Nordic skiing and a broken coccyx

Enough of the alpine skiing that we have been doing for the last couple of days, today we were testing out Nordic skiing for the first time. It’s fair to say I was really looking forward to it and excited to be doing something fir the first time in my life, and happy also to be doing it with the amazing women in my life. One thing that is much easier with Nordic skiing is that the gear is much easier to carry, the skis are thinner and lighter and the boots are much more shoe-like and so the walk to the stadium was much easier than negotiating the bus has been and I was certainly pleased about that.
It was a pleasant early morning stroll, the weather was -7 but it felt like -13, at least according to my weather app. We had a private lesson booked to teach us all the basics and we met our instructor Nina, who proceeded to teach us what we needed to know to get started. I particularly enjoyed it because we were all starting from the same level of expertise, it was the first time for all of us, and I was not bringing up the rear for a change. We did a few lengths, practiced striding out to get more speed and generally got all the tips needed to get to a beginner’s level. Even better, everyone else fell over before me and I was feeling very happy with myself, thinking I was obviously a natural. Then I went over sideways. Still, at least there was no uncontrolled sliding down a hill and it was quite easy to get back up. There were tracks everywhere and we had a bit of a go, stopping was quite difficult, and going was not that much easier to be honest. At one point Jess fell over backwards and landed flush on her coccyx causing herself quite a bit of pain. We had a 90 minute lesson which as I said, covered the basics, and then we were left to our own devices. Jess, Lily and Ruby decided to do another little circuit but the twins and I had had enough, there was a whole new group of muscles that were in a world of pain. We then decided that was enough for the day so returned our gear to the shop and found ourselves the only cafe in town to have a very tasty lunch. Then it was some shopping for not pasta, which was not as enjoyable as it had been on some of the other days. Some take away cakes were our last requirement for a relaxing afternoon, all that was left was the walk back to our accommodation, not so easy for poor Jess and her damaged coccyx, which was stiffening up rather uncomfortably.
We had a very chill time doing not much at all (eating cakes obviously), although Lily helped Ruby colour her hair and the twins updated their diaries with 6/7 pages of recounting all the fun they have had since they last did so. Vegan burgers was our very tasty dinner, I greatly enjoyed them and then we all put face sheet masks on to clear up our imperfections and looked like a cross between Jason from Halloween and the Phantom of the Opera.
It was a lovely day, trying out new things, enjoying good food and just having a good time hanging out with my favourite people, much like all of this holiday really.Read more