We spent our first night of holiday in the Premier Inn, at Newcastle Airport.

There was a bit of a mess-up with the meal, which was a shame because everything else to do with the hotel was simply excellent. The beds were comfortable and the bedrooms very clean indeed. Breakfast was great, and overall the hotel offered extremely good value for money.

The hotel was less than five minutes walk from tea airport, and so in the morning we went for a walk to scout out the route. When we realised that checkin was open, we went back to the hotel and grabbed our cases. we checked out of the hotel and walked to the airport.

On the way I grabbed this picture, shooting into the windows of the building currently being built between the hotel and the airport. You can see me, holding the SLR and Sigma 18-200mm lens.

Checkin went smoothly, we did some shopping in duty-free, and got on our aircraft. The flight to Geneva was trouble-free, we got onto our bus without difficulty and soon were being driven to Flaine.

The first part of the journey, along the A40, was perfectly pleasant. But when we turned off onto the small local roads that would take us to Flaine… wow! I’ve never seen quite so many hairpin bends so close together in my life! Full marks to the driver for getting us there without a scratch on the vehicle!

Eventually we got to Hotel le Totem, where we had an absolutely delicious meal before retiring to our rooms. While the rooms might not have been to the best of standards, they were clean, and the exquisite food made up for any shortcomings in the room.

Now, it was time to ski!