Alp d'Huez 2020. Round up.

Heading home.

Well, what a fantastic holiday that was, and what a surreal ending. The weather was gorgeous when we woke on Saturday morning, our departure day. I had sat up a bit too late to polish off the few beers I had in the fridge, I had bought a couple extra at the Spar shop, that was before we got delayed in the restaurant. One thing was for sure-they were not getting left and it was nice sitting up drinking them while I had written yesterdays blog. I have to admit to feeling a little jaded this morning however. 

There was no rush this morning as most of our packing was already done (by Joyce I might add) so it was a relaxed breakfast time. We had until 10am to be out our room. We sat about and chatted about what had been and relaxed on our balcony in the warm sun, it was definitely feeling very spring like in Alp d'Huez.  At 10am the lady came to check that we had not wrecked our room and all was good, so we went for a seat in reception, we had a little time to kill. The receptionists had really taken to Callum and Logan, always going out their way to chat to them and give them a high 5....perhaps they just do it for every young child, I don't know but they were very nice regardless. They were however very concerned about the unfolding Corona virus and its effects, many people were cancelling their holidays so the hotel and apartment accommodation requirements were changing on an hourly basis. There was also going to be a big meeting with the local councillors to decide the fate of the rest of the season and whether the resort and its lifts would remain operational or shut down. 

At 10:30 we made the short walk down to our pick up point with another Scottish family from Inverness, they had arrived at the same time as us, but we hadn't really seen them all week. We all waited in the sun and our BensBus transfer arrived right on cue and we all got on, our 2 families taking all the front seats for the white knuckle ride back down the steep and hair-pinned road out of Alp d'Huez. The driver felt like a bit of a maniac, he always seemed to be going a bit too fast and squeezing gaps that just felt a bit too close for comfort, but I am sure he does this journey so often that he could do it with his eyes shut. Soon we were down in Le Bourg d'Oisans where we waited for a while on another bus who's passengers joined our bus. This seemed to take a while, then of course for some reason the roads were totally chock-a-block and we didn't know whether this was normal Saturday traffic or it was busier than normal but it was a very slow journey back out the valleys and down to Grenoble, eventually we were there and progress speeded up. 

Grenoble Airport is not in Grenoble however, it is actually about 45km futher along the road and it always seems mad to me that traffic has to come off the motorway and pass through all the busy streets of the city. It's a bit like having to come off the M8 and travel along Sauchiehall street to get through Glasgow. Our driver of course had no concerns guiding his big bus through quick style. The airport is fairly small, but is always very busy, almost like it see's too much traffic for its size. Every time I have been here its chaos in the security area and this time was no different, trying to keep an eye on the boys while your emptying pockets, taking off your shoes and belts, loading everything into trays is not easy, and then trying to find them all after scanning-people must surely loose things here.

Eventually however were on our plane and soon leaving France. Our 2 hour flight was fine, Easyjet are pretty good at keeping passengers comfortable and the stewardesses were very pleasant, they too were very concerned about the fall-out from Corona virus, I chatted to one and she said it was all they could think about, not knowing if they were going to have jobs in the not too distant future. Jet2 had today turned planes around in mid air as Spain was no longer admitting passengers. So it's an evolving situation and the exact outcome of this will not be know for a long time yet. On arrival at Edinburgh there was absolutely no CV screening going on at the airport, we all just sailed right through after collecting our bags.

Neil was on standby to collect us and drive us home, and we even questioned this, perhaps we should have taken our car and left it in the airport but we hadn't. Corona virus is more dangerous to older people so was it wise having Neil pick us up. He did and soon we were back in Linlithgow via the chip shop for dinner. Fish and chips scoffed, the holiday definitely felt like it was over. Its always nice to be back in your own house, though I could easily have done a few more days in our great apartment and lovely resort.

That however would never have been an option.....the outcome of the big councillors meeting was that from 12pm that night the whole resort would close, the lifts would stop running and there would be no more skiing. The hotel staff may well now be out of a job, the lift operators will have nothing to do, the ski instructors will have no one to teach. The restaurants and bars will be shut, the Spar shop will be doing little or no business except for locals. This is an outcome mirrored in pretty much every ski resort, not only in France but in all of the Alps and probably even further afield. Thirty thousand British travellers have been told to get out of France, the police were apparently going to the hotels telling them they would have to make arrangements to get home. We had only just missed this by one week. My sister is also stranded in Spain, she has just been finishing her holiday and Spain is in lockdown, no one is allowed into the country, she is not allowed out the apartment unless its to buy food. Her scheduled flight is supposed to bring her back on Wednesday, hopefully that will happen. 

Ironically, a good friend of mine who had ski'ed in Italy one week before our trip, had, after his return been struck down with a flu like virus, he has been in self isolation since. Even though he reported himself as unwell, he has not been tested. No one is being tested unless they are hospitalised or in a care home. I am at an absolute loss to understand how the government can produce accurate figures as to how many are infected when a prime candidate is not screened..............he is making a recovery now thankfully. I am not so sure the outcomes will be as positive with our elder relatives should they contract this virus. So for the time being we will avoid contact just incase. We walked over to do a shop today, our fridge was bare, a sign on the door stated no one would be allowed to buy any more than four of any item, people have been greedily raiding shelves and stockpiling food and domestic articles like toilet rolls and cleaning products, absolutely ludicrous. Only one of us actually went into the shop, and I have to say I felt a bit guilty when we were walking back, myself and Joyce both had a rucksack on and we also had a bag each, I felt like everyone was maybe thinking we were stock piling also........but we definitely were not and will not.

Hopefully we will ski again next year, though I am not at all confident that this virus will be contained by them, I seriously doubt foreign travel, or even normal life (whatever that is) will resume any time soon. We had a great time and I am not for a single minute wishing we had not gone. 

All for now and stay healthy everyone.