Some Strange Weekend Activities

Over the weekend the sun came out and the temperature was above freezing.  To celebrate the change in the weather, we decided to take a few long walks.  Walking and biking around town are typical weekend activities for German families.  The biergartens had a few tables out and were selling bratwurst and everyone seemed happy to see the sun.

Amidst the hundreds of people enjoying normal weekend activities like walking, biking and rollerblading, we also saw a few people who used the nice weather as a chance to do some more eccentric activities.

This dude decided it would be a nice day to practice tightrope walking.  In a park.  In front of all the passersby.  He was actually pretty decent.

We passed by a part of the river that was still frozen.  Though just barely.  The ice looked pretty thin...

But some people thought that going ice fishing on it was a good idea.  No one fell in... while we were watching... 

Those strange Dresdners...

I is also for Iguana

I love iguana.  I haven't been getting a lot of animals done lately... Maybe because I've been a little sick... Maybe because I'm trying really hard to plan for my trip home in a couple weeks (more on that later).  But here is Iguana... 

A Very Different Commemoration of the Dresden Bombing

Last weekend was the human chain.  A peaceful demonstration by thousands of Dresdners.

This past weekend was nothing so peaceful.  We had been warned in e-mails and by fellow Germans that Saturday there would be a Neo-Nazi march.  This in itself was not to be violent, but in past years, extreme leftists (the opposing party) had attempted to stop the march and to use more violent forms of protest.

We went out on Saturday to view the action from afar.  We weren't sure if we should venture out at all, but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity to see an event that is a huge part of Dresden history.

As we walked from Altstadt to Neustadt (where the march was said to be held), we didn't see any violent uprisings, but we did see trams stopped along bridges to keep floods of people from storming,

more police cars than we've ever seen in Dresden

and police decked out in riot gear.

We passed the riot police blockade without incident, but as we looked back, we were a little worried that we wouldn't be able to cross back to our side of town.

After scouting around and grabbing some coffee, we successfully made it back without seeing any Neo-Nazis marching, or any violent riots.  Reading about it later on the web, I think I'm glad we made it out and back without any incident.

Later that evening, we did hear shouting outside our window and looked out upon a march of hundreds of leftist protestors.

If you are interested in reading more about this event, check out the following webpages:
allvoices.com
dw-world.de

I is for Ibis

With 14 letters to go, I finished I for Ibis and I for Iguana yesterday.  Here's the scoop on two English "I" letters.  I started with iguana, and made a really awesome sketch of an iguana shaped like an i and was ready to move on to the next letter.  YET as I was about to move on... I realized that iguana in German is leguan.  Leguan does NOT start with an i.  But I loved my iguana sketch so much that I really wanted to use it...  (iguana post coming soon)...

Animals that start with i in German are few and far between, so I settled on ibis.

J is for Jaguar...

Here it is.  This is possibly my favorite animal alphabet book page yet!!  Jaguar.  Maybe I just like saying "jaguar".   It could also be that jaguars have spots.  Anyway, I especially like the pose of the jaguar... I think he turned out exceptionally well :)

And now, a question for all of you crazy people out there that read my blog about silly Dresden adventures and Animal Alphabet pages...

I am trying to design a title page for my book...

Here are the options (of course, I suppose "none of the following" would be an option too).  Please post a comment in the comment section with your favorite!

1.

2.

3.

4.

D is for Dachs

In German, badger is dachs.  There aren't very many "d" animals in German... but dachs turned out cute.

The Human Chain : The 66th Anniversary of the Dresden Bombing

Yesterday was a very important day for Dresdners... The anniversary of the Dresden bombing during WWII.  Over 17,000 people showed up, forming a human chain that stretched from Altstadt to Neustadt and back- over 2 miles.  Not counting the hundreds of onlookers.

Close to our apartment: people getting ready

On left, the bridge to Neustadt, filled with people- across the river, more people

A close up of across the river

Our side of the river.  The bells rang for 5 minutes as people joined hands across the city

We didn't feel comfortable participating, and in fact it was even a little awkward to be looking on, but it was worth the strange feelings to see a city come together in such an awesome symbol of peace.

D is for Dog

Only 18 letters left!!

D is another one of those letters that needs a different letter for a German animal.  Next up... dachs (a badger).

X is for...

X-Ray Fish?

I don't even know if that's a real animal.  Not to mention that X-Ray isn't even x-ray in German.  It's some guy's name.

I tried really hard to find a good X animal, but unless you use the latin name for whatever scientific classification something is (which doesn't sound very kid-friendly to me), it appears there are no animals that start with X.  Maybe I could just throw a xylophone in there and pretend it's an animal.  If you were a little kid, would you notice a xylophone wasn't an animal?  Probably not.  There.  Never mind.  Problem solved.  X is for xylophone...

The Rest of our Austrian Vacation

The rest of our vacation was a blast.  We snowboarded Thursday and rented skis on Friday.  Saturday was a day of driving, and unfortunately we ran into even MORE traffic on the way home... It was a fantastic week but its nice to be back...

A break in the sun

Me snowboarding!

Our final night in the Alps.

Rodelbahn

Thursday night we decided to go sledding.  Not just any sledding, sledding down a 5km sledding run.  When would we ever have a chance to do that again?? Probably never... though it almost happened that we never got to go in the first place...

I really wanted to go sledding.  I looked in the tourist info book to figure out how to do it.  All I could find was the name of the place and the phone number.  Not helpful.  I went to the tourist information center.  There, I found out where on a map the sledding place was (not helpful), and that I should call if I wanted more info.  I tried to ask more specific questions.
How do we get there?
Call a taxi.  Or drive.  It says right here in the info book.
Can we rent sleds?
Yes.
What do we do with them when we're done?
Why don't you call?
Do you know how much it costs?
No.
So we can go sledding (pointing) here anytime?
You should call.

Grrr... very un-helpful.  Strike one for info center woman.

According to the map, the sledding hut is about 3 miles from the closest bus stop.  We'll definitely have to take a cab.  The info lady circled the statement "taxis and traffic can travel to and from the hut from 13:00-14:00, 15:30-17:00 and 19:00-22:00.  Fine.  We'll find a taxi between those times. But what about the sled?  She says they rent them at the hut, but how do we get them back up there???

Never mind the sled rental (I decide at 5:45pm, 15 minutes before all the stores close), we'll go to the sports store and rent one.

The guy at the store, who, for the record, does not work at the tourist info center, says "don't rent a sled here, you can just leave them at the bottom of the hill!"

Really?  The woman at the info center couldn't have said that???  Strike two for her.

So 8pm comes along and we're bundled up to go sledding.  We get into the taxi (because it's between 19:00&22:00) and start on our way to the sledding hut.

The road is just wide enough for one car and we're in a van.  The driver is driving 50mph around hairpin curves on a road covered with snow.  Next to the van on one side the mountain climbs at a ridiculous angle, and on the other side, drops away- no guard rail, fence, snowbank....  The driver starts talking on a cell phone while accelerating.  I keep telling myself he does this every day, but we're all holding on for dear life.

Finally, after a 15 minute ride from you know where, we are deposited at the top of a hill next to a dark house.  Hopefully someone's there, we think...

We find the sled rental door which says "sledding from 10:30pm on."

REALLY?? The woman from the info center couldn't have said THAT??  Strike THREE!!!

Turns out the sledding run is also the road that runs to and from the hut.  So you can't sled during the hours traffic is allowed to drive on the road.  Ridiculous!!

Fortunately, the hut also had a restaurant with awesome apple strudel!

At 10:30 we rent our sleds and procede to barrel down the sledding run, around the hairpin turns, next to the scary drop offs, and past the tiny lights the illuminate the path (every once and a while).  It was terrifyingly awesome!  Once I figured out how to steer a sled that is...

Unfortunately, I have no sledding pictures.  Partly because it was very dark, but mostly because I had to hold onto my sled for dear life.

Despite our adventures getting TO the sledding, I think it was my favorite part of our Austrian vacation!

A Sweet Ice Cave

Once, when we lived in Austin, we went to the Inner Space Cavern.  It was awesome.  I mean, we were adults, and all the other people on the tour were little kids with their parents and the tour guide had all sorts of silly stories about the rock formations (like the "ice cream cone"), which were obviously meant for kids, but it was still cool to see all the stalactites and stalagmites and underground rivers and things.

Bob and I have also been known for making snow forts.  Usually, when there is enough snow and we visit my parents for Christmas, we pile up all the snow from the deck in the back yard and carve it out into an awesome snow fort.

So, when we saw the sign for the Ice Cave, it was like two really awesome things put together- caves and snow forts- and we knew we had to make time to see it.

We had to ride all the way up to the top of the Glacier to see it.  After paying for our tickets, we waited around for the tour with about 30 other people at the "Ice Palace Container".

We all followed our tour guide to a sheet in the wall on the backside of a ski slope... (wasn't looking too promising at that point).

Once inside, it started out like a giant snow fort.  We had plenty of time to examine the snow crystals on the wall as the forty people in front of us snaked into the depths of the cave.  After 15 minutes or so, when we were starting to wonder if we'd ever get past the entrance, we realized what was causing the hold up.

We had to trek down a set of ice stairs.  This might not have been a problem if it weren't for the following two issues.  1: it was warm at the glacier- above zero- so the snow and ice was melting and refreezing.  Even with the rubber treads, those stairs were slippery.  2: We were wearing snowboard boots- not the best range of motion, but pretty decent boot-like rubber soles with nice thick treads.  Other people were wearing SKI BOOTS.  Slick, plastic-bottomed, non-bending ski boots.  I'm surprised no one fell and hurt themselves!!

So far, the ice cave was way cooler than our snow forts.  We never had stairs.

As we snaked through, the line kept moving even slower...

Because we had to climb down metal ladders.  REALLY?? Metal ladders?  With ice and SKI BOOTS!??!  You could never have something like this in the US.  It was like a law suit waiting to happen.  But all the ski boot clad tourists clambered down, slipping once in a while, but always catching themselves.

It was actually very beautiful.  Aside from the fact that we crammed 40 or 50 people into an ice cave meant for a tour of 10, it was just like an ice cave with stalactites and stalagmites and everything.

We learned (at least I think- the tour guide spoke German) that the ice on the Glacier shifts up to 40 meters a year and that the inside of the ice cave is always changing- much quicker than the inside of a rock cave.  My favorite part of the tour was the room where they lit the ice formations in different colors.

It was really awesome to see an entire cave made of ice.  I wish we had the time and money to take the real expedition where you get to crawl through things and have to be clipped into a harness, but the one hour tour was pretty cool (literally).

My standards for snow-fort making have definitely increased.  Good thing we'll be moving to a place where they get a lot of snow in the winter...

Snowboarding!

The weather in Austria is fantastic!!  Warm and sunny, but still enough snow to snowboard on!

We spent Sunday, Monday and most of Tuesday snowboarding.  I was so excited to get out on the slopes that I got up super early on Sunday.  Here is the very early dawn out our window.

We snowboarded at a mountain close to our apartment (we could walk there) on Sunday.  

From the lift

Bob on the lift.

I haven't been snowboarding very long.  After just the first day I was covered in bruises.  Here is one of the times I wasn't falling.

The first mountain was nice, but the most beautiful views were from the Glacier- the highest mountain in the ski valley.  It was so high up that to get to the top, there were THREE gondolas.  Crazy.

We had a blast snowboarding.  There isn't much else to say about how awesome I am at it, so here are some pictures to show how incredible it was.

Looking down into the valley where we stayed.

After a long day of snowboarding, it was always nice to stop at one of the mountain huts at the top or bottom of a lift, or this little place at the bottom of the Glacier, for a drink or a snack.

And it was even nicer to get home to a warm shower!