Crookhorn Ski-ing 2012 10/11/February 2012

Friday 10/Saturday 11 February 2012




Is it really a year since we last took Crookhorn College ski-ing? It must be as we are once again driving down the M25 towards Dover with 29 children/students and 10 adults. Well it will be a full 39 once we have picked up 5 people from Dover.
That was no mean feat either as there was very little luggage room left. Everybody seems to have brought large holdalls of varying shapes and they do not load as easily as conventional suitcases.
We finally manage to squeeze it all in and catch the 14:45 ferry that departs at 15:15.
This is no problem as we wanted a later ferry but couldn’t book one, the 14:45 being the only possibility.
Not wanting to arrive at our hotel too early we spend an hour and a half in Cite Europe before commencing our journey to Austria.
We are away from Cite Europe by 19:30.
Brian drives to peppenhafen services on the A61 towards Koblenz where we stop for half an hour before I take over for the night time shift.
I drive to the Leipheim services just past Ulm before Brian takes over again.
The temperature as we are driving is -8/-9 all of the way and both the toilet and drinks machine have already frozen up!
The traffic is heavy around Munich and the weather is deteriorating. We hit some hold ups before arriving at the Irschenburg services south of Munich. It is very busy, very cold and there is snow everywhere! This is our breakfast stop and most of the group will visit either the Burger King or MacDonald’s here.
Brian and I settle for a coffee before I drive the final hour and a half to our hotel – Gasthof-Pension Pass-Leug.
This is the same hotel that we used last year and it is ideal for school parties. The hotel is located at the top of the Pass Leug and is completely isolated. No temptations for the kids as they all stay in the hotel of an evening.
I like it here and the owner, David, is an Englishman who married into the hotel family. He is extremely helpful and a nice bloke.
My room is up on the second floor and it is only now that I realise how heavy my case is! No lifts here. The room is very nice with a bright new bathroom with lovely shower.
There has been some serious snow fall recently as the mountains are covered a glistening white.
Once we have unloaded folk and cases we have to park the coach below the hotel as the parking spaces at the hotel have been taken up with cross country skiers enjoying the fantastic conditions and sunshine. Yes it is sunny but still very cold.
The ski’s, boots and poles are being delivered to the hotel so after lunch Brian and I go down to the coach to wait for them. They are a bit late and eventually arrive for the fitting before loading them on the coach by 14:00.
Time for a kip before dinner.
The soup tonight was garlic and it was delicious. We then had small sausage pasty’s, pork, veg and chips with a little side salad. All very nice.
One odd thing at dinner was a lot of the children coming down in all sorts of pyjamas, like big romper suits! What’s all that about?

Am knackered and it is straight to bed for both of us after dinner.