Gelbe Hose in Lech

Ewan impressed us with his vivid yellow trousers on our last ski holiday in Arabba three years ago and this year he amazed us by wearing even brighter yellow trousers! Ewan’s trousers aren’t the only radiant thing on this holiday however. We have been blessed with plenty of snow and beautiful sunshine; conditions are excellent for skiing.

Yesterday we had to buy our lift passes and pick up our hired skis, which as usual took a bit of time to sort out. We have to wear masks on the ski lifts. We set off up on our first chairlift with great excitement and then down our first run. At this point I encouraged James, Heather and Ewan to continue to explore while I took it easy on the blues. We had discussed this beforehand and they were all very understanding, which made me feel very relaxed, and so I enjoyed myself very much despite my right knee being disappointingly painful. I took myself for a coffee at a pretty little restaurant above the village which had fantastic views, and was chatting to some lovely German people who assured me that Frankfurt is the best place in the world. On one of my trips up the chairlift I decided to take a few photos of the spectacular scenery which turned out to be foolish because I managed to drop both of my ski poles! I was dismayed and was not looking forward to skiing down (without poles of course!) to find them. While I was thinking about my dilemma three lovely ladies from the Black Forest area of Germany offered to fetch them for me! People can be so kind.

After skiing around for a couple of hours I made my way back to our hotel, the Bellevue, which is superb and very well situated, just below the piste. The manager is the friendly Herr Wolf, which of course reminded us of "What's the Time, Mr Wolf?" the well known children's book. It only takes five minutes to walk up to the slope in the morning and you can ski right back to the ski store. I had only been back in the room for about half an hour when I got a phone call from James to say that he and Heather and Ewan had just arrived back. We walked the short distance into the village and sat in the sunshine outside the gorgeous Hotel Arlberg for a late lunch. I had caramelised apple kaiserschmarren which was absolutely melt-in-the-mouth. When the sun set behind the mountain it got cold very quickly and we went for a browse around the shops before returning to the Hotel Bellevue to relax before an excellent five course dinner followed by drinks.