Anyway enough of that, were was l ahh yes, we just returned from our xmas holiday in the mountains of the Dolomiti ,in San Cassiano. We spent a wonderful week at La Fradora, a well maintained hotel, that serves half board (breakfast, dinner), it has a terrific wellness centre, that is brand new, as were our apartments. We holidayed there with the Fennessey family ( Sue, James, Nick, Charlie and Jake) The snow was nothing like last year which was good and bad, the skiing was terrific still and most runs were open, but not all and it looked a bit like spring. But the food and restaurants, refugo's were excellent, the best yet. I can't stop talking about the quality and service we recieved , we ate like kings!
Like last year we got Gianluca (Jack) to take the boys on lessons, Hunter and Ewan love Jack, and got a bit jealous they had to share him, also the fact there was little snow it meant no off piste skiing, which is what they love the most, and the other kids are good skiers but not as good as the boys, Nick skied for the first time, normally snowboards, and the twins are only 6. But they all got on very well, and Jack made sure they all had fun. James and l skied a bit, drank some bombodianos and beers, and caught up with the kids through out the day. Often Sue and Jayne would walk up and meet us at a refugo. Jayne still is a bit nervous about her knee, and Sue just wanted to take it easy, she is too important at the moment to be injured, though she did come skiing one day.
The weather was perfect, sunny most of the time, and the temperture quite warm. The meals at the hotel were huge, and we had a great waiter "Dean", who was slightly Manuel, but more, just could not really care about anything, except us, and so we all got along well, l enjoyed seeing him wander about working all day, with his unique behaviour, mind you he worked hard, and l would imagine for very little. All the staff were great, the owners on the other hand seemed to be in a panic or nasty, as if we were in the way, but its worth staying there, as the bus stop is out the front and its close to walk anyway.
The boys and l went up with Jayne the weekend before to get skies and pass's before the crowds, that did not come, and were able to get brand new skis (Stockl) for the boys and Rossignol Hero ST for me, which are definetly the best skis l ever used. We met a clever man at the ski hire place, Roberto Pallestrong who is a ceramic artist, who made some great design plates, that had a wood grain appearance, lovely person who made sure we were always happy.
We caught up with Nicole and Carlotta for lunch one day, and also so they could meet Sue and James, but otherwise we kept to ourselves and had a great xmas lunch up on the mountain, and lots of laughs.
On the 28th December we left San Cassiano as the weather began to change, and headed off to Innsbruck, 1.5 hours away, arriving at the Sailer Hotel, which turned out to be a smokers heaven, unfortunetly none of us smoke! Dont stay there unless you love smoke, thankfully we found a sitting room with a door that we occupied in the evenings and ordered drinks from there. But the rooms at night filled with the smell of smoke from the hallway, until l wet a towel and rolled it at the base of our door. 1-2 days is enough in Innsbruck, we had 4-5. And so left happily knowing we were leaving, the Austrians l must say have very average service qualities, and the food is fun for a day, but enough of the sauerkraut , sausage, strudel, infact anything beginning with s. So we drank some more, the beer is good, it snowed all the time we were there, which made skiing less desirable. Sogan and Christiano, and Sophia came up and stayed near by, Christiano and Sophia skied one day, but it was such an event that it made it easy for us to say no. We visited a few museums, which was all interesting, saw some sights, and generally plodded through the slushy snow to and from cafe, bar, museum with the kids throwing snow balls, or crying .
The day we left the sun came out, as we headed back to Bologna, Sue and James to Munich to fly back to the states, and Sogan and Christiano went back a day earlier. We spent new years eve having a good dinner at the hotel, and getting to bed just before 12 to watch the fireworks from the window.
The sights to see in Innsbruck are the Zoo, which is actually quite good, Schloss Castle which l found very interesting, and well set up for English tourists, but no working cafe, and its out of town, the city museum was very good with an archilogical area, and some modern artworks and all in between, it also had a good audio to listen to. There is also a chinese reataurant you may want to go to if you are tired of sauerkraut.
So in the end a great week skiing, an average 5 days in Innsbruck, but we left planning a summer holiday together, so obviously we all got along very well, and had some healthy laughing.
Dowds, Fennesseys, Silei
Jayne and Sue, NYE dinner
Family photo in red onesies
Lovely gift from the Fennesseys
Sogand and Jayne in the weather
Ewan being Ewan
Group scene
Happy boys
