Archiv der Kategorie: Travel

All my travel reports

Allgemein, Travel

Sailing on the Baltic Sea

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Have you ever spent your vacation in Germany? Have you ever been sailing? Until a few days ago I only could answer this questions with “no”.  Especially sailing never has been an option. Too much summits still are on my hiking list. But you never should say no?

Because of this and because of my family I finally spent the last week in September on  a sailing boat at the Baltic Sea.

In Heiligenhafen we took over the 50 foot Bavaria Cruiser 50 called Marijana1. Since I´ve been never sailing before I do not have any clue about boats. But what I can say is that this boat is huge. Cabins for up to 10 persons plus additional 2 persons backup beds in the living room. 3 bathrooms, kitchen and a lot of storage space. All of this of course in boat size design. Our beds have been in the back where I had to crawl into to avoid abutting my head. Nevertheless everything was bigger compared to other boats laying next to us.

From the harbor we first made a test trip to check if everybody feels comfortable on the sea. So far this test on the first day went well.

On the next day our destination was Laboe which is a little and very nice village at Kiel bay entrance. Beside a submarine you also can visit the marine memorial or simply hangout in one of the numerous bars and restaurants.

On the third day our journey went to Eckernfoerde. This city has been one my highlights at this tour. First time that we have been swimming and relaxing at the beautiful beach. Beside this there is a beautiful center full of shops and bars having a great flair.

Damp has been our destination on day four. Damp isn´t really a village. It is a huge hospital joined with a huge holiday resort. Unfortunately there is no flair. Even the skyline looks like a standard 70s concrete architecture. Nevertheless there is a beautiful beach and some great bars for a relaxing evening.

The next day we went over to Maasholm. This little village stood in a total contrast to Damp. It is a very little Fisher village full of flair. We felt very comfortable and had a great time. Dinner we had at the Schunta restaurant which I can recommend. Here we had wonderful fish.

From Maasholm we went to Orth harbor at Fehrman island.  And from there back to Heiligenhafen. Orth isn´t really a village. It basically just is a harbor having some restaurants and a surf shop. Nevertheless even there we had a great time and wonderful food at the “pirates nest”.

Conclusion:
Sailing is wonderful. With a great crew and an outstanding skipper as well as a seaworthy stomach you will have a wonderful time.

Below please find some pictures of the trip. For bigger resolution please click here.

Allgemein, Outdoor, Travel

Three day solo hike through the Austrian Silvretta

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In a whole bunch of hiking guides a 4 day pass through of the Silvretta area is recommended. For some reasons I had to shorten this tour a little bit. Since the three days result anyway was outstanding it is worth to put it up here.

Starting point of this tour is Bielerhöhe. On 2037m above sea level this is a well know spot that easily can be reached via the “Silvretta Hochalpen Strasse”.

Day1: Starting at Bielerhöhe I walk along the south bank of Bielersee towards Ochsental. For people only being reasonably fit walking through Ochsental is a short distance walk to reach our first destination “Wiesbadener Hütte” comfortably with low effort. But my way went different. Instead of following the Ochsental path, I make a left towards “Bieltal”. After a couple of meters I make a left towards “Radschulter”. This way also is the official connection way to reach “Hohes Rad” summit. Of course who still didn´t run low this would be a nice summit to put on record. But be careful you only can reach it by climbing.

The “Radschulter” path is a great track passing the summit south. There have been two reasons for me taking this way. First of all is the beautiful view that you can get quite early. Secondly due to a steep scree slope this trail is a wonderful challenge. Once the Radsattel has been reached there´s only a short way left to the “Wiesbadener Hütte”

The Wiesbadener Hütte is equipped wonderful. Beside warm shower and a wonderful atmosphere also a delicious food is served. Whenever I do hikes on my own I do a single room reservation. So I can´t rate the dormitory.
http://www.wiesbadener-huette.com/

 

Day2: Starting at “Wiesbadener Hütte” my way goes approximately 60minutes back to the “Radsattel”. From there the way goes down following the signs towards Galtür. Down in the valley there is another junction introducing our way to the today’s destination. A bridge needs to be crossed. The estimated walking time to “Jamtalhütte” is three hours. This trial is a connection trial to the „Edmund Lorenz Weg“ which will be reached after another 45 minutes. The upcoming path is a great mix of heaven and hell. As always it starts with heaven. Green hills small rivers build up a easy to walk high surface. But after a couple of minutes everything is changing. The track is getting steeper and steeper approaching an even steeper boulder col. Once you come closer you will realize that is not as difficult as expected. Nevertheless you need to watch your step and you need to keep an eye on the signposting. Finaly I reach the Getschnerscharte (Getschner notch, 2839m). High up there is a beautiful view 700m down towards my today´s destination. The descent equals ascent is almost true. Even if my way up took a lot of power and has been extremely steep, descent feels like being even more dangerous. The red mark path, in some areas seems to be almost vertical. So if you are planning this trip, please be aware that you need to be footed and vertigo. Down in the valley there is a last 20 minutes ascent until I reach my final destination for today.

Jamtalhütte I rate to be one of the better accommodations. It is a little bit more expensive. But to be honest you shouldn´t care. Each cent is worth it. Beside regular dishes also a afternoon soup is served as well as free snack and vespers.
http://www.jamtalhuette.at/

Day3: As mentioned above day three is my last one. But this isn´t really a problem. Even if I´m underneath a glacier it only takes a two hours walk to reach the next village. So even if this tour is recommended to do in four days with adding a trip to the “Heidleberger Hütte” also three days is possible. Instead of walking down you simple can walk east towards “Kronjoch”. Besides being a great fourth day trip you also can do it as a single trip. Stay tuned for an article explaining that tour.

Thanks for reading and enjoy hiking.

Allgemein, Travel

New York 2011 – pictures online

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Today I finally managed to upload a couple of pictures of my trip to New York in fall 2011. Considering that during this trip I crashed my camera and lens, still a couple of great pictures came out of this trip. If you are a dslr shooter you might not believe that most of the pics have been done with a Nikon AW100 Coolpix point and shoot. So again a good example that non picture is done by equipment. It´s done by the guy behind the cam. Enjoy the pictures and feel free to post your link to your pictures in the comment section.

New York in fall 2011

Tips, Travel

Trying to worship at Mount Nebho Baptist Church in Harlem

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The worst experience I ever had.

Late October 2011 me and my wife made a visit of New York. I had a couple of business meetings in town and an exhibition regarding my job on schedule. But for Sunday we did plan to enjoy our self.  We are Christians which recently did marry. So of course our Sunday should start with a worship.

I did find several churches around the town which could have been visited. We decided to visit a worship down in Harlem. From several websites we knew that there are several chapels that are mainly visited by tourists just for amusement. This wasn´t the purpose for us. I wanted to enjoy the spirit of having a real worship.

To make this happen, we tried to find a church that is as less touristic as possible.  Based on the information we got online, we decided to visit “Mount Nebho Baptist Church”. This church invited us online by saying: “

“Welcome! We are overjoyed at the fact that you have visited our online ministry. We would like to personally invite you to join us in one of our worship services here at the Mount Neboh Baptist Church.  Anytime you are in the New York Metropolitan area, please visit with us on the hottest corner in Harlem.  Don’t forget to bring a friend or a family member and we look forward to seeing you real soon.”

Since I couldn´t find any offers for tourists I hoped that we will get access after talking to the minister and explaining that we are here to worship and not to disturb the celebration in the way tourists are doing it elsewhere.

Once we reached the church early Sunday morning, everything seems to be fine. As expected only a very small group of tourists have been in the  line. This was very different to the lines we have seen in front of other churches we did pass.

Unfortunately everything changed very soon. When I asked for talking to the minister, politely I was prompted to go into the line. Since the line was short I still expected to visit a regular worship without all this touristic stuff.  But it became even worse.

The line, we have been around 10 feet away from its beginning, kept on growing and growing. This still didn´t seem to become an issue. I still expected that soon the church members to be seated first. This of course would have been fine.

Starting at 10:40 one bus after another arrived.

People from all over the world jumped out of the busses. Crying, laughing, wearing al kind of clothing. I bet that more than 90% haven´t seen a church from inside for a very long time.

I became angry when all of the group got into the church before us.  Please consider that we have been waiting for 45 minutes outside at this time. Temperature around 32 degree Fahrenheit.

In the meantime a young lady did show up. She asked us to be patient. We need to wait until all busses are inside.  Than she did start counting. A few rows behind us I could hear her saying that being seated might be unlikely for the people afterwards.

I became even more angry. What the …. Was going on? What I could see did have nothing to do with a regular worship. It became, what I call “Selling of God”.

Church did start at 11:00am with us still standing outside. Finally the last bus did arrive. I guess nobody of this tourists did care that they have been late. They entered the church disrespecting any of the rules. They even didn´t stayed quite. I couldn´t believe what I have experienced in the past 75 minutes.

This was to much. So I stepped outside the line to ask the lady as well as the over weighted bouncer what this is all about.

He yelled at me that I shouldn´t disrespect him and that I should “move my ass back in the line”! I asked back, why they are giving access to people that don´t care about the spirit, first without considering that there might be people that really want to worship. Again he yelled that I´m not allowed to disrespect him, the dekan (dean) of this church, by asking this questions.  He does not care about my wish to worship. If I want to have access, I should buy a ticket for a bus tour as everybody else. If I have a problem, I should talk to his manager. He than pointed out to a thin white man standing right behind him.  I was fed up. I couldn´t believe this.

I remembered the sentences I did read on their website:  “ We would like to personally invite you to join us in one of our worship services here at the Mount Neboh Baptist Church”. At this Sunday morning, this sentence turned out to be nothing else than pure crap.

In fact all they did in fact was selling God to those who pay. I don´t know how the service in this church has been held. So I can´t say if it was more a show for the crowed or a real worship for some believer and hundreds of gaper.

We left Harlem as fast as possible.

As a lesson to learn out of it I came to the following conclusion. If you are a believer willing to worship on Sundays in New York please choose any church outside Harlem. In case somebody has a good example for a church inside Harlem, please feel free to let me know. I would love to guide believers there.

If you are a tourist that wants to visit a worship show like a Broadway show please sign up for a bus tour. Prices start at $40 and can bee booked in almost every hotel.

Hope this helps all believers and tourists in the same way.

(Btw. Picture and some films I will post soon)