Geneva Airport – the most confusing place in the world?

When it comes to travelling via an airport (and leaving queueing aside which can be a bit boring and frustrating) I don’t generally find it to be a particularly stressful experience – it’s usually quite clear where you are and where you need to be.  Not so at Geneva airport; French side, Swiss side, arrivals, departures – none of these things have signs or directions!

After Sam’s show with Les Arts Florissants in Versailles, we hired a car in Paris for a trip to the Alps, and arranged to drop the car back off a week later at Geneva airport (French side).  We used SatNav and directions from several péage workers and nevertheless ended up at the car return depot on the Swiss side of the airport.  This was rather inconvenient as I was cutting it rather close on my flight time and we weren’t insured to drive out of France – oops.  Still, there were no signs that we’d actually crossed a border so how were we to know?

With some incorrect directions from the Alamo staff (Swiss side) we eventually made it to Alamo on the French side, hurrah!  We were then directed into the arrivals hall of the airport where we were swiftly told to leave the airport again and enter through departures, not arrivals. Easier said than done when there are no signs anywhere to tell you where to go.  So, now running through the airport ‘backwards’ (from arrivals on the French side to departures on the Swiss side), I said a hasty goodbye to Sam (who went to catch his train to St Gallen for his next patch of work – Purcell’s Fairy Queen) and queue-jumped my way through two bag-drops and security to run to the gate, in time to board my flight back to London.

Signage in France (and apparently Switzerland) is generally lacking clarity according to my recent travels through the region.  Even the signs to different runs on the Alpe d’Huez pistes were pretty poor, and the lack of markers ensured Sam and I took on some rather tricky off-piste boarding completely by accident (along with some very confused and terrified-looking French skiers).

We did have an amazing week’s snowboarding in Alpe d’Huez: 250km of piste, including the longest black run in the world, sunny days and a fabulous chalet (Chalet Lingayoni) where the other guests were great fun and the staff were fantastic.  Nick is a trained chef and whipped us up a new culinary masterpiece every night, and Ellie took care of us so well we didn’t have to think about a single thing while we were away. We will definitely be returning for more fun on the slopes here!

All in all Sam and I enjoyed an amazing 10 day trip from Paris and Versailles to Alpe d’Huez and back to Geneva (French & Swiss sides) with the exception of the Geneva airport drama and an episode with snow chains that, while tricky at the time, was well worth the effort when just over a meter of snow fell the night before we had to drive out of the Alps!  We were gutted that we didn’t get to enjoy all that powder (there had been no fresh snow fall while we were there) but we did partake in an epic snowball fight with the other guests at our chalet and the staff, so we didn’t miss out on all the fun.  And my new board/bindings combo is AWESOME!!

Les Arts Florissants – La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers and Venus & Adonis

Last week I travelled to Paris to meet up with Sam who had been working there since 27th December with Baroque ensemble ‘Les Arts Florissants‘ on two pieces: ‘La Descente d’Orphée aux enfers’ (Charpontier) and ‘Venus & Adonis’ (Blow).  Having not long returned from Dubai, squeezed in a trip to the country to visit my dog (who has been on her holidays with my friend Susan and her dog Ollie while I was away), celebrated my Dad’s 60th Birthday with a big party, done two days teaching at school and sorted out the whole snowboard debacle, I was nonetheless keen to get off travelling again!  It had been two weeks since I’d seen Sam and I was really looking forward to spending some time with him and seeing his show.

I arrived at Cité de la Musique in Paris half way through the second act of the their show there on the Wednesday evening, having travelled across London and Paris with a suitcase and snowboard, ready for my trip ahead.  They were streaming live video of the show on tv screens outside the auditorium but I had a ticket for the last night of the production so avoided watching any of the show and waited for them to finish before meeting Sam and the rest of the cast backstage, then heading to a local bar for some drinks and a bite to eat.

I’m glad that I waited to see the last night of the show (and many thanks to Les Arts Florissants for my ticket as I know they were in limited supply).  It was in the theatre at the Chateau de Versailles, a truly spectacular building and gardens, and the theatre was a wonderful venue from an audience perspective – apparently the acoustics on stage were not ideal for the singers, but the sound coming into the auditorium was fabulous.  The orchestra were onstage too, not in a pit, and the two productions, each around an hour long, were semi-staged.  I was pleased that they had put the pieces on in the order they had – La Descente d’Orphée is really rather dark, and Venus & Adonis made for a much lighter second half (despite the ending).

So, another trip made to a place I had not visited before (Versailles) to see Sam performing, and then on to the Alps for a week of snowboarding with my new board & bindings!

A lesson in customer service

I had an interesting experience at TSA (The Snowboard Asylum – Ellis Brigham) a couple of weeks ago.  After spending several hours researching snowboards on the net, I made my choice and opted for the Bataleon Distortia 11/12, 149cm.  Having called the store to check the size and make sure my new Burton Stiletto bindings were compatible, I placed the board on reserve on a Sunday morning to be collected on the following Tuesday afternoon.

When I got to the store it turned out that there is a 24 hour limit on reserves (which I hadn’t been told) and my board had been sent to another store for another customer. I was gutted.  The store said they could order in another board for me but it would take up to a week and I was leaving for France the next day.  They suggested other (more expensive) Bataleon boards that they did have in stock. They even offered to loan me one of last season’s Bataleon boards free of charge for my trip and order my board for me for when I got back.  However, having made my decision on that board, I wasn’t about to change my mind.

I’ve always found the staff at TSA to be very knowledgable on everything from kit to resorts, and on that day they were also very helpful – after I’d been informed there was a board in the Milton Keynes store I asked them to have that one couriered to my home; the manager said he’d make some enquiries and see what he could come up with.  His solution to the problem was to put the board in Milton Keynes on hold for me, send one of his team up there on the train and have them bring it back then deliver it to me at school the following morning.

In terms of customer service, that’s pretty good!  Admittedly, it was the store’s error that my board was not kept for me, but I really admire a business that goes all out to honour it’s contract with you when they’ve had a mis-hap at their end.  TSA have made an even-more-loyal customer of me thanks to their problem-solving and getting my board to me as promised!

Lone travels in Dubai

This January was the first time I can remember being, for all intents and purposes, alone abroad and entertaining myself.  I used to think that it would be very easy to pass time on holiday by yourself; after all, sunbathing and swimming are hardly restricted to being group activities. However, having spent a short amount of time alone in Dubai, I quickly realised that this is not necessarily the case.  Sure, it’s easy to while away a few hours on the beach or by the pool reading a book (or, in my case, working on my accounts in order to submit my tax return in time), but what happens after that?  I found myself wandering around, enjoying the sights but wishing I had someone to share them with, and knowing all too well that there were some loved-ones who would definitely have jumped at a chance to be there with me!

One thing I found most disconcerting was being somewhere in the world where I have no understanding of the native language, and only occasional wifi access to help me out with my general queries.  I had been staying in a friend’s apartment while he was away, so there was no hotel concierge to offer advice.  And while taxis in Dubai are incredibly cheap they were also useless as no taxi driver seemed to know where anything was; consequently they spent a long time driving around before calling somebody to ask where they were going – so, I learned to be as specific as I could, which is quite hard in a place that you don’t know at all.  It was all very foreign – the Metro stations were like airports, nothing at all like the Tube in London, there was often no pavement by the side of the road – just sand, the restaurant staff were hit and miss with their English…  It’s a very unusual and somewhat fake place, the city in the desert, but in some ways one of the more fascinating places I’ve been to – such a mix of peoples and cultures and more highrise towers than you could care to imagine.  But as I sat alone, finishing my meal for one in a Lebanese restaurant by the marina and then trying to navigate back to the Metro station with my box of leftovers, I was still extremely grateful to be enjoying some time in a place far sunnier and warmer than dreary London in January.  I was wearing flip flops and a t-shirt and feeling rather smug about it!

2012 and I’m excited!

Happy New Year one and all, and wishing you the very best for 2012 – a year destined to be significant for many, if you are open to the possibility of change.

I saw in the New Year in style this year, on a gig in Dubai at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel (despite having a terrible cough and cold and generally feeling very under the weather).  On 30th December I flew with 8 other musicians from a chilly London to the warm shores of the UAE where the 10th band member joined us from Manilla.  Even though the tour budget couldn’t stretch to putting us all up in the Jumeriah Beach Hotel (3000 UAE Dirhams / £530 per night) we were nonetheless well looked after by the hotel, who collected us from the airport (cold towels and bottled water at the ready) and dropped off at the Academy (appartments allocated to staff at the hotel).

After a late arrival and an early start for the most amazing breakfast buffet I’ve seen in a long time (since my last trip to Dubai in fact), we took the opportunity to stroll along the beach and dip our feet in the sea, before a meeting with the agent and a lengthy set-up and soundcheck on-stage.

The venue for the gig was a temporary, but enormous, open marquee on the hotel’s private beach, where the 1000 or so guests ate another lavish buffet meal before joining the dance floor outside to party the night away with us in the run up to midnight and beyond.

The countdown to midnight saw the band scrabbling for last-minute dinner and costume changes before the most spectacular fireworks display over the water.  Since the stage’s backdrop was the sea and the Burj al Arab hotel, we had the best (and completely unobstructed) view of the whole display.  We then played our fourth and final set to get 2010 off to a rocking start.

Champagne on the beach followed – the band were in high spirits by then since this was the first drink we’d been allowed to have all night.  I was the first to go to bed, since by this point the drugs (Sudafed & Cold + Flu pills) had worn off and I was feeling worse for wear.  Some of the band continued the celebrations way into the early hours of New Year’s Day and only made it up in time for the plane home.

Luckily myself and two of the girls in the band had extended our stay until 5th Jan, so for us we still had a few more days of sunshine and sand.

And as for the exciting year ahead, there’s been a lot of noise about 2012 and all the possible changes it may bring; from the end of the Mayan Calendar and the prophesised end of the world to shifts and changes on a much smaller scale, it seems to me that this is the year to really make of it what you will.  I for one have started as I mean to go on: working with fantastic people and having as much fun as possible along the way.