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Category: Germany

Published on Leave a comment on Oberstdorf – Photography lesson with Heinz Zak

Today we participated a photography lesson with Heinz Zak - a famous mountain and landscape photographer. More precisely it was a kind of "photography hike". Together with eight other participants we have been taken to Renksteg. From here we started to hike to the Freiberg See. Everyone had his own camera and mount and here and there we stopped to practice different techniques. Heinz always gave some hints regarding the scene and the camera settings. From our perspective it was also very useful to compare and discuss different images with respect to the layout, exposure and focus settings. After about 5 hours a small bus took us back to the center of Oberstdorf. Here we all were sitting together for another hour discussing different photography topics and enjoying the prepared food. Finally, Heinz gave us a presentation of his new exhibition - most of his photos were taken in the Karwendel. Personally we think the photos are absolutely great!
All in all we have to say the whole event was very well organized by the Oberstdorf tourism center - you did a good job! 🙂 We are already looking forward to  next year. We plan to participate the "photography biwak" at the Nebelhorn then.

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Published on Leave a comment on Oberstdorf – Again visiting the Rubihorn

Again we were visiting Oberstdorf for a few days - this time to visit a photography course with Heinz Zak - a famous mountain and landscape photographer. We arrived one day earlier and decided to make a short hike in the afternoon. Even if we have been there before we decided to hike to the Rubihorn summit again. From Oberstdorf and back it takes something between 4 and 7 hours - depending on the walking speed. Most of the path upwards was just a zig-zag and the sun was burning quite much. After about 2 hours we arrived at the Rubihorn and took a long break. Actually we were expecting quite a lot of people up there since it was Sunday and the weather was nice but actually there were just six or seven other hikers. At the summit we were able to observe daws.
The path from the summit down to the Gaisalpsee took about 45 minutes. Here we made another break and enjoyed the sunlight dancing on the lake. From the lake we further followed the path downwards to the Gaisalpe. After about 1 hour we arrived at the Gaisalpe and enjoyed a cold apple soda 🙂 From here we were heading back to Oberstdorf (about 90 minutes). We think the Rubihorn is always worth a hike. Especially after a long winter break the Rubihorn is always a good starting point to get used to the mountains again 🙂

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Published on Leave a comment on From Böblingen to Lake Constance by bike

GPS GPS: gpx|google maps

A year ago we had a somewhat crazy idea of cycling from our current home town Böblingen to Lake Constance in one day. We tried the Hohenzollern bicycle route last year but had to give up because this way had many indirections instead of just leading us to the south. A few weeks ago we tried to cycle to Sigmaringen in order to test a new route. Unfortunately we had to abort the tour because of a thunderstorm.

Last Saturday we prepared everything for the next try. The bikes were saddled, the bags were packed and the GPX track was loaded onto the GPS. When we got up at 6:30am it started to rain - and didn't stop until 12:00. So again we failed. However, on Sunday we got another chance. This time the weather looked perfect. We again got up at 6:30am and started the tour. We cycled along Tuebingen, Reutlingen, Lichtenstein, Sigmaringen, Pfullendorf and finally Ueberlingen. It took us about 9 hours including breaks. When we arrived the weather was still nice and we had a lot of ice cream at the lakeside of Lake Constance 🙂 (and then a pizza!). In the evening we took the last train back to Boeblingen (we had to change twice - in Radolfzell and in Singen).

Published on Leave a comment on One stage of Schwarzwald-Schwäbische-Alb-Allgäu-Weg HW 5 – Herrenberg to Unterjesingen

GPS GPS: gpx | google maps

Not far from our home is the HW5 hiking trail which goes form Pforzheim to the Allgäu. On this sunny Saturday we decided to hike one stage of this trail - from Herrenberg to Unterjesingen. This stage was supposed to be a "panorama" trail with great views into the Ammertal. Basically this is true - there are places from where we had a great view - however about 13km of the in total 21km long trail we just walked through the Nature Reserve Schönbuch forest without having a wide view. This part of the trail was quite boring compared to our regular trips through the Alps. Anyway, it was ok for a day trip which was just round the corner.

Not far from Herrenberg we arrived at the Herrenberg Waldseilgarten which is a kind of high rope course. Up to here it was a very nice path. The next kilometers were more or less in the forest. The last two kilometers before we arrived at Hohenentringen Castle were quite nice again. From here we had a very nice view down to the valley. The Hohenentringen Castle was a very nice place where we had something to drink and a piece of apple pie. After about 20km walking we really enjoyed sitting in the sun. After a long break we walked down to Unterjesingen from where we took the Ammertalbahn back to Herrenberg.

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Published on Leave a comment on Bouldering Frechen

We spent this weekend near Cologne. The weather was very cloudy, so it was a good day to spend some time bouldering in the climbing hall Chimpanzodrome in Frechen.

The climbing hall is very nice, it is not so crowded as the climbing halls in Stuttgart and has a good atmosphere.