Climbing Frankenjura

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:

the first route

last cliff for saturday with my favourite 'sunset boulevard'

sunday morning: great route with sharp rock

fingerholes...

I am infected....next weekend I have to take a break 'cause my mom is coming to town ....but the again :D

Leipzig - 7 weeks

I can hardly believe I am here for such a long time already! Time is flying too fast...I am slowly getting used to a life in Germany again. Some things are great here, like drinking alcohol in the park without hiding it, eating good bread, that actually fills you up (I had to say that...), cheese is soooo cheap (even at the Karstadt Deli store) and delicious, the weather - it's like summer!, biking to get around (although the roads are soooo bumpy and bad, worse than Canada)! But I also miss Toronto, going out for food, good coffee places (it's not really common here to take your laptop and go working/writing in a cafe - or I haven't found it yet...), the multiculturalness (here, you walk over the street and everyone is white - I miss the different faces from all over the world), the international crowd is missing here, and the possibility of shopping on sundays (such a stress on saturdays. trying to buy food, and stuff for the apartment..), and a saturdays farmers-market in the center (this is the first city I live in which doesn't have it - I miss my stroll over the market!). And Germans like to complain about everything (now it's too warm, then it's too humid...), which I guess you should just ignore.

I think I am spending most of my time in the climbing gym...Met some great people, we already went outside climbing once. It was nice, the cliff was in an old quarry that had filled up a little with water - so for the approach you had to walk through knee deep water (ok for summer weather...), but then you feel like you are climbing on a little beach. we just missed the BBQ and beer! We did some easy routes to get used to being outside again, and put up a top rope on a harder one. I am stoked, my fingers are itching, and I need to get out again! Too bad that today, there were already thunderstorms (and likely more to come). I am thinking of buying a bouldering mat, and than cycle around the city and start buildering!

My place is about a 2min walk to a nice big park, which continues along a small river out of the city. It's nice, still a little sparse, but it's getting there. Since thursday I am eating again on a table, feeling a little too civilized again (or maybe is it the dish washer???), and even bought nice plates, a set of WMF pots (yes, I am getting old, no more (or less) Ikea stuff :D)...discovered the Xenos yesterday and felt brought back to Groningen! I am still waiting for my bed, shelfs, cupboard, still need to buy lamps, curtains,...Is it only me, or is shopping getting increasingly difficult due to the choice we have now? I went to the hardware store the other day to buy a light bulb - It's crazy, there are 50 different kinds (or more sigh), how can you ever decide on anything....and why do we need that? I mean I could live with just one kind. There's everywhere too much choice, in the supermarkets as well, who needs all that stuff? no wonder that 1/4 of all produce goes to waste. I would be happier to have less but then better quality. I seem to be the only one among my colleagues who thinks that groceries are cheap. but look at it - 50 years ago, we spend half of our income on food, now it's 10%, plus we have lots more...

yesterday night, I went out for dancing to music I actually really like! I cannot remember when that happened the last time (not that I had been out much)! The gothic/wave/alternative scene here seems big and interesting, so I am hoping to try out more very soon!

I am starting to feel a little more alive again - but I wish Mike would be here with me. He would like it here, experiencing the differences between Eastern and Western born Germans, living in a place where people are more conscious about the environment, with lots of green parks, and lots of old buildings but also socially very different neighbourhoods. Packing out his climbing gear here broke my heart. It's so real and definitive. Every morning on the way to work, I pass the place where we stayed 2.5h years ago on our short visit here. The old GDR cafe where we had breakfast, has now made place to a more western bakery chain.

Some impression of the last weeks - need to get out and take more photos again :)

view from my living room window including some herbs :)

kitchen area including dishwasher, what a luxury! But only a beer-cooler sized fridge...

view from my guest-apartment window after the construction covers were removed. To the left is the building where our offices are.

cherry blossoms!

Spring at the institute site, there's a little pond in front of the cafeteria.

a 'Schrebergarten' - little garden parcels people can rent in the city, where you can grow veggies/fruits/flowers, have garden parties....a typical German concept for city folks.

tree-art

The climbing area: the approach went through the lake along the left side...

The cliff, we also climbed that corner route later.

Now there's rhododendron flowering everywhere!

Playing around at the Clara-Park close to my house - a great place to be at night, too, withe BBQ, picknick, beer and wine!

Berlin and Potsdam

Last weekend, I went to visit my friend Julia in Berlin. It's amazingly close - only 1h 15min by train (if they arrive in time...). Too bad that Julia is moving away this weekend.

Saturday morning we got up surprisingly early and took the train to Potsdam, of course not after I had my Starbucks latte, which made me feel at home immediately. We went for a really nice walk through the gardens of Sanssouci Castle - a huge park, with already lots of flowers and the trees starting to be green or already completely green. Spring is amazing and comes with such a speed. I missed its beginnings this year...The castle is elaborately decorated showing off the wealth of kings and queens, and indicating the social injustices in that era. And nowadays social differences are well visible at every corner in Eastern Germany...

We enjoyed our walk and continued through the old city centre, which has a nice pedestrian zone with lots of cafes and stores. We rested with a nice pizza with bacon and white truffles and continued to the 'dutch quarter'. It made you feel like you are in Holland, with one exception, there were almost no bikes! The houses look very dutch including very steep stairs, the even sell poffertjes and pannekoeken there. Then, we returned to Berlin, had a Radler outside at the Kastianienallee. And of course I could not miss a good Curry-Wurst! For dinner, we had Vietnamese style food, definitely more elaborated and fancy than anything I had in Toronto, but nevertheless good food!

The next morning, again blue sky and sunshine, we spend having a nice big breakfast on a patio and then strolling over the flea market at the Mauerpark. That's what Berliners do on sunday, spending lots of money for lots of rubbish. There's also lots of nice old stuff, you just got to find it. I got a little sunburned there. We finished the afternoon with a delicious huge cake and then I had to take the train back in the early evening.

Here are some of the picture of the trip:

a turning golden eagle...

Julia in front of the New Palais - this is not the main castle yet...

naked male statues are found everywhere in the park

I like daffodils!

blue hyacinths give a great contrast

the steps to the castle still look very grey without roses and wine flowering...

colourful flowers in front of the castle

close up at the castle. It reminds me a lot of Schoenbrunn in Vienna.

the dutch quarter.

getting you bike ready for spring: a bike wash!

we are back in Berlin!

Radler with lime

Prost! on the patio of 'An einem Sonntag im August'

...and not to be missed when you are in Berlin: Curry-Wurst

Leipzig-first impressions

It has already been a week, that I am back over on this side of the big pond. Time is flying, and I have been busy looking for a place, and getting a little organized (not with much success).

Coming back to Germany was sort of a culture shock. The nice spring weather is very helpful to start feeling at home. But, I still feel a bit lost...

Leipzig seem like a nice second - with the second view. I have to admit, I was shocked when I arrived here and took the tram to my new place (which means for now that I am living in a guest-apartment on the institute site). It goes along the "Eisenbahnstrasse' of which I got to know later from my colleagues that it is one of the sketchier places in town. Lots of run-down places and closed shops. The next on saturday morning started similar - taking the bus through run-down streets south east...Then, I got a nice second hand bike, and it started brightening up. I cycled to the city centre, and there it's beautiful. Nice old restored buildings, the usual shops, a statue of Goethe at the town hall and of Bach in front of the Thomas church. There are lots of nice cafes and restaurants, and streets and streets of nicely restored 'Wilhelminian style'-buildings in the west and south. The people here are friendly and very chatty - it's easy to feel welcome, a little like Canada. Another common thing - the streets are in bad shape, so many road holes that you get well shaken on the bike ride. I enjoyed my first ice-cream outside saturday afternoon walking through the historic centre, and my first 'Radler' in nice neighbourhood Biergarten on sunday afternoon. I made my first trip to the climbing wall sunday evening - it's big, lots of lead routes, the bouldering is a bit small (not in area but in the amounts of routes - they got so much space, they could have made up hundreds of routes).

This week, I spend a lot of time on the apartment search. There are lots of offers for cheap places, but they are often in sketchy areas. It's almost impossible to find something in the in-areas of town. The west of Leipzig and the south are very popular. Now, I decided on a place over the weekend, in the south part of town, where there are lots of cafes, pubs and restaurants. The other option was the north of town, also nice buildings and more of a 'living' neighbourhood with huge apartments, high ceilings, but a little further to cycle to the going-out area. Well, I decided, I am still feeling young and might be interested in having a good coffee in the morning and a nice beer at night. So, let's see if my first choice will work out tomorrow...I'd like to move out here by the end of this month - my windows are covered with construction, and my view out is on some plastic covers...

Work is different then at university - I only have to work 39h/week. There's so much time left! So far, I have only been reading into the material, hopefully about to start my first experiments next week.

There are some of my first impressions of Leipzig - I surely wont run out of photo-motives here!

My guestapartment under construction - I am staying in the 8th floor

On the way to the centre - Plattenbauten and Schrebergarten

Wilhelminian Style houses - only partly restored...

...but most are still run-down here

Art or garbage dumb?

The richer neighbourhoods

Spring!!!

first Radler of the year!

Good-Bye Toronto

Now, it's real - I am leaving Toronto and Canada, sitting at Pearson airport and waiting for boarding. Luckily, there's free Wifi and I can catch up with all my emailing.

The last week was very busy - all the measurements done at work, hopefully all data copied and stored well, writing the publication(s) - not finished. I managed to spend some great time with my friends and climb a lot! The last weekend was fun; I had a great time watching climbing and adventure movies at the Banff Mountain Film Festival Tour. Lots of folks came out on saturday evening for drinks at the Rhino - thanks guys, it was a nice evening! And sunday was spend with a long climbing session with Aaron at Joe's - 6h of climbing, lots of resting and chatting, too! And a nice greek dinner with the climbers afterwards. Then again climbing at TN on monday night - now my body can rest at least until the weekend...

I think, I managed to eat all my favourite foods, that I am afraid won't be available in Germany that easily or good...Sushi with my group, a last lunch at Kensington market with vegan burrito's and taco's, very jummy, and an evening dinner with my climbing friends Aaron and Sara. I stayed over at Sara's families' place the last night, and we had great persian food after a walk in the sunny park. I just read tomorrow they expect snow again...guess that makes it easier to leave :)

I will miss Toronto. Life has been good here, and despite everything that has happened, I felt at home, and enjoyed my time here. Thanks to everyone, who made me feel at home. I am sure to visit again, and would like to be visited in Germany!

Toronto - two weeks left

Time is flying - I can't believe that I will be back to good old Germany in two and a half weeks! Work is piling up on my desk, paper(s) want to be written, (hopefully) some last minute measurements if the instrument is up in time, lots of packing and sorting out waiting for me. Sometimes the panic hits me, but this weekend I seem to be pretty relaxed. My big boxes will be shipped this week, one suitcase is packed. I hope the rest fits in the other...In a few minutes my climbing friends will come by, and we will cook a last dinner at my place before the kitchen gear gets packed. Then I am allowed to eat out every day :)

There are so many things I did not do in Canada, like visit the Rockies, cooking a lobster (sounded too complicated and messy in the end...), seeing the Niagara Falls (hopefully still manage), go to Montreal, travel and travel more. Seems that I have to come back on holidays - at least I will have 29+ days available soon! I am thinking of what I will miss (next to my friends and climbing buddies!), definitely the good, versatile food, great coffee places, can one get Shreddies in Germany?

Winter in Toronto

Winter seems to be over way too fast! We got 'spring' like temperatures these days; and all the snow is melting or turning into ice when the temperature is dropping again over the weekend...

Yes I do LIKE the cold - sunshine, -15C, snow - can't get much better in winter! And I would like a month more of it....

We got a lot of xc-skiing done this season (and hopefully it's not over yet!) - went out almost every week. The snow has been good so far. There has been a constant snow cover in Toronto since the holidays. Unfortunatly, none of us took a single picture while skiing - too busy moving and not wanting to stop to take off the gloves and get cold. I also spend an awesome weekend in Tremblant in Quebec with the 'chemists' at the end of January. We stayed in nice chalets with ski-in possibility, when you didn't have to get rentals or miss-read the map on the way home...It was a chilly weekend and the trails were very icy in the afternoons. So, we got out for the first lift, before 8am in the morning...Those first runs were the best of the day! Even did some mogul pistes, though I got to admit I am not very fond of them, especially in combination with branches, ice and dirt.

Here are some pictures from the ravine at my house and a walk through High Park.

my balcony

got my xc-skis later for the first run of the year!

at the subway entrance

in High Park