Stormy weather

Again it was a day of low cloud and poor visibility. Thomas went up the main mountain to ski by himself, and many of the runs were closed. Going down one run he happened to notice that the ski gondola was not operating and managed to divert before going all the way down the run with no way of getting back. The high winds meant that the runs were being closed faster than the notification boards were being updated.

Just opposite our apartment is the village ski run, used by many local ski clubs for training. Gavin, Kevin and Bianca walked over the road to go ski there and I went later to meet them for coffee and take some photos. It was flat light and raining. As I left it was raining harder and within half an hour a blizzard had blown up with rain, snow and a howling wind. Everyone managed to get home before the worst of the storm but it was quite incredible to watch the snow lashing around in those winds. I took this photo about half an hour before the blizzard started, with the cloud being very low over the village.

Back home Storm Eleanor has also been quite something. Apparently our BBQ together with its heavy gas bottle were blown right off the covered patio on to the lawn, and the patio furniture was blown in all directions. Thankfully nothing was broken.

In other news Luke is settling into Berlin. He gets free accommodation as part of his job and is sharing a flat with two German girls, which will be brilliant for his language skills. The company have been super efficient in organising meetings for him to open a German bank account and to sort out all his HR requirements - very different to his experience in Paris!

Tonight it is Kevin and Bianca's last night with us. We are all feeling very sad that our holiday together is ending - they fly back to SA tomorrow night and we go home on Friday morning. All good things have to sadly come to an end.