Friday, July 27, 2007

Berchtesgaden and Burghausen


If you hit the title of this post you’ll see some of the 145 photos taken while my buddy Chip and I went hiking in the German Alps for the last couple days. Certainly they tell the story better than my words.

Berchtesgaden is a small city in the middle of the first National Park in Germany. The region is gorgeous and worth many more than the two days Chip and I spent there. After a five hour drive down (scenic route) we hiked the first afternoon going near the Hintersee (Rear Lake) near Ramsau. The Zauberwald (Magic Forest) near the lake was easy walking and beautiful. From there we also went through the Wembach Gorge.

On the second day we had a more extensive hike of around 7 miles and 3,000 feet vertical elevation before turning around and returning the way we came. The lower part was much more pleasant to the eye landscape-wise; the upper half was largely through wadis or flood plains of grey rock. There were two huts in route to stop and get a beer or something to eat. Both of us are still in fairly good shape (Chip is a former Special Forces soldier) and while passing many a fellow hiker I felt we were making a good pace ... to my surprise halfway up I heard steps from behind and found a young woman running up the mountain. We never saw her return so there is no telling how far she actually went and I must admit it was a bit humbling. After that hike we had just enough time to drive over to Königssee (King’s Lake) and take the boat tour of one of the larger fresh water lakes in Europe. Spring fed and crystal clear with steep cliffs on many sides it is simply magnificent; unfortunately, the sun was low enough that many of the photos really didn’t take.

On the way home, we stopped by the Castle in Burghausen. The longest castle in Europe, the photos don’t do it justice … more to the point, we didn’t find a vantage point to take a photo from the outside. The following site though has at least one photo from the outside and gives you a bit of an idea about the town: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burghausen%2C_Alt%C3%B6tting

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Crete



Sun, sea, ouzo and food … proved to be a wonderful way to spend a week. Lisa and I took our annual beach vacation on the Greek isle of Crete and it was great. It was mostly spent on the beach but we took two days of adventure in a small open SUV scouring the mountains. If you’d like to see some of the pictures click on the title above.

Our hotel, the Creta Royal proved to be as nice as the reviews we’d read. The food was magnificent with two restaurants; the main restaurant was open air but well appointed with plenty of shade while the beach restaurant was simply a great view. No food poisoning this time; alcohol poisoning might be declared from the cumulative effect of the week; but neither of us seems worse for wear and only one early morning run was soured by any overindulgence. The location was lovely, with a nice beach, pools and gardens. And it was also appropriately quite; little if any of the loud night “shows” often found in the resort hotels frequented by Germans. This one had quite an international (European) mix of guests with German, Swiss, Dutch, Italian, Austrian, and French among the languages I picked up on. There was even a second American showing up our last day (we are, by the way, generally very easy to pick out in a European crowd).

One odd evening event in particular will be memorable; a middle aged woman at the next dinner table asked if we’d watch her purse while they fetched their appetizers. Lisa agreed of course and while we were enjoying the wine and main course a young, tall blonde woman walked up and, ignoring all signs that the table was occupied, proceeded to pick up most of the silverware and walk back to her table. Both of us were initially speechless, at first I was trying to remember if the neighbors who’d requested our security services had any kids along, then wondered if the woman was part of the staff (the dress was way too flashy and there were only a couple blonds on the staff anyway). After she left I had to restrain Lisa from going over and grabbing the instruments back and instead explained to the waitress the situation and asked her to replace the stolen goods. The staff didn’t seem amused but let it go of course; Lisa and I had fun all week grabbing our silverware every time we saw the “blond thief”.

We went to rent a car for two days of travel around on our own; I was very surprised Lisa didn’t veto my request for a convertible or small open jeep … she normally detests a draft or even open car windows. The convertible wasn’t available so we wound up with a Suzuki Ventura, about the size of the old Army M151 “jeep” … and come to think of it, it handled much the same as an old Army jeep and didn’t even come with a radio. If you think of visiting the Island and covering it in a day or two you might think again with Crete’s 3,220 sq. miles of mountains; we didn’t reach most of our intended destinations in the end but did have a wonderful time. Of course Lisa says we’re not renting another car without air conditioning … sigh.

The neighboring city of Rethymno was of some interest; the ancient Venetian fortress was cool and we particularly liked the small alleyways with Turkish (Ottoman) wooden overhangs in the houses. The old city has lots and lots of outdoor (street) restaurants and shops and the narrow alleys make it a veritable labyrinth. As a matter of fact we got lost coming out and had to walk the long way around the fortress … for the record, Lisa had been right and if I’d listened we’d have saved a mile hike. Our big shock was the parking ticket at €80 ($112) on our return to the Suzuki parked just off the beach. Highway robbery of the more “legal” kind, it was more than a bit annoying since we parked in a marked place and there were none of the normal International signs indicating we’d need something special. From there we went into the mountains and wondered around some small towns where Lisa met a kitten named Lisa. An old man who had lived in Canada gave us great directions to some waterfalls where we enjoyed a nice taverna lunch on the cheap (the other tourists were actually Greeks). He also wrote a map to an ancient church with ruined cemetery dug into the mountain rocks. Not in the tour books, it required a hike down a stone paved road that had to be over a thousand years old and led to a huge ancient tree cut in half to allow the road through. On the way back we took a circuitous route (Lisa navigated, but in her defense reading road signs in the Greek alphabet can’t be an excuse since they frequently don’t even post those) to the Moni Arkadiou Monastery which provided some of the neater pictures. Still an active Monastery, it plays a particularly strong role in Greek history with the Turks; Crete being so strategically set in the Mediterranean it’s been occupied by many countries over millennia with the usual disastrous affect. So for day one of our tour we didn’t make it to the city of Chania (we were there the last time) or any of the other places planned but did come home with some pottery, linens, avocado creams and some ok pictures.

The second day of driving was to the southern coast. First through the Kourtaliotiko Canyon to the Preveli Monastery where the monks have a long history of fighting occupiers (I found the picture of the head Monk from the 18th century of interest, around his robes he had belts of ammo and held a rifle). They hid a group of 70 some British and Ausie soldiers who had escaped after the Germans took the Island in 1941 before they were evacuated by submarine at night. Unfortunately, they forbid photography inside, but a more scenic place is hard to imagine, unlike the other monasteries we saw, this one sits on a cliff with a fantastic view over the Libyan Sea. From there, it was on to Plakias and then Lisa’s tour of the Moon. We took some the curviest mountain roads you can imagine through an absolutely desolate mountain desert … nothing but rocks and olive trees we literally drove 45 minutes without seeing a car or person. At one point I commented that we were on the Moon with olive trees. But once we cleared the desolate part, the villages were awesome. No tourist traps here, the little store/bar had tables out front and the less than friendly barkeep spoke no English or German. It was interesting having driven through town and seeing maybe two people on the way in, after we’d sat down all the old folk turned curious and came by to say hi and ask where we were from … or rather one guy did who could almost speak English and then relayed it to half a dozen others who came up and asked (something like, “they’re American and German”). After they were so friendly and on our way out of town, Lisa passed on the news from the tour book that the Germans had burned these villages to the ground and killed all the men … hmmm, glad the hospitality thing held.

The rest of the week was pretty lame. Eat, drink, sun, swim, workout a bit and read. The trip back was uneventful other than requiring an early wakeup we were not used to. Life is good.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007

Weekend in Garmisch



It’s like this, we needed to do a meeting somewhere with all the chiefs and it needed to be away from work where we could get some serious work done … sans interruption. My colleague JD had the spot, a hotel outside the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the Bavarian Alps. One has to take a private cable car part way up the mountain to get to it, cell phones and blackberry’s are masked by the mountain (even fewer interruptions) and the price is well below most anyplace else in Germany, not to mention below the approved government rates. Add to that excellent food, fabulous views from the room and only a ten minute walk to the top of the famous Parnach Gorge and you’ve a hit. And if you "hit" the title to this entry above, it'll take you to the photo gallery from the trip.

Lisa joined me as the conference closed Friday noon and we stayed through Sunday morning. The photos you’ll see are of the Partnach Gorge in Garmisch, the Leutasch Gorge ten or fifteen miles away and the Linderhof Castle. Linderhof was one of King Ludwig II of Bavaria’s several fantasy castles … it so happens to be the smallest, probably the nicest and his favorite.

Prior to Lisa’s arrival I got a chance to hike up a mountain, visit the gorge a couple times and … drink beer. On her arrival (and my colleagues’ departure), Lisa and I walked the Leutasch Gorge and enjoyed a beautiful Spring day on the mountain. Saturday resumed the typical German weather for this time of year … rainy and somewhat cool … so we took to the other attractions, namely shopping in Garmisch (they had an auto show throughout the old section of town), the Ettal Monastary and Linderhof.

The Leutasch Gorge walkway you see is of interest if for no other reason than wondering how the hell they built it on the sides of wilderness cliffs. It opened up last year after two years construction at €1.4 million ($1.9M). The two websites below can give you a bit more info or photos.

http://www.walkseefeld.com/walks/leutaschklamm.htm

http://www.mtb-mittenwald.de/hike/wandern-leutaschklamm.asp

Monday, February 19, 2007

Basketball Update

Well sports fans, since some of you missed the ABC Sports piece on the Sulzbach-Rosenberg 2nd Mens Basketball I thought I’d give you a recap of the latest.

Last month we finished our season with a 7:5 record putting us in 3rd place from 7 teams in the lowest adult league in our region. With that we made the placement round, a mini-tournament where the top 4 teams in our league play against the bottom 3 teams in the league one rung above us. Some teams will move up a league next year, some down. We’ve now played two new games in this tournament with less than stellar results.

A week ago, we led TSV 1904 Langquaid by 3 points at halftime only to fall completely apart and loose by 18 (73:91). It was depressing. I personally had a great first half with three 3-point shots, a couple steals (kids have a tendency to underestimate the gray haired old guys :-)) and a few good assists. On my way to a season high at the half I was feeling real good despite having half a roll of tape on my left hand from a serious jam from Friday evening’s practice. In the second half, we might as well have been playing blindfolded the way we were handing the other team the ball. I personally threw away 3 balls in what could only be described as pathetic play. I wasn’t any worse than the rest of my comrades, but I still wanted to crawl under the floorboards. That would have been even more of a feat since it is a linoleum covered concrete floor.

Last night, TS Regensburg smoked us like cheap cigars (76:47) but at least we were never ahead (the first twenty seconds withstanding) and never really had a chance. It stayed a friendly game and we walked off feeling considerably better than the week before. I took a pretty good shot to the knee so it’s a good thing we’ve a break in practice and I’ll be traveling in the states for the next two games … maybe that will help not only my knees but the team’s chances.

Day trip to Nürnberg


For Presidents Day I took the train into Nürnberg to test out my new camera (hoping for a nice sunny day like yesterday). Unfortunately, it was a much more typical German day ... cloudy ... so I only took some shots down by the river. It wasn't a total waste, I had a nice lunch and bought socks. Oh, you can view the pictures by clicking on the title to this post.