Bärental Station is at 967 meters high and the Deutsch Bahn site shows the Feldberg “basecamp” to be 1250 meters. The peak of Feldberg is nearly 1500 meters above sea level. This isn’t quite mile high, but still enough to have your ears pop and feel the temperature drop as I get out of town and head up. Feldberg translates out of the German to Field-Mountain, which seems odd. I wasn’t sure what to expect.

Beautiful Views above the Chairs

Snow and Sking

It doesn’t snow so much down in Freiburg. Away from sunny flats along the Rhine, up in the forested hills, it snows. A lot! There is a good reason this is a skiers area. Though many of my friends that grew up around here don’t think much of Feldberg as a skiing area. There are other hills that are less crowded, but the “highest in Black Forest” label draws the crowds as it drew me.

I don’t ski. I tried it in high school and don’t like it. I keep getting hit by the mountain and snow gets into places that snow should not be. I imagine if you grew up with it, that would be different than a gangly very uncertain 16 year old trying to balance on skies for the first time. Oh well. I still wanted to see what Feldberg has to offer so I wrapped myself up and walked out into the cold.

Journey Upwards

The regional train leaves Freiburg at ten after the hour. A little over 45 minutes later after passing through Titisee, the train stops at Feldberg-Bärental. Bärental translated to Bear Valley and is a group of houses near the station.

A bus leaves every half an hour for the 10 minute ride up the base of Feldberg. Feldberg is in region 3 of the RVF transport network, so with my student transport card I was able to get up there for free.

If you are just interested in the mountain and not the highest station, the Deutsche Bahn site shows bus connections direct from Titisee.

[*] – Times checked at time of writing. Check the schedules when you are buying tickets.

My Misadventurous Walk to the Top

The bus drops off near a basecamp of sorts with a parking lot and a museum for nature in the Black Forest. I started on a path that seemed nice and walkable following a row of sticks up. Either the sticks stopped meaning what I thought they meant or I more likely I missed a sign and took a wrong turn because I ended up walking up the ski slope. This was a bit frightening to see skiers coming down at me. Thankfully everyone avoided me and I made it to the top and down again without a problem. I did see a chair lift off to one side so it really is a ski slope, not a walking path. At least in winter anyway, I imagine there is a summer hiking path there.

Looking up from the parking lot.

Follow the yellow sticks

Looking Down

There and Back Again

The bulk of the mountain is not forested, which perhaps why it was named Feldberg, “Field-Mountain”. The top of Feldberg has a tower and the views are what you would expect for the tallest mountain in the area. At this point, exposed on the top of the mountain, I was COLD. So I reversed my trek to head straight from the Freiburg train station to the Irish pub to warm up. I really should do more travels around Freiburg, but given that it is still winter here, I’ll wait until it warms up again.

Kings Cross, London, England

Many backpackers have in their mind to go backpack around Europe for a summer and use the trains. European travel becomes (rightfully) associated with trains. They are usually reliable, if not always punctual. If you plan ahead, they are not dreadfully expensive.

Sometimes the problem can be as simple as finding the train station in a foreign language, so here is a short guide. Instead of going for automated translations online, I reached out to friends on Twitter for a more personal touch. Much thanks to everyone.

English

So, reading this, I assume English is not a problem, so the easy one out of the way early.

Gare de L'Est, Paris, France

French

TrainTrain

Train StationGare

Where is the train station?Où est la gare?

How do I get to the train station?Comment arriver à la gare? (Literally, how to arrive at the station)

Translation Credit: Christine at Why Go France

Karlsruhe, Germany

German

TrainZug

Train StationBahnhof

Where is the train station?Wo ist der Bahnhof?

How do I get to a train station?Wie komme ich zum Bahnhof?

Translation Credit: Andrew at Grounded Traveler

Bunol, Spain

Spanish

TrainTren

Train StationEstacion de Tren

Where is the train station?Donde esta la estacion de tren?

How do I get to a train station?Como llego a la estacion de tren?

Translation Credit: Jaime at Breakaway Backpacker

Monterosso, Cinque Terre, Italy

Italian

Traintreno

Train Stationstazione

Where is the train station?Dov’é la stazione?

How do I get to the train station?Mi scusi, per la stazione? (it literally means “excuse me, to the station?”)

Translation Credit: Guilia at Travel Reportage

Plzen, Czech Republic

Czech

Trainvlak ( pronounced ‘vlak’)

Train stationnadrazi vlak (nadraji vlak)

Where is the train station?kdeje vlakove nadrazi (dayee vlakovoo nadraji)

How do I get to the train station?jak se dostanu na vlakove nadrazi ( yak say dostanoo na vlakovoo nadraji

Translation Credit: Tereza Konasova.

Lake Wakatipu At Kingston

Kingston – Once the end of the line

The Flyer is a steam engine with a few restored cars attached painted bright green. Kingston was once where passengers and cargo would get off the steam ships that ran on the lake. They would then transfer to the train to head south to Invercargil. The train has been restored and runs on a short trip across the Fairlight flats. We decided not to take the train though the bus met up at the other end with the train to pick up those that did. It was neat to see the steam train puff along as we raced it on the roads.

Although by no means the highlight of the Milford Sound and Fiordland trip, getting to see the train and take pictures was another of the many benefits to the overnight trip down there. I don’t think they would have had time to stop here on the daytrips. We were the only bus in the parking lot with some cars around us.

The station in Kingston has a little cafe and a room with a fireplace and nice chairs. One of the most Christmas like places I saw on the trip. That cozy warm winter feeling with decorations even though it was summer out. The lake view is, like most things in the area, grand. We had a great sunny day to see it in too.

Growing up in North Carolina, there were a number of steam trains that had been restored as attractions, mostly up in the mountains. I definitely liked going on them as a kid and my dad was happy to take me. I just never expected to see something like that on the other end of the world.

I mostly enjoyed just taking pictures. So I will leave you to them. Links for more info are at the bottom.

Kingston Flyer Site: http://www.kingstonflyer.co.nz/

Wikipedia has more historical info.

Why Islands for Travel?

Isolation? – Sometimes.
Diversity? – Definitely.
Confinement? – Huh?

Diversity of New Zealand in Fiordland park

Islands are by nature isolated. If they were not isolated, they would be peninsulas or, umm, hills. Not to say that they are always out in the middle of nowhere.

Islands are diverse. Even a small one often has beaches, cliffs, forests and mountains. New Zealand is a great example of the diversity of islands. They are so diverse as to become the site of filming for fantasy epics.

Confinement, seriously. I like to wander. I like to see what is around. And yet on an island you can explore the entire thing without necessarily being so far from your hotel. All of the things to see on the island are by definition ON the island. Unless you start doing daytrips with ferries, islands offer the ability to really see every inch of a place if you are so inclined.

Islands in the Sea

The standard island is one that is surrounded by water. Greece is definitely the most island’y of trips I have done recently. I did a week island hopping on a sailboat. As I mentioned above, I really like boats and they usually come with islands nearby.

Hong Kong is an island, but it hardly feels like it amidst the city. New Zealand is so big that the confinement aspect of islands that I enjoy is lost somewhat. Though in the way that kiwi culture has developed into its own feeling, that spirit of isolation makes up for it.

Check out Ali’s look at the Gili Islands in Indonesia too. Quite isolated and confined to relax on the beach.

Islands in the Sky

Also in Greece, land of watery islands, I found some islands in the sky. Meteora was the highlight of the mainland half of my Greece trip. The town of Kalampaka is 4 hours from Athens on the bus. Above it looms spikes of rocks with monasteries on top. When it gets foggy around the spires, they might as well be in the ocean.

Definitely isolated. By nature of being islands of rock above the sky counts as diverse to me. Confinement is there too. Without leaving your spire, you are confined to a small area. So definitely islands to me.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

So the myth for today is “Are the Germans any fun?”.

The German culture is known for order and efficiency. The stereotypes of well run train systems and high engineering pervade. But does this mean that the creativity and whimsy is gone from the Germanic culture completely?

This is what they are known for.

Essen Spiel Fest

Many large board game producers are based in Germany. The largest convention dedicated to games and playing happens in Germany. In the city of Essen in October, well over 100 000 game players descend on Essen convention center. It runs four days long and on the weekend it is not just the geeks but also tons of families from Germany come to try out the newest games.

Advertising

Ok, so they play games. So what? That is a private at home kind of thing, right? Is there anything in public?

There is still a lot of creativity in advertising. This Pig-Kiwi in Berlin and an ice cream cone on a building in Cologne.

Festivals : Christmas, Fasching & Karneval

Ok, so there is a group of companies that are creative and daring enough to put it out there. What about the general populace?

Grown men and women in fanciful costumes jumping around making noise. There is even a group in Freiburg that has these great instruments that look to be welded together randomly. Festivals and the mirth and gaiety that comes with them in definitely part of German culture. Christmas markets and all that comes with is the center of most social outings in late November and December; honey and nun farts..

A part that when removed would make the culture no longer Germanic. The local festival even more than the national one is an integral part of local life. And in all of these festivals fun and enjoyment are encouraged and practice (ok, yes inside specific limits, but hey it is still Germany.)

Fasching is like Mardi Gras and Carnevale, the party before Lent.

Statues and Sculpture

Ok, specific times of the year, there is fun in the streets. What about stuff that is always out there to see?

Art and silliness exists in German art as well. There are so many little crazy statues in the cities, except they are often in corners and easily overlooked. Check out the great little door knob I found in Bamberg and a head of Beethoven in a Bonn Park.

BONUS: Hundertwasser

Although not German, Friedrich Hundertwasser is a good example of  whimsy and creativity in a Germanic context. He was Austrian, although his work is definitely spread around the world. Just look at the Hundertwasser Haus in Vienna and say that isn’t whimsical.

Conclusion

It does seem that there is whimsy still in the Teutonic world. It may have been controlled by the rules, but it is still there. The society imagination that created the Grimm’s fairy tales is still alive in places. Maybe it is not as wacky as some places like Seattle or Venice, but there is a subtle rebellion to the order to be creative.

So despite not being able to build anything large or explode anything in an empty quarry, I would say this myth is Busted. The Germans are fun and whimsical in their own way. (Ok, sometimes you just have to look harder.)
This is a part of the February German Blogger Stammtisch. The theme of Misconceptions was chosen by Country Skipper.

Not Just Numbers – Culture

So there is more than just counting to 10 here. There is culture in so many small things that we don’t even think about at first glance. Like sleeping or laundry or numbers.

The Decimal Comma

Yup the decimal point is a comma and the commas between hundreds and thousands are points. So a price of 3,50 is just 3 euro 50 cents not 3 thousand. I’ve lived here a while and my first reaction is still to freak sometimes when I see bills or bank statements.

Building Floors

There is a ground floor (Erdgeschoß) and the numbering starts above that (1. Stock, 2.Stock). This may be more common around Europe, but it seems odd to the American instinct.

Dates

The order of Day Month Year is the standard here, often with periods between the pieces (dd.mm.yyyy).  So 3.7.2011 is third of July, not March seventh.  The idea is that a date goes from smaller time to larger time. It does make some sense, but takes some getting used to. Remember this when filling out forms, birthdays are fairly important to get right on official bits.

Calendar Weeks

Germans count the weeks. Deadlines at work are always discussed in KW (Kalendar Woche). So while in English we would talk about week containing 19th of Feburary or week starting on the 3rd of March, Germans discuss things as KW 12.

There seems to be a mental training to do that, as I keep having to check the calendar in my email as it has the weeks numbered. And not every year has 52. Some have 51 weeks and some have 53 depending on what day of the week that Jan first falls on.

Meters, Liters, Celsius and Grams

No more feet, inches, miles or Fahrenheit here. Germany is firmly in the land of the metric. I find this hard to deal with as I grew up used to American measurements, but I do get how it makes much more sense to have the metric.

Even after many years, I have to guess and estimate what things weigh or how far something is away. I still have my favorite weather website switched to Fahrenheit.  Here are a few approximations I use.

• About 37 Celsius is body temperature so is 98.6F. This would be an intolerably hot day.
• I bake just about everything in my oven at 200-230C. Yeah, I mostly cook chicken, grilled cheese toast and french fries, but it works.
• 1 kilo is roughly 2 pounds (2.2 to be exact), so 500grams is one pound and 250 grams is half a pound. I think of 100grams as roughly a quarter pound. So for meat it would be one portion.
• Meters are similar to yards.

There are still things that use inches though. Jeans and bike tires for example still are sized in inches.

Telephone Numbers

The German system of telephone numbers allows for variable length numbers. So some numbers are only 5 digits long while others are 8 or 9. Each number has an area code that also can be variable length. Despite all of this, the system works well.

A German telephone number called from within Germany starts with a 0. If you call from outside of Germany, the country code is +49 and that 0, that you would use inside of Germany, is not called.  This is often written as +49(0).

The next piece of the number is a 2 to 4 digit area code. Unlike the US where area codes seem to be assigned at random, the codes here are very attached to location. Larger cities like Munich have a two digit code (89 is Munich). Smaller cities like Freiburg have a three digit code (761 is ours). And even smaller towns will have longer codes. The cool thing is that while Freiburg is 761, a smaller town near us might be 7633. The codes are related and share the 76.

This is all true only for landlines. Cell providers each have their own codes that they give numbers for. A specific code would imply that the number was originally given by a specific company.

"Everything has an end, except for sausage, they have two." - German Saying

Eins, Zwei, Drei, Vier..

It is straightforward to learn the basic numbers. This is not the point here. The point is all of the cultural differences with how counting goes and how numbers are used.

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This is a supported post, but the words, pictures and sentiments are my own.

Milford Sound is one of the most well known sights in New Zealand and close to the tourist haven of Queenstown, so there are a lot of options to get out there. We decided against a day trip and did an overnight trip with Real Journeys, and I am so glad we did. Not just for the time on the boat in the quiet evening, but also for the time in the park itself. This drive turned out to be the best part of a really great trip. Milford Sound is the destination and the headliner. And it is indeed beautiful and worth a trip, but for me the park itself was more of a hit.

Ancient Beech Forest

I like forests and mountains. I am far happier in a shady forest than on a beach in the sun. That is probably why I enjoyed the drive so much. The beech forest feels very old and primeval. The moss hanging everywhere and the dampness in the air help that feeling. I have a pretty good imagination, but didn’t have to strain at all to see dinosaurs walking through the forest or dragons flying above it. Maybe some of it is knowing that Lord of the Rings was filmed in New Zealand, but it really is impressive scenery.

The weather we had was perfect. For a place that apparently rains 2 out of every 3 days, we had two days of blue skies. We definitely saw it rain in Queenstown, but not on our drive, which is amazing and let us get great pictures. I almost wish he had some rain though. Justin, our bus driver, told us that the number of waterfalls increases in the rain. The ones we saw were all snow melt.

Eglington Valley

The only road through the Fiordland National Park to Milford runs through three valleys. Each is very different from the other showing just how diverse New Zealand is even in a small area. The first, Eglington Valley, is a wide flat valley edged by tall mountains. Eglington Valley is also home to the Mirror Lakes. Unfortunately it was a windy enough not to get a perfect mirroring, but enough to see how cool the lakes are. I like the upside down sign that mirrors in the lake. (It took us a bit to realize it was intentional.)

Hollyford Valley

Rising up from the flat Eglington Valley we crossed into Hollyford Valley, a steeper forested valley. The Divide between the two valleys is the start to a lot of the hikes and tracks available in the park. Each way the bus dropped people off to go hiking.

This is an avalanche area. Although we were there in the summer the avalanche signs are still around. Our driver was telling us that there is a dedicated road team that works year round only on this road. Despite being there in the summer, the tops of the mountains are still covered in snow. We drove by a few places where the tress had all been ripped up. Justin explained that this wasn’t even the avalanche itself but the wind that is generated with so much snow moving all at once.

The one stop in Hollyford Valley on the way to Milford was at Monkey Creek. I filled up my water bottle at the encouragement of our driver, saying it was some of the cleanest purest water in the world. I got a picture of me acting like a monkey at Monkey creek.

Coming back we stopped at Pop’s View, named for a man who dedicated his life to the maintenance of the Milford Road. This view of the Hollyford River and the forests was one of my favorite of the trip. Standing here is where I really could almost see dinosaurs or dragons wandering in the woods.

Homer Tunnel

The top of Hollyford Valley is Homer Tunnel. This is a hole drilled through the mountain, a little over a kilometer long. The tunnel is so narrow that only one stream of traffic is allowed through at a time so we have to wait for a green light to go. It also angles down pretty sharply as it heads down toward Milford.

Coming through on the way back we stopped just outside of the tunnel and got out. The area around the mouth of the tunnel is amazing. There were snowmelt waterfalls all around. And although they look tiny, they are apparently more than a meter wide and a long way off. The distances are hard to judge as the mind has a hard time believing that this is real. The noise from the falls reaches that distance and really does sound like more water than it looks like.

We even saw a few Kea, the alpine parrots that only live there.

Cleddau Valley

The final valley that leads down from the tunnel to the sound is Cleddau Valley. Similar to Hollyford on the other side, with steep sides and forests.

The one stop here was at the Chasm. Just a few minute walk through the forest to a waterfall that has worn the rocks into a swiss cheese of holes. According to a sign, the river picks up a pebble in a depression in the rock and swirls it around for a while to wear it into that shape. There is a lower and an upper viewing platform, with the upper looking down into the rock holes.

And to Milford Sound….

The first impressions of Milford are grand, but that is another post. More information can be found here.

• Destination Fiordland – Regional Tourism Organization for Fiordland
• New Zealand Parks page on Fiordland
• Milford Sound daytrip – Great post at A Dangerous Business whose writing was where I first heard of Milford Sound.

Special thanks to Justin, our friendly and knowledgeable driver, and the great people at Real Journeys. They did give us a discount on our journey. Even so all views and opinions here are my own.

If you’ve traveled in Asia, what’s your favorite destination? Share a story of one of your best experiences in Asia, or tell us about a place you love.

My first and so far only experience in Asia was Hong Kong. It wasn’t even a full day, more of a really long layover from morning to evening on my way to New Zealand.  I spent roughly 8 hours in the city itself.  But even at hyper speed, I enjoyed my time. More about my day is here and there will be more detailed posts coming.

I got to eat Dim Sum with some really great travel friends from Twitter.

Got to ride a restored Chinese Junk in the harbor.

Rode the longest outdoor escalators.

I even had Starbucks on my second “trip” to Asia, which amounted to 5 hours in the dead of night in the Hong Kong Airport on the way back.

All of my answers for the challenge can be found under the category Challenges.

Grilling by the lakeside in the sun and fun.

The day started fine. We were staying at Nomads Hostel in Queenstown. We had a room there that was just like a hotel with a great view of the lake. The hostel offers free lunch every day apparently and Christmas was grilling by the beach. We were told this even at check-in. “Whee”, I thought. “Grilling outside on Christmas, this will totally be a summer Christmas.”

That part was pretty cool. Large group of people in bathing suits playing with water and singing with a guitar. Food was fine if not so filling.

How we went to Hell and back for a drink.

New Zealand is a culture so well known for parties and a place where alcohol is served in all kinds of places I would not expect. Despite this, apparently Christmas is the one day in the year you virtually cannot buy alcohol. The quickie mart, no. Grocery store, closed. Restaurants surely? Well sort of.

We needed more to eat than a single sausage each. They were tasty and nice, but not a full meal. We weren’t looking for a roast goose with all the trimmings, but just something to snack on. So much was closed around dinner time that we ended up in Hell (pizza). We had actually been there for lunch due to the aforementioned closure of so much stuff. It is behind the hostel and a pretty neat little place. At lunchtime we each had a small pizza and chatted with the guy running the register.

Drinks From Hell (Pizza)

We were baffled by the lack of good options in town. We didn’t want a full meal. Since Ali had really just gotten out of South East Asia, she didn’t want to eat Asian food again. We decided to go back to our lunch spot and ordered some kumara fries and a few drinks. This was fine. Not really Christmasy, but nice to spend time with my best friend. A second round, also ok. When I went for a third round after quite a while of sitting there, I was told no. Apparently the alcohol ban on Christmas extends to restaurants as well in a form. If you are not actively eating, no drinks. So we could have ordered a pizza, but were not that hungry. We just wanted to enjoy a few drinks slowly into the night European style on a warm Christmas evening.

It wasn’t like there was a full alcohol ban. We saw people with cases of beer and even one with what looked like a case of bottles of Gin. I should have learned some sort of planning and preparation after four years in Germany, but this failed me. How were we to know? Apparently they made an announcement in the hostel, but we couldn’t hear it in our nice hotel room. It would have been nice to be warned at check-in.

Despite leaving before we were relaxed there were still some great views from Hell Pizza, including Angel Devine across the street.

The moral of this story is…

If you wish to enjoy a drink on Christmas Day in New Zealand, plan ahead. I hold nothing against Queenstown, although a bit miffed at the otherwise great hostel. We could have been prepared for a beach drink. In the end, we just enjoyed the view.

Skyline Gondola to Bob’s Peak

At 25NZD round trip for each of us, it was a decent price for a good couple of hours. The gondola leaves from a base station near the kiwi bird park only a few minutes walk from the center of town. Even the ride up gave some great views of town and lake. Although the warning sign that the thing can stop randomly did not settle a stomach still a bit of from the flight.

I did love the idea that someone named the mountain “Bob’s Peak“. I understand that there are those named Bob that are perhaps grand explorers and namers of things, but still it does sound a bit unusual.

Things We Could Have Done.. but Didn’t

The top of the peak is also an area of activities. The New Zealand classic original of bungy jumping was on offer. We saw them from the gondola. There were also a number of luge tracks. Ok, I think of luge from the olympics where some poor sod rides a tiny sled down an icy track face first. These were far more tourist friendly. Steerable 4 wheel carts on concrete tracks. Even still on the list of stuff we did NOT do.

Really, this will become one of the themes of our trip. Look at all the high adrenaline and adventure travel activities that we have no interest in.

Storms and the Giftshop

The building at the top of the Gondola has a restaurant and great wrap around balcony. Although we had a beautiful sunny flight down into Queenstown, by this point in the afternoon the rainstorms were coming in. The cool part was seeing the storms slowly roll in from the Remarkables. The bad part was getting wet. The views were spectacular between the droplets though.

So once it started pouring we did what any self respecting travel blogger would do. We sat in chairs and tried to see if we could get the free wi-fi of the place to work on our phones. After I got fed up of this, I started looking through the gift shop. Ok, it was the first day of my trip, but maybe I could get my souvenir buying over with.

Here are some of the hilarious things we saw in the gift shop.

Genuine fur warmers for belly button and nipples. I guess if you have cold nipples, then nothing less than real fur will help.

The eternal New Zealand delimma, Sheep vs Kiwi bird.

Queenstown from Above

So the real reason we went up the gondola was to see Queenstown from above. Although the landing path of the plane is pretty impressive, this was cool too. And I have pictures of this view from the top of a mountain, while I was holding onto my seat while landing.

Aren’t we cute?