12.12.2009 von Ines.

There are many people in Beijing that miss Andi, like me. He lived here in 2005/2006 and found his mountaineering passion here after I took him to come rock climbing with me in the freezing cold of Chinese New Year. And now what? He bough a vintage French road bike.

And what did he do: he converted it to fixed gear. I have the feeling he is trying to copy me. Just joking! Look how beautiful his fixed gear bicycle looks despite the front and back brake that he needs for riding in the hilly town of Heidelberg:

It would be so cool to have him back in Beijing but it seems there are too many places in the world for him to be.

Geschrieben in Germany, Fixed Gear | 2 Kommentare »

12.9.2009 von Ines.

We went to visit Marie and Do for the weekend who just just came back from a scuba diving holiday. As they live just at the “Dreilaendereck” of Germany, Switzerland and France we decided to go for a walk in the black forest near Oetlingen.

Her mother and sister also came for a visit. And the dog was happy to be on a long walk.

Geschrieben in Outdoors, Germany | Keine Kommentare »

11.9.2009 von Ines.

It was nice to go and meet many ex-colleagues. Unfortunately many had already left the office as we arrived in the later afternoon. But it was nice to walk around and still see so many of the nice people.

We then drove to a public barbecue site with a nice view over the “Alb” hills. It looked like it was going to rain but it actually stayed dry. I was happy to see that some of my friends came by bike.

One of our friends had magically set up the fire and we soon could start the barbecue. Some of my friends are professional open fire barbecue guys and had specific barbecue forks (they used to give that as a present for anybody who turned 40, so if anybody had one he was usually older than 40) and other utensils.

It was great to see these friends after such a long time. It did get a bit chilly when it got dark and the fire was almost out. Here are just some pictures we took throughout the evening.

Geschrieben in Outdoors, Germany | Keine Kommentare »

11.9.2009 von Ines.

It was again a beautiful morning. We had breakfast on the porch with some of the left-overs from the party last night like the delicious chocolate cake my mother had baked.

The “Pfefferbeisser” sausages were just enough after I found some hidden ones in the fridge.

Then we soon had to pack our things and leave. So we took a goodbye picture with my parents in their garden. It is funny how they look taller than me because of the slight slope in their garden and my father standing on tip toes.

Geschrieben in Germany | 1 Kommentar »

10.9.2009 von Ines.

As this stay in Germany is short I did not have enough time to visit my friends one by one. Therefore I decided to invite them for a barbecue at my parent’s house. Various friends from different sections of my life showed up, some of which I have not seen for about 10 years. It was so nice to talk to everybody that I seemed to have forgotten to take any pictures. Too bad. I will have to do that at the next barbecue party…

Geschrieben in Germany | Keine Kommentare »

9.9.2009 von Ines.

One of the best most famous places in Germany for rock climbing is Franconian Switzerland or Frankenjura. It is where I started climbing many years ago. We went to a cliff that I think I have never been to. Andi chose it because he had also never been there. At least that is what he thought till we arrived.

I still do not have a digital SLR anymore so these pictures are not nice. But I still wanted to upload some to give you an impression of the wonderful limestone of the Frankenjura.

Most of the crags in Franconia are in the forests. So in the summer it does not get too hot in the daytime. And you usually have to walk a bit to get to the climbing places.

After climbing we went to a very typical Franconian “Keller”. Those are the caves carved into the hills for storage of food and beverages in the ancient times. Today some of them sell some of their homemade food and have some beer benches so you can sit. So you can get typical things such as “Pressack” (in Franconian dialect more pronounced like “Brressagg”), “Stadtwurst mit Musik” and “Obazda”. And they sell dark and strong “Keller” beer in baby mugs and normal mugs as seen in this picture:

The normal mug is 1 liter of beer and the baby mug is only half a liter of beer. The view from this keller was magnificent:

Then we went to see the nearby”Vexierkapelle” which is the only thing remaining from a castle originally built around the year 1146 A.D..

From there we had a beautiful view of the famous “Walbala” where people had been living in the bronze age (about 1000 years B.C.) and was a very important spot for the Kelts (about 500 years B.C.). Till today people believe this spot has magical energy.

After dinner we went to the birthday party of one of my best friends. It was fine for me to drive as the good wine would be a waste for me to drink as all I can taste from wine is  the alcohol. I had not been aware almost all of the taste of wine is received through the nose.

Geschrieben in Germany, Climbing | Keine Kommentare »

8.9.2009 von Ines.

Yeah, I finally got to see Andi again! He used to live in Beijing but moved back to Germany in the summer of 2006. I saw him once since then. Today he came to our home to stay with us for a night.It was great to see him after such a long time

And it was even better that after going to German hospitals and consulting doctors they agreed that I could start doing sports again after my head trauma. Finally. Just regarding my loss of smell they old me that it might take a while for it to come back, maybe even a few years… I will try to always wear a helmet when riding a bicycle in the streets.

Geschrieben in Germany, Beijing | 1 Kommentar »

6.9.2009 von Ines.

After meeting a friend for breakfast my parents and I had lunch at a place that is only open on Saturday and Sunday for lunch and only has a limited number of dishes. I had traditional Franconian pork shoulder with skin and the Franconian potato dumplings but could not finish the huge portion. After that we set out into a nearby forest to search for mushrooms. It had been very dry the whole summer but just a few days ago my parents said it had rained and they were assuming that finally there would be some mushrooms.

We spread out and each of us were checking clearly the ground. In all directions of the forest. My father is on the below picture

But all we could find was a field of sunflowers.

And they were quite big.

Geschrieben in Outdoors, Germany | 1 Kommentar »

5.9.2009 von Ines.

The weather was wonderful in Friedrichshafen. I could see the mountains of Switzerland from the couch where I was staying.

Today the bicycle trade show was really crowded as it was also open to teh public. But I still enjoyed meeting some of my old and new bike friends from around the world.

Afterwards I took the train to my parents place. That was a long and exhausting day.

Geschrieben in Germany, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »

4.9.2009 von Ines.

I flew to Germany for some holiday and also to have a look at the European bicycle industry trade show in Friedrichshafen. The Euro Bike exhibition was quite big. A huge majority of the bikes were mountain or trekking bicycles. But I did find some nice track bikes. Like some traditional Italian style, like this beautiful one from Olmo:

Or newer designs like from Viva:

There was also a used bike polo bike displayed by the German Fixie company:

I made a webalbum with more pictures of nice track bikes. Also Cinelli had some beautiful steel frames on their booth:

It was also great to meet some old and new friends. And I was astonished that it is possible to do CouchSurfing in Friedrichshafen which is such a small city at the border of Germany.

Geschrieben in Germany, Fixed Gear | 1 Kommentar »