A little bit of home

Our micro home

Living in Colorado for the three years before we moved to Germany was amazing.  One would think living in Colorado that you would have constant visitor in and out.  Well now that we have lived in Germany for the last 6 months our landlord thinks we are running a hostel our of our tiny studio apartment.  Our latest visitors are close friends from Columbus Ohio, my home town.  This visitation was going to be a test on how many people we could sleep in this micro room.  Brian Peterson, and David Alsbach were the first to arrive.  The following day Graham Davis arrived, it was a comical sight watching him and David play footsie on the couch when it was time to turn the lights out.  A few days after Graham pulled in, Jeremy Douglas stepped off the train and strolled up to the house.  That's FIVE full grown men and a micro woman staying in a 30X20 foot room, with one washroom.  And on one night of drinking we also had a friend Alex stay the night.  The week they were here was a good time and it was great having a piece of home here visiting.

The boys chillin at the boulders

Everyone was pretty ambivalent about what they wanted to do and see while here.  David was psyched to try and find some of the local reptile inhabitants.  Unfortunately Germany is not known for it "herps" so it was pretty uneventful in that department.  We made a trip down to the northern part of the Black Forest where there are suppose to be a good variety of herps.  We didn't find much that day but had a great time walking the German country side.  We did however find a few things throughout the week, LOTS of frogs, a newt, a few little lizards and a nice sized legless lizard. 

David getting ready to go find some HERPS

TOAD

Frog Butt

Little Lizard

Brian capturing a photo of a little guy

Froggy

Little froggy

Little Toad

Frisbee Frog

Everyone else wanted to climb a little in the Pfalz, see a little, swim a little (it was crazy hot that week) and eat and drink some good food.  We went out to the local boulders a few days.  The guys had fun, failed some, sent some and had a good time in the forest.  At the end of each day we all jumped into the lake, well except for David (big whimp!!!!).  We all got the idea to try and learn how to swim the butterfly stroke.  For the most part we all sucked and looked like flailing injured wannabe dolphins that barely made any progress.  Aw well it was a great time hangin in the lake.  I later looked up how to swim this stoke and it turns out we were doing it completely wrong! 

Brian slapping some slopers

Brian grabbin some crimps

Graham trying not to crimp the crimps

Jeremy taken it down

Jeremy tryin to take it down

Graham tryin to take it down

Brian sanding his tips away on this bad azz problem

So close buddy!

Julie sending causally as usual

I took the guys to Heidelberg one day since it is a pretty cool little town with a lot to see and do.  Getting there was interesting, the five of us crammed into a tiny BMW for the hour drive.  I drew the short straw and had to sit "b*tch" in the back seat.  After about 20 minutes my bum was numb, and not really being able to move made it even worse mentally.  I couldn't wait to get there, once there I made a stand that I will never do that again!  We saw all the typical touristy sights and ate some good food and beer.  On another day we stopped by a local Midevil Festival that was going on.  Seems they take that kind of thing serious over here.  Being there reminded me of a movie I love to watch, Role Models, except times 10.  They would shoot each other with bows and arrows, use real swards and armor.  They had built and stayed in there own little village in the park for the weekend.  I was definitely glad we made it to this little event.

The last two nights we had plans to eat at our little local restaurant.  The girls that own the restaurant have had a bottle of Absinthe that they were eager to drink and share with us.  Little did they know this group of men could drink!  Apparently there is a special way to drink it, which includes sugar and lighting the drink on fire!  My first attempt at this left a huge flame on the table that took more than just me to blow it out.  It was a interesting drink the I think everyone needs to experience in there life time.  The following evening was a bourbon night.  The girls have never tasted a Kentucky bourbon, so I bought a few bottles from the liquor store on base and we proceeded to shoot, sip, and chug some bourbon.  Needless to say we were all pretty drunk after these two days.  Its a bummer I do not have photos of these drinking nights, Julie's IPhone was stolen at a store early the following day. 

Champagne!!!!!

At the first moment we arrived in Germany Julie has wanted to go champagne tasting at some of the best well known vineyards in the world.  About a month ago Julie asked me once again when we would go and do this expensive adventure.  She threw out a few dates and the majority of those dates were in the fall!!!!  NO WAY I say!  That's Fontainebleau time and I intend on spending every spare moment we have there.  So she suggested this past weekend. We started the weekend out by arriving to our room in Epernay, France.  It was an extremely tiny room with an even smaller bathroom that reminds me of my old camper bathroom.  Once settled into the room we headed out on the town for some great french food and entertainment.  It seems every restaurant in Europe has some sort of Bier Garten (Patio).  Sitting in one of these bier gartens, one enjoys people watching at its best.  We ate enjoyed great beverages and then passed out!

The next morning we woke up to a typical french breakfast, Coffee (YUCK!) and baguette with marmalade and/or honey.  We had out first tasting/tour at 11am.  This first tour was going to be at the famous Moet/Dom Perignon.  The elements and process of making champagne are breathtaking.  The 27 miles of Cellars under the city are packed full of fermenting bottles that are covered in dust for years!  The full process is way to long to get into and no one reading this really wants to read all my rambling.  The champagne after the tour was amazing some of the best!  We sipped on it talked with some of the others on the tour.  We actually ran into a family from the Denver/boulder area and they climbed, crazy small world!  After sipping on STARZ we headed to the Crepe shop for a quick lunch before our next tour/tasting at Veuve Clicquot.  This was yet another fancy building with cellars just as full of champagne fermenting.  At the end of both tastings we couldn't resist spending a "little" money!  We decided to buy a bottle of Dom to drink on our anniversary in Sept. and a bottle of the 2002 Moet Grand Vintage, and from Veuve a bottle of their 2004 Vintage Brut and a bottle of their Brut in a little city travel bag.  All in all it was a great weekend of tasting and hanging out with my great wife!  Here are a few pics to showcase the weekend, enjoy!

Our Gifts to ourselves!

Bottle from the Mid 1800's found at a ship wreck, another bottle sold for 30,000 Euro!

 There was an amazing looking French cemetary just down the road from out hotel.  I had to take a walk through it, I notice that the French take there dead serious.  Some of these plots have 8 or more family members buried there.  I felt honored to walk amongst these sites.

Moet & Chondon Memorial Site!

Forest walk abouts, BOULDERS!

First off this is the coolest thing that happened last week, I SAW MY FIRST HEDGEHOG!!!!!!!!!!!!

SONIC!

A few weeks ago we said goodbye to my dad and uncle and sent them back home.  The following weeks have been interesting, trying to find things to do other than sitting watching TV and surfing the internet.  The one thing I decided to do was walk through the local forest looking for boulders.  It has been hard getting to know the local climbers that have all the information on where things are.  I decided to ask the local gym owner where the local boulders after he decided to show me a video of an amazing looking block he had just done.  His response "HAHA No, there are to many FA's for me to do".  This was really frustrating after watching such an amazing boulder being climbed on the Vid. He did however point out an area on Google Earth where there are some boulders that have been established.  A few days after that I headed out into the woods in search of the boulders.  Since his directions were very vague and the area so large I had no idea which logging road to start down.  That day I think I walked a total of 6 miles before I found these boulders which are actually not far from where the parking lot is located.  These boulders are located in a small town called Schopp in the Pfalz forest outside of Kaiserslautern.  I am not totally sure how many boulder problems there are in this area but there is a decent amount.  It looks like there is a good variety of problems and grades in this area.  There is an amazing looking problem that I am guessing is a project, as it looks to be 8B+ or 8C to me, might need to call up a certian crimp master :)

Here are a few shots of the boulders around Schopp

Don't think this thing has been climbed yet, but it is something Paul Robinson would eat up!

I hope this block dries up for the winter!

 The rest of the week I decided I would keep up the hikes in the forest looking for more boulders since there is nothing else for me to do right now.  That week I think I hiked/bushwacked close to 40 miles in search of new blocks.  As a lot people know I love walking in the woods, I have some of my greatest memories and moments back home in the RRG.  Walking through the arch at purgatory for the first time ever literally took my breath away.  Wondering if there are holds on the steep looking arete.  The same thing when Mike Doyle and I could barely see through the mist, an amazing looking blank wall known as the Chocolate Factory.  The first thing I did was walk to the base of the perfect line and carved a faint arrow pointing up at it.  Anyways back to the present....


At the end of the week I started talking to a German local, Hendrick, about all the hiking I have been doing looking for boulders and the area where this amazing problem I had seen in the video.  He laughed and gave me the beta on where it was.  Amazingly I had hiked within a 1/4 mile of the area and would have found these boulders this week since the area was next up on my little map!

Back before the line up, Paradise Lost

 Here is a short clip of Enzo Oddo doing 3 of the routes I equipped after one of my many treks through the forests!  NICE JOB!

The Super Duper Secret boulders!

Amazing block with some cool problems

Yet another amazing block!

And Another!

Map of the area I have walked, probably only 30% of the trails in this area so much more walking to do!

Climbing on the German sandstone in summer with 80 degree temps and 90% humidity is not the smartest idea.  Skin loss, bugs, and sweat make things feel a lot harder than they should be.  Greasy rock is the name of the game right now here.  I am looking forward to the good temps soon I guess we'll see what happens in the future with all these boulders!