Germany to Bulgaria: The Statistics

1 – large box of Rhona's homemade biscuits;

1.539 – Euros per litre of premium diesel in Austria;

2 – horses frolicking on the road in Bulgaria;

3 – apples;

4 - new passport stamps;

5.99 – Euros spent on Macdonalds;

6 – countries: Germany, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria!;

14 – approximate driving time in hours;

71 – Euros spent on tolls and vignettes;

300 – the year AD, approximately, that Felix Romuliana was built: interesting ruins, covered in the last of this season's snow;

60km in, a long way to go.

605 – longest distance quoted by TomTom without a single travel direction: ie “there's only one road in Serbia, and it's the highway outta there”;

1336 – total kilometres driven;

7470 – RSD spent on diesel: far cheaper than Austria!; and

100835 – the badge number of the Serbian border officer who “requested a donation” as our valid car insurance was the “wrong colour”.

Conglomerate pillars in Belogradchik, Bulgaria: we're there at last!

Winter is over - and it's time for summer!

Winter is over.

We've certainly had some awesome days skiing, boarding and ice climbing - and some fabulous nights out too - visiting some famous and some less famous areas all over the Alps and into Bavaria as well. We've caught up with friends, we've met other climbers and even at rare times had some solitude on a climb. We've both now much more confident on ice than before, knowing the ice, our ability and our gear better (and perhaps being more than a little interested in upgrading!). Jen's even started to enjoy black runs on her skis - quite a change in attitude! - and Mark's had loads of fun off-piste (and has the black patch scars on his board to prove it).

But ... to be honest, it's not been much of a winter. It's been quite depressing at times in the Alps, with all those sunny skies and warm days, chasing away the fresh snow and melting the ice. We've had to stick to north-facing routes, as most south-facing ice routes never formed properly, and we were extremely surprised (and overjoyed, too - don't get me wrong!) to have had three such great snow days in Val Thorens with the Ambers after almost six weeks without fresh snow.

This means that we're just going to have to spend another winter in the Alps before we can contemplate leaving Europe. It's a hard life, but we'll manage!

And in the meantime? Summer awaits! So, in preparation for the change in season, we're back at Rhona and Brett's place in Munich. We've emptied Fred out, and are busy cleaning and sorting gear - in between hanging out, long games of Carcassone, cooking, eating and drinking, of course. All the winter stuff is being left behind, as is the UltraBox, and no doubt this will make life in the van a lot more comfortable. No more skis, snowboard or multiple axes to shift every time we need to eat or sleep or drive! No more drying ropes, harnesses and sharps each day! Hurray!

Fred is also having some minor repairs tomorrow (apparently that funny noise and occasional smoke isn't normal or good, but is at least easily fixed) - and then he will get new tyres on Thursday too... and by the end of the week, we'll be ready for summer. 

Bulgaria? Turkey? Greece? Here we come.

A day at Les Deux Alpes

Apparently it was pretty busy out there today.

We were too busy enjoying the great snow to notice ...

... both on the piste ...

... and off the piste. "Good snow" is relative to the season - Mark sadly isn't actually up to his waist in powder here.

We loved these red pods, that opened up like an egg rather than having doors. Very retro.

And the shape of these (surprisingly speedy) chairs, too! Look, no feet! Ah, they don't make 'em like they used to.

... and the best bit is, we'll be back up there for more tomorrow. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Back to Le Pylon

We walked up the hill to this ice climb back in December, and decided to picnic instead of climb.

We had heard ice climbing conditions were good in La Grave, so we thought we'd head back and check it out. On first glance, we were not inspired - the snow and ice is almost completely gone from any surface that gets sunlight and it really does not look like winter! As we drove up, we saw a large chandelier on a south-facing cliff come crashing down. Hmmm.

Winter?

Oh ye of little faith! The ice falls on the north sides were actually in better condition than before. Out of the sun it has stayed cool and the ice has grown fatter. But not being too cold, it wasn't too miserable out there either. Perfect!

We had also heard that, as only north-facing routes are in condition, it was likely to be busy ... but today we only had to share Pylon with one other team, who were super friendly and obligingly kept to the left whilst we were on the right. As we had the time, we headed up both sides of the fall ...

Mark leading the right side in one mega-pitch ....

... and Jen taking on the easier second pitch of the left side.

We suppose the bright sunshine isn't all bad news. Once back at the car, we could dry the gear and relax in the sun with a cold drink. Yep, apparently this is winter in the Alps.

Not a yardsale.

Val Thorens

We'd planned ages ago to try to meet up with old mates from Amsterdam in Val Thorens, when they'd be there for a week of skiing and boarding in February - and so we jumped in the van and headed back west.

The Ambers could not have hoped for better snow during their trip! After a month of almost no snow and warm temperatures across the Alps, it bucketed down fresh white stuff ... we couldn't believe what great timing they had. We were super stoked about being able to get out there (and Jen really, really wanted to test her new skis and boots, too).


Arriving in Val Thorens, we realised that we'd been misinformed about the campercar situation - meaning we had to park down the hill at Les Menuires (pronounced "Lez Manures" ...?!). We could easily catch chairs up to Val Thorens each day with a ski ticket combining both resorts, but getting down again in the evenings proved to be not so easy.




The first night we tried to get a taxi, only to find they were both unavailable and really expensive, so settled for Plan B: ski / board back down the hill. There's a pretty straightforward piste running from Val Thorens down to Les Menuires, but when it's midnight, with no moon, you've had a beer (or two) and you're sharing that narrow piste with a snow groomer - it's a little more exciting. The next two nights we sadly left our mates to their apartments, hot showers, social dinners and drinks before the sun had completely set, because ... well, because we're sensible (and a little boring)!

Anyway, we really enjoyed catching up, having a few runs and hanging out during the day with the Ambers crew - and having snow that great, this winter, was just the icing on the cake.

Important!

Do not befriend the bartender if you have things to do and places to go the next day! 

(Even if she is a climber!)

You may appreciate the free drinks at the time, but you will not the next morning.

(On another note, we did have a very random but incredibly fun night out at Conrad Sohm's.)

Munich

We never did get a decent shot of the ooom-pah-pah band - or of the pretzel girl in her dirndl!

All those pesky tourists kept getting in the way.

 Good beer though.

(PS The one on the left is Mark's, the one on the right is Jen's ... Rhona had a lemonde, which was decidedly unphotogenic.)