My bags were already packed, so there wasn't much to do in Courmayeur today, except checkout. I happened to mention the wifi issues I had been having and I was just curious if it happened to everyone or just one floor, after a bit of a chat it sounded like whoever their IT people were sounded like they were trying to sell them on a bunch of things they didn't need. I gave him my thoughts on it and reasons why I thought that, I can't help myself I know, but he seemed appreciative.
I made my way to the bus station and waited, after a little while so thought, the bus should have been here by now, ai loaded up the app only to find my Bus had been cancelled, I saw someone else so asked him if he was travelling with Flix as well, turns out he was so he checked his app and confirmed his was also saying it was cancelled. Annoyed that there had been no update to notify us of this I walked into the bus station to see if they had any buses going to Chamonix as my next bus was leaving from there at 12:30pm... Turns out their bus schedules had all changed so the next wasn't leaving until 5pm that night due to tunnel closing, although the tunnel closure had been delayed for a week so really, there was no reason for Flix to cancel theirs.
Not sure what to do I stood there for a few moments before the other guy asked if I wanted to split a cab fair between us, the cab was going to cost €130, so €65 between us. It was really the only option we had... As we were chatting I thought I've met this guy before... Turns out it was Ernest, one of the guys from NZ that I met as we started the race, the one from Wellington. He had to get to Chamonix as well so he could catch a train to Germany at 2, neither of us could wait for the 5pm Bus... I'm glad he asked about splitting a cab, because I really didn't know what to do. We chatted a lot about the race and some of the stories of people we had seen pulling out of throwing up on the side of the trail as we made our way through the Mont Blanc Tunnel for the last time.
I still had an hour and a bit to wait until my bus would arrive and let me on, so got chatting to a couple of Australians who had ventured over to spend a few days travelling and hiking the trail Mont Blanc and watch the race. Turns out they are Ultra Runners themselves and thought it would be a great spot to do some hiking and still getting to watch some of the event. They are actually signed up to do the 100km Tarawera event next year, so who knows... Maybe I may see them, I say maybe, because right now I don't know if I'm planning on going.
Eventually we got onto the bus, I found my seat, yeah, that's right.... These ones are assigned and sat down. A few moments later, a young lady from Korea sat down next to me, she had attempted the Miler, but pulled out at 80km after about 16 and a bit hours. She wasn't too concerned as she's doing a multi day race in a few weeks.
Arriving in Annecy I made my way to the hotel which was just a small 5 minute walk from the bus station, and an added bonus of being right on the corner of the old city. I checked in and had a quick plan out where I was going to go, the first stop was the castle which was a 5 minute walk from where I expected something a bit better than what I saw... It's kind of like they had this massive castle and really didn't know what to put in there, so they put a small aquarium in one spot and then a kind of art gallery on another... All and all, rather odd and defiantely not what I would have expected.
From there I made my way through the streets of the old city, found myself a Gelato shop with many flavours and then proceeded to walk down the streets, bumping into the Australians I had met just before getting onto the bus, had a quick chat with them and I carried on to the lake to have a quick look.
It was such a nice day, I felt like jumping in, but decided not too as I still needed to get something to eat before heading back to the hotel, not ideal doing that in wet shorts. Walked around more of the old city and eventually come across a small burger restaurant, which didn't charge an arm and a leg for a meal like other places did. I ordered a burger, and Wow, my gosh did that taste good, reminded me of a McDonalds cheese burger (flavour wise) but a lot more flavoursome, a bit hard to explain exactly what I mean, just trust me, it was good and cheap at €10, compared to €23ish at other places.