Downhilling in Whistler, BC

We left Paris behind (in my case reluctantly - I could easily live there!) and flew with Lufthansa on a very uncomfortable plane for 10 hours to Vancouver. The seats were very hard on the plane and I was well glad to get off in British Columbia (BC). We were pretty jet lagged as BC is about 9 hours behind Paris so we taxied to the hotel in Vancouver and chilled for a couple of nights. Ben and I were still not all that well either.

From Berlin to Milan

Bussed up to Whistler (2-3 hours) through 120 km of roadworks getting the place ready for the 2010 winter Olympics and stayed in the village in an apartment in the MarketPlace for those who know Whistler. It was great being right in the middle of things - you can walk everywhere with a fantastic supermarket selling everything you want or need except grog - its at a different 'liquor store' just like home. We had gotten used to the European way of having everything all together in one shop (hypermarche) or everything in all different shops (boulanger, boucherie, patisier, Champion, etc).

From Berlin to Milan

Ben rode downhill bikes for the next 4 days - I lasted a day and couldn't go anymore than that. The Bike Park is brilliant with 3 lifts running and over 200km of downhill trails to ride at three different levels - green (easy), blue (medium) and black (hardest). We rode De Vinci bikes (made near Toronto), Norco bikes (made in Vancouver) and Specialized bikes (made I know not where). The place was very busy with both bike riders and boarders/skiers - there was still enough snow on Blackcomb mountain to have better cover than Mount Perisher has in a good season in winter!

Bussed back to Vancouver and caught the 15 hour direct flight home to Sydney - was a great trip home with Air Canada.