Messages posted by : karen72
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Thats a contrast! I am just waiting for my pics to upload in flickr and you can have a look at how busy it was. Just the volume of people. I was talking to an instructor in the queue and he was saying last week and this week were very very busy, but after and before were fine. I dont think anyone should have much bother out of these 2 weeks.
Even your photo doesnt really show just how steep that hill is! and that is the red! |
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I am going to try and post some photos on my flickr account to try and point out the bits that you have to shuffle along. One of the "blue runs" actually used to be a red, and unfortuantly for some reason, photographs dont show the steepness of the runs. I would say this blue, is rather a tricky red!
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Kevin. There are 2 button lifts that serve the main nursery slopes. then if you want you could ski over to another button lift but this across country and I dont think it suitable for boarders as it is so bumpy. Then from this button lift you can acces a Tbar which takes you to the bottom of the hard bit of red 19. I saw a lot of boarders doing the shuffle in lots of places and it really did look a pain. As I have already said there seemed to be a lot of walking, heaving, pushing in between lifts (and I am lazy! :wink:) I know you say the button lifts are a pain but i didnt see any boarders fall off them. If you get the gondala to the top, there are only a couple of runs for beginners. One is a shuffle to the left of the gondala, you shuffle for about 50 metres then ski down, then if you follow on to a red run, even the longest run up to it wont get you to the peak of it, so another shuffle to the top of that run. To be honest, when I was looking at the boarders it just seemed a lot of hard work! but I am not a boarder and could be wrong. To answer your second question. One of the reasons we decided to take the ferry from newcastle to amsterdam was because we were 2 adults with 3 kids and there are not many cheap package holidays available during half term holidays. This seemed like an adventure for the kids too. Like I say, for the car, me hubby and 3 kids and 3 breakfasts was £580 return, plus the 12 hour drive to Niederau plus diesel,I suppose when you work it out if we could have found a package, there probalby wouldnt have been much difference. I would not consider Niederau as good for beginners. I think it is very limiting. I know I will be shot down for saying that but as I am in the category of intermediate (at the lower end), I found the runs from the top to the bottom very challenging and in fact only managed it once, the other times I got the gondala down. Once we arrived in Amsterdam I even turned to my hubby and said, there was no way, if we were sailing to Dover, could I have faced a grueling drive back to Newcastle. We had really had enough! We got it back to Newcastle because we are from here and it seemed an easy choice. You sleep overnight and start your journey from amsterdam. i hope this helps. I am sure lots of Niderau fans will jump in and tell you different, but I can only tell you from my point of view. Karen |
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Ian on looking back at my time spent shoving and pushing at the button lift, it is a wonder I did not mame someone. I was ready for killing someone by the time I actually got to the front of the queue! and that was every time at the lift. It drove you bonkers! Then to top it off when people pushed in it just pushed me over the edge! at one point I found myself turn to the people behind and say "what is german for arsehole!" lol and that was armed at a 12 year old who was sneering at me! oh the shame!! :roll:
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Rose the journey wasnt as bad as i thought (even though I am still swaying from the overnight ferry lol).
It took us 12 hours to drive from Amsterdam to Neiderau and the kids were as good as gold. I think they only asked are we nearly there yet about 29 times! lol. the ferry crossing was quite calm going there but I must admit if I hadnt had my satnav me and the hubby would have been divorced by the time we exited the netherlands! the roads are just so confusing with some of them having 3 names at once! The journey coming home we decided to stop at Frankfurt. It took us 6 hours from Niederau to Frankfurt, then overnight stay then another 5 hours to Amsterdam. The ferry coming home was a little choppier but was ok. We spent about £150 in diesel, add to that the £580 it cost for the ferry, plus we took them into the little cinema on board which inlcuding a drink and popcorn for 5 of us cost £50! Next time we go will be only me hubby and my 2 kids, we will be flying and going in term time so prices should be lower. I really want to try and manage our finances so we can do 2 holidays a year, but I am also looking for a lottery win :wink: lol Karen |
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I intened to take kids out of school for all our ski holidays lol there is no way I would do that again. I think with it being such a small resort ie the ski school only tended to use the 2 button lifts at the bottom, made it worse. The most I would be taking them out would be for 5 days. I cant see the harm in that (await barage of insults from teachers :wink:)
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we just got back from niederau today. On Tuesday it dumped about 2 foot, then it was also snowing on Thursday, all day Friday and Saturday when we left. I am sure you will have lots of fun. have a good holiday
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Hubby keeps saying he likes a hot holiday and that it was too much like hard work, but he enjoyed it and kids loved it.
If I get my way we will do it every year, but not sure. Like I say I think my preference would be to go to a major resort with interlinking resorts and definitly NOT in school holidays lol |
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