Peelies travels

The  barges continued to and fro but somehow didn’t disturb our sleep on the little bit of dry land we were on. We looked forward to a slow wake up after the rude breakfast alert of Tuesday morning at 07:00 (that felt like 06:00). Unfortunately the work nearby must have needed a pile driver as that was Wednesday’s wake-up call, at 07:15 (that felt like 06:15). No matter, we need a good start and now are awake, let’s crack on. We therefore download a few essential episodes of The Archers, which takes a few mS because, yes you’ve guessed it, they have wifi backed with super fast fibre. The speed test proved it. We spend a few minutes reviewing how to pay for our night. It seems that we will get a month-end invoice! How very business-like. It seems as though we campers are treated like the marina boat owners. So we leave the parkplatz and they leave everything to trust and about a thousand photos they’ve taken of us and the Landy, from every angle. They know who we are. So it’s back o...

At last, we are off again. After failing to get away to Corsica earlier in he summer, we are back on the road. It's a great feeling, although I'm always just a little apprehensive about embarking on a long journey. The more I learn about vehicle maintenance, the more l know what there is to go wrong. The result: more tools and more spare parts. At least this landy isn't complicated, plus I can slide underneath without needing to lift it. We have picked Hull-Rotterdam because it’s  only 85 miles to Hull and then we are o n-board, plus t he nice people at P&O held our previous payment as credit and we used it to rebook this trip. So here we are, boarding the Pride of Rotterdam at the rear (due to our 2.7m height with the box). We are dwarfed by motor homes and camper vans and later by a desirable Sprinter 4x4 on its way home to Germany plus many others that completely fill the deck in all directions. The Skylounge is an early call, just to get the trip off to a good start...

If you want a huge skiable vertical drop then don’t go to Sälen. This lump of hills, just east of the border with Norway, rise to just about 1,000m. Each run down is a single adrenaline rush, rather than one that can take some time. However, for a family friendly destination where you can learn or re-learn in a lovely environment, you can’t go wrong. Take the lift attendants; every one of them makes eye contact and says Heije or Hello and smiles. They do that every time they pass you the button or the T-bar. All day. It’s a big contrast to other countries and resorts where you can feel like a second-class citizen and begin to wish you weren’t English. It isn’t terribly expensive. On-slope coffee and hot chocolate, even with fresh cream and marshmallows (if you are allowed them), is at least competitive as at home, possibly cheaper. Obviously if your request for a “hot chocolate” is misunderstood and you are served a shot-glass full of goodness, that includes coffee, whipped cream and ...

We have got our ski legs back after eleven years and it’s just as well. The two boys have progressed exponentially and are now fearless. They aren’t using poles and just point downhill. If they need to slow they use snowplough but scarily this isn’t employed much. I have just tried to stay ahead of the younger one on the Free Ride, all the way down from the top. I failed.  It’s the last day, Friday and it seems colder today but I think it’s again no lower than about minus 14. There’s no falling snow and visibility is better.

It’s never been warmer than minus 5 and when it was, that morning felt warm. There were no cold cheeks, toes or fingers. The rest of the time you need to be conscious that there’s a chill, especially when you getup some speed. Mostly it’s been cloudy and sometimes this has been down to ground level and it seems to snow most of the time. When it snows it has been light but amazingly, every flake counts and just sticks. Consequently a period of light snow gives a new cover and the previously beige coloured power and ice  on the main road is again transformed to white. The hired bus has winter tyres with studs.  They don’t stick out like a small nail, just protrude almost like a low profile rivet head. However it works, there’s no problem with this sort of snow. It’s presumably the school holidays in DK land as there are many cars with Danish plates. The boys are in morning ski school which is delivered easily in English, which helps the Danes too. Everyone’s skiing has improved ...