On the piste again

Last week we were off skiing again with Claire and Darren.  This was our second attempt at cross country skiing  and this time we went to Dobbiaco in the Dolomites.  The village is not the prettiest we have ever been to but it is all very well set up for cross country skiing with a brand new World Cup stadium and once you get onto the trails the typical stunning Dolomites scenery soon becomes apparent. As always in this part of the world, the food (and the grappa) was plentiful and superb!  We had lessons on five mornings with a couple of rather nice young lady instructors from the local ski school.  We were doing the classic technique most of the time and did some fairly long trips (>20 km) on a couple of days.  We only came home in the dark once, though.  Just when we thought we might be getting the hang of it all, we had a go at the skating technique for the first time on our last day.  This felt really strange at first but, amazingly, we were all able to make progress after a couple of hours tuition.  At the end of the day, Diane decided to stay in the stadium and practice while the rest of us went for a little excursion.  During this, Claire and Darren forced me to wipe out on a steep descent but I had the last laugh when, for reasons best known to herself, Claire decided to stop to eat some snow on the way back. When we got back to the stadium for the last time, of course we had to have a little race.  Clara was so keen for her man to win that she laid down in front of me just after the start, giving Darrren an unassailable lead.  However, despite being the first over the line, he still could not take the trophies for the over forties (just), the over fifties or the ladies!  Unfortunately, the ski race to Cortina took place on the day we had to leave (so we did not have to wear our stretchy lycra suits for breakfast in the hotel) but there is always next year, and our feet might have recovered by then, too!