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Why hello. I’ve got some time to kill on the train to Zurich so I figured I’d try to work at catching up so I can tell you about Switzerland sooner. At the moment I’m writing in Word but I’ll put this on the web when I get the chance.

I register for classes today. I can’t stress enough how amazing a web-based registration is, especially when I hear about the olden days. Plus, I can register for classes from Switzerland. Nifty.

Anyways, the weekend of March 28th and 29th saw the first JYM day-trip outing into the wide world of Bavaria. This time, the destination was Murnau, a little town south of Munich known for its ties to early Nazism and as the summer home of Kandinsky before The Great War. It was here that Kandinsky and his friends were inspired to paint the works of the now famous “Blue Rider” group and kick off a new direction in painting.

Our trip began in the late morning on Saturday with an hour or so train ride into the small town. After leaving the train our guide and JYM professor, Patrica Thill, took us on a bit of a hike/stroll through down to the Staffelsee, through the village, and out to the marshes surrounding the town. It was sunny and warm as we began our trek; the first hint of springtime. Here is a picture of the lake:


And the village:





I really enjoy how quaint and nice these little villages are. They’re not spread out and separated like a subdivision or suburb but rather are grouped together and have more of a community feel.

Here’s the house where Kandinsky and Müller and a few others spent their pre-war summers:



We then worked our way out of town for a bit to see the marshes and mountains.







It doesn’t look like it, but the ground out there was really wet and squishy; trust me, I walked out on it.

For lunch we stopped by this nice and plain little church. I had sausages and kraut. Yum.



They were having a wedding at this church after we left.

As we ate we had the chance to watch a group of kids, probably ten or fifteen of them all around 7 or 8, I would say, send a bunch of messages into the sky tied to balloons. The balloons were all yellow smiley faces. It was neat yet somewhat odd to watch; we had no idea what they were doing or for what particular reason. I tried to take a picture, but it’s not very good:



They took us into town, but by this point it was rainy and overcast and, in typical Bavarian fashion, most things had closed for the afternoon.



The main “attraction” in town was this little museum where we spent about an hour or so before heading back to Munich. We looked mainly at the artwork they had as well as an exhibit dedicated to a local writer who, before his death, was a vocal but indirect critic of rising Nazi sentiments. I would have liked to check out some of the natural history exhibits they had in the lower levels, but there just was not time.


Later that evening we went out to a Belgian French-fry restaurant in the university area. This place is noteworthy for having twenty-something different sauces for the fries, ranging from ketchup to mayonnaise to a spicy “samurai” sauce. Not bad for a quick snack and not too expensive.

The rest of the weekend was fairly low key, which was a nice rest for me having been sick for the past few days. Plus, with 4:00 church, I can sleep in on Sundays.

I think I might try and write another entry with another half an hour or so to Zurich. Bis bald!

Skiing On Germany's Top, at 2950 m Above Bremen Level.

I went Skiing today! It was absolutely amazing at this place; I was really blown away. Wow.

Look how happy I was:



Our little day trip out to the mountains began this morning at 6:50, or so, as we waited on the platform for the U-Bahn to arrive. We had a 7:32 train to catch at the Hauptbahnhof and the timing was starting to look tight. We had to wait until about 7:10 for the U-Bahn to arrive and we found ourselves sprinting towards the train, catching it about a minute or less before it left.

Our destination: Garmisch-Partenkirchen, home of the 1936 Winter Olympics and, more importantly, a town at the foot of the Zugspitze, Germany's highest peak. We bought our passes from a rather irate woman at the ticket office and soon hopped onto another train that would carry us up the mountain. The ride was long and we often stopped for 10 minutes at a time for no particular reason, but at least the scenery was wonderful. At one point we stopped inside a tunnel for at least 15 minutes. I don't know why; it was rather annoying.

In that tunnel we saw a sign denoting the elevation above the city of Bremen. I always thought elevation was done above sea level...

Eventually we made it to the top. After picking up skis and boots and poles we walked outside the lodge to our first magnificent view of the Alps. It was almost overwhelming; I found myself marveling at the scenery the entire time we were on the mountain. It's funny how most of the people around seemed fairly used to it or at least not as impressed as I was. Weird.

In no particualr order, here are some of the best pictures I took:






Wow. That sure beats any ski experience I've had, ever. I'm used to being able to see flat valley all around, along with the bottom of the slope, From the top of the hill. The slopes were also pretty solid, with one run that at 2.9 km long; that's 1.8 mile! On top of that, these particular runs are fairly average compared to some other ones I've seen elsewhere in Germany.

As you've already seen, the weather was beautiful. We were really lucky. At times I was too warm wearing my ski jacket and standing in the sunlight.

Surprisingly, the place was not too crowded, given the weather and the weekend. We never had to wait long for lifts and the hills were never congested. Great.

Speaking of lifts, they had a lot of these rather goofy t-shaped lifts you sat on, sort of like a really long tow-rope. They looked like this:



My only complaint was that these "t-lifts" weren't terribly restful. By the end of the day my legs were getting sore and it would have been wonderful to sit down once in a while, but I'd rather tough it out and ski if I had to choose between.

Overall, a really good experience. The scenery was spectacular, the prices weren't terrible (for a ski slope), and the conditions were great. Never before have I skied on real powdery fresh mountain snow; I don't think they even have snow machines at this place and they can still be open until April. I was impressed as well with my ability to pick skiing up again after having snowbladed for so long. My snowblades at home are much shorter, lighter, and more maneuverable that skis but, after 3 or 4 runs in the skis, I didn't have too much trouble flying down the hills.

I'm looking at doing some more skiing next weekend, in Austria maybe, and, after seeing what skiing is like in this part of the world, I can't wait to head back out.

That's all for now. Remind me to tell you about swimming in an outdoor heated swimming pool sometime. I did that on Saturday.

The Hills are All Snowy; They Make Me Want to Ski!

I have a half day tomorrow. The subway works are striking all day and there's really no other effective way for me to get to work. I do need to go over to BMW and see the wind tunnel again, which I can do by bus, but after that, I'm done for the week. Awesome.

Let me tell you about my business trip.

On Tuesday I went on a business trip in a foreign country. It was pretty easy to get there, having started in a foreign country to begin with. Ha. The place was this factory that makes lifts for car dealerships and test equipment for research facilities. We went to go look at some test equipment they had proposed to build for a climatic wind tunnel we are designing for a company in Sweden. A climatic wind tunnel simulates weather, like snow and rain and such.

The factory was situated out in the middle of nowhere Bavaria in the foothills of the alps. Inside there were a bunch of funny little rooms in and around the offices and manufacturing space. One of these rooms was a little bar with an old-timey wooden interior. On one wall hung a picture of "Mad" King Ludwig of Bavaria, the guy who built a bunch of crazy castles over a hundred years ago, and on the other, a picture of John Wayne. Their cafeteria also had very traditional-looking wooden chairs and tables. Quaint.

The meeting was tough for me to sit through, knowing very little about the equipment from the start and having to try and muck my way through specific technical German. My conversational German is getting better, but talking about cooling and ventilating motors in German is an entirely different beast. I survived.

As we finally left to head home late that afternoon, the two guys who had brought me along informed me that we were taking a scenic route home. The two guys were Steve and Klaus, by the way. Steve is an American, with a very goofy American accent in German, and Klaus is a German, with a very funny German accent in English. Both fairly friendly.

The aforementioned "scenic route" involved driving south through the foothills of the Alps to see the cute little Bavarian towns and the little bit of countryside we could see through the fog and snow. On a clear day the drive would have been absolutely majestic, I imagine, but we had to imagine most of the mountains surrounding the road because of the fog. We even stopped at Neuschwanstein Castle, the famous Disney-inspiring castle built by King Ludwig. You really could not see much at all. Here's me with the castle, if you can see it at all:



We could have driven closer, but Steve's dinky little car probably would not have been able to make the ascent. Going to Neuschwanstein is a staple of the German tourist experience, so I will definitely be back in fair weather.

The snow was really fantastic. In some places it got up to a meter and a half. Another picture perhaps:



Absolutely wonderful. Everything was so simple and alpine in and around the villages. It reminded me of the big ski resorts in the states, though every single little bit of what I saw was completely authentic and not a cheesy replication. The ski resorts at home should probably remind me of here.

We stopped for dinner before leaving the Alps. As I'm told, most of these villages have their own special beer, a tradition dating back to the time when monasteries were everywhere in the mountains. Monks used to make a lot of booze back in the day.

My goodness do I want to go skiing now. It looks like it will happen too; I've got a trip to Austria in the works and a couple day-trip possibilities on the horizon. I'm gonna go Alpine Skiing! For real.