December 18 Wednesday

We have arrived in Bormio and it is an old town but the hotel we are staying at is lovely. It is a town located in the province of Sondrio, Lombardy region of the Alps in northern Italy. It has a population of 4,200. In addition to modern skiing facilities, the town is noted for the presence of several hot springs that have been tapped to provide hot spring water to spa baths at Bagni Vecchi, Bagni Nuovi and Terme di Bormio. Unfortunately we did not bring our swimmers so we cannot go to that but we did this in New Zealand, so we know what hot springs are. It would have been lovely to do this and look out at the snow on the mountains but without our swimmers ,not possible. Bormio retains its unique medieval town centre, attracting many tourists, mainly Italian but this Christmas they are holding the WORLD CUP IN SKIING here commencing I the 29th December. I imagine that the place would be overrun by tourists world wide then, I am glad we are here now.

The hotel where we are staying is called San Lorenzo . It is supposed to be 3 star but definitely by my standards better than that. It is warm, beautifully presented, beautiful lounge area as well as breakfast dining, complete with hot meals for breakfast if you choose. Our breakfasts have been our mainstay of our meals in this trip so far. Today represents one and half weeks since we left….and it has been most interesting all the travelling. It has also been good to drop for a little while and rest.

Marc really wanted to go ski-ing in Italy during our trip so although the snow report is not wonderful, He rugs up with all the layers he can muster and off he goes. However, just like a school child off to s first day of school, Lyndell accompanies him to the base of the lift, admonishes him to look after himself since she will kill him if he hurts himself and away he goes.

Actually, there is a little bit of self preservation in Lyndell’s motives for wanting Marc not to hurt himself. Even if he only sprains an ankle, who is going to drive the manual transmission rental car on the right side of the road in a foreign country where the signs are not in English???? Hmmmm! Actually, Marc has faith that Lyndell could do it but she adamantly denies this aptitude.

Marc was a little nervous since different country, different snow conditions. Ah, no reason to be concerned … There had not been significant snow for three weeks so all the ski runs had been topped up with snow-making through the nights and ‘groomed’ resulting in hard packed runs with ice underneath and the occasional rock showing through … just like the ski-ing in Australia! Marc was ‘at home’ and with the experience of refreshing his ski-ing skills still fresh in his motor memory, a good set of skis with good edges, he was handling all the runs the mountain could offer without a single fall. The challenge compared to Australian ski-ing was the length of the runs and the total number of metres of descent. Oh but how the lactic acid built up in the quads on the long runs.

After three hours, time to head for home since Lyndell is home alone and it is her holiday too. One final challenge, try to ski the entire descent available without stopping – from summit to the gondola back to the base. Well, things were going fine until 1/2 way down with a lot of speed behind him, he couldn’t hold a turn and went over the edge breaking a safety pole off at its base. Nervous next few seconds since despite employing ‘arrest fall’ techniques, he continued to slide down the side of the mountain. Eventually he came to a stop and was thankful that, not only no injuries incurred, but both skis, despite coming off higher up the slope, had slid down together and were only 30 or 40 metres higher up the slope. Short walk back up he slope, not easy when not acclimatised to the altitude, skis back on and head off again. Only this time, slowly and with great difficulty. Marc is no longer on the groomed slopes but having to get down slopes that have had several freeze-thaw cycles. Surfaces are rough and cannot be ‘punched’ through. One further minor fall before finally getting back to where could get onto the gondola for the trip back down the mountain however still keen to come back tomorrow for another ‘go’!

For those of you who do not know what ‘arrest-fall’ techniques means: it means while sliding down a precipitous slope you calmly and without panic, roll over onto your belly positioning yourself head up (the slope), spread-eagle to maximise friction with the slope and then dig anything you have into the slope, ice-axe preferably but in Marc’s case, ski boot toes and the ski pole handles, then wait for friction to hopefully overcome gravity before you fall over something more vertical.

By the way, Marc tried return the broken safety pole to the bottom but in the end, had to just stand it in the snow when the slope became to steep to manage the safety pole and the two ski poles and stay upright all at the same time.

Afternoon spent doing domestics – meaning going to the ‘lavanderia’ and doing 1 1/2 weeks of washing. Good to do since some clothing items were ready to walk off and have their own holidays. Followed this with some more wanderings and window shopping. Lyndell bought a qthick scarf since the thin Australian one was not really “cutting it” against the European cold.

December 19

Another day of ski-ing for me. ‘Slight’ mistake with having a cooked breakfast. Sharp turns with a ‘full stomach’ did not make for a good combination. Things got worse after a hot chocolate at the summit mid-morning. Stepped out of the cafe to a totally white-out with dense fog. Visibility restricted to 10-20m … sky white … snow white … unable to see any guide posts … nothing to give a horizon or a sense of level. Very disorientating! Since there was a breeze blowing, unable even to tell if you were moving. Only way to tell if you were moving and how fast was to glance at your skis and see if they were moving in relation to the snow and how fast. I became moderately vertiginous and even more nauseated then I was before. It was a very slow descent interrupted with many stops to try and control the vertigo although, with nothing to fix my gaze on, the vertigo never really left me until some time after dropping below the cloud base. I did not go back up to the summit for the rest of the day – just restricted myself to the runs below the cloud base. Not worth the vertigo!

At least the afternoon brought the beginning of some light snow falling. Far from the amount Bormio will need with the World Cup starting in less than ten days but a start. Definitely not enough to cover the small rocks that had started to break through the snow base on the slopes. Regrettably, although they are only rental skis, I put a shallow gouge in the base of one ski after having been so diligent for the last two days to avoid any stones I could see.

I got to play doctor today. A young teenager had fallen over and was complaining of a sore shoulder. I introduced myself, “Faccio un dottore. Posso aiuto?” Then found out that the injured lad was English with a broad English accent. Still, my Italian had given me credibility to the other by-standers. Clinically a fractured clavicle and I was able to convey this to his ski instructor but I left it to her to ring for the ski patrol to come and pick him up. He was the only ‘injured’ person I saw on the slopes over the two days. Sure, people fell but no injuries requiring being carted off. Much fewer than on Australian slopes. Can this because Bormio is predominantly a place for intermediate skiers and snow boarders – there being very few beginners runs and they are down near the base. Or, are the skiers overall better since they have more access to slopes then in Australia. I am guessing the former since we all have to start sometime.

In addition to Bormio having very little for the beginner skiers, it also has very little for the advanced skier other than some areas of off-piste ‘free ski-ing’. I did not even go and have a look at those areas since the snow cover was not all that good where they had been making snow, it would probably be poorer away from the groomed slopes. I did find a run ‘reserved’ for expert skiers and went down that just to prove I could. Not that tricky. More a case of there being quite a few moguls to negotiate as well as a steep slope – still easier than the badly broken up black runs at Hotham where the snow boarders have pushed up big bumps on the runs.

Called it a day just after midday. The snow base was breaking up and the new snow not yet deep enough to cover the thin areas. I hope it works out for the locals next week – they need the injection of money for their economy.

So what did I do when Marc was skiing? The first morning was taken up with talking to my children via Skype and then catching up on the diary we are writing now. I needed to add various sections of the personal feel and touch away from the actual journey travelled. Combining that with emails sent to my parents …it was a full morning. I was sitting outside on our little balcony …which must have looked quite funny to the viewer as I was decked out in coat, gloves and scarf sitting there writing. However the sun was shining and it was rather pleasant…….( although I had to go back into the room every now and then to warm up)
Today was a little slower but I managed to talk for an hour with Margie via Skype and that was great. We had an opportunity to really chat about things and check in with our world as Marc was not here and Warren was asleep. We have been trying to contact via Skype for a while but it was not possible for some reason but today we finally did it!! I was very happy to do that.

After that I walked in and out of most shops…to fill some time in and managed to buy a most beautiful white scarf/shawl…which I can use at home, it doubles as a scarf and is so soft and thick in this form and shape…I am sure I will be using it as we reach Austria. The bonus was, it is soft warm and not at all expensive !!
At the moment the snow is lightly falling and it is minus one degree. Not heavy at all, just flaky and flurry as they call it on the weather map.

One aspect I have enjoyed of our stay in this hotel is the opportunity to use the jacuzzi in our bathroom. We both enjoyed the luxury of lying in hot water accompanied by pulsating jet stream bubbles ( plus the bath foam that kept increasing with the jets) and I plan another one tonight. Last night was also accompanied by our meal in our hotel room of biscuits cheese and red wine…nothing too plush for us travellers !! That was all we felt like. Tonight we will venture out for dinner.
A bonus (?) was also tuning into Italian television to watch not one but two episodes of NCIS…all In Italian. Knew the story line having seen them before but it was interesting listening to the various configuration of voices to match the American actors. When they went into a ‘song’. In Part of one of the scenes, the dubbing did not happen. Rather we heard the real actors singing the song..in English then it was switched back to Italian dubbing. Very clever dubbing though …not like the old film versions where the voices are delayed after the actor speaks. This was perfectly
in time even down tot he sighs. Most of the shows that we have viewed on TV are American ones…some soapies in Italian but we even saw THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL ‘mmmm… Now That was an Interesting concept.

At the moment we are sitting in Bar Bormio sipping mulled wine and listening to American music…nothing Italian. Another aspect of this stop has been the opportunity to just slow down, not racing to see another sight or travelling to another place. Hopefully we can do this again in Australia and again at the end of our trip, in Athens. Otherwise we will come back to Australia just needing another holiday.

Next instalment from Salzburg !!