Zero very very dark 30

It's that time of year again when the Walters family sets off on their annual ski trip, and it is a fact universally acknowledged that the best ever musical is the sound of music. So where better to visit this year than the living hills around Salzburg. More specifically the Austrian resort of Zell Am Zee. The alarm woke me at 2.15am, it gets earlier each year, for the trip to East Midlands airport. We didn't fly till 6am but have been with Thomson before. We always get to the airport to find a massive queue that you have to join no matter where you  are flying. You join the queue and fret for the next ninety minutes that you will miss the flight. With about thirty minutes to go you are invited to race across to a separate queue with all the other panickers to check in. Then you have to deposit your skis and run through security to the gate with seconds to spare, forfeiting breakfast and coffee. We took two cars, with me driving Chris and Kathy, and Ian following with Vicky and Alex. All went well till we came off the M1. Things look different at 3am, and neither the sat-nav telling me to take the third exit, or Chris yelling 'NOT THIS ONE', were clear enough. I started to take the exit back on to the motorway. Luckily (or not if I get a ticket) I was able to reverse back a few feet and take the right exit. Unluckily, Ian witnessed it all. We arrived nicely at the short stay, pre-booked, car park, and it was a whole 30 seconds before Ian asked 'what the hell were you doing?' I had no defence. We arrived at the back of the queue at precisely 3.30am. In fact, the back of the queue was also the front of the queue! We were checked-in, had deposited the skis, and were eating big breakfasts by 4am. The flight was really quick, only taking an hour and fourty five minutes, and most of us spent it dozing. Even kathy was remarkable laid back, probably the Kalms she had purchased at the airport. Next thing we knew, we were in Austria, a country I have never visited before. Thomson were very efficient in getting us to the coach and away for the short, one hour thirty minute, journey to Zell, and most of us spent it dozing. All except the driver, a young English lad, and the rep, another young English lad, who spent it discussing skiing downhill at 80mph and drinking.  At the coach park in Zell we had to transfer to a taxi up to the hotel, and actually arrived at around 11.30am. It's very nice for a ski hotel, our rooms are really new and fresh looking, and are all slightly different. All have balconys, although ours looks out over another chalet. You can see one of the slopes though. We also get unlimited tea, coffee, hot chocolate, and soft drinks. Very nice. We grabbed some drinks and retired to our rooms to shower and doze for a bit. Not too long though, afternoon tea is at 3pm so we reconvined in the bar/restaurant. After coffee and cake we played charades for a while and tutted knowingly when hearing that Rotherham lost yet again, 2-0 to Aston Villa. After that we needed to nap before tea.  We have our own table in the restaurant, presumably for the week, and a very nice waiter patiently explained how we should order our teas for tomorrow by ticking a sheet. Tonight was a buffet, seeing as we didn't tick the sheet yesterday. A buffet consisting solely of meat and chips. Lots of things tried to trick Vicky by looking vegetarian, like a soup and some rice, but they were all for carnivores only. Kindly they made her a vegetable strudel which went down well.  At 8.30pm we called it a day and all went to bed.