Wednesday 22 August 2012

Chamonix exercise

I didn't just sit glued to the Olympics for two weeks, honest! There is the best open air 50 metre pool in the world in Chamonix, with a perfect view of Mont Blanc. So, I got myself a season ticket and swam every day. I did 2km one day in honour of the open water swimmers and I have huge respect for their 10km swim, I had wobbly legs and forgot my locker combination after just 2, so goodness knows how they feel after 10km.

So, I managed quite a bit of exercise in Chamonix as well as watching a lot of elite athletes who do bags more sport than me. A perfect two weeks really!

Olympic coverage dissected

My main views on the BBC coverage are these:-

Claire Balding, Jake Humphrey and Hazel Irving ; all brilliant, enthusiastic, knowledgeable and charming.

Lineker; stick to football, I didn't believe that you were really very interested and some of your interviews with medal winners were bordering on patronising and usually had the feel of an embarrassing uncle at a teenagers party!

The pundits - Denise Lewis and Michael Johnson, brilliant. Ian Thorpe, a really excellent first time doing this sort of job, he was so natural and I am sure the BBC will be trying to lure him back for other similar events. Colin Jackson......oh dear, a little out of his depth sometimes and not quite up to the knowledge and gravitas of Michael Johnson, I actually winced when Colin slapped Michael Johnson's leg as Johson was clearly not amused.

My small criticisms should not detract from the fantastic job that the Beeb did overall. The Olympics in London was, in my humble view, a great event for the UK and something that many of us will remember fondly in years to come. The volunteers, organisers and competitors did us all proud and the impression I got from lots of friends was that we would all like the Olympics to come back to the UK as soon as possible! I don't know if that will happen again in my lifetime, but I hope so. A job well done and I hope the country will continue the enthusiasm for all sports in the future.


Chamonix Olympics

After travelling through the Pyrenees and seeing the Tour de France, we headed on to Allos for a few days. Our friends were there and it was great to see what the village was like in the Summer after spending four months there over the Winter. It is hot and glorious in the Summertime. Gorgeous steak frites sitting out under the stars at the PMU Bar and lots of chilled Rose wine.

We then drove up north through the Alps to Chamonix. We went through the Frejus and the Mont Blanc tunnels, a first for me, and stpooed overnight in the Oeste valley in Italy. A recession busting conversation with the campsite owner took place " do you want a receipt or shall I put the money in my other place?"

We got to Chamonix just as the Olympics got going. We rented an apartment with UK tv so that we could see the full 2012 spectacular. We were there for the first Super Saturday and celebrated Mo Farrah's gold medal. I was glued to the BBC coverage for the whole two weeks. Paul had some work to get done, so he didn't get to see the full details of the dressage, Greco-Roman wrestling and  trap shooting, but he did see a lot of the swimming, cycling and athletics, which wasn't too bad either!

I even ended up watching the closing ceremony as I had missed the Opening one

Northern Spain

We had a good time travelling through northern Spain, however, we travelled quicker than originally planned because the weather was very wet.

Galicia was lovely, met some Brits who were just about to buy a farm and turn it into an Eco-campsite.

Asturias was really, really wet so we rushed through.

The Spanish Basque country was a lot of fun. Interesting camping experiences that widened my usual limited comfort zone of operation, for example, free camping on a remote headland with a panEuropean collection of travellers.

Spain is a very loud, party sort of country. Quite a change from shy, retiring Portugal! The Spanish social hours are unique for Europe, no one seems to think about eating in the evening until at least 11pm and that is considered early. We were on some campsites where entire families ( including very young nippers) didn't sit down to start eating until midnight and the meal would take a couple of hours, I don't know how anyone gets any work done when they are up that late every night!

Anyway, we moved on to France after about a week travelling through Spain and headed for the Pyrenees. Still a bit wet, but a bit of sunshine in between too.