Travel Days - 24 & 25 July.....

24 and 25 July

We had a sleep in and then cleaned up and checked out of our hotel at Disneyland. It was a great place to stay. We went to the pool and spent an hour and a half swimming. It was sunny and 30 degrees and the water was nice and warm. The pool was pretty flash but it was crowded. Erin met a little friend from the Scotland.

Then we went to the Val d Europe shopping centre and had lunch and cruised the shops and bought heaps of clothes. Some jeans, dresses and a few tops. We had been looking forward to spending our pocket money. Mum bought a dress from Espirit. Pretty swish. Dad bought a couple of things from the bike shop for 10 Euros. We looked in Versace and were tempted to buy a 3000 Euro bag. Not!

Then we jumped in the car and drove toward the Alps again. We were going to Alpe d’Huez where dad has a triathlon. We are staying there for 3 nights but we were driving to a place near Macon in the Burgoyne Region to stay overnight on the way. It was a long drive but a beautiful day and lovely countryside and scenery. We did some school work in the car and read our books and played poker.

We arrived at our little hotel (Hotel de La Moulin de la Brevette) in the French countryside near Arbingal. It is in a national park area. It was very quaint and very quiet but very popular with travellers as a stopover between destinations. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant – we sat outside in the warm evening and had chicken risotto and then icecream. We went for a walk along a little country lane. It was beautiful and very quiet.We didn’t see a car drive past. We had a great sleep that night.

We woke up early and checked out. We went via Pont de Vaux to get back on the A6 to head towards Grenoble then Alpe d’Huez. We stopped at Pont de Vaux and had brekky – lovely French pastries. We went to some great markets there. Heaps of food and clothing. Lots of locals and tourists. Elodie was excited because she saw a bracelet and a necklace with Elodie written on them. We bought the bracelet. Mum bought a skirt. Holly some sunglasses and Elodie some shoes, Erin a skirt and a bracelet. They were great markets.

We drove for about 3 hours past Macon, Lyon and Grenoble and then beyond Grenoble we drove through the most incredible valley between steep mountains in the Alps, next to a river, through little towns - then up Alpe d’Huez and its 20 or so switchbacks (hairpin corners) rising a kilometre and a bit above the town (Bourg d'Oissans) below. It was steep. Dad will be riding up here tomorrow in his triathlon. The mountain climb went for 20km and we finally came out in the ski village at the top at 2000m above sea level. We were starting to get a little car sick after all those hairpin bends but it was beautiful at the top.

We had lunch. We checked into our apartment (Les Bergers Alpe d’Huez). It was pretty flash. We went for a swim in the outdoor heated pool overlooking the Alps. That was great. We swam into it from a chute from inside the building. We went to the supermarket for some food for our stay. Dad went and registered for his triathlon. Then we had spag bol for dinner and dad went for a training ride halfway down the mountain and back up and then to the very top of the road at the summit. He said the views were amazing.

It was sunny and about 30 degrees here today but a lovely breeze was blowing which kept us cool.

We are excited about the next few days here before we fly off to England and see our relos and friends and big brother Nathan and sis Alana.

Au Revoir xxxx