Wooooaaahhhhh!

The angle is due to me leaning the camera (firmly strapped to my wrist) out of the little window at the top of the gondola door. However, it is a perfect representation of how my head felt after ascending and descending 2,500m in a matter of hours. After a long swim in the pool I think I may have restored some semblance of balance but I am sticking to rosado spritzers just as a precaution. For now.

Today was spent in a car and in the mountains as we headed up to the Sierra Nevada to visit the ski resort we went to in February*. I've never been to a ski resort in the summer and it was quite a strange experience. There are some activities going on but it doesn't really seem to go big on attracting a summer crowd so everywhere was considerably quieter. In a very nice, tranquil, chilled out, isn't it easy to get around when there isn't snow on the ground, and you're not wearing ridiculous boots and carrying two sets of skis and poles kind of a way. Seeing the chairs from the chairlifts stacked in piles at the bottom of the runs was quite strange. Though the prize for strangest sight of the day was definitely the cows munching away on the slopes. Was hard to imagine the place covered in snow and no doubt come February it will be equally hard to remember it as it was today.

Other slightly surprising thing was that it felt cooler than it had in February. Even taken into account that we were wearing slightly less clothing. Could just be that it was a lot windier - exhilarating for running down a small bit of the mountain but wouldn't wanted to have skiied in it. Hopefully they'll be a physical geographer** in a minute to explain. And whilst they're at it Jackson would like to know why it is cooler at the top of a mountain than at the bottom when it is closer to the sun. We tried a couple of explanations but frankly I don't think we did the parenting world proud on that one.

Wonderful day. I am so glad we went up for a summer visit. Next time we shall wear hardier shoes and do the walk down to the village. Well, not the next time as that will be on skis. But the time after that.

And hopefully the next time we will be doing this run into town hence the photo.

Lesley x


*I can't remember whether that was in or out of my blip break but either way it was lovely and we are planning on repeating the experience next year so I can repeat this shot in the snow. Though not just for that reason, obviously.

**At times like these my human geography skills just don't cut the mustard.