Ruth and I left Belgium on the 6th of December for Hannover in Germany. We travelled overland using our Eurail passes. We took an "ICE"(Inter City Express) from Brussels to Köln. Changed trains to another ICE that took us the rest of the way to Hannover.
In Hannover we stayed with Lisa Seiler, a girl that Ruth and I know from her time in Australia on exchange last year. Despite being in the middle of exams, Lisa arranged time to show us around the city in the evenings. Lisa's mother brought home many special German foods for us to try. We had a good time in Hannover despite having only two full days. Well I guess I should mention that we made good use of the last night! Lisa and a class mate from her school, Anna, took us out on the town. We saw the new town hall(only 100 or so years old) nicely light up and walked to a big lake, the Maschsee, that was built to help the unemployment ratio improve. The wind blew so hard that there were waves over a foot high on the lake and the beer bottle that I was drinking from was making a whistling sound. With many more fun things in the night we got back to Lisa's place at 3 am.
We spent seven days in a small community called Prinzhöfte about an hour from Bremen with a good friend of mine, Alexander Grote. The night we arrived there was a Christmas party on which everyone in the community (about 20 adults and 8 or so children at the moment)
came to. Wonderful food and lots of it, stories, a chemistry/fireworks show and a stack of games. A wonderful evening in all.
Got a close look at six 3Mw Vestas Wind turbines on 80m towers. Very impressive! Quite too. Living at the base of one would be a bit annoying but acceptable. These are BIG turbines! Just the rotors weigh 35 tons. The Generation house on the top of the tower is bigger than a semi-trailer! They are Huge.
Took part in a North American Indian sweat lodge ceremony along with twelve or so other people from the Prinzhöfte community. Tobias, a close friend of Alexander's, was the ceremony master. Having spent eight years with a North American Indian tribe, he was able to share with us many traditional rituals and ceremonies. Between Tobias' chanting, the herbs and plans burnt on the glowing rocks by his wife and the penetrating heat of the steam, one was able to relax wonderfully. Upon completion of the ceremonies and chanting, jumping in the nearly zero degree stream twenty metres away forced reality to return in a rush! Laying in the fallen leaves of the Beech and oaks trees, clothed in naught but my underwear...heart raced...could feel every muscle in my body! Absolutely and totally ALIVE! Memorable to say the least.
The air can't have been more than 2 degrees C. Got to -2 later that night.
We shared a big meal together, drank and talked until the early hours of the morning.
I took advantage of my down sleeping bag and slept outside.
Body felt wonderful for days after.
Switzerland was 6 hours away by high speed train. The "ICE" trains are great. Really quiet, fast and smooth. Our Eurail passes have already paid for themselves nearly twice over.
We have been staying with Gisiger/Bailey family since the 16th of December. We have been slitting our time between site seeing and Christmas celebrations with the family.
The Pilatus mountain just out of Luzern was incredible. Despite a clear day in Basel, Luzern was cloud covered. Caught the cable gondola to the top. The Pilatus, at 2132m, had it's head well and truly out of the cloud. We could see some of Switzerland's highest alps(3000-4600m+) poking up out of the cloud. Some as close as 40km, others as far as 100km on the Italian border.
Ruth and I hiked part way back down the mountain though the snow and the forest to the little village of Kriens just out of Luzern.
We have spent a little time in Basel itself. Some of the architecture here is quite nice although I am a little tired of looking at Churches and other common buildings in every city we visit. So, for me at least, the trip to the Pilatus and later to the alps was more than welcome. We spent 3 days in the alps at a little place called Realp near Andermatt. The train trip to get there was spectacular to say the least. I think it is best described by a few of the many pictures I took on the trip.
The snow in the alps was terrible. They have not had less in 30 years. Never-the-less we decided to make use of what little snow there was and hired snowboards for 3 days. Had a good time despite rain coming in on the third day and making what was left of the snow unusable.
Within 12 hours of us leaving, half a metre of snow had fallen. Bad timing on our part I guess.
Everywhere I go people are muttering, "hasn't been this dry for years" or "can't remember it being so warm" and so on! Seriously everywere! In Germany I was looking at post cards in a few little towns and most of the cards show the village white at this time of year and yet the first snow we saw was in the swiss alps! Even there in the alps the temperatures were very warm. About 5°C on New Year's Eve. At the same time last year it was -28°C.
We leave for Italy in two days. We plan to spend a few days in Naples with my sister, Jody, after which a week in Positano on the Amalfi coast.
Hope everyone's year is off to a good start and the silly season is starting to calm down. Good luck for 07.
Until next time...
Oli Holmgren
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