ‘blackberries’ which sounded like a nice run. In fact it can also mean ‘wall’ which is the meaning in this case. A reasonably short incredibly steep bit of snow but in good condition. Alarmingly DD1 and DD2 both now find this kind of thing far more fun than my old knees do.
After lunch in the Hotel du Golf we came back over and had one last run in the late afternoon sunshine down Mont Vallon.

A long days skiing but DD1 and DD2 complaining of more leg pain than me by the end. There is life in the old dog yet….

At last some pictures that don’t involve socks.

The weather was forecast to be pretty good so we decided it was time to head over to Val Thorens which, as we first reported 2 years ago, is now referred to a ‘VT’. The first lift took us up through the cloud and by the time were at the top of Mont De La Chambre the view down on to the top of the clouds was incredible.

The sun in ‘VT’ was wonderful and it made a change to be skiing on something you could actually see. We headed straight for our favourite runs from the base of the Peclet glacier. You can see the end of the glacier clearly as you pass beneath it.

The snow is in really good condition as it stays cold, it was -10degrees at resort level and colder above. Here is a video to make you jealous.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AtsO1lOi_UQ

A huge amount of investment seems to have gone into this resort in the last few years. As well as their double cable gondola things which can cope with the wind high up, nearly all the chair lifts seem to have been upgraded to these 6 man express chairs which allow two chairs to load at once.

There have also been quite a few seriously expensive looking hotels built like this one

(Don’t worry, it is straight, that is just my GoPro lens….)

In amongst all this new stuff the same café with the waffle stall has been there, owned by the same guy for 23 years. He does not work there any more, he lets out the waffle facility to other people to run a business.

The current guy is now in his second season, and this year he has been working since 5^th December without a day off. A better range of toppings than before, so it is even more highly recommended than it was (as if that were possible)

Rather than try and get anywhere specific we spent our time on runs with good snow in the sun, and had a thoroughly enjoyable day. We skied a long way, but by pacing ourselves a bit better I can actually walk this evening…

Not much chance of sleeping in here. They groom the piste outside the window at about 7.30am…

As you can see the weather looks promising….
One mystery from yesterday was the pain in my feet. I appear to have skied all day with my socks on the wrong feet. You’d be surprised how uncomfortable this is. Anyway today I made sure to get it right.

We had 2.5 hours while the slower members of the family we are travelling with were in ski school so we played on the red slopes above our apartment and coming down from the summit of saulire. Legs could barely move after lunch, so very pleased to go and ski slowly with the others below rhodos.

We were surprised how quiet it was. Given this is half term week we expect queues but really not much. Part of this will be the weather, (which deteriorated with no sign of the promised sunny intervals), part will be the huge capacity of all these new lifts but all the same….
The snow is really good, having been built up over a couple of snowy weeks rather than a huge dump it is well packed and level and does not get churned up during the day. The run down to meribel from rhodos is as much of a pain as it was 23 years ago even with good snow…
Decided to go for a fondue this evening, really good.

This year we made sure we managed to be on all the right mailing lists so we were able to book the Eurostar ski train. It went on sale one morning in July and sold out 15 minutes later… but this time I had tickets!

So here we are back at Meribel Mottaret again. A different apartment to the one we have stayed in before but close by. This one takes ski in ski out to a new level.

Ours is the one at the end on the ground floor. We have a door that opens onto the snow….
Weather has been pretty horrible skiing in cloud all day. There was the odd break but it always seemed to be where we were not….

We have been skiing with friends with less experience so taking it easy anyway.

Hopefully something other than cloud to photograph tomorrow.

This morning we woke to find a huge shoal of fish enjoying the shade under the yachts. The picture is just a part of it.

While we were having our breakfast the family who run this place loaded up their boat and left.

This really is the end of the season as they have put a boat up for the winter on the terrace we eat on last night.

Very little wind so we motored around to a bay just south of Bozburun. 

This is a major boat building area and a proper town. You can just see the masts of lots of Turkish Gullets across the bay.

After lunch we had a bit more breeze so we sailed slowly back to Sogut to bring the yacht home before dark.

All of the yachts used by the company will soon be taken around to Bozburun to be lifted out, cleaned and serviced over the winter. The yachts that have not been out this week already had their sails of ready to be rinsed and stored.

Time to head home.

We woke up firmly in postcard land.

We are headed back to Turkey today. The biggest challenge before us is deciding where to stop for lunch. As this postcard has real shops in it we found a bakery to get bread and sausage rolls, and we also found a pastry shop.. it took us some time to work out which of the handcrafted delicacies might survey being thrown around in a boat so we bought some biscuits.
A really nice sail back across and into the first bay for lunch.

https://youtu.be/hdGGi7VuK_E

On the way we saw a very serious looking naval patrol boat. We were right on the border so we changed our flag back and resisted the urge to photograph the patrol just imagine I inserted it here……

Lunch in a nice bay with a few yachts in, then we sailed around a few islands and into our destination for the night.

We are moored up for the night in ‘Sailors Paradise’. The bay almost certainly has a proper name but that is the name of the restaurant at the end. This is typical of the places we have been this week. No road access, in this particular case the village is 30 minutes away by boat and then a drive. They bake their own bread, this place grows most of its own veg, and when it gets dark they start up a big diesel generator.

They provide all a visiting yacht needs. Showers, toilets, although as they have no mains power or water themselves we have to use our own batteries and tanks. It appears to be a family run business and they are no doubt suffering from the drop in tourism around here.
As seems common the place has a large cat population.

The German family at the table behind dealt with the unwelcome guests by throwing water over them.

The cats all seem to have enough to eat. Not sure the 4 boats in tonight spent enough for the business to turn a profit though.

Today we had an option to either stay on the Turkish coast or sail over to the Greek island of Symi. As there was good wind forecast for that part of the sea we decided to go for the Symi option.

No wind at the start so we motored so as not to lose time until we found some wind. It continued to build all day until it was touching over 30 knots as we approached the island. 30 knots is plenty and we were well reefed by the time we arrived. An exhilarating ride.
As we are entering a Greek port there is lot of paperwork to do for us and the boat, but we pay an agent to take care of that. All we are left to do is change our courtesy flag from a Turkish one.

To a Greek one

Surprisingly tricky whilst sailing at speed.
Symi is the first real town we have visited this trip, as all the other places have basically been yacht stops that are only open in the season. This is the last week and places are running down  stocks. Symi is a real town and although clearly tourism is big business here, it exists all year around. You can see why it is a huge pull for tourists. Postcard stuff.

Just after we arrived at motor yacht arrived and caused chaos by making a massive wash nearly causing damage to several yachts. If moored yachts roll and clash masts the damage can be huge. Anyway after a pretty frantic 10 minutes  we reset all our moorings and then the ferry showed up….

No sane person would try and get a ship this size into a harbour this size… but they get it in and out calmly with no wash…
The terminal facilities are nonexistent.

People and cars go up and down the ramp in apparently random fashion as people in uniform blow whistles for reasons that are not clear, then 10 minutes later it heads off and postcard normality returns…

Anyway as we have a choice of restaurants tonight we have gone to the one 10 metres behind our boat.