TheMcNamaras

It was an early start this morning but we are excited and waiting in the departure lounge for our flight to Chicago. Everything is prepared and packed for the Future Problem Solvers Competition in Wisconsin and after that we are off on the adventure of a lifetime for a boy and his mum!... read more

Those of you who know Frank well, know that he dances on the inside. It takes something special to get him up on the dance floor and today, the Hotel Bellevue was it. We all fell under its spell. Part of the magic was that when we first arrived, just after lunch, the whole area was shrouded in low cloud and light rain was falling. All the surprises were still to be revealed. It was our first walk in the rain so far, but the dampness didn't spoil the mood. The grey day changed the beautiful colour of the river, but I loved the wispy cloud that floated amongst to pine trees. We said goodbye to the lovely Hector and Courmayeur quite early (I can't believe we never learned his real name!) and after a short ... read more

"Please put down ice axes and backpacks". Well, that sign does make you wonder what sort of mishaps have occurred in the Skyway Visitor's Centre lift before people even made it out to the snow! After a great breakfast at Cresta et Duc with immaculate service from a guy who looked just like Hector Elizondo, we walked down the hill in Courmayeur to the brand new Skyway cable car, not really knowing what to expect up on the glacier. It was brilliant blue sky down below, but as we are frequently warned, things can change pretty quickly high in the mountains. I snapped a picture of the ticket booth because it suddenly occurred to me that we hadn't pulled out a wallet in days! That has got to be one of the nicest parts about being ... read more

Today Cate saw "A deerish, goatish thing" shortly after we began our big climb to the land above the tree line. She got a fair bit of ribbing about that, too, but I believed her - unlike some who likened her "Deerish, goatish thing" to a Mr Tumnus vision caused by lack of oxygen as we puffed up the steep trail. Mick, who I guess had to at least try to believe, suggested that as the creature was quite small, it might have been a chamois. I had never heard of chamois (Except in car-cleaning talk), but Frank reminded me there had been a few stuffed versions in the Alpine Museum that I'd deliberately avoided. This walk was one of the biggest on the hike- and once again proved that kilometres on a brochure can be ... read more

Not wanting to waste a moment this morning, we booked tickets online to go up to the viewing platform on Mole Antonelliana as soon as it opened, and before the rendezvous time for our hike. I have been wondering for ages why the big tower in Turin is called a mole. Apparently in Italian, the term 'mole', refers to a building of monumental proportions. That description fits perfectly. We'd actually been warned about monumental queues (In addition to being able to marvel at it's monumental size), but we were very pleasantly surprised when we walked straight in and right up to the great glass elevator. No queue at all. As we stared up through the glass ceiling then burst through the roof, it really did feel like we were living Charlie and the Chocolate Factory! The ... read more