Schwarzwald

I met with Bernward and friends two weekends ago for a little winter hike. I knew I was getting a bit in over my head. It might have been the 4 trains and 1 bus that I had to take together that clued me in, or maybe it was walking up the side of a snowy mountain with a speedy little rope tow running along side me. Most likely it was the walking poles that my fellow hikers had that made it terribly obvious that this was not a day in which I could expect to do anything the easy way.




Except when I was able to slide down the side of the hill on my butt because of my fabulously slippery snow pants. I will admit that was pretty easy, and probably my favorite part! You can even see my trail if you look closely at the picture to the right.















The best part was when they said that we were going to hike to the top of the third highest peek in ... drum roll please... The Black Forest. Well it wasn't Mount Hood but hiking in three feet of snow did kick my butt. The scenery was was absolutely worth it, I just didn't realize it until I saw the photos that Damion took.
















This is where we ate lunch, not to mention the coolest picture ever!

Many have asked why its called the Black Forest or Schwarzwald and this is my answer, derived completely from my overly observant landscape oriented brain: Its a bit funny for us North Westerners to understand, but when most of the country side is made up of deciduous forest, hills covered in coniferous (evergreen) trees are a strikingly dark. They almost look black when compared to the chartreuse spring leaves on the deciduous trees seen at lower elevations.

A day on the Mountain(s).

The Alps ...somewhere in Austria.

Well worth the trip, even if I don't remember how to snowboard.

Winter Wonderland

We have had an on and off freeze here in Uberlingen and in the first two weeks of January it was so cold that a portion of the lake froze over. At this part of the lake, the water is shallow at about 2 or 3 feet at most. So falling through wasn't quite the danger. The lake doesn't freeze often so it was a pretty big deal when everyone heard about it, as you can see below.


People were skating, walking, sledding, sliding and slipping their way to the other side of the lake and back.

There were even a few cracks but no one else seemed too concerned.... I was relieved to see emergency service crews on the side of the lake. Although as we were leaving I was pretty sure I saw them drinking gluehwein... but maybe it was kinder punch.


We met some friends from Uberlingen and the office: Isa is in the blue, Claudia in the cream on her right and Horst in the black on Isa's left.

Birgit is skating to meet them in her new skates. I didn't have skates so I am walking at this point, but randomly Birgit's new skates are adjustable to size 43, which fit me just fine. So I was able to skate later, after we stopped for some gluehwein and hot chocolate.

I am in the middle.

Schnee