Donautal

The Donau river that cuts through the south of germany, an hour south of our german hometown Stuttgart.

Mallorca - Porto Christo vacation in july

Well another trip to the spanish island Mallorca..this time the weather cooperated and the time spent in Spain was longer. Nine friends from Stuttgart went on a DWS trip...that is Deep Water Soloing. That's right no ropes high over the water.

Weekend in Paris

Susi and I traveled to Paris this weekend, plus a few extra days to celebrate the big 30! That's right the 30th Birthday and no it wasn't for me it was for Susi. We all know I started counting backwards when I hit 30 and when we get to zero I will start counting back the other direction.
We traveled in an overnight train from Stuttgart and arrived in Paris in the morning to start our wandering tour. First stop some big arch? What is the big hype we have one in our back yard...so we went to some castle next...then off to Notre Dame.

Final chapter of Greece

Okay so no photos but the way home was just as exciting...apparently the ferry doesn't go out when the waves are too high and they were calling for high winds and large waves the following day. Susi and I decided to take an earlier ferry so that we coudl get off the island and make it to the airport the next morning. We thought it would be fun to go to the old city of Kos for the day. We arrived and this lovely lady must of saw us a mile away and rented a room to us for the evening. We thought what luck a room for 20 Euros and we didn't even have to look around for a place to stay. She drove us to her house and it was right in the center of the old town so we were both psyched. We dropped our bags and started wandering around the city. Later in the evening we were getting tired so we headed back to the house and started planning on how we would get to the airport...guess what the taxi's and the buses were on strike.....well the landladies daughter threw Susi on the back of the scooter and drove her around looking for some sort of transportation for 5:00 in the morning to the airport. Fortunately we were able to rent a car and make it to the airport on time.

Kalymnos part 2

The photos of the climbing....can you say overhung and amazing. Check out www.vision-z.com to see some of the photos of Fred. The earlier postings consisted of the international climbing team...we had representing Germany Susi, Scotland Jo, Fred from Canada and me from the US. Great fun...oh the scooters were a blast..never thought you could go off road with one of those things. The trip was extremely cheap...I didn't take a photo but my helmet had tape holding it together, this didn't instill much confidence for two reasons. First I don't think the tape would hold the helmet together and secondly someone must of hit something and no wonder the way they drove on the island.

Kalymnos

I left the last story short...so we got rained on all day and everybody was on strike....and despite all of these things that may cause some people to not have a good time we had so much fun...we started walking early in the morning and didn't stop until late in the evening, wet cold and tired we covered the whole city to try to see all of the sites....and we probably got to smell the city the way most people will never have a chance too. Early in the morning we took a taxi to the airport and flew to Kos. I thought that they we joking when we showed up at the airport at 5:30 in the morning and the line of angry Greeks was out the door. Apparently we were there during a long Greek holiday weekend and the flights were overbooked. We managed to get through the line with some pushing and shoving and caught our flight. Oh yeah... I almost forgot, we took a bus at the airport to the plane that was sitting out on the airfield....my jaw almost hit the ground when I saw that we were flying in a 1920's style prop plane. I actually thought Susi was going to have to serve the drinks while I had to spin the propeller to get the plane going. The flight however was amazingly peaceful and the view was worth all the pushing at the airport.

Athens Greece

Susi and I are trying to see as many places as possible around Europe while we are here and we both decided that we should see some culture along with some sun and climbing. The obvious choice was Kalymnos. Most people haven't heard about this small island located northwest of Kos, unless of course you are a climber. The island of Kos was once known for the sponge business. People from the island would dive to great depths holding their breath for extremely long times to gather sponges from the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately back in the late 80's a disease decimated the sponge industry. Now the island is known for tourism and of course climbing on extremely overhanging limestone tufas. Oh wait a minute, let me digress. We first went to Athens on the way to Kalymnos. It rained all day and the garbage collectors were on strike and we couldn't check into our room because the airport was on strike....these two strikes weren't the only ones that we encountered but I am jumping around all over the place with the story. Here is a photo of the Acropolis then I will continue....

Switzerland-skiing

I have never spent a whole week of vacation just skiing for seven days. Susi and I met with her parents at a house that they have rented for 12 years. The house is located at the base of a mountain in a town called Scoul. Susi's Aunt's and Uncle joined us for a few days of skiing...never thought I would say it but I was the worse skier in the bunch...the slopes just weren't like the ice slopes back on the east coast. The weather was perfect for the whole week, warm temperatures and very little snow. The trip home was another story! We had snow, rain, hail, lightning and gusts of wind up to 160 km per hour, I never was so happy to see Stuttgart.

Font

France - Font : Outside of Paris about one hour south is the bouldering mecca. Friends from Florida contacted us to let us know they were going to be there for a few weeks so Susi, Lulu and I headed off for the weekend. Thanks Chris for the guided tour can't wait to go back, and yes people in Florida climb!

Weinachten

Christmas photos they are late but better than never....once again the Gohlke family managed to do it....add 2 inches to my waist and 10 kilos to my stomach.

Skiing

Obersdorf Germany....went to ski for the weekend. A short two hours from the house and we are in the alps.