Bangs, Bulls and Beer

We were in Spain for Fiesta in our Spanish seaside town. It's a very big event for the Spanish, with 2 weeks of events, parades and fireworks. As we were hosting an elderly parent, we did'nt get about as much as some other years, and those events we did attend were not met with huge enthusiasm by our guest. For us the event was as exciting as ever.

For example there is a large firework display which begins at midnight of the beachfront, which is attended by thousands of locals and tourists alike. I have never seen such large fireworks, which are launched with a "whump" noise and a large flash of flame, before the firework opens. We were about 300 yards away.

Then there is the "bullfighting". There is much critcism of formal Spanish bullfights, and having watched elements of the event here, I feel that it owes more to the right of passage for the young men of the town who enter the bullring in T shirts and jeans, to face a stroppy bull. Their defence is to run between the bars of the bullring base to avoid the bull. They have no swords or other weapons like the traditional Toreador. The bull's seem to be rotated, and here are some images of the bulls at changeover.

The images are a little grainy as it was dusk, and it's a bit daunting to put myself through the bars to get a good image!!

The bulls eventually get a run up the beach each evening, which can surprise some tourists.

This is the view of the bullring from the castle approach. The low building on the rear left, is the local emergency clinic!

There are many Church services throughout Fiesta at the church in the old town, which are open to the public.

We managed to entice our guest away from the only English Bar and the English Beer, to enable him to experience a bit of real Spain. He was able to put up with a pitcher of San Miguel, just occasionally.

The weather, was absolutely fantastic throughout our stay.

A great Fiesta trip, and we were quite pleased to have paid our taxes to the Ayuntamiento, and had some interesting dialogue with a proper Spanish Builder about some alterations to our house. We await their proposals and the estimate of the costs!!

The Pull of The Paper

We have just finished hosting an elderly relative at our place in Spain. This involved driving him around, and sourcing his idea of Spanish holiday bliss. This consisted of finding an English Bar, where the staff speak to him in English, English football on TV and today's copy ( absolutely not yesterdays'copy) of the British tabloid "The Daily Mirror".

Well we achieved all that, though I'm really not convinced that he had a good time, despite it being Fiesta fortnight and a really big spectacle. Of course, all this excess of English language
exposure, did inevitably lead to an unfortunate Daily Mirror incident for my partner. Despite heaping scorn on the UK tabloid press and working hard at blending in with the Spanish way of life, he could not help himself!

The Ridgeway

As it's a Bank Holiday in the UK, we decided to take a hike along the Ridgeway. It's an ancient road, and recently motor vehicles were banned from using it, so conditions have improved for hikers and bike riders.

We started and finished at White Horse Hill, which was busy with tourists, hang gliders and model aeroplane enthusiasts.

After walking round the Fort, we hiked as far as Waylands Smithy, which is a Neolithic Long Barrow burial mound, decided that there were too many tourists around and headed back to White Horse Hill.

Just time to take in the scenery and then off home for lunch.

It rained a bit here yesterday

We had rather a lot of rain in our bit of the UK yesterday. It's not just that we had lots of rain, but the problem seems to be where it goes once it's fallen, ie: nowhere fast.

When we went out walking today, we saw that between our village and the adjoining one, some folks were clearly coping better than others.

We managed to complete most of our walk, through careful planning, use of hedgerows, and the odd bit of backtracking.

Some folks were clearly enjoying a chance to justify owning an off-roader!

There was a cloud, just the one though.....

We were feeling rather fed up of living under a blanket of uniform grey sky, so we headed off to Spain to get some sunshine and, well, daylight really. There was a cloud one morning, the only one we saw, so I grabbed my camera! Our resort town was in full summer swing and on Saturday night we headed down to the beachfront.

This photo was taken about 10pm, and the locals are just coming into town, there are still a few folks on the beach, and we were a little surprised to see no-one in the sea.

We had already walked up the North Beach promenade where the resident sand sculptors were doing their best to remind us northern europeans, of the cold weather we had left behind, and that the same weather was waiting for our return.

We had originally planned to do some more walking, but the weather seemed quite hot, and as there had been some fires in the countryside north of us in Tarragona. We agreed to chill out by the pool instead!

Flying back over the Pyrenees and Andorra, we saw lots more snow than is usually visible in July, and it made me think about getting away for some summer skiing.

Time in the Fridge-Summer Skiing

As it's summer here, I start to miss skiing and snow, so decided to pay a visit to Xscape, Milton Keynes to give my new Monster77's a little try out. It's around a 50 mile drive to the indoor slope from our UK house, so I can get there fairly easily. The slope is part of a large leisure complex, so my first stop was to the branch of Ellis Brigham to get my bindings checked and adjusted to my boots. To my suprise, the set up I had done (my 1st) was correct. The staff at EB's are always friendly and helpful, it's a pleasure calling in there.

I would have liked to include some general photos of the slope and facilities, but Xscape do not allow photography by the public. When I enquired as to the reasons for this, I received several different answers, however I did see a large notice on the slope advising customers to call at the slope rental desk to view photos that are taken by their machine. They also employ a photographer to stand on the slope and take photos, which are also for sale. I found it disconcerting to have flash guns going off repeatedly on every descent, and I certainly did not give my permission for the company to take my photo.

The complex has been open for a few years now, and is looking in need of refurbishment, with broken lockers, toilet basin's taped over as out of order, and dingy lighting in the public areas.

In the locker area, I counted 9 vending machines, all selling much the same snack food and fizzy drinks. The price I paid for entry and an hour's skiing was £16. This should give access to 2 public slopes and 1 teaching slope.

Today, the teaching slope had 1 student and teacher, and all public users were obliged to use one of the main slopes, whilst the other was being kept for "something". I did enquire, after riding the poma to the top, and was told that the slope was closed due to "lots of children coming soon", and I was turned off it. No children materialised, and the poma lift was turned off. The slope remained empty.

There are many horror tales about on the web regarding the ice at Xscape, today, it was visible under the surface, but the conditions were quite grippy, and perfectly acceptable, in an artificial snow sort of way. The poma lift track needed attention with torn matting visible, along with what appear to be wooden battens holding the matting in place. The track was deeply rutted.

I was quite amazed to see several workmen digging a large hole in part of one of the slopes, using what sounded like a roadworks drill. If you like your skiing to the sound of jack hammers' this is the place to be. I enquired about the works, and was advised that the cooling system was being moved to another part of the slope. This would mean that the central slope would be narrower, and the teaching slope was being widened.

I cut short my hour, as the poma lift began breaking down, and this led to slope congestion and queues. Also a diesel powered "cherry picker" was being run on the closed slope, and the fumes were pretty unpleasant.

The best bit of the day, was getting a feel for my new skis. They are very stable, and carve really easily. Longer and heavier than my Stoeckli's, it's not noticeable when moving, they were a bargain, and will make a great 2nd ski. I'm really looking forward to skiing them in resort.

One Careful Owner

The Sale notice says it all " Perfecto Estado"!!

I Love My Hiking Boots

Not just because they are comfortable either!. They are Goretex lined and I never realised just how valuable that would turn out to be when I got stuck in a malfunctioning Spanish "Superloo".
If you have ever wondered what happens when the superloo you wanted to use goes into a cleaning cycle I can now tell you.
Of course they are meant to lock automatically to clean when the last person leaves. However in my case, the door locked after I entered.
Pumps and machinery started.....
The seat lifted up by itself.......
The dim light got even dimmer......
The floor became awash, and water started spraying in the general direction of the toilet bowl and me.....

All this happened in a few seconds, so naturally I wanted out and hit the emergency exit button, hoping that it too was'nt having a bad day!

The door opened and I must have looked quite shocked, and I was quite damp as I stumbled out onto the promenade. I do know that my boots outers were pretty wet, though inside my feet were nice and dry!

Serra d'Irta

Just completed several days of hiking in the Valencian Regional Park. May is probably perfect hiking weather for coastal Spain, with warm weather and a steady breeze. We hiked mostly on the coastal path, the route is easy going, with one cliff to climb, El Volante.

At the top of the cliff is the ancient watchtower of Torre Badum, and beyond that we walked on to Pebret.

As summer approaches, the routes become hotter and drier, and we saw the Fire Marshal driving round, as well as the park wardens riding trail bikes several times a day. On the longest climb we kept being passed by endurance racers, running uphill, numbers on their hydration belts and desert hats on. Made me feel quite fat, old and unfit to watch them.

We stopped off at Pebret Beach, the sea was very refreshing!

The park is quite unspoiled, and very quiet to walk around. It's one of the few places of natural beauty in coastal Valencia, where the developers have not covered the hillside in concrete and built holiday homes. However the Regional Government plan to build 3000 homes here. If you want to visit, make it soon.

It's good that we completed our hikes, as the weather went very warm on the last day, so we did a bit of housework...and lay by our pool, while the temperature rose to the low 30's. Flew into the UK to be met by 13c and rain!

Words Failed Me

Settled down to watch some UK television last night. Channel 4's "A Place in the Sun...Home or Away" programme is featuring the resort where our Spanish home is situated. Naturally we recognised all of the locations shown to the prospective buyers. The couple decided that the Costa Del Azahar was not what they wanted, even though they were shown a place with a view much like our's.

Personally we like opening our shutters each day to see the Med lapping a 4 kilometre sandy beach.

Weird Times

Some of my recently uploaded photos, did not get the code uploaded with them, so when you click on them, you get....nothing. I have hunted through the help pages, and ..gave up...here they are again .

Val D'Anniviers Season Finale

After heading back to Geneva Airport with my partner Andy, we parted company, as he caught a flight back to the UK, and I caught a train to Sierre, with the intention of getting the Postbus to Grimentz. Plans do sometimes go wrong, and faced with a three hour wait for a bus , another stranded traveller did a deal with a taxi driver and we shared a taxi to up Val D' Anniviers. The view next morning makes up for any travel related stress.








Met up with ise and his friends and family for a great sunshine day both on and off piste. Grimentz was surprisingly crowded and we encountered queues for the lifts ise found a nice little gulley to ski in, even I managed to cope on my "girly Stormriders" (to quote ise) !















13/4 Grimentz and Zinal

Started the day cruising empty pistes in Grimentz, then caught the bus to Zinal to meet up with ise and ski the Chamois piste back to Grimentz. an excellent run, though the snow cover on the itinerary back to Grimentz was rather patchy. I'm so glad I have a rucksack with a ski carrier! After a substantial lunch, it was straight onto the Bendolla telecabine to meet up with brian who managed to spot me from the description I had sent by text....short, fat, old, black kit, girly Stormriders We took a few off-piste runs in the slushy afternoon snow, where ise decided to check out the snow depth by lying down and resting his legs.





Because I'm a nice person I did not get out my camera . He claimed it was my fault, as I wanted to ski in the "nice" gully we were in yesterday, only the snow was a little less pleasant!

Grimentz 14/4

Skied around in lovely warm sunny weather. Met up with Brian and his family for lunch. Sent a message to ise, but he was not feeling well, perhaps I skied him too hard yesterday . Spent the afternoon on the black Lona piste, top section, which was in excellent condition and very quiet.


























Grimentz 15/4

Hot and sunny day. Met up with ise, who had been indulging in some retail therapy, and wanted to try out his Stockli Stormrider Pit Lights, and Garmont Megaride boots. He had some new skins to match as well, and just had to try them out.

The pisteurs were busy taking down the marker poles (perhaps they had heard about me), and safety netting, so the piste skiing was a little more interesting. A live band was playing in the Bendolla restaurant at lunchtime, where we met up with Brian and his family. The conditions held up pretty well through the day, I fell over three times, and ise liked his new skis and boots, so all in all a pretty good season finale.

A Quick Visit to the Tarentaise

After leaving Chamonix, we drove through the Gorge D' Arly and across to Seez, to spend several nights in a Logis de France.



Sunday 8th, Les Arcs. Took the funicular up from Bourg St Maurice for an Easter Sunday ski around the Les Arcs system. We met up with Rob at the Arpette restaurant, and took a trip over to the Grand Col area, then back to the Arpette for lunch. Beautiful sunny weather, and the pistes were holding up well, though it did turn slushy off-piste by mid afternoon. Despite it being a Sunday and a holiday period, the slopes were not very busy.


Easter Monday, Tignes and Val d' Isere The sun was out (again), and so were the piste ants.
We drove over to Tignes Breviere and caught the Sache gondola up to the Aguille Percee. Saw so many sights today, mono skis, tons of vintage dayglo clothing, antique rear entry boots. We decided to avoid the crowds and head off piste a little, so skied over into Le Spot, stopping to pick up a sandwich and some drinks, to enjoy a picnic. We were fortunate to have some entertainment whilst we ate, as two english guys had found themselves out of options and were climbing out of their chosen route in Le Spot. It took them the time for a two course lunch plus drinks to reach a skiable slope. One of them subsequently fell over, and shed lots of gear over the whole hill, which resulted in lots more climbing for him.

We had passed by their route earlier, it took us just a couple of minutes, mind you, we did have a look at the terrain from the lift.

Tuesday 10/4 Spent the morning skiing around Les Arcs, and met up with Pete Garwood, Emily, Rob and Jane at the Chalets de l' Arcs restaurant above Arc 2000 for lunch. Very warm skiing conditions, boiler plate up high, soupy at 1600. I killed a piste marker on the black Refuge piste at Grand Col, and I still have a bruise...well it was in my way Here's Andy discovering the true meaning of "piste non damee" on his way to Arc 1600.

Chamonix Valley

A quick late season trip to Chamonix, and hopefully to ski the Vallee Blanche, before heading into Switzerland. We started our stay with a warm up day in Vallorcine/Le Tour. Lovely conditions, weather warm and sunny. Skied down to Le Tour village and enjoyed lunch off-piste. The car park at Vallorcine was able to cope with the volume of customers, though the lift queue at Le Tour was quite awful.










4/4. We were booked to ski the Vallee Blanche today, the guide phoned at 8am and said it was not possible due to the weather, so we spent the day in Les Houches.
We had fresh snow to play in, though the visibility was a little poor. The top section of the Kandahar piste was most enjoyable, with uncut snow down to mid station. The evening saw us revisiting the Guides Office AIGMB, to be told that we would not be doing the Vallee Blanche the next day either. Apparently we don't have enough off-piste powder experience.















4/4 Argentiere. The sun was out and so were the crowds. Good snow up high on the Chamois piste and underneath the Herse chair and GM cable car. Pistes had been refreshed with a little fresh snow, but underneath is rock hard. Skied down to Argentiere, which was rather like water skiing. Walk out through the mud to a very large Orangina.









Vallee Blanche...or not.. A couple of weeks before heading out to Chamonix, I booked a private guide for Wednesday 4th April. On the morning the guide phoned and said no go, bad weather. We were told to call at the Bureau that same evening, where we were told that we could not ski well enough in powder and we should go back the next day. We went back yet again, to be told..."conditions are great and we have no guide available for you" So we asked for a refund. To be honest, the prospect of undertaking the run by now was much less appealing on a public holiday. Think of any Theme Park in any country on a Bank Holiday! The bureau kept talking about us doing the Classic Run as well, something which we had specifically advised them that we did not wish to do. I'm not sure I would go back to Chamonix to do the Vallee Blanche. This was to be an early Birthday present, so I'm either €260 better off, or I've missed out on the trip of a lifetime.

A very sunny Good Friday, takes us back to Vallorcine and Le Tour again to try to avoid the crowds.
It was quieter than earlier in the week, and as the sun was very hot, the off-piste had softened up nicely. We spent around 50% of our time away from the pistes, on some very pleasant slopes. Just in case you are wondering, yes, I did jump off the edge, and land it Our next destination is Seez near Bourg St Maurice.

Massive Attack

As soon as we had arrived back in the UK, we went up to Birmingham to see Massive Attack in concert. They were very, very good, and I would definitely go and see them again. It was quite a small venue and we managed to get quite close to the stage, and both found that our trousers were flapping in time to the base line!

I would want to go to see them an an outdoor venue next time, as the amount of folks smoking left us both with sore throats and eyes.

It's been many years since I went to a concert, and I was hoping that the venue would be smoke free, no such luck.

A Really Good Ski Trip

Just returned from two weeks in Switzerland. The journey went smoothly, the snow was good, and the company was excellent. Apparently some European resorts have been suffering from a lack of snow this winter, but we seemed to have a snow pocket to play in! Now back in the UK, I have put on around 4 kilos in weight, and we have a laundry pile big enough to need planning permission. Here's a competitor in a parapente competition in Zinal.

We skied in Grimentz, St Luc, Chandolin, Vercorin and Zinal. During our stay we met up with some friends, some of whom live in the mountains, and some who are visiting. Naturally, our friend ise knows the best places to eat, and where to find the powder. He's a really good skier most of the time, and there is a link to his blog, Snowslider, from here.