Opening day on the mountain

The ski season has officially started in Davos, and about a month and a half earlier than last year. I went up with a colleague from work and on the single ski run that was open we met up with many other SIAF people. The weather was nice, the snow conditions were actually rather decent and all in all a good day. After the afternoon of skiing we brought our gear to be waxed. The response when they saw my skis was 'woah, old school'.

Cycling up Sertig

Another recent weekend I went for a cycle up the Sertig valley. It was only 300m up, but I don't really like cycling that much. Going down is really cold, even though I cycle up with a backpack filled with warmer clothes.

Cold hike

Earlier in October I went for a hike up the local mountain behind Davos. It was cold and I was out of shape and it was a lot of work. There was even a bit of snow at the top.

There was also a lot of wind and soon after I headed down. In addition to the ugly blue hat I now also have the warm pink coat. The way I see it, I would be easily seen in the snow or the woods (and even in a crowd of people visiting a city).

At the very top there was even a hare hopping around! I couldn't get a picture, he was too quick and far away.

Here's looking back over the Sertig valley.

Nerdy Rooting

I realize I write a lot lately about visiting cities and hiking and not so much about nerdy stuff which I used to write about years ago.

Yes, I'm still into nerdy stuff. Running Ubuntu, Android, finding DRM on ebooks annoying enough that I haven't purchased any (and don't see myself doing so in the future even I do a lot of moving which makes taking books around a pain).

My latest nerdy exercise was this weekend I finally got around to rooting my phone. It's now well over 2 years old and out of warranty and not getting updated anymore and this weekend it has been snowing and cold so I feel like doing all the work around the house I've been putting off. After rooting the phone I put on another ROM, played around with appearances and now it looks all shiny and new again.

Suckling Pig Roast and Ceilidh

On the weekend, the other band I play in (the Loch Leman Ceilidh Band) performed for a fundraiser/dinner.

Here's a picture of us during setup.

And here's one of the little piggies. It was a very good meal and a very fun Ceilidh.

Octoberfest in Munich

During the week, a bunch of my colleagues and myself drove to Munich to take part in the world's largest Octoberfest! In September!

This involved getting up at 4:30am to start the long drive to the other side of Munich. I even bought a dress for the occasion.

Once settled into our hotel room, we took the train into downtown Munich. The advantage about the transit system was for 20 Euro, 5 adults could ride unlimited transit all day until 5am the next morning.

By about noon we got to our first beer tent. Not really a tent though, it was a large permanent structure decorated with ribbons and filled with tables.

There were lots of people drinking and eating and a live band was playing. We tried playing Schlager music to get in the mood on the drive up but it was just to early!

We ordered our delicious roast chicken and Maß, the 1L of beer served at Octoberfest. I'm not a big fan of beer and it was a lot of beer to get through!!

There was lots of singing along and standing on the benches (in the first hall). Our reservation finished and we left around 4. We walked around the fair but there wasn't a whole lot going on. Most people inside the halls were dressed up, but there were more normally dressed tourists outside.

On the second day, we had a reservation in the more popular Hippodrome.

Inside it was again filled with tables. I was told by one man that once there were horses in the main lower part, but they have since left to put in more tables, I guess it was more profitable.

I took lots of pictures of people, and lots of pictures of the dirndls and lederhosen.

The C&A, a department store here in Europe had a large selection of dirndls for sale.

We had interesting food, radishes, some kind of onion dip, pretzels and this bread with what I think was lard with the cracklings still in it. Again it was more Maß, pretty much the only thing people were drinking. And less dancing on the chairs this time.

All in it was a pretty fun couple of days. Less drunkenness than I was expecting. It might be because we started and finished drinking early, or it might be because in comparison to stricter liquor laws in Canada, it is a more family friendly affair with more parents and children attending.

Hiking (behind Davos) and horse riding

Wow, the weather this past weekend has been amazing. After two rather cold and wet weekends, I thought it would be almost the end of summer. I have so far gotten a total of three tomatoes from my plants and two zucchinis, so production has been very low. There's lots of fruit, it's just all green.

Anyway, this weekend we first started the morning by taking the train to Arosa. This is a village behind the mountain range that is behind Davos.

Arosa is a very pretty town, 200m higher than Davos and sitting next to a lake. The train ride was very slow as we wound our way up the valley. If I ever felt that Davos was an isolated city, Arosa was much more so, there was only one way in, up a long winding valley.

The day was perfect when we started walking, but we didn't go up the valley that we intended, instead, ending on a more popular trail.

We took a less traveled pass over the mountain range, and sat at the top of the pass, looking down on both Arosa and the valley of Davos (we couldn't see the town itself). It was strange to be so close to a town, and yet so far away since to get there by road or train, you had to travel all the way around the range.

At the top close to the pass I found a spring. Usually I haven't been so close to the start. There were different plants living at the spring and the water came seeping and running out from the rocks. I drank this water and it was nice and fresh on a hot day!

My legs were pretty tired after the long descent, although probably this was also because I cycled up the Sertig valley road the day before. I'm not a big fan of cycling, but I really like that valley and the three mountain peaks at the end of it.

The next day was also gorgeous, and I took the train to the Engadine valley, to the village of Scuol and the riding stable just above it. The valley was amazing and beautiful.

The riding stable was really nice, there were about 60 horses and on a normal day about 30 are out being ridden. Hanging over the ranch were high rocky peaks that apparently had many Ibex.

The mountains behind the stable were the same mountains that were across the road when we did our hike in the National Park. Apparently, at San Jon there was a celebrity sighting - bear M13. He has a radio collar and shows up in the news because he occasionally wanders into Switzerland. When he visited San Jon he apparently ate one of the goats.

Another time bear M13 was there with a second bear, one of the riders was out and his horse reared in panic at the sight of the bear, at least, with my beginner German that's what I understand happened.

So that was my sporty weekend, cycling, hiking and riding. I can't remember the exact breed of horse, but they are good for going up mountains and pulling carriages. The canter was very very bumpy.

Violin - Mozart Mass

In Davos I have joined a small chamber orchestra, playing violin. I haven't played classical violin in many many years, and I've never played in a group before. However, years of playing Saxophone in various bands has given me the skills. Although it's been years since I've played Sax in a band, it's all coming back pretty quick. Good thing too since rehearsals are in German. I'm learning High German, but they speak Swiss German and the pronunciations can be very different. However, I can usually figure out what's going on, only because I get key words (fast, quiet, 4 bars before the close), musicians often sing the effect they want, and I had learned all the Italian terms back when I was playing in the concert wind ensembles. Other times I'm just totally lost. However, if everyone around you starts playing quiet it's not time to solo ^_^

This weekend was a Mozart Mass (sparrow mass). The local catholic church was having its 120 year anniversary and we joined with the choir to play. It is so much fun to play, but I really had to practice. The mass itself lasted over 2 hours (all in German). I'm glad to say I chirped exactly with everyone else, this sparrow did not chirp on her own during rests!

Visits - and the first taste of winter weather!!

On the weekend guests came up for a visit in Davos! Too bad the weather didn't cooperate. It was mildly cold on Saturday, and even cooler on Sunday.

We went for nice walks in the area, did the desperate Saturday morning shopping with everyone else in town. The limited hours and closed stores on Sunday certainly makes Saturday morning shopping a crowded affair.

The weather on Saturday was a overcast, but there were periods of sun and rain. We were expected Sunday to be better. 

On Sunday we rented a car and drove out to hike Schwarzhorn again. In the parking garage I saw a poster for the Olympics and if you zoom in, it's from 1996!!

This peak is the highest in the region and in the Fluela pass. The clouds were low but there was no rain when we started.

When we stopped for lunch, then it started to rain, which very quickly turned to wet snow. The clouds rolled in and the peak was hidden. It is a fairly steep approach on rock and we were cold so we decided to turn back. I realized it has been a long time since I've hiked in the rain, I realize I did it a lot more in Vancouver.

My new waterproof pants worked pretty well though. As we dropped in elevation it turned to rain and when we drove back to Davos it was reasonably sunny skies! We had nice warm showers and a nice tasty snack and watched some of my planet earth DVD.