blauboy’s posthaven

Impromptu we used an irresistible cheap ticket offer and unexspected good wheather on the German holiday "Day of German Unity" to visit the kid's amusement park LEGOland near Günzburg, about 40 minutes drive from us. Fun for the whole family, especially for Sophia, who outshined the 110-centimeter-restraint of most fun rides by two centimeters this year!

After heavy snowfall mid-December, temperatures rose again towards yule. This year's christmas eve was predicted to be the warmest in living memory; actually, we, in the heart of the Swabian Alb, experienced a warm und partly sunny 24th of December with temperatures around 10° Celcius. Munich, on the other hand, set an all time high with 20,3° C...
Anyway - the evening before December 24th, we were surprised by the most beautiful sunset in weeks!

It is December.
It is cold - up to -16° Celcius (3°F).
There is snow.
Lots of snow!
Ev'rywhere...

White diamonds were falling from heaven...

Stepping out of our front door, I heard strange noises, which I could neither identify nor locate. Finally I looked up - and saw a swarm of 37 cranes using the upwind above our street to screw high in the sky. It felt like an eternity to run back into the house, up the stairs, get my camera, run back down again and take some shots of the vanishing birds...

There are some days during the year that we can see the Alps from the next range of hills next to Blaubeuren. From here, the Alps are like 150, 160 kilometres away (beeline) - but on these special times of abnormally good visibility, they look like being just a stone's throw away. These days, we had one of those rare moments.

During the whole autumn we've been collecting wild fruits in nature. Not only we found damson plums, hawthorn, rosehips, sloes and cornel cherrys. We also saw sheep, majestic old trees, Indian summer colours, beautiful landscapes - and we cooked a soup made of wild herbs, blossoms and - stinging nettles. Surprinsingly, it tasted just great!

 

The last holidays of this year led us to Kavala, Northern Greece. The city is built on three mountains, the parallel streets along the hill are combined with long and narrow stairs upwards. Kavala's oldest settlement on a rock-peninsula - castle on top, red roofs - is the most picturesque of the three mountains. Due to the wheather we failed two times to visit the island of Thassos, just a few miles in front of the coast and a paradise for summer vacationers: rain, too much wind, too many waves. Instead, we visited some of the sandy beaches near Kavala: Perigali, Nea Iraklitsa, Nea Peramos.

It is mighty cold outside, but this early autumn morning provides us with gorgeous colours in the sky: sunrise above Blaubeuren, October 18th.

This spectacular bridge spans the Aradaina Gorge near the small village Aradaina, southern Crete. It's a metall construction, plastered with rough floorboards and it replaced the old path, that lead 138 meter down the valley on one side and up the valley the other side. Postcards from those times not so long ago can be bought at the litlle taverna there.

As I learned through the internet, some people are crazy enough to use it for base jumping or bungee jumping. Furthermore, the wooden planks give an incredible excessive noise when overran by cars. This noise must be heard over miles, especially during the night!

The Vertical Cave of Laichingen (Laichinger Tiefenhöhle) is the only vertical cave open to the public in Germany. Inside it is cool (always 8° Celcius / 46° Fahrenheit); it is damp if not wet; the stairs (better: ladders) are steep and there is clay literally everywhere. You scramble down to a depth of 55 meters. An unexspected adventure for children age four up, highly recommended for a visit!