Day 5 and 6: Christmas Day, Boxing Day
You know you are getting old when you start skiing and think " hey, a few hours of this should be enough for the day! ". Back in the day we would start and ski till the lifts closed!
By lunch time we were ready to call it quits and had lunch on the mountain at a bistrot. The best meal by far on the slopes ever! I remember lunch time on ski resorts in Melbourne mostly of the 'fish and chip' or 'burger and chip' variety. This bistrot had a large selection of food and great service. Freshly made crepes if desired!
The ski slopes at Les Arcs would have been fantastic if it had snowed just before we arrived. The weather was slightly warm( above 0 degrees Celcius) so the slopes were slightly icy and there were large patches of rocky and muddy terrain.
The second day of skiing was slightly worse.. the slopes had hardened overnight and were significantly more slippery and icy.
We still managed to do a few runs to try and get to the edge of the resort to catch the biggest gondola that would take us to the next mountain. We got there eventually but there wasn't enough snow to ski on the other side. We did take the gondola over and got to see the magnificent views between the peaks.
By mid afternoon it was getting more icy and the slopes more bare, so we decided to call it quits and relax. We had to pack up as we were supposed to drive back to Geneva to catch a flight to London the next day.
That evening Chris and I were so tempted to be lazy and just eat at the hotel, but we decided to brave the cold and step out the 50 steps or so to the nearest restaurant. Was a good decision! The restaurant specialized in Savoyard food ( the region we were in ) so we basically picked dishes that had a thumbs up tick! We chose an escargot pastry dish and a casserole thing that had grain like pasta, mixture of their saucission and lots of local cheese. Like a French version of HK baked pasta. Dessert was 3 or 4 scoops of their home made ice cream and chocolate sauce. Paired with wine of course.
Day 7
It was an overnight change in scenery! Snow had started to fall and it was so pretty! Right about until the time we were checked out and started on our way down the mountain.
We checked out on a Saturday, not realizing that it was routine for people to check in and out on Saturdays for a week. We therefore joined an interminable queue of cars driving down the mountain.
Things only got worse as the morning went on. Snow was falling like crazy, it built up in a matter of minutes. The snow plows barely had a chance. Traffic slowed to a crawl and then came to a complete halt! It was unbelieveable! I got out of the car to stretch my legs and then realized that it was a snaking queue up ahead with no sign of movement after 30 minutes. We quickly decided to hightail it back to Bourg St Maurice ( nearest town ).
Things just got worse. The town was full of people and apparently there were no rooms available in the entire town. Chris quickly called the Radisson resort and reserved a room. It was just after 3 pm when we started our way back up the mountain, and was stuck driving almost an hour behind this wobbly Audi all the way up.
It was a miracle we got there because just after we checked in we found out they had closed the road going up the mountain!
We were the lucky ones. There were 15,000 people trapped overnight on the roads! It was an expensive event though: we missed our London flight, lost our first night at the hotel in London, and paid for an extra day at the Radisson ( Euro530 for 1 night! ) and the car.
Day 8
We HAD to get to London that day.
After a quick breakfast we checked out and started on our way down. It was still snowing lightly but the roads were clear. In contrast the the day before, we got to Geneva in slightly under 2 hours. I thought our troubles were over.
I had quickly searched and bought 2 one way tickets to London on Swissair ( CHF 650 for the 2 of us) and we had returned the car, checked in and relaxing at Starbucks.
An hour before the flight was supposed to take off we get an SMS saying the flight got cancelled! It was futile being furious. There were no other flights available that day! So Chris had to get our checked bags out and I went to find train tickets.
The train ride was over 7 hours long, with 2 changes of stations. We had to get from the Geneva airport to the main Geneva station, take the TGV to Paris Gare de Lyon, then take a LOCAL metro to Paris Nord station to catch the Eurostar to London. We finally arrived in London close to midnight.
It was such a relief to check into the Rosewood hotel ! Amazing how you could spend the entire day just travelling.
Day 9: London
Because of the delays, we basically had this one day in London. We had to use the 2 day London pass that I had foolishly purchased while in Les Arcs. So it was a mad rush to see the London bridge, HMS Belfast ship, Tower bridge and the Tower of Museum.
I wish we could have shopped but we also had tickets to see Cats at the Palladium. It was a good show but not my cup of tea.
That marked the end of our London tour!
Day 10: Getting to Frankfurt
Heathrow airport is a world of difference from the Geneva one!
We got there in good time, checked in and did our security checks seamlessly. That left us with plenty of time to browse the shops, but unfortunately the choice wasn't the best. Heathrow would do better to invest in more retail space considering the excellent airport service. Lesson learnt: Arrive and leave Europe via Heathrow or Paris' CDG airport.
We got onto the Luftansa flight without any problems, and soon arrived in Frankfurt. Got a rental car so that we could go directly to Werthiem Outlet Mall. Distances are really far in Germany! It took us over an hour to get there using the autobahn! By the time we arrived it was 8pm so that left us with an hour to go through the shops. The shopping was not bad; I managed to buy several outfits from Desigual and Polo Ralph Lauren. We were chased out slightly before 9pm so that limited our shopping ( fortunately ).
We stayed at the Marriott for the 2 nights. It is the company hotel for Singapore Airlines so we got to see lots of air crew while we were there.
Day 11 and 12:
New Year's eve-- Frankfurt is rather a ghost town during the holiday season! The trains were empty and many streets deserted. New Year's eve is a half day for the city and shops started closing at 2 pm. This included cafes and bars. We hadn't booked any restaurants for our dinner thinking there would be some fireworks or celebrations in the main street, but I don't think there was any! Being unable to find a decent open restaurant for dinner we finally settled on a little shop selling Chinese food. And I must say it did decent fare. It was a freezing cold night so we called it quits after dinner and went back to the hotel.
New Year's day: It's a public holiday in Frankfurt so everything was closed. We thought we would have a relaxed breakfast then head to the airport to shop.
It was a good thing we arrived in plenty of time. Frankfurt airport is nowhere near the standards of Heathrow. We wasted time getting our VATS ( tax) refund-- incompetent rude personnel run the desks ( the guy told a Caucasian traveller off for not speaking in German : when in Germany speak German!) Then getting through security! They were slowly combing through people despite having Xray and security body searching. There were people missing their flight boarding times, and the security refused to call ahead to the flight desks informing them of their delays. We were lucky to be early, but even then we just made it to the boarding gate just on time.
It was a full flight back to Singapore, and it was a relief to be finally home. The first part of the trip was fantastic, if only we could have spent the extra days in London and skip Frankfurt entirely. It was just that Chris needed to leave Europe via Frankfurt that we didn't have a choice. Still, I did have a great holiday, a much needed reset and rest for the year before we started primary school. I would love to go back to Paris and London for a visit in the near future!
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