Waldhexe in Canada: June 2011

Last Friday, Tina and I met up for a Berlin-day. We started the day off with some coffee, then walked along the 'Alte Schoenhauser Strasse and Allee" to Konopke's, Berlin's oldest and re-opened Curry-Wurst Bude. In modern times, the 'Oeks' eat now Currywurst and drink Bionade...

We spend the rest of the day shopping, drinking coffee, shopping, drinking beer, shopping, eating out Korean food, and drinking beer - in short, the perfect relaxing day! I like Berlin - the cafes and bars are so much more interesting, people are working in coffee shops, which makes me feel more at home again. The shops are more interesting, you can find other than H&M and Zara, and it doesn't matter how you dress, no one cares or notices.

We just went to the Alexanderplatz for the obligatory proof picture that we actually were in Berlin...

coffee No 1 - candles are only unpacked at night...

coffee No 2...

...with cheese cake.

and Curry Wurst with Bionade

shopping...

and what's your wish?

beer in 'An einem Sonntag im August'

the obligatory proof...

and a different perspective...

view from the train station

This past two weekends, I have been out with friends to the Frankenjura - Germany's top climbing area. There are ~9000 routes on ~900 cliffs, located in the forests in Franken/Bavaria. It's the place where modern sport climbing developed in Germany, with the invention of the red point system by Kurt Albert, and the famous route 'action directe' by Wolfgang Guellich. Lots of history but most important awesome rock - solid, sharp limestone with lots of pockets. It's very scenic there, rolling hills covered in forest, the cliffs can be directly at the road, or with a short access inside the forest.

The first weekend, Arthus, Christine's puppy, kept us entertained by howling all day, as soon as she got two meters away from the ground, and jumping around energetically. I wish he could have transferred some energy to me! We started on a cliff with 30sec access...it was a bit busy, but we managed to put in some routes. The next area we had for ourselves. We were on a shady cliff, close to a cemetery which is convenient to wash your hands afterwards....At night, we camped at a campsite this time; for Arthus it was the first time in a tent. It got a bit too warm inside the tent for me, so I was happy to sleep outside the following weekend. And being camping, I am finally allowing myself to have Nutella again :) On sunday, we had another full day of climbing, and a nice area to start with. The rock is often so sharp, that the 2nd day is very hard on your skin! The question is, how to get stronger skin (and fingers)....?

The next weekend, Adam asked me if I'd join again - for sure! The weather was great, sunshine, a bit hot, great rock, lots of routes climbed, painful fingers and skin - a great time.

Here are a few pictures from Christine: