Fernie

We're back from our weekend in Fernie, which is in British Columbia and about 4 hours from Ralston. We stayed in The Old Nurses B&B which is in one of the town's oldest buildings and is full of character.

Our group stayed in 3 of the 4 rooms and the final room was being shared by 3 British guys - who were on a skiing holiday. The hosts opened a bottle of wine every night for the guests, so it was all very sociable and much more fun than a hotel.

Fernie's had loads of snow over the last few weeks and combined with the fact that it's a much smaller, quieter resort than Sunshine it was easily the best place we've been to so far.

Fernie itself is very pretty and looks like the image of a typical Canadian town that I've been carrying around in my head since we got here (and which Medicine Hat definitely isn't!) lots of little shops and cafes and a high street that looked like a film set. Fernie's got quite a strong art scene too, with an excellent arts centre selling everything from jewellery to metal work. In fact the couple who own the B&B had their photos and quilts for sale there.

So a nice weekend and we arrived back last night to deal with all the phone calls and paperwork after the accident on Friday. Ironically I think it was easier to sort out the repair on the mini in Germany when we didn't speak the language, because the whole case was handed over to a third party.