Monday 12th March
We needed to pack and be out of our room by 10 this morning, and check-in time for the condo is 3 in the afternoon, so our baggage was stored in the barn. Having not had a very good day yesterday - I felt my skiing got worse rather than better - I decided to give today a miss. I was also expecting somebody to deliver our ski box, and somebody else to take away my oxygen concentrator, so I though it might be a good idea if I stayed behind in the Inn to see if either of these people arrived.
We will miss staying in the Inn, there is always somebody to chat to and everybody is very friendly. Paul finds lots of people to ski with, and makes lots of new friends. Also the bed is very wide and very comfy! This is a picture of the Inn from the side, in Wellington Road.
The chimney to the left of the big pine tree is for the fireplace in the lounge. We often sit there round the fire, there are always people chatting and lots of bookcases full of books to read, if you get tired of talking. There are board games too - Pictionary has been popular this morning with a family who are here, and another family played cards this afternoon. Our current room is above the lounge, so the first floor windows on either side of the chimney are those of our room. The room we stayed in last time, the one near the hot tub, is at the very back of the building.
The ski box arrived at lunch time, swiftly followed by the man to collect the oxygen concentrator, after which I though I could go out for a walk and take some more pictures. While I was on the historic walk on Saturday, I learned a bit about some of the historic churches. There are apparently 3 historic churches in Breckenridge. This one, the Methodist church, is often called the Father Dyer Church. It is opposite the Inn, so I didn't have far to go!
Father Dyer was known as the "Snowshoe Itinerant Preacher," because he spent his winters on his twelve-foot-long wooden skis (probably home made ones!) traveling between mining camps to preach. He began his ministry in 1862, and walked and skied his way through the mountains, visiting the different mining camps. Carrying heavy canvas sacks of mail over the snow-packed mountain passes, he earned enough money to build this, Breckenridge’s first church, in 1879 or 1880 (sources differ as to the date). It is now located on Wellington Road, though it was moved there from its original position on French Street when the foundations were found to have rotted. (Most original buildings had no foundations at all, so they are easy to move.)
Just a block away, on French Street, is the Episcopalian church.
This is another early church, originally built as a Congregationalist church in 1881, on a different site in French Street. It was bough by the Episcopalians in 1891, extended and moved to its current site.
On the other side of the road is the third early church, St Mary's Catholic Church. I couldn't take a photo of it because the sun was in the wrong place, and I can't find out its history because the web site has a section called 'History' which doesn't open!
It was a beautiful day, so it was good to be outside in the fresh air, even if I wasn't skiing. I had a good walk before it was time to go back to the Inn around 3.45 to wait for Paul, who returned about 4. He was rather tired, having skied hard on the slopes for experts. He said there was a lot of snow high up, and not many people.
I am indebted to him for these pictures. I am not quite sure how anybody could ski down this slope without hitting a tree.
There was certainly a lot of snow, and in the picture below, you can possibly see how difficult this trail was, being narrow and full of bumps.
I don't imagine I will ever be able to ski anything like this! Although there is clearly lots of nice snow this high up, Paul said that the blue runs were crusty and icy and the green ones were slush, so it is just as well I didn't go out. I don't think I am likely to ski again until there is some more snow, so I am hoping for some soon - we leave in not much more than a week.
We collected all our belongings - far too many - and our friend was kind enough to drive all our baggage down to the Val d'Isere building, saving multiple trips. We chatted with some of the downstairs neighbours and their dog as we dragged suitcases and skis upstairs and went down to the laundry room with all our dirty washing. The dog was very amiable and friendly, but not as pretty as the fox we have been used to seeing round the Inn in the evenings.
We are now installed in the same condo as before - for the third time. It is very comfortable, and so far the clog dancers upstairs and their noisy dog have not disturbed us. It's nice to have so much space, but we will miss the camaraderie and friendliness of the Inn - not to mention the lovely cooked breakfasts!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
No comments:
Post a Comment