Aviemore - Scotland

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Aviemore - Scotland
07/02/2011 - 13/02/2011

We left london early on the 6th of Feb to head up to Scotland on the train. It was Lynda's birthday so we had some breakfast champagne at 9am and hit the beers shortly after. Duncan ( Andy's work mate) and his partner Miriam joined us on the trip. After 8 hours on the train we arrived in Aviemore and we were all as sober as an alocholic on pension day. We carried on the birthday celebrations at the Hilton Coylumbridge where the six of us were staying.

The next day we crawled out of bed and our mate that had organised my snowboard was just around the corner. When he got there we set up the boards and got ready for a day on the mountain. We caught a taxi up to Cairngorm mountain and hit the slopes straight away! The snow conditions weren't too bad, not alot of the runs were open but it was still good fun! Mat and Lynda were first time skiier/snowboarders so we stayed with them the first run and tried to teach them the basics. After gaining more confidence they picked it up quiet well. We all met at the bottom of the mountain for lunch and exchanged stories of falls and crashes. We had a couple more hours of fun after lunch then headed back to the lodge for some dinner and drinks.

The following day we went back up the mountain to be greeted with howling winds which made visibility very poor. We found a run which had some jumps, we got some good pictures and videos of the boys showing off. We only spent a few hours on the slopes, but it was still fun!! We headed into town that evening for a drink... which turned to many!! We stayed at a bar called the Doo Below for most of the night and met a few of the locals. By the time we got home it was 10 and didn't manage to have dinner till 12... but it was an excellent curry!!

Feeling sorry for ourselves the next morning we dragged our sore bodies out of bed as the sun was out and we wanted to make the most of the good weather up on the mountain. Althought the sun was shining the runs were very icy from the warmer weather and lack of snow fall. Because of this, we decided to take the next day off and do something different. We had planned to go fly fishing at a fishery but the lake had frozen over and the place was shut. The weather was pretty miserable anyway. Instead, we had a game of mini golf and played canasta for the rest of the day.

Overnight, there was fresh snow fall on the mountains and we headed up for another day on the slopes. Definitely the best day on the slopes for snow and weather. That night there was free beer tasting at the hotel from a local brewery.... dangerous!! We had a few but toned it down cos we had to get the train home the next day. We all cant wait to hit the slopes again!!

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