Travel during PhD

Friday, July 20, 2018

I want to go skiing

好想去滑雪。

Oberstdorf, Germany, Jan 2018

Allgäu, Germany, Feb 2018

Wednesday, December 27, 2017

Les 2 Alpes, UCPA, 4 days 3 nights

01. Summary
This post introduces a ski trip of 5 people to the Les 2 Alpes in the southern part of the French Alpes in December, 2017.

keywords: ski trip, multiple people, France, southern Alps, UCPA

02. Introdcution

Our schedule is listed as below:
12-20 Stuttgart to Paris, Paris to Lyon, Lyon to Grenoble
12-21 Grenoble to Les 2 Alpes at Venosc
12-21 to 12-24 UCPA at Venosc, skiing
12-24 Les 2 Alpes at Venosc to Grenoble
12-25 Grenoble to Lyon, Lyon to Paris, Paris to Stuttgart

03. Transportation

We didn't plan for five people at the beginning so we booked public transportation from Stuttgart to Les 2 Alpes. It may be more reasonable and cheaper to rent a car for five people and drive for the whole trip.

Airplane: We booked tickets from Air France because it is the cheapest airline when we were booking. The flight ticket costs about 180 euro for a round trip. The flight tickets we bought include a transfer at Paris. I was also lucky to have a nice sunset view from the back journey on the airplane.

Flixbus: the ticket from Lyon to Grenoble is very cheap costing only 5 euro/person one-way. [Screenshot of the booking webset]

Shuttle bus VFD: the ticket costs 12 euro/person one-way, it needs to be booked early. [Should have been very careful on the bus station and schedule]

Taxi: because we didn't book the VFD bus early we have to book a taxi to Les 2 Alpes at Venosc. We called a taxi company called "Taxis Transoisans" before departure and it costed 180 euros (170 euros and 10 euros as tips) for 5 people with luggages. There are also other taxi companies potentially.

04. Staying at UCPA at Venosc
UCPA is an outdoor sport organization for young people. The one we went is

UCPA - 15, Place de l'Alpe Venosc
38860 Les Deux Alpes
Tel. : 04 76 80 52 83
E-mail: 2alpes-venosc@ucpa.asso.fr

04.0 Summary of package
The package we booked (375 euros, 4 days 3 nights break) includes a ski set (ski board, ski shoes, poles), a four-day ski pass, food for 4 days, accommodation for 3 nights.

04.1. Routine
The procedure is first checking in at the front desk on the zero floor of the UCPA's main building. The receptionist will give you the ski pass with a receipt in case that the ski pass is lost. She/he will also give you a piece of paper where there is the information of food, password for entering the main building, the room for snow instruments, and our own rooms. We then go to choose the ski set of our size with the help from the staff. Everyone has to deposit 5 euro for the ski pass.

04.2. Food
All the breakfasts, lunches, and dinners are at 1st floor of the main building of UCPA. They provide very good food including a variety of meat such as beef, chicken, fish, pork, etc. Fruits, deserts, bread, yogurt, etc are also available every day.

A lunch pack is possible if you write down your name and number of desired lunch packs for the next day and the lunch pack can be picked next morning in the kitchen.

04.3. Accommodation
The room is like a hostel with several single-person bed, a shared shower in the room, and a toilet shared by 3 rooms. Our room has a nice view of the mountains.

04.4. Location of rooms

The bathroom is in our own room. The toilet is shared among three rooms. Extra toilets are on the 1st and 0th floor. The dinning room is at 1st floor. Same for the sauna and hot tub room.

04.5. Leisure things to do

UCPA has a hot tub and sauna available at a cost of 10 euros and reservation one hour earlier. There is a site just behind the UCPA building where people can watch starry sky at night. A place for bowling, pool, and other games is right in front of the UCPA building. There are also plenty of shops, restaurants and bars in the small village. We went to a bar for drinking on the third night. An old man is so nice that he treated Xin an Oysters.

The French Christmas market is very small but is also beautiful.

We went for hot tub and sauna at 12-23 night at a place called "Aqua Center" recommended by the officer at the Les 2 Alpes tourist center. It costs 20 euro/person without time limit until 8 pm. They have two hot tubes with waves and two sauna rooms of which one is dry and the other is wet.

During night, there is a platform for watching the starry sky just behind the UCPA building.

05. Les 2 Alpes ski resort
05.1. Resort map

There is a free shuttle bus escorting people every 30 mins in case you don't want to walk with ski boards. However, if living in UCPA the best route to access the ski area is first go to the Diable lift and then ski along the Cretes or Jandri to the base to take Jandri Express to the top area.

05.2. Ski routes live information

05.3. Sceneries

05.4. Skiing experience

Snow park is interesting with bumpers.
The route Jandri is a 10km long trail from 3200m to the village.
There is a magic blanket for beginners at the beginning of Jandri 1 and can be access by taking the lift OEUFS BLANCS.

5. Ski school

06. Summary
Total expense:
Transportation: 303 euro [driving may be cheaper for group with more than 5 people]
UCPA: 378 euro (ski, living, food)
Other food and drinks: 80 euro

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Paris: a movable feast

这是一张有关巴黎的电影清单，在清明假期来临之前，希望能浏览一下。
1.午夜巴黎
2.天使爱美丽
3. 巴黎我爱你
4. 爱在日落黄昏前

本以为这是一次独自旅行，结果刚到巴黎的早上，就遇到了一个同样来自德国的中国姑娘。一起逛巴黎的街道，景点，博物馆，老佛爷，真是一段美好的经历。

Friday:
(1) 360度观赏巴黎圣母院，樱花在教堂下盛开，阳光温暖的照耀在西岱岛的每一个角落，主教唱着不太好听也听不懂的圣歌，塞纳河分成两支，河水出奇的绿，她说不好看，但我心情出奇的好。她问我为什么一个人出来呢？我说怕麻烦。

(2) 路过 Shakespeare & Company, 走过《爱在黄昏日落前》主角走过的那条街，她说要坐下来拍照，背后是巴黎圣母院教堂的一角，景色没有什么特别，但是阳光很温暖，街旁是静静的喝着咖啡读书的人们，普通的一幕也生动起来。

shakespeare & company

(3) 一路向卢浮宫走去，在玻璃金字塔广场上拍照，游人很多，很多人在食指朝下拍一张手指间点到金字塔尖的照片，姿势雷同。一路沿着Tuileries Garden的中轴线前行，我们在圆形喷泉周围的椅子上坐下来休息，数着里面的鸭子，随意拍着照片。一路走向Av. des Champs-Élysée，寻着花香在旁边的小路边走边聊，我说那是丁香花，她想起了那首很老的校园歌曲，之后遇到紫色的花便问我是不是丁香。在香榭丽舍大街上，游人很多，我们在一家咖啡馆的二楼一边喝咖啡一边看往来的人流，看对面街道的茶店。随便逛了一两家店之后，来到了凯旋门，同样的坐姿，又拍了几张照片。从旋转楼梯登上凯旋门，在凯旋门顶上买了巴黎的纪念币，然后一睹了巴黎午后的景色。天很蓝，视野很开阔，看到了远方的埃菲尔铁塔，决定之后去跟铁塔遥遥相望的Montparnasse Tower看铁塔。

凯旋门上

(4) 搭乘地铁到达Montparnasse Tower，结果被将近20欧的顶楼门票吓到，但是并没有放弃，假装去56楼的餐厅吃饭从另一边搭上了电梯，虽然衣着随意，但当楼梯口的工作人员询问去餐厅还是酒吧的时候，还是佯装淡定的告诉她“both”. 没有意识到顶楼还需要检票，酒吧也需要预定才可以进入，不过还是看到了朦胧的玻璃窗外远方的Eiffel Tower. 这算是只有年轻时才能厚着脸皮去做的事吧，也许多年之后想到这个故事，也会笑出声来。

(5) 在Eiffel Tower 附近下车，一路沿着河边走过，给她在铁塔下拍了跳起来的照片，跳的还蛮高的。在铁塔对面的平台上摆拍，绿色的树墙趁着远方的铁塔，心情很舒畅。

Eiffel Tower

(6) 在青旅附近的超市买了些吃的，结果回去发现根本没有厨房。两个人在餐厅没有点菜，吃着买来的酸奶，三明治，喝着啤酒，一起看拍的照片。不知不觉餐厅也关门了，第一天，走了很远，却不觉得累，很神奇呢。

Saturday:

(1) 早起吃早餐，面包有点硬，salami还可以，旁边的外国女生一直在盯着我们看，但是，我们十分淡定。

(2) 外面下着雨，卢浮宫门口却还是排着长队，按着网上的攻略，去找其他两个入口，结果无功而返，只能在雨中排队进入，她可以直接进去不用买票，但是陪我拍了队，一边闲聊，一边一点一点移动，聊了什么呢？好像说到了麻将，南方的台风，她的中学，北方的冬天和夏天，还有什么？记不清了。

(3) 卢浮宫好大，买了票，租了讲解器，便随着人流向前，因为事先没有做太多功课，只有半天时间，所以，先把镇馆三宝看了，一路把讲解器当导航仪使，看了各种国家的各种画，雕塑，拍了几张有趣的照片。午饭在卢浮宫下面的cafe吃，她点了法国点心，但是第二个十分不好吃，我点了sub一样的法国烤面包，味道还不错。午饭过后，去找古巴比伦王的汉谟拉比法典，找到了，拍了照，结束了走马观花但颇有重点的卢浮宫之行。

卢浮宫

(4) 接着去逛了老佛爷，春天百货。我们聊了一些明星，她的同学，去找附近一家越南米粉。接着去了十八区，看了红磨坊，在双风车咖啡馆喝了咖啡，我点了latte,她点了cappuccino。一路向上，爬到了十八区的高地，路过了艺术气息浓厚的艺术市场，来到了人潮汹涌的圣心教堂，看黑哥哥表演路灯上的钢管舞，耳边阵阵叫好声。除了埃菲尔铁塔被挡住，巴黎尽收眼底。她没错，这里的确很难看到铁塔。