Poland and Switzerland and Finland Oh My!
Right, two months worth this time? Seems like we are getting worse at keeping this up to date. Oh well, its been a busy period for us!
So December... obviously like everyone else getting ready for Christmas takes up so much time, but it is fun to shop :) We did a lot of ours online this year as its soooo much better than braving the crowds in the centre of London.
On one of the weekends, Grant, Vic, Gem and I flew to Krakow in Poland for 3 days. Me and Gem had been before but it is such a beautiful city and there were really cheap flights on that we thought we'd go again. We were hoping that it would snow while we were there but unfortunately it had just snowed and melted and we didn't any fresh snow. The Christmas Markets were on however and they are always fun to walk around. We bought a few more beautiful baubles (Gem's collecting a few each year to take home) and Gem and Vic tried their hands at mulled rum.... which didn't go down to well, and nearly came back up even worse :)
Grant and Vic hadn't been to Poland before so they went to Auschwitz, while me and Gem explored more of the town. We wandered through the Jewish quarter at one point, and it’s strange to see Nazi and SS paraphernalia in the markets stalls. There was even a fairly nasty looking SS staff with the eagle and lightning bolts on it.
A couple of weeks later the four of us boarded our charter plane for the snowy peaks of Switzerland for our Christmas trip. Were staying in the Hotel Saaserhof in the Resort Town of Saas Fee, which is a swanky 4 star resort right at the foot of the slopes. It was an amazing hotel. The rooms were really nice, the bar was cool, the staff were exceptional, and we got a full buffet breakfast each morning and a 5 course meal each night, with about 3 options per course. Amazing :) Wasn't the cheapest place around but it wasn't too bad for what you got and it was Christmas after all...
The ski room on the ground floor lead straight out onto the foot of the slopes, which was great as the town is car free (though there are tiny electric buses) so lots of people on the far side of the town had to lug their stuff through the streets. Once again it didn't actually snow while were there but it had snowed heaps before we got there so it was brilliant conditions. Blue skies and enough powder to cushion a fall or two a bit.
We went snowboarding everyday and had a blast. Vic had a few more lessons and really started to get the hang of it and came down a few blue runs with us. Grant had picked it up quickly in Bulgaria last year so he alternated between the beginner runs and the blue runs. Me and Gem did the blue runs and the red runs. Gem was going to tackle a black run by the end of the week but a nasty accident that saw her wipe out quite badly knocked a fair bit of confidence out of her, and quite rightly so, so we stayed on the reds :) We both had helmets this time as our speeds are starting to increase a fair bit, and it was quite lucky she was wearing hers. I had a few stacks too but only one that caused damage... just a nasty scrape to my knee. Though by the end of the week all four of us had quite a few bruises, most of them from unknown origins!
On Christmas day we took the gondola and the words highest underground train, which goes "inside" the mountain, up to the Allalin, a revolving restaurant at the top of one of the mountains. The view was amazing from there and a great way to spend Christmas lunch. After lunch we wandered across to the largest "ice grotto" in the world that is carved into one of the glaciers up in the mountain. It was cool to wander through tunnels and walkways inside ice that is so old.
There was another awesome attraction in Saas Fee that we went to twice in the end.... the Hannig. This beauty is a 6km sled ride down switchback trails down one of the mountains. You pick up a small 1 person sled that is just a 60cm wooden frame with runners and a rope, hook it on the back of the gondola and head up the mountain. At the top you just sit down and pick up your feet. The only thing you have to steer and brake are you feet which you sort of tap down to adjust your line a bit, or ram into the snow/ice to try and stop. It was a blast! There are some fairly steep edges around so you do have to pay attention (as Vic found out), some very tight turns, and sometimes some serious congestion where someone has come off, but once you get the hang of it its actually quite responsive and so much fun. I managed to take some footage while going down so hopefully I'll get a movie uploaded soon. On the whole, one of the highlights of the trip :)
After our 7 days in Switzerland were up, we got back on the plane to London and had 1 night to wash some clothes ready for our trip to Finland and the husky tour. We did a quick Laundromat run, got some take away, and repacked our bags ready for the next adventure. And here was quite a bit of excitement just on the trip there!
To get to Ivalo in northern Finland we had to fly from Heathrow to Helsinki, and then 900kms north to Ivalo. The bad thing was that we had only 55 minutes between landing in Helsinki and when our Ivalo flight left. We did the run through the airport and made it just in time, but when we got to Ivalo we found our bags didn't make it. That was going to be a small problem as we were about to do 3 days in -20 gear and all we had were jeans and t-shirts. Lucky for us another flight was coming in from Heathrow a hour later and the lady managed to track down that our bags should be on it. So we sat in the baggage hall and played poker for an hour and prayed the lady was right. They finally did turn up and we got a transfer to the hotel we were staying at for a quick feed and sleep before the taxi took us to the husky farm in the morning. Phew!
The taxi came at about 9:30am, which seeing as we were actually in the Arctic Circle, was still almost dark. The noise at the husky farm was amazing... so many dogs! A group was leaving before us for a 5 day tour so lots of the dogs were being harnessed and boy the make a racket. They are so excited to go that thy just bark and bark and bark. We also got to say hello to some very cute husky puppies... who were so adorable :) After the first group left, we had our safety and instructional meeting... which lasted all of 3 minutes. Our guide Yoni showed us the sled, told us what sort of distance to keep, how to use the brakes, how to scoot if going up hill (or get of and run on steeper uphill bit), and the most important bit, what to do if we come off. The basic rule was try not to, but if you did then you just try to hold on as you might be able to get your feet back on the rails. If you came off completely then the dogs would just keep on going, so you ran after them until someone stopped them... usually Yoni but after a while we all got better at it and the next person in front would often be able to stop them.
The six of us (there was another Italian couple in our group) finally set off about 12 with Yoni in the lead on a snowmobile (which he called a snow-scooter) and a trailer. It was pretty challenging at first as the dogs were really fresh and dying to get running but soon we all started to get into our rhythms. We had a few spills but its all part of the fun :) We stopped for lunch along the way and Yoni just lights a fire with wood from the trailer right on the snow. We had a nice soup and bread and a warm drink and then set of again. By about 2pm the sun starts to go down again (not that it ever clears the horizon, it just gets "light") and by about 4pm its pitch black. We were still out on the sleds when it got dark but the dogs know where they are going and we have headlamps on that don't show much but you get an idea of whats in front of you... a least for the first metre anyway :)
About 4:30 we finally covered the 25km to our first wilderness cabin. We tried to defrost inside a bit as it was about -20c outside. Yoni lit the fire and we lit lots of candles. There is no electricity or running water, so the next step was to get some fresh water from the lake... which of course is frozen over with about 30cm of ice. Yoni just took to it with a hatchet and cut a 50cm by 50cm bowl in the ice. When he finally breaks through it just fills with water and we use smaller buckets to fill a massive bucket and take it to the house. Water also gets put into a boiler in the sauna, yes it has a sauna, where it gets heated for washing and for the dogs food. After tea is started, we went out and unharnessed the dogs and fed them. It's quite a slow process but the dogs are so good and don't mind unskilled hand such as mine trying to get their paws and heads through various holes. Dinner for them is a big bowl of meaty soup... mmm.
Our dinner was a bit of a mishmash of pasta and sauce and meatballs, but very good after a long day. As this was New Years Eve we were determined to stay up. We were hoping to see the Northern Light (Aurora Borealis) and we weren't disappointed. We could see this glowing band start to appear in the northern sky about 10pm and it slowly got brighter and greener. At about 11:30ish it really started to swirl around and dance in the sky, and reds and purples were visible. It really was one of the most amazing things I have seen. It wasn't as colourful as you might see in postcards, I'd imagine they are enhanced quite a bit, but it was much more spectacular than I ever imagined. It lasted for about half an hour before starting to quiet down again. So we actually got to spend New Years Eve, in the Arctic Circle, under the Northern Lights, with a whiskey :) Amazing.
The next day, after re-harnessing the huskies, we covered 35 km in various stages of light. Actually staying on the sled and controlling it properly was trickier than I imagined, but good fun. On straight bits you just stood there and enjoyed the scenery. When you were on the frozen lakes it was like this, just so still and peaceful. But this didn't happen often. Most of the time you are either cornering at a fair old clip which means you have to lean on the correct rail to stop the sled tipping over, pushing on the snow with one foot if it does slightly up hill (to help the dogs), running behind the sled if it gets steeper up hill to take your weight off the sled completely, or trying to stop the sled crashing into the dogs on the downhill bits. All good fun but damn tiring. The hardest time to stay on was going down hill and cornering at the same time. You only have one foot on the sled as the other is on one of the two brakes, but then if you have the wrong foot on the sled you can easily tip the sled and fall off. It got really tough when there are downhill chicanes between the trees... you end up running on one rail while ducking tree branches and trying not to let the sled crash into the dogs!
The second night the cabin was a little bit more spacious, but still definitely a wilderness cabin. We were a bit quicker at unharnessing the dogs and feeding them this time, and then later enjoyed possibly the best salmon we have ever eaten. Yoni hung this massive piece of salmon that had been rubbed with salt on a wooden board and had it just propped by the fire (what he called "glow cooking"). It took about 2 hours to cook, but the salmon top was nice and crispy and underneath was juicy. So good. The Northern Lights were still active this night too, but not to the same degree as last night... I guess they knew we were after a show for NYE :)
The final day we covered about another 35km back to the husky farm. Along the way, one of Gems dogs got ill or injured and quite abruptly stopped running... of course when its harnessed to 4 other dog who go all keep running it gets dragged along. It was quite distressing to see and obviously Gem jumped on the brakes immediately. Yoni checked the husky out and he couldn't see anything obvious, but he unharnessed her at the back so she wasn't pulling anymore (just clipped in at the neck to keep her in line). She ran like this for a while but then tried to sit down again. Again Yoni came back and this time he took her off and held her in his arms on the snow-mobile. The dogs are so good and she didn't complain or try and get off. A little while later one of my dogs pulled out one of its nails while running and tried to do the same as Gem's. Again we tried a few things but he didn't like running at those speeds with his sore paw so Yoni took him off too. Yoni later told us that he has been pulling sleds for about 12 years which is about as long as they are healthy enough to do that so they have been watching him closely anyway. They'll take him off the 3 day tours and maybe use him for a short while on the single day tours. It wasn't going to work very well with me only having 4 dogs, so they took one of the dogs from one of the lighter and smaller girls and we continued home. When we got within about 5km of the husky farm the dogs really pick up speed. They know they are nearly home and they put on this massive burst of speed.
When we finally made it home we helped unharness the dogs again and put them back into their kennels. It was quite sad to say goodbye to them, but at least we all got to have one final cuddle with them and thank them for pulling us along. We said our goodbyes to our guide Yoni too and headed back to the hotel for our last night in Finland before making the trek back to London. This time our luggage made it with us at the same time :)
Not too long after getting home it was of course my birthday. Gem planned an amazing surprise for me which I didn't know about until right at the last minute. She went to bed on Friday night setting her alarm saying she had lots of work to do in the morning, but when it went off at about 6am she woke me up telling me to get up as we had an hour to get ready before we had to leave to catch the train to Disneyland Paris. Now Gem has a habit sometimes of thinking she is still in her dreams when she wakes up and I can string her along with a few questions... I thought this might be one of those times. But it wasn't! So we got up, packed a few clothes and headed to catch the Eurostar Train to Disneyland.
We spent 2 days there and had a brilliant time... made me feel like a kid again :) We were staying in one of the Disneyland hotels that are about a 5-10 minute bus ride away, but when we got off the train we just walked straight to the park and stowed our bags there. The setup is brilliant for convenience. We spent the day walking around and seeing the attractions, and then had dinner at Planet Hollywood. We finally caught a bus to the hotel, checked in and got ready for the next day back at the park. Unfortunately Gem was coming down with a pretty bad cold so she climbed into bed and tried to get some sleep. She was a real trooper on the two days as I could tell she really wasn't feeling very well, but she was determined not to let it ruin our holiday and my birthday surprise :)
In the morning we packed up, had a good breakfast, and then headed back to Disneyland for more wandering and sightseeing. Late in the afternoon we picked up our bags, got back on the train and headed back to London. All in all a brilliant surprise and we both had a really good time :) Thanks gorgeous :)
Well, that brings us up to our Bulgaria ski trip. And the final settlement of our second house, but I think they will have to be separate posts.
Hopefully I'll do them very shortly.
So December... obviously like everyone else getting ready for Christmas takes up so much time, but it is fun to shop :) We did a lot of ours online this year as its soooo much better than braving the crowds in the centre of London.
On one of the weekends, Grant, Vic, Gem and I flew to Krakow in Poland for 3 days. Me and Gem had been before but it is such a beautiful city and there were really cheap flights on that we thought we'd go again. We were hoping that it would snow while we were there but unfortunately it had just snowed and melted and we didn't any fresh snow. The Christmas Markets were on however and they are always fun to walk around. We bought a few more beautiful baubles (Gem's collecting a few each year to take home) and Gem and Vic tried their hands at mulled rum.... which didn't go down to well, and nearly came back up even worse :)
Grant and Vic hadn't been to Poland before so they went to Auschwitz, while me and Gem explored more of the town. We wandered through the Jewish quarter at one point, and it’s strange to see Nazi and SS paraphernalia in the markets stalls. There was even a fairly nasty looking SS staff with the eagle and lightning bolts on it.
A couple of weeks later the four of us boarded our charter plane for the snowy peaks of Switzerland for our Christmas trip. Were staying in the Hotel Saaserhof in the Resort Town of Saas Fee, which is a swanky 4 star resort right at the foot of the slopes. It was an amazing hotel. The rooms were really nice, the bar was cool, the staff were exceptional, and we got a full buffet breakfast each morning and a 5 course meal each night, with about 3 options per course. Amazing :) Wasn't the cheapest place around but it wasn't too bad for what you got and it was Christmas after all...
The ski room on the ground floor lead straight out onto the foot of the slopes, which was great as the town is car free (though there are tiny electric buses) so lots of people on the far side of the town had to lug their stuff through the streets. Once again it didn't actually snow while were there but it had snowed heaps before we got there so it was brilliant conditions. Blue skies and enough powder to cushion a fall or two a bit.
We went snowboarding everyday and had a blast. Vic had a few more lessons and really started to get the hang of it and came down a few blue runs with us. Grant had picked it up quickly in Bulgaria last year so he alternated between the beginner runs and the blue runs. Me and Gem did the blue runs and the red runs. Gem was going to tackle a black run by the end of the week but a nasty accident that saw her wipe out quite badly knocked a fair bit of confidence out of her, and quite rightly so, so we stayed on the reds :) We both had helmets this time as our speeds are starting to increase a fair bit, and it was quite lucky she was wearing hers. I had a few stacks too but only one that caused damage... just a nasty scrape to my knee. Though by the end of the week all four of us had quite a few bruises, most of them from unknown origins!
On Christmas day we took the gondola and the words highest underground train, which goes "inside" the mountain, up to the Allalin, a revolving restaurant at the top of one of the mountains. The view was amazing from there and a great way to spend Christmas lunch. After lunch we wandered across to the largest "ice grotto" in the world that is carved into one of the glaciers up in the mountain. It was cool to wander through tunnels and walkways inside ice that is so old.
There was another awesome attraction in Saas Fee that we went to twice in the end.... the Hannig. This beauty is a 6km sled ride down switchback trails down one of the mountains. You pick up a small 1 person sled that is just a 60cm wooden frame with runners and a rope, hook it on the back of the gondola and head up the mountain. At the top you just sit down and pick up your feet. The only thing you have to steer and brake are you feet which you sort of tap down to adjust your line a bit, or ram into the snow/ice to try and stop. It was a blast! There are some fairly steep edges around so you do have to pay attention (as Vic found out), some very tight turns, and sometimes some serious congestion where someone has come off, but once you get the hang of it its actually quite responsive and so much fun. I managed to take some footage while going down so hopefully I'll get a movie uploaded soon. On the whole, one of the highlights of the trip :)
After our 7 days in Switzerland were up, we got back on the plane to London and had 1 night to wash some clothes ready for our trip to Finland and the husky tour. We did a quick Laundromat run, got some take away, and repacked our bags ready for the next adventure. And here was quite a bit of excitement just on the trip there!
To get to Ivalo in northern Finland we had to fly from Heathrow to Helsinki, and then 900kms north to Ivalo. The bad thing was that we had only 55 minutes between landing in Helsinki and when our Ivalo flight left. We did the run through the airport and made it just in time, but when we got to Ivalo we found our bags didn't make it. That was going to be a small problem as we were about to do 3 days in -20 gear and all we had were jeans and t-shirts. Lucky for us another flight was coming in from Heathrow a hour later and the lady managed to track down that our bags should be on it. So we sat in the baggage hall and played poker for an hour and prayed the lady was right. They finally did turn up and we got a transfer to the hotel we were staying at for a quick feed and sleep before the taxi took us to the husky farm in the morning. Phew!
The taxi came at about 9:30am, which seeing as we were actually in the Arctic Circle, was still almost dark. The noise at the husky farm was amazing... so many dogs! A group was leaving before us for a 5 day tour so lots of the dogs were being harnessed and boy the make a racket. They are so excited to go that thy just bark and bark and bark. We also got to say hello to some very cute husky puppies... who were so adorable :) After the first group left, we had our safety and instructional meeting... which lasted all of 3 minutes. Our guide Yoni showed us the sled, told us what sort of distance to keep, how to use the brakes, how to scoot if going up hill (or get of and run on steeper uphill bit), and the most important bit, what to do if we come off. The basic rule was try not to, but if you did then you just try to hold on as you might be able to get your feet back on the rails. If you came off completely then the dogs would just keep on going, so you ran after them until someone stopped them... usually Yoni but after a while we all got better at it and the next person in front would often be able to stop them.
The six of us (there was another Italian couple in our group) finally set off about 12 with Yoni in the lead on a snowmobile (which he called a snow-scooter) and a trailer. It was pretty challenging at first as the dogs were really fresh and dying to get running but soon we all started to get into our rhythms. We had a few spills but its all part of the fun :) We stopped for lunch along the way and Yoni just lights a fire with wood from the trailer right on the snow. We had a nice soup and bread and a warm drink and then set of again. By about 2pm the sun starts to go down again (not that it ever clears the horizon, it just gets "light") and by about 4pm its pitch black. We were still out on the sleds when it got dark but the dogs know where they are going and we have headlamps on that don't show much but you get an idea of whats in front of you... a least for the first metre anyway :)
About 4:30 we finally covered the 25km to our first wilderness cabin. We tried to defrost inside a bit as it was about -20c outside. Yoni lit the fire and we lit lots of candles. There is no electricity or running water, so the next step was to get some fresh water from the lake... which of course is frozen over with about 30cm of ice. Yoni just took to it with a hatchet and cut a 50cm by 50cm bowl in the ice. When he finally breaks through it just fills with water and we use smaller buckets to fill a massive bucket and take it to the house. Water also gets put into a boiler in the sauna, yes it has a sauna, where it gets heated for washing and for the dogs food. After tea is started, we went out and unharnessed the dogs and fed them. It's quite a slow process but the dogs are so good and don't mind unskilled hand such as mine trying to get their paws and heads through various holes. Dinner for them is a big bowl of meaty soup... mmm.
Our dinner was a bit of a mishmash of pasta and sauce and meatballs, but very good after a long day. As this was New Years Eve we were determined to stay up. We were hoping to see the Northern Light (Aurora Borealis) and we weren't disappointed. We could see this glowing band start to appear in the northern sky about 10pm and it slowly got brighter and greener. At about 11:30ish it really started to swirl around and dance in the sky, and reds and purples were visible. It really was one of the most amazing things I have seen. It wasn't as colourful as you might see in postcards, I'd imagine they are enhanced quite a bit, but it was much more spectacular than I ever imagined. It lasted for about half an hour before starting to quiet down again. So we actually got to spend New Years Eve, in the Arctic Circle, under the Northern Lights, with a whiskey :) Amazing.
The next day, after re-harnessing the huskies, we covered 35 km in various stages of light. Actually staying on the sled and controlling it properly was trickier than I imagined, but good fun. On straight bits you just stood there and enjoyed the scenery. When you were on the frozen lakes it was like this, just so still and peaceful. But this didn't happen often. Most of the time you are either cornering at a fair old clip which means you have to lean on the correct rail to stop the sled tipping over, pushing on the snow with one foot if it does slightly up hill (to help the dogs), running behind the sled if it gets steeper up hill to take your weight off the sled completely, or trying to stop the sled crashing into the dogs on the downhill bits. All good fun but damn tiring. The hardest time to stay on was going down hill and cornering at the same time. You only have one foot on the sled as the other is on one of the two brakes, but then if you have the wrong foot on the sled you can easily tip the sled and fall off. It got really tough when there are downhill chicanes between the trees... you end up running on one rail while ducking tree branches and trying not to let the sled crash into the dogs!
The second night the cabin was a little bit more spacious, but still definitely a wilderness cabin. We were a bit quicker at unharnessing the dogs and feeding them this time, and then later enjoyed possibly the best salmon we have ever eaten. Yoni hung this massive piece of salmon that had been rubbed with salt on a wooden board and had it just propped by the fire (what he called "glow cooking"). It took about 2 hours to cook, but the salmon top was nice and crispy and underneath was juicy. So good. The Northern Lights were still active this night too, but not to the same degree as last night... I guess they knew we were after a show for NYE :)
The final day we covered about another 35km back to the husky farm. Along the way, one of Gems dogs got ill or injured and quite abruptly stopped running... of course when its harnessed to 4 other dog who go all keep running it gets dragged along. It was quite distressing to see and obviously Gem jumped on the brakes immediately. Yoni checked the husky out and he couldn't see anything obvious, but he unharnessed her at the back so she wasn't pulling anymore (just clipped in at the neck to keep her in line). She ran like this for a while but then tried to sit down again. Again Yoni came back and this time he took her off and held her in his arms on the snow-mobile. The dogs are so good and she didn't complain or try and get off. A little while later one of my dogs pulled out one of its nails while running and tried to do the same as Gem's. Again we tried a few things but he didn't like running at those speeds with his sore paw so Yoni took him off too. Yoni later told us that he has been pulling sleds for about 12 years which is about as long as they are healthy enough to do that so they have been watching him closely anyway. They'll take him off the 3 day tours and maybe use him for a short while on the single day tours. It wasn't going to work very well with me only having 4 dogs, so they took one of the dogs from one of the lighter and smaller girls and we continued home. When we got within about 5km of the husky farm the dogs really pick up speed. They know they are nearly home and they put on this massive burst of speed.
When we finally made it home we helped unharness the dogs again and put them back into their kennels. It was quite sad to say goodbye to them, but at least we all got to have one final cuddle with them and thank them for pulling us along. We said our goodbyes to our guide Yoni too and headed back to the hotel for our last night in Finland before making the trek back to London. This time our luggage made it with us at the same time :)
Not too long after getting home it was of course my birthday. Gem planned an amazing surprise for me which I didn't know about until right at the last minute. She went to bed on Friday night setting her alarm saying she had lots of work to do in the morning, but when it went off at about 6am she woke me up telling me to get up as we had an hour to get ready before we had to leave to catch the train to Disneyland Paris. Now Gem has a habit sometimes of thinking she is still in her dreams when she wakes up and I can string her along with a few questions... I thought this might be one of those times. But it wasn't! So we got up, packed a few clothes and headed to catch the Eurostar Train to Disneyland.
We spent 2 days there and had a brilliant time... made me feel like a kid again :) We were staying in one of the Disneyland hotels that are about a 5-10 minute bus ride away, but when we got off the train we just walked straight to the park and stowed our bags there. The setup is brilliant for convenience. We spent the day walking around and seeing the attractions, and then had dinner at Planet Hollywood. We finally caught a bus to the hotel, checked in and got ready for the next day back at the park. Unfortunately Gem was coming down with a pretty bad cold so she climbed into bed and tried to get some sleep. She was a real trooper on the two days as I could tell she really wasn't feeling very well, but she was determined not to let it ruin our holiday and my birthday surprise :)
In the morning we packed up, had a good breakfast, and then headed back to Disneyland for more wandering and sightseeing. Late in the afternoon we picked up our bags, got back on the train and headed back to London. All in all a brilliant surprise and we both had a really good time :) Thanks gorgeous :)
Well, that brings us up to our Bulgaria ski trip. And the final settlement of our second house, but I think they will have to be separate posts.
Hopefully I'll do them very shortly.
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