China, Asia, Climbing and Fixed Gear Bikes

My Skis and Fixed Gear Bikes

Januar 3rd, 2011

Today was blue sky again. We were looking forward to a wonderful day of skiing. When we reached the top of the mountain at about 2000 meters we had the impression that it was cold. And after a while we realized it was actually freezing cold. I could soon not feel my toes and fingers anymore. But we were looking forward to lunch time with all the sun. I quickly went to a public toilet at the top of a ski lift and partially de-frosted my fingers on the heater. But they were soon frozen again.

Even at lunch time despite all the sun it was still very cold. We found a spot with almost no wind and a beautiful view.

Austrian and Italian mountains

But we could not remove our gloves nor hats nor jackets today. It was around -15 degrees Celcius and there was some wind.

Julien and the view

Ines and Julien at lunch time

I still did not get too many comments yet about my skis. A Slovenian guy pointed at my skis and said stuff to his friends while laughing. One Austrian pointed at my skis and told his friend „Those are skis“. The next sentence was that he got test skis from Fischer. Of course my skis are skis. The difference to the others is that they are completely straight. We spotted a guy wearing a neon orange and neon yellow and neon green ski suit with belt that looked like it was purchased in the 80’s. And guess what? He also had straight skis. Nowadays everybody has carving skis. It is much easier to ski with carving skis. You need much more technique to ski on straight skis. That is why I like them. I think it is like fixed gear biking. Of course the bike evolved from being fixed gear single speed when it was invented in 1880 to coasting single speed to the coasting multi speed we know today. But many people now chose the more technical fixed gear bikes from the old days. Skiing with straight skis is like riding a single speed bike. Closer to fixed gear cycling is skiing with Telemark technique like I did 2 years ago in France. But here in Austria the sport shops did not have Telemark skis for rent. Maybe I will buy some in future.

The wind kept going and the slopes stayed icy and hard. Even the off-piste which was nice the past few days was just frozen and icy today. So we called it a day even before the last lift went up the hill. I will probably not go skiing again this winter, but hopefully back country skiing next winter. And of course my back country skis are also straight. Actually back country skiing (that is walking up the hill and then skiing down) is as pure as fixed gear bike riding. Maybe that is why I love it too.

Posted in Austria, Fixed Gear, Outdoors | 1 Comment »

Skiing and Mistletoe

Januar 2nd, 2011

When we arrived at the top of Nassfeld ski resort this morning there were strange clouds just on the tip of the mountains like here hanging over the Trogkofel.

Trogkofel summit covered by a cloud

Soon more clouds started creeping down – they were coming from all directions – and even more came covering the sky.

Clouds creeping in

At lunch time it was completely overcast. And as the clouds were hanging low in some areas we did not have good sight. But in the late afternoon the spots of blue sky increased. At one point there were clouds and fog on the one side of the mountain and blue sky and sunshine on the other. SO of course we skied on the sunny side.

Clouds in the West, Blue sky in the East

While we were skiing my parents had gone to get some mistletoe. They grow on some trees in some areas if the air is really clean. My parents know some spots where there are some here in Carinthia. This year they only found some high up on trees. Almost risking their lives and breaking the ski pole they managed to get some mistletoe. They hung it in the apartment so that we could kiss below it. And so we did.

pic 4 Kissing below the Mistletoe

As every day we have delicious dinner. Today we had pork fillet in red wine sauce with onions and olives. And then we played our fun card game. Yes, agaiin.

Posted in Beijing | 1 Comment »

First Day of the New Year

Januar 1st, 2011

Today we had great weather again: Blue sky and sunshine. I like the view from the Italian side of the skiing resort towards south.

Italian Nassfeld View

At the Gartnerkofel top hut we took some pictures. Despite the great weather nobody was in the beach chairs.

Ines in Austria Nassfeld
Ines Brunn in the ski resort

The great thing was that most people were sleeping in the morning so we had the ski slopes for ourselves. It is huge fun to ski on the fresh ski slopes. So we skied a lot. The majority of the people in the morning were elderly locals that enjoyed the great weather with us. I think that on average snow boarders drink more than skiers. And they seem to also be more hung over on New Years Day so they came later or not at all. It was nice to have less beginner snow boarders filling up the slopes.

Of course we again went off the slopes and did some off-piste skiing. In some areas the snow was still like powder but it has been a while since the last snow.

Off piste in Italy

Posted in Austria, Outdoors | 1 Comment »

New Years Eve

Dezember 31st, 2010

Amazing. Another beautiful day on top of the Carinthian mountains. Here is our shadow of us in a chair lift. I think that looks like 2 birds.

Two birds in a ski chair lift

Handsome snow boarder

During our lunch we heard the helicopter come to the ski resort. And that is usually a bad sign. We were not sure if he was actually picking up an injured person as he was first flying around the whole resort. But it seems there was actually an injured person that probably did have some kind of head or back injury.

Emergency Helicopter

At the end of each day we do the long ride from the far top of the mountain to the valley. Each day we had a great sunset. Today it was really nice with the clouds in front of the Dobratsch mountain.

Dobratsch by Sunset

My mother thinks my hat is funny. Well actually a lot of people think my hat is funny. When I walked into the supermarket in search of my father all the employees of the supermarket started pointing at me and laughing. It is nice to see people smile after looking at me. And the reactions are astonishing as in China it is more normal to walk around with a funny hat, like for example a panda head hat.

Ines and her funny hat

For New Years Eve we had a nice dinner with my parents. Then we watched the very old classic movie „Dinner for One“. Same procedure as last year? Not for us. Then we played cards – that is like „Same procedure as yesterday“. At midnight we opened champagne and cheered. Then in Austria the radio plays the New-Years-Waltz (Kaiserwalzer) so my parents and we danced the waltz in the apartment.

My parents dancing away
Waltzing in the New Year
New-Years-Waltz in Austria

The neighbors had made a snow bar and put some lights.

Bar in the Snow

So we went down and watched the fireworks still drinking champagne. Our neighbor said it is much better to drink with a German physicist that opened a bike shop in Beijing than celebrating New Year with thousands of people in Berlin at the Brandenburger Gate – none of them have a bike shop in the country of the bicycles.

Outdoor celebration

Posted in Austria, Outdoors | 1 Comment »

Snow and Sunshine

Dezember 30th, 2010

Another day of sunshine an blue sky. Perfect for skiing. Julien had switched a longer snowboard then the one he was renting yesterday.

Julien on Snowboard

Actually skiing here in Austria reminds me of cycling in Beijing traffic. You have to assume that anybody will do anything at any time and any place. Someone might suddenly stop in the middle of the slope. His friend might almost stop but then actually continue to ride. You might get someone at high speed coming from the side. Or a kid jumping out of the woods at high speed just in front of you. Or someone that was skiing downhill suddenly crossing the entire slope from left to right side. You have to be very aware of what is around you and anticipate even the most unlikely behaviors of other people on the slopes or close by. It is like people dodging on Beijing streets.

For lunch today we looked for a different remote spot and found something really nice. We had our food and enjoyed the sun and view.

Lunch in the mountains

Romantic rest

My skis are quite old. And I did not give them to service this year. So the edges of my skis are worn out. So I have not much grip on icy slopes and most of the slopes were icy as it had rained just recently even at 2000 meters. So skiing with these skis feels like riding a fixed gear bike at high speed in traffic without a brake. You have to be extremely awake and focussed on everybody around you and anticipate any of their sudden moves.

Posted in Austria, Fixed Gear, Outdoors | Comments Closed

Skiing in Austria

Dezember 29th, 2010

We got a 6 day ski pass for the Nassfeld ski resort in the south of Austria at the border with Italy and near Slovenia. That is the biggest skiing resort in Carinthia. There were some clouds today but in general we had sunshine. How nice it is to be outdoors the whole day and doing sport! I am so happy to be here!

Nassfeld Ski Resort

Compared to last time I was skiing in Austria some things changed. And that was only 2 years ago in the same resort. The average speed on the ski slopes has increased drastically. It is great as now more people are skiing at a similar speed as me. But a lot of them are not such good skiers so they cannot control their skis so well. And another part of them just does not look what is going on around them and so stupid unexpected moves on the slopes. There had been quite some accidents in the past years with head injuries so now almost everybody is wearing a helmet. And a lot of kids are required to wear a back protector to protect the spine. The helmet thing is great for the helmet industry. But I believe more people injure their knees or legs where a helmet does not really change the situation. And with the helmet I have the feeling people are more reckless. For example people suddenly just stop at random places on the slope. Or they just start skiing without checking if someone is coming down their way.

We brought our own lunch and found a spot outside of the slopes where we set up the snowboard and my skis as a bench with backrest. There was a nice view.

Ski Lunch

Nassfeld View

In the evening we had a great dinner with my parents and then we all played cards again. O-hell is quite fn with 4 people.

Posted in Austria, Outdoors | 1 Comment »

Driving to Austria

Dezember 28th, 2010

My parents had to re-install the 2 backseats of the car so that the four of us could go together to Austria today. But they did not think of that when they packed their stuff. The trunk was full only with their stuff and that was without the bike, the skis and all our luggage that had to go along. So Julien and I started to repack all the suitcases and bags stuffing things in each an every small hole. And of course we did this just on the driveway where the car was so that all the neigbours could watch. With our masterful packing skills after about 30 min we had all important things in the car and it even was possible to view out of the car back window.

Packed up car

After my mother finished her section of the driving she got her bottle of beer from the cooling box. Also my father had a beer. This is totally normal in Germany. We do not need to hide alcohol in brown paper bags.

Drinking after driving
Trying to hide behind a beer bottle

Just nobody prepared a beer for Julien. So at the next stop Julien went and bought a bottle of coke.

Coke Addiction

It was nice to drive on a clean and dry autobahn (highway without speed limit) with all the snow everywhere else. But the further south we drove the less snow there was. Especially after crossing the Tauern Alpes tunnel. I hope we have enough for skiing tomorrow.

Posted in Germany | 1 Comment »

Nuremberg and Friends

Dezember 27th, 2010

Today was a work day so I had a few things to do. I told Julien that we will be out running around so he should better eat more breakfast. We first went to my bank and then we went to the train station to buy a ticket for Julien. Then we met my friend Charly and went to a cafe to have some hot chocolate and local Franconian Stollen (Christmas pastry).

After that we went to my favorite bike shop in Erlangen called Freilauf to meet my friends there. They had this amazing Adventskranz made out of a bike chainring, 4 Knog bike lights and 2 bike bells. I should make one too next year!

Adventskranz out of Bike parts

Then we went to pick up a bike outside of Nuremberg and from there we went to meet friends in Nuremberg. The famous Christmas market called „Christkindlesmarkt“ was already over but they still had the sign for it.

Christkindlesmarkt in Nuremberg

We met with my friend Alex at the Lorenz church in the city center.

Alex in Nuremberg

She took us to a traditional small brewery that serves some traditional dished as well. It is called Barfuesser and is located in the center of Nuremberg in a cellar.

Barfuesser Keller

We had some beer and an Obatzda (traditional Franconian cheese mixed with onions).

Nice to see Friends

Alex took us to a place that we had been to maybe 10 years ago. It is rooftop from which you have an amazing view of Nuremberg. Usually most pictures are taken from the Nuremberg castle. But from here you can actually see the city and the castle.

Nuremberg and it’s Castle
Achim and us
Alex and us

Achim took us for some sightseeing. So of course we went to the castle. It looks really nice with the lights at night.

Snow on the Nuremberg castle

Nuremberg castle by night

And we went a few more places before driving home to my parents place for a delicious family dinner and then the „O-Hell“ card game that my mother loves.

Historical Nuremberg

Posted in Germany | 1 Comment »

Sauna and Thermal Pools

Dezember 26th, 2010

Today we did a relaxing day at the thermal spa in Fuerth. They have natural thermal water in pools and jacuzzis of different temperature. They also have a huge sauna area. In Germany sauna is usually for both sex together and naked. For Julien it was the first time to experience this in a public sauna. Naked people going outdoors and across a yard into a wooden hut that is heated up to 100 degrees Celsius by a stove covered with stones. Men and women of all ages each sitting naked on their own towels on different levels of the wooden benches. Then waiting for a spa employee to come and pour some water with fragrance onto the hot stones on the stove. That extra moisture makes you really feel the heat and start sweating. Then the spa employee uses a towel to shake some of the hot air into each persons direction. After 15min people can leave the sauna. Then you see these naked steaming people walking barefoot in the snow, putting some snow on their naked bodies or just doing a dip in a cold outdoor pool. This ceremony that happens about every 30min is called „Aufguss“. The best Aufguss is the salt-Aufguss. After everybody is sweating in the sauna everybody has to go outside and receive 2 handful of salt and then rub that all over their bodies. Then go back into the sauna for the second half of even more sweating. After that the skin feels so soft it is amazing. But after you enjoy an Aufguss you have to rest a little bit. And then you can go back into a different sauna. So we spent about 7 hours there and were exhausted from all the relaxation.

I am getting so Chinese. Today a couple came out of the sauna steaming hot. He put snow all over her face and on her shoulders and back. She complained because of the coldness, she said that she does not feel well and then fainted. Her naked body fell out of his naked arms right to the ground. And what did I do? I walked past thinking „such an idiot, he should not have done that“. I did nothing. Like the Chinese in China. They come and look what is going on – but nobody helps. It is none of their business. They do want to know what happened to tell their friends later about what they saw, but not get involved and help some stranger. I could not believe that I did not help her. I was educated in Germany and we are obliged to help strangers.

In the evening we met Andi who was visiting his parents. We went to Herzogenaurach for some drinks. It was nice to see him and hear about his ideas for his PhD.

Andi in the Snow

Posted in China, Germany | 1 Comment »

Snow and Bikes

Dezember 25th, 2010

After a late breakfast we started to exchange presents before lunch. Of course with a Erdinger wheat beer. And what present did a get? A bike seat cover from Erdinger Weissbier. Now I would just need to get a really wide saddle for my bike or I could just use it as a shower cap instead.

Erdinger Weissbier Seat Cap