SKIING IN AUSTRIA, FRANCE AND SWITZERLAND February/March 2008

It was my biggest wish to go ones more on a real skiing trip to Europe. The last time I skied was about 7 years ago. With a “free” voyager flight (not so free, since the airport taxes accumulated to R2,000) I could fly from Jo’burg to Munich and onto Vienna. Three days in Vienna and then my skiing started with my very good Austrian friends. I had the fortunate experience to be able to ski for three weeks in three different countries, Austria, France and Switzerland.

I spend 6 weeks in Europe, which improved again my german language and the economic and political knowledge of Europe. This can help when one is touring around South Africa with tourists from Europe.

The above photo shows me with Mont Blanc on right.

First week of skiing:
The first day of arrival in our accommodation, the Pension (GH) Reiterbauer, near the Reiteralm, (also see http://www.ski-reiteralm.at/ ) we checked in just after lunch and then straight away off to get skies and boots for skiing at the Reiteralm.
I spend two hours skiing with a ski teacher. This was very good, since she showed me all the special ways to hold my body and ski sticks to have the right balance and get around the turns down hill, without falling. With this lesson I quickly had my confidence back. If not quite as fast, I could follow my friends down the hills.
At the Reiterbauer we had a three-course evening meal, which was very good every evening. .

If you are looking for a more luxury accommodation you could go and stay in the Pehab Hotel and Wellness-Oase, look at http://www.pehab.at/ It is in Ramsau in a very beautiful setting.
With this absolutely super weather on Thrsday, we went up the Dachstein, at 3,000M. Fantastic views over the Alps and just the right level of skiing for me up there. 3,000M Freiheit --- look at http://www.planai.at/ . Interesting was also the Ice-Palace, which is inside the glacier. Yes, despite the global warming, there are still a few glaciers around.

Our extra day this year, 366 days, we skied only until lunch. Then the bad weather started, but I also had to leave and be taken to Salzburg to catch the train to Munich. Next morning I went by train to visit family in Dresden, Magdeburg and Leipzig. It was lovely to spend some time in my city of birth, Dresden, and to visit the barock Church, Frauenkirche, that was now rebuilt into a magnificent Honour to God. The last night my relatives, Cordula and Gerhard, took me to the Restaurant at the Dom in Meissen, the well-known town with the beautiful hand-made crockery. For more on this lovely crockery look at http://www.meissen.com/

Second week of skiing:
On 7th March my cousins and I left Leipzig on our long journey to a skiing area in France, near Mont Blanc. We stayed over in Freiburg and arrived then in Les Arces 1800 on the Saturday, 8th March at 19h00, after having been stuck for hours in big traffic jams, all wanting to reach their skiing accommodation before dark.

Our first day of skiing in Les Arces, really only half a day, after getting up late and then spending quite some time to fit the right shoes and skis again for the week at the sports shop, look at http://www.sport2000lesarces.com/ . The biggest challenge of the day was always getting those horrible ski boots on and off again, but they do protect ones enkels.
On 10th March we went for a whole days skiing, since the weather was good, almost too warm and very wet snow at the bottom of the mountains. The next two days it was snowing most of the day. We played cards and the youngsters, cousins son and Spanish girlfriend, had fun in the snow.

13th March My lucky day! The sun was shining again. So beautiful to be able to ski on new snow and in sunshine, but the wind was rather cold.
14th March, our last day skiing in France and an even better day, since the weather was super, blue skies and no wind. We skied all day and also went right up to the top of Les Arces to look over all the Alps and specially enjoying the view over Mont Blanc, the highest peak of the Alps.

Look at http://www.guidesdesarcs.com/ for summer walks up Mont Blanc.

Third week of skiing:
15th March Now my third and last week of skiing started in Switzerland. It was rather difficult to get on a Saturday down from Les Arces to Bourg St. Maurice and then onto Les Cretes, Switzerland. Look at http://www.lescretes.ch/
The weather was not great the next day and we just took one skiing up, but decided we cannot see, there is some ice-cold wind up there and we rather stay inside. The next day was not much better, so we went to look at a very lovely little Swiss town called, Aigle. Here we had a look at Chateau Aigle and stayed for lunch at this little castle. Look at http://www.chateauaigle.ch/

17th March a sunny day and we decided to drive to Verbier, which was only about one hours drive from our side of the mountain and up the other side. We had a morning of super weather, but afternoon the clouds came over again. Verbier is a beautiful little town with lots of Restaurants. Look at http://www.verbier.com/
20th March was another nice day, although still quite cold. This day we decided to spend at Leysin, also a quite well-known skiing area, but not so overcrowded like Verbier. There were places of ice on narrow slopes, not my favorite, but partly it was still good. At lunch I decided this is it and we decided to have lunch up at the top in the turning Restaurant, quite a lovely idea. Sitting there having lunch, one could see all the lovely mountains going passed. Always another interesting view. If you want to stay in Leysin there is a lovely little, affordable Hotel, called Au Bel Air, look at http://www.aubelair.ch/
Next day we were driving through snowstorms to Zürich where I was going to spend Easter with my very good Swiss friends, the Islers. More snow storms over Easter and also during my last few days in Munich with Prof Kraft and Family, but I still had a super time with all these old friends.

Not seeing snow often in Africa, I found even the snowstorms interesting and really had a most memorable

6 weeks in old Europe.

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January/February 2008-- Day Tours and Karoo Tours

Since October 2007, I had many day tours around Cape Town.
In February 2008, just before my overseas trip, I took three people to the Observatory at Sutherland, the coldest place in South Africa. This is also where you will find the Southern African Largest Telescope, SALT, with the biggest "EYE" into the clearest skies of Africa. If you want to find out more, go to www.saao.ac.za

Tours with Klaus und Erika - October 2007

1) KRUGER PARK and Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cradle of Humankind-Maropeng!

Not a tour I usually do, but friends of mine wanted me to take their friends on such a tour.

We flew up to Jo'burg and stayed two nights in the Guinea Lodge in Joies. The owner of Guinea Lodge took my guests on a Jo'burg Tour to the mines etc. I took them the next day to Pretoria, Voortrekker Monument and then out to Maropeng (Cradle of Humankind). Very interesting and my guests enjoyed also the Sterkfontein Caves, but a little too narrow at places.

The next day we took off to Mpumalanga and the Longtom Pass. There had been huge fires through the area, but fortunately it started to become green again, but the black, dead trees still looked sad.

The next day we drove from Sabie to Grasskop, to Pelgrim's Rest and then to the Macmac and Berlin Falls and from there to the spectacular Potholes and Blyderiver Canyon. We had a fantastic day in this beautiful area.
We had to take a long dirt road at the end of the day to Nsele Lodge. This road started getting narrower and narrower as it also got darker, BUT we made it after a long day to these very friendly people, Stephanie and Olaf, who run Nsele in this Game Reserve conservensy. Very interesting cottages are arranged around a small pool in a lovely garden setting. This conservancy is very close to the Orpan entrance into the Kruger Park.
Here we stayed for 4 days and saw from buffalo, beautiful giraffes to lions, large elephant families, lots of antelope, zebra and also one beautiful leopard. Much more than we saw during the one day in Kruger. It was a lovely time and we were really sad to leave this tranquil, remote area on the last day, having to fly back to Jo'burg and then on to Cape Town.

2) GARDEN ROUTE TOUR:
After the Kruger Park Tour I also did a short Garden Route tour with Klaus and Erika. This was very pleasant.
They enjoyed our beautiful Garden Route and we as usually came back via the interesting and scenic Klein Karoo, which is so different, but has its own beauty for most visitors. The friendly Guest Houses do surprice them mostly. Coming back through Ropertson with its lovely wine farms is greatly appreciated.

NAMAQUALAND with fantastic Flower Fields!

Two ladies from Harare, Zimbawe, wanted to come to Cape Town and tour up the Westcoast to our most fantastic Flower Fields. The flowers were absolutely exquisit this year. There was so much rain in the Western Cape that it was one of the best years for the flowers of Namaqualand. One just needs enough sun for these millions of Daisies in various colours to be open for their shows. At Kamieskroon it was hot and we saw fields of orange daisies. At Nieuwoudtsville the many different types of bulbs gave even a larger variety of different shapes and colours of this multitude of flowers.
For the desert to flower we needed the rain and sun, but as soon as it gets hot and dry they all disappear again until the next year if and when it rains.


The time was a little short and we had to rush back, so that these ladies could still fill up their empty suitcases that they brought along to get some food supply for the next couple of weeks in Harare.

IMPORTANT to Know:

The accommodations in these areas are scares and not all that comfortable as the many lovely Guest Houses around Cape Town. So if you think of joining me for a tour next year, please book early.

Garden Route Tour with visitors from Montana---12 to 18th August 2007

What a pleasure it was to take such a friendly Family from Montana through various exciting places on our beautiful Gardenroute. In the Tsitsikamma forest we all took part in the most exciting trip through the Yellowwood and Wild Pear trees. Swinging like monkeys from one high tree to the other was amazing. This venture was planned firstly by Costa Rika people. It is amazing, since there is not one metal object put into the tree. Very environmentally friendly to the forest. It all works on peaces of rubbers and wood carrying the thick cable that supports the platforms around the tree and also the cables leading from one tree to the next. Sliding on the cables from one tree to the next gives one a totally new perspective of these high giants. Try it next time you are in the Tsitsikamma forest. You take the turnoff to the village and then you will find the Treetop Canopy Tours or find them on the web at: www.stormsriver.com You will have to book this trip.
After the treetops we went to Monkeyland the next day, which everybody also enjoyed a lot. Most interesting I found the Snakepark just outside Plett. This woman who took us around said her husband had all these snakes as his pets and she just had to learn all about it over the last 4 years. One looses ones fear for snakes at this park, since most snakes are not poisonous and will not attack easily. I even ended up having a young Boa around my neck. Quite a slippery, cold experience!!!
The place to Feed, Feel and Hug an Elephant, The Elephant Park near Knysna, was as usually also very pleasant and my guests also enjoyed that experience. These guests enjoyed some adventure and said they might be back to do more, like the Bungy jumping at Blaauwkrans. Well, that is not for me. I will not join them for that, but I will take them.
This trip ended up for them with seeing all our Big Seven, since we still saw many whales at Hermanus, before enjoying the wines on the winelands tour around Cape Town.
When I get friendly people like these, I really enjoy my tours around our beautiful country.

Difficult visitors sometimes!

Having to take one lady on seven Day-tours around Cape Town is most of the times not too easy, but when you have to take somebody who is not happy with anything in life. Who looks critisisms everywhere. That is when I would like to write to all our lovely Game Lodges in the country and aske them if they do not have a job for me, where I will mainly work with animals and not people.

At least one day did show some enjoyment and satisfaction for her and that was the day at Hermanus. The place near Agulhus (the furthest South Point of Africa). From July to November you can have one of the Best Whale Watchings in the World. This was such a day, lucky for me. The sun was shining and the whales performed in all their beauty and playful games. They even were jumping a few times right out of the water. It is called breaching, a mating game. So, my day was safed and she at least enjoyed that one day.

Heinrich Schütz Woche- Kroondal-Südafrika

Vom 1-8. Juli habe ich an einer Heinrich Schütz Singwoche in Kroondal bei Rustenburg, Südafrika teilgenommen. Hierzu kommt ein Dirigent aus Deutschland. Diesmal war es ein Musiek Director aus Thüringen. Es war wunderbar mal eine ganze Woche nur zu singen. Der Chor hatte über 100 Teilnehmer und viele davon konnten auch Instrumente spielen. Somit sangen wir manche Musiek mit einem Blasorchester und von der Barok musiek einige Stücke mit einen Geigen Orchester. Somit war es erstaunlich wieviel ganz tolle Musiek am Ende der Woche zusammen kam. Die Aufführung am Ende der Woche fand am Samstag in der Lutherischen Kirche in Kroondal stadt. Unsere Lungen wurden gesterkt und auch der Geist hierdurch.Wenn Ihr im Juli in Südafrika seid, dann macht mal bei so einer Schützwoche mit. Es ist ein tolles Erlebnis.