Нижний Новгород

A non-skiing post, since I'm no longer on sabbatical.

However, I am just back from Nizhny Novgorod (AFAICS the editor here does a good job of transliteration from phonetic English to Cyrillic) It was a bit of a shock coming from lovely, sunny, 15C weather in Bristol to 2-3C with rain and lots of piles of snow in Nizhny.

Here's a panorama of the Волга (Volga) as seen from close to our hotel. Note that the river is still partially iced over. I didn't see any Volga boatmen, but did see the hovercraft that acts as a ferry . It  seems a sane way of coping with mixed ice and water.

Panorama of the Volga looking north-ish from Nizhny.

I was hardly immersed in Russian, but you do soon get your eye in for the Cyrillic, and then you start to recognise lots of French, German and even English words... "СТОП" (STOP), "РЕСТАУРАН" (RESTAURAN), "ФРУТТИ ДИ МАРЕ" (FRUTTI DI МАRЕ), "ЭТАЖ" (ETAGE, as on lift signs etc.) Going round with Arch Robison, who had taken the time to actually learn the script first, meant we could also read the sign for "Стриптиз"(which we didn't sample!)

The church across the square from our hotel

The snow melted significantly during the week I was in Nizhny, and there was even some sun at the end of the week (even if a black cloud then came over and it snowed).

The central pedestrian shopping street in Nizhny has lots of global brands, which can be confusing. Arch had trouble with the "Ecco"shoe store since he thought it was in Cyrillic. There was even an Аксессориз. 

A theatre

There's an interesting mix of completely run-down buildings, some still wooden (or, at least, pretending to be), restored old buildings and completely modern ones.

Nizhny region branch of the state bank

When Nizhny was Gorky it was a closed city, and Sakharov was exiled there; his house is now a museum (Nizhny Museums).

It's a real pity that obtaining permission to go to Russia is still so hard. If it was made trivial, then I could see Ryanair and EasyJet flying there. 

Some Summary Statistics

I was away from home for 37 days, of which four were spent driving, and I skipped two days, so I skied for 33 days. I managed to remember to turn the My Tracks GPS tracking on for 31 days. In those 31 days, I was out skiing for 182 hours and 2 minutes, and covered more than 1,274 miles ("more than", as the GPS sometimes teleports you if it can't fine enough satellites, which it definitely can't when you're in a tunnel). Since I drove a total of 1850 miles, until I set of for home, I'd travelled further on skis (and ski-lifts!) than by car.

The longest day was over 100km (80 miles), and highest speed was a well judged 99km/h (~62mph), which was at the bottom of the Trolles run into Tignes.

A few random highlights

• Best Omelette : Omelette au Beaufort at Le Dou du Praz, La Plagne
• Best Cafe: La Cremerie, La Thuile, Italy
• Best resort for skiing: Tignes
• Best resort overall: La Rosiere/La Thuile

Day 37: Back to Bristol

After spending the night just south of Troyes, I left at about 8am just as rain started, with the sun rising over Champagne and the multitude of wind-turbines. It was rainy more or less to Reims, then clear. Through the tunnel and back to Bristol, getting back about 4:25pm.
Total distance from La Rosiere ~885 miles. Total distance for the whole holiday ~1850 miles.

Day 36: La Rosiere, La Thuile

Jo and Jim at Roches Noires

My last day skiing. Caroline was too tired to ski today, so Jo used "her" pass to come up on the Roches Noirs Express with her raquettes to walk up to the fort. The link to Italy was closed, so we skied down to the Landeliers lift (which had been closed all week). Alison had a good wipeot on the black run, which seemed to be carnage, with a falling boarder and another sliding skier. By the time we were at the top of Landeliers, Jo had snow-shoed up there.

Jo snow shoeing

We went down and up to the Fort, by which time she was there too.
Luckilyby this time the liaison with Italy was open; it wasn't quite clear why it had been closed, though they sent  a piste-basher down the run from the fort towards Italy. I want a piste basher all the time; skiing 100m behind it was great.
We only took one drag, and then skied some runs in the pass. The snow was amazingly good, given that it hasn't snowed for a month. We then went down the road for lunch at Lo Riondet, definitely the place to go if you like polenta, though we managed to avoid it and had good meals none the less.

Jennifer and Ashley (and consumed Cafes affogato)

After lunch skied around a bit, then down to La Cremerie for cafe affogato.
Back through the pass with a (more or less) last look at Mont Blanc which I'll let you imagine.
A good day's skiing under slight high cloud to finish up with. I'll do some stats and a summary post once I'm home. (I'm posting this a day late from Le Val Moret, just south of Troyes, after an un-eventful drive from La Rosiere, listening to solid In Our Times).

Day 35: La Rosiere, La Thuile

Some high cloud today, so slightly cooler, though still pretty hot for February. Up and over to La Thuile for coffee. Jo was off with Alpes-Rando again today, back in Ste Foy and then up to Le Monal, so a completely different walk from Ste Foy from yesterday.
Lunch in Maison Carrel, which had an excellent Linguine with Ceps.

Panorama looking back from Italy up the Petit St Bernard pass,

Caroline had a fall (and slide) on the first real run after lunch and tweaked her knee, so she waited for us while we did a run back into La Thuile and came back up on the chair lift. Then we set off back to La Rosiere, losing Jennifer and Ashley in the pass since they wanted to do a few more runs.

Ashley, Caroline, Jennifer and Alison,

Alison and I left Caroline at the top of the fort to come down Choucas ("Just don't take any left turns"), and we skied down to the fort lift in slush. The snow in Italy is still amazingly good, but in France it's slush after 11am.
Last day skiing tomorrow.

Day 34: La Rosiere, La Thuile

Up early despite it being chalet hosts' day off (so self-service breakfast) since Jo needed to be at Skimium at  9:15ish ready for a 9:30 dpearture to Ste Foy for a whole day's snow-shoeing. Caroline was feeling well enough to ski today, so shoe, Alison and I set off.

Caroline & Alison at Les Eucherts

Caroline gradually found her skiing legs, so we set off for Italy, with Jennifer and Ashley catching us up at the top of the Fort.

Caroline in La Cremerie

Down to La Cremerie for coffee, arriving at noon. Caroline had problems with her goggles, so was skiing with mine. We tried to get some in Berthod Sport, but since it was 12:27 and they close at 12:30 it was already shut.
We met up again for lunch at Le Rascard at 1:45. They recognised us (It is the third day we've been there), and were friendly as ever.
After lunch we skied back.
Jo had a good day in Ste Foy with Alpes Rando.
Nearly time to set off to Le Genepi for our meal.

Day 33: La Rosiere, La Thuile

Caroline still wasn't up to skiing today, though she was up and about with Jo this morning, finally deciding not t ski at about 11, when she called us (we were in the coffee shop in La Thuile by then) to let us know.
Lunch in Le Rascard, who did indeed have pizzas today. On the way down to Le Rascard by the Women's downhill, we met Clare, who was over from Ste Foy guiding her guests from there.

Panorama over La Thuile, with Monte Cervino (the Matterhorn) in the
distance.

After lunch we skied a few more runs, then stopped for a coffee/ice-cream break before setting off for home.

Coffee and Ice-cream.

Mont Blanc from La Rosiere (above Les Suches)

Jo went out with Alpes-Rando again this afternoon, up on the mountains above Lac du Chevril. Through the telescope they saw chamois and an ibex. (Photo to follow...)

With any luck Caroline will be up to skiing tomorrow.