Day Hike of a Lifetime

Wow, where do I start with this one. Monday morning we left home at 6:30 to be here early, got to the parking lot only to see two other cars. Ate breakfast at a super authentic Bavarian restaurant (put it this way, Josh had a Bavarian pretzel w/ mustard and breakfast brats) and we were the only ones in there. We caught one of the first English speaking tours that morning with minimal people in our group. I won't go into talking about the tour because I don't want to ruin it for a couple people... nudge, nudge. But it was phenomenal. Because everything on the inside is original, we weren't allowed to take pictures, but she said we could take a few looking out. So I snapped the second one up from the third floor. Looks like something out of a Lord of the Rings movies huh? After the tour we hiked up to the bridge behind Neuschwanstein which sits on top of a long waterfall and looks out onto the castle (tall enough to basejump off of). It was pretty but they just happened to be working on that side of the castle so it was all covered up with scaffolding and mesh. Jack and I had read earlier about a "riskier" hike up the mountain to the left of the castle. Of course riskier caught our eye and we were on a mission. Each time the trail curved back toward the castle, the views kept getting better and better the higher we got. Eventually we were high enough that we couldn't see the mountain anymore. The trail eventually came around a bend and started heading back down the mountain. We still hadn't reached the peak yet. Josh was winded and ready to go back down. Jack and I just kept looking up and then looking at each other. We were dissapointed and were both seemingly waiting for the other to speak up. We HAD to get to the top. Without saying anything we both just started making a trail for ourselves. It was definitely getting steeper and rockier. Not just rockier, but loose gravel rockier. After about another 20 minutes we had reached some dangerous terrain. The last 50 feet or so got my adrenaline flowing wide open. We reached the peak and there was a welded cross sticking into the rock. What an emotional moment. There was only enough room for Jack and I to sit up there. We both looked at each other and kinda gave a whimpering laugh. I think the words "that wasn't too smart" came out of both of our mouths before we left the summit. But it was definitely worth it and I'll never forget that day. By the way the pic at the top of the page was not the summit. It just came out with better scenery. We had, as you can see, one of the clearest days in Germany since we've been here. It was rainy and foggy the very next day. Without a doubt it was a day hike of a lifetime.

Kiel, Germany

This is Kiel, Germany. It's a large sea port on the Baltic Sea and about a half hour drive east of where we were staying for the last week and a half. It's where a lot of Norwegian cruise ships stay for home port. We had been to Kiel before for errands, but last Tuesday some of us decided to go back for a little sightseeing. Saying it's a very old town would be redundant here in Germany, but it also has a University in the city with a variety of archaic buildings and small parks. The picture is a part of where the marketplace and shops merged with the University. Oh, and yes we did stop for lunch at a hot dog... er bratwurst stand and got a Rotbratwurst dog. May be the best dog I've ever had. It's a huge, bratwurst on a small fresh baguette (or brot in German) with only spicy mustard. Very good! The picture at the top is of this really cool cathedral in the middle of the marketplace. As we walked by, the bells rang for noon. They were so loud and deafening, yet no one but us seemed to notice. The inside of the cathedral was nothing fancy but they had some carvings and statues inside that were made in the early 1400's. It still blows my mind when I think about stuff like that. It was a really neat city but we had enough by the end of the week and were ready to head south.

Bavaria, Germany

Alright, I'm back in Boeblingen and internet is back up! So I know I'm doing this blog and the next one out of order, but this trip is still fresh in my head from earlier today. So this afternoon Josh and Jack wanted to go down to Fussen (pronounced Foosen) and check things out. This town is right at the base of the Bavarian Alps. It was about a 2 hour drive down to hear but we've been anxious to see the mountains. So we got there a little after 4pm and realized the Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau castles (about 10 min away) were already closed. Kind of expected it though; almost everything in Germany is closed on Sundays. But it was nice to get out, if only for a little while, and we were able to scout out where we are going to hike tomorrow morning. It was very beautiful though, and as you can tell in the pictures, the fall colors are fading fast. So the picture above is a view from the restaurant we at in downtown Fussen. We all had the Schnitzel with Bavarian forest mushroom sauce. Pretty good. The picture below is the back side of Neuschwanstein castle from below. That's as close as we could get today but we plan on hiking up the mountain beside both castles to get some good views and pics. The weather is a little chilly but nothing uncomfortable. It'll be interesting to go back when Mom and G get because it'll probably look totally different. So all in all a nice afternoon and evening.

This past Saturday, a few of us went down to the Black Forest in southern Germany to learn how to paraglide. We followed an American guy who lives in Germany and works near us. He and his wife go every weekend. Well, as you can see in the pictures, just going down there for the scenery alone was worth it! So you pretty much have a canopy like a parachute, only much larger. For instance, I jump with an eight cell canopy; these have 32 cells. So to practice, he kinda gave us a little intro with phrases like "oh and don't fly like this or it'll spin you into the mountain and you'll die." Or a phrase like"oh, i forgot to tell you, if you catch that thermal going the wrong way along the ridge, it'll slam you into the side of the mountain... and you'll die." So, four experienced skydivers were a little nervous about trying out this paragliding thing. Nope, we're not in the US anymore. No insurance waivers or signing on the dotted line. Just pay the man in cash and have a nice flight! So the deal was to just position the canopy behind you, face downhill on the side of this ski slope and just start sprinting. Originally he said, "you need to get running about 20 miles an hour in order to get lift." And I'm doing the math in my head thinking, "C'mon dude we're not Olympic sprinters!" Anyway, it did workout great and we had a good time. Just watching everyone else was a good time too. Oh yeah, the bad part was the when you got to the bottom(if you can see the houses in the picture, that was the bottom) you had to grab your rig and hike back up. So we all got a good workout that day. A little altitude training is always goooood.

A NEW ADVENTURE

Okay, so here I go. My wonderful sister showed me this blog site and thought it would be a good idea for me to use it to relay my adventures from Europe. Well, she happens to be a blogger pro, so I have to admit it's a little bit intimidating. But I will try to post some goodies on here as much as I can. This pic was from one of the many great rides around town. I took this pic of Chris and Matt while were riding downhill from Boblingen to another small town and it actually came out pretty good. But I still don't think it quite captured the vividness of the season here.