Shutt World .co.uk

Got back from my holiday on sunday, a full week without playing WoW or using a computer. Most of every day was spent snowboarding, then the nights being tired out, so all in all a good holiday 🙂

So the holiday starts at stupid o’clock on sunday morning with Paul picking me up to go to the airport as my car was broken.

So we get to the airport n go looking for the car park, we find the right one n get sent to another to register before we’re allowed in. Bit of a pain but we got sorted.

Into the airport no problem and through the checkouts without a hitch.

Then as its nearly breakfast time (about 5:30) we go to the cafe for a breakfast, a full English or a traditional? For £1 extra you get twice as much for the full so seems like a good idea. Was nice enough but the black pudding wasn’t as good as we get at home.

Onto the security thing just after passport control, why is there a chip in my passport if they only glance at it?
Must remember to remove all possable metal n remember my belt has a big metal buckle as well as my boots having steel toecaps n my chain n anything else I could possibly be wearing.

Onto the flight no problem after that and yay another breakfast, well I’m too tired n full to be interested in that to I just had the drink.

Finally we make it to Barcelona go through all the passport glances wait till almost the last bags for our luggage and head out to the bus.

A short (about 4 hours including the stop off) bus trip later n we’re in Pas de la Casa where its snowing 🙂

On to the hotel, bit of a queue to check in but no problems, just a short walk form the bus.

Room was ok, 3 beds, tv, bathroom, what more could you ask for? Well maybe a little more room, heating controls n more English channels on the tv, but the room was to sleep in not to live in, we have boarding to do 🙂

Had to go to the welcome meeting to get our lift passes and see what outings they had arranged, unfortunately there was football on so everyone was watching that, and the rep had to wait till half time to do any talking. Must admit the football was funny as there was quite a few fouls and a big brawl near the end 🙂 Anyway we looked over the outings n the only one that sounded any good was the mexican night, n the others were a bit expensive.

The hotel meals did exactly what they set out to do, n that was to give you food, breakfast was pretty much the same choices every day with a little variation on the cooked breakfast (either sausages or bacon, scrambled or fried eggs), but the evening meals did vary in what was served, just tended to not be very warm, every day there was salad (didn’t get a look in most times) a pasta dish, some kind of cooked meat, chips, something deep fried, a fish dish and veg. They did vary what was available just didn’t really stray from that.

In the deep fried bit (maybe they weren’t but they looked it) one day there was what apeared to be balls of batter, Andy assures me they were potato. Another there was Calamari rings, which after I’d identified them (having to bite into it to satisfy Andy and Paul) I was the only one of us eating them. The next night it was Onion rings, which again I had to taste test for Andy and Paul, then chicken nuggets.

The Pasta dishes were ok but the first few looked like they’d just come out of a tin, the carbonara on the last day looked good though and was actually a bit warm still.

As for deserts, well every day had fruit, mostly friuts that I don’t like but never mind, one day they had a cake, and others they had bowls of something. (Creme caramel, moose, custard!) so they weren’t too bad.

Now the important bit the boarding 🙂

As I mentioned at the beginning it was snowing when we arrived, the first day on the slopes we had lovely powder and the slopes hardly had any ice.

We started off easy for Paul’s sake on a blue run, but by the end of the day we had him on a red, on the second or third day we decided to go down the other side of the mountain n went up the next peak and came down a black, the plan was to make it all the way to Soldeu but Andy had some how broke his pass so couldn’t use the lifts. So we ended up going down a black run 🙂

Next day we tried for Soldeu again and got most of the way there before realising it was taking too long and we didn’t really know where we were going, so turned back and made it all the way back to Pas just as the lifts were closing. So we gave up on that idea.

Next few days were spend on the slopes we knew as we were getting tired with the constant boarding, so we started trying to do a few jumps, which at first we didn’t go fast enough then no one was looking when I managed to hit a bump fast enough to lift off, and I landed without killing myself.

Last day on the slopes were were a bit tired n my right leg was really annoying me, so I was riding switch so I could rest it a bit (only on the flat bits though) went to do a turn and did what must have been my best fall of the holiday, I slid a whole meter (unlike last year when I managed to slide 10m), and Paul saw me shouted “Loser” and fell over himself 🙂

Also on that last day we only got 4 runs in as we stopped at a bar/cafe by the slope 3 times, they have a really nice chocolate cake.

Drinking in Andorra is a really bad idea if like me you’ll drink a vodka n coke for each pint your mates have, 4 pints, you have 4 or 8 shots worth depending on if they’re doubles or singles. Well there they pour unmeasured quads! 4 pints = 16 shots! not good if you didn’t really plan on being that drunk. But most the bar staff are really friendly n give you free shots too… erm its very easy to get drunk there. You also get free food if your in the right place too 😉 Check out the size differncce between Andy n Paul’s Drinks and mine there.

Shopping same as last year didnt really see much, but I did discover that the sizes are pretty much meaningless n a large is about the same size as a small or medium here, so I got a nice t shirt and we all got neck warmers (that we didn’t need but mines black with skull n cross bones 🙂 ).

We also discovered a Goth shop as Paul had seen a nice (abusive) t-shirt outside it, so we went in and they had a few band shirts, and some with some really good artwork and interesting blood effect ones. A very spiky belt and write bands to go with it, you could wear them to climb in the snow the spikes were that big. But I didn’t see anything to buy really.

They also seem to ahve a thing for weapon shops, they all seem to sell knives, swords, guns and for soem reason fishing rod. I assume a good portion of the knives are decorative and the swords clearly are, they have a pretty good selection of them all though. The guns weren’t nearly as impressive but they were all pellet guns (I think), but some of the swords and knives looked really cool and viscous.

Well that’s pretty much it for Andorra, we got the bus back at stupid o’clock again, which was late and when we got to Barcelona, we queued for the check in, got our bags checked in but then had to queue to get our boards on too. As things were getting a bit late the plane actually started boarding while we were still queuing and some of the ground staff rushed us forward. Then off we rushed through security (not setting it off this time), passport control and to the plain where they were still queuing to get on.

Flight was pretty much uneventful apart from the meal that wasn’t very nice, but Paul and Andy liked it. The landing was interesting though, it had been cloudy most the way home and the captain or co pilot gave us the weather report of its wet and windy in Manchester. This made things interesting as when we landed the plane was obviously been blown about a bit and after toughing down it was sliding about quite a lot, but there was cheers from the front so it must have been good 🙂

Have a look here for all the photos Andy took

Well that’s pretty much a summary of the holiday not a lot happened really, apart from I beat Paul at pool twice 🙂 . We had fun on the slopes and that’s what we went for so was a good holiday 🙂 Don’t think I’ll be going back to Andorra for a while now though 2 years in a row’s enough, I want to go back to Banff in Canada.

Its good to be home and sleep in my own bed with no one else in the same room, especially now my rooms finished, red walls, black carpet, bedding n curtains, it looks pretty good.