Radcliffe Family News 2004

The Holiday Pictures

 

 

 

One of the highlights of the year was the holidays. We all went skiing in February at Corcheval with our friends the Dawsons and the Dyers and had a very sociable time as usual. James and I did our first (European) black run and Kate got to red. The girls also went ice skating and watched a superb ice show.

 

 

 

 

As our joint Christmas present to ourselves we took a city break to Vilnius in mid May and Debbie's parents kindly came and looked after J&K. Vilnius was fascinating and we would have liked to have stayed longer and explored some of the countryside.

 

We booked a package holiday to Tenerife in May with Debbie's parents and had a week in the sun and the pool. Our first excursion to the Caneries. The highlight of the trip for Kate was watching the dolphins swimming beneath her as she stood on the prow of a boat.

   

The island is very interesting and has a huge volcano, El Tiede 3715m high, in the centre. James and I tried to climb it, you need a permit to go to the top, but very beaten back at about 3550m by the strong winds and our lack of warm clothes. It was a bit Alpine up there!

   

 

In July Bruce (friend from the Haute Route trip of 03) and I took the Exodus trip to the top of Mt Blanc. We both thought it was the most exhausting thing we had ever done. The views were superb but we were very lucky because we managed to get up in a small lull in the otherwise rather dire weather. I will put up Bruce's superb photos soon..ish

Looking across to the Aiguille du Chardonnet (3824m ) One of the high points of our training trip over to the Cabane du Trient.
Going down onto the Mere du Glace to practice ice climbing On the Mt Blanc summit with Bruce (4807m)
Looking back up to the summit
Coming down the Goutier Ridge
     
Surfing in Cornwall in July
     

 

In the summer we took our new Hymer Campervan via Stuttgart to the Dolomites and met up with the Dawsons there. We were very glad of the new powerful engine to cope with the passes and were amazed at the number of people cycling up them. The scenery was superb.

Campsite in Cortina
The Cinque Torre near Cortina
View from the Cortina Campsite
 
Too much prosecco!
  Ravenna - Emperor Justinian in the cathedral
Florence at last
Holding up the tower
Pisa Cathedral from the Baptistery
On the way south, after having an interesting time wine tasting we stocked up with far too many bottles of Prosecco, had a bit of sun on the Adriatic and then did some culture in Ravenna, Florence and Pisa. Coming back through Switzerland it seemed a pity not to pop up to the Eiger and a very fine revolving restaurant on the Schilthorn (as used by James Bond)

 

Debbie and Rosy and Anne went back to Italy a few weeks later for a city break to Venice. Debbie has been raving about it ever since. Next years holiday is planned to be the Austro-Hungarian Empire with a definite stop-over in Venice.