Category Archives: Places

A Winter Fairy Tale

A WINTER FAIRY TALE

It all has begun at the end of the ice age…

 

And then came humans and their needs.

And then the atlantic climate and its wind and rain.

And so a cuddly blanket of a little ancient rootless but enduring sphagnum has originated…

One of the three last places of this kind on our nice planet, the High Fens, a Belgium sister of Siberian and Canadian raised bog family…

    Hohes_Venn_in_der_Eifel_und_Ardennen

A winter life of the High Fens…

       

… at the highest point of Belgium with all the 694 m above sea level and its silence, indeed if you don’t hear me falling in a bog. 🙂

All in all, a nice witnessing of the whiteness and its language…

 

Behind every strong man stands a strong woman

Long time ago the things on Earth were simple.
There were One And All Land and One And All Water.
There was wind and only some ferns, far relatives of today’s Ginko Biloba, conifers and some more plants which produce seeds.
The little swimmers which possess highly developed sense organs felt also very well in One Water.
There were no humans.
Some meteors came down from the the sky, some volcanos have released strange gases, there was a big catastrophy and a big climate change killed most of life on the planet.

THE ALPS, THE BERCHTESGADEN ALPS

…are  230 millions years old, they emerged in the Mesozoic Era, in the Triassic episode of the Earth when Pan Gaia broke up and the little inhabitants of the Panthalassa left their houses in the rocks for ever. But the fishes, pines, yew, firs, redwood, ferns luckily for us survived the Big Dying.

The Berchtesgaden Alps are situated a bit in Bavaria and a bit in Austria and there, there is a rocky family:

WATZMANN

The Wimbach Valley under the Watzmann West Face:

          

The route to the Wimbach Hut:

         

Watzmann, The West Face

Watzmann, The West Face

             

The Big Watzmann with his 2713m highness is the third (some say the second) highest giant in Germany and is in a good mood for climbers and hikers all over the year even covered with snow. It’s a man ;).

The Watzmann Wife, 2307m, is not easy to reach and you can climb this female peak only in spring and summer. Of course there are always some kind of supermen. In between are the so called Watzmann Children, the five lower summits.

Behind every strong man stands a strong woman. 😉

There are many wonderful hiking, climbing and via ferrata routes around and to the Watzmann, the most difficult climb is the East Face and it starts from the Könnigssee. Herman Buhl made his preparation training for the Nanga Parbat in 1953. when he climbed the East Face by night. Since then about hundert people have left their lives in the Watzmann East Face.

The Wimbachgries Hut and the routes. You will mostly need much less time than given on the distance sings, but.. about Bavarians and their extremely active life style… you can be fit how ever you want but you have no chance, they will overtake you with extremely lightness and energy  :).

 

   

 

Watzmann West Face and the rock slides.
The rocks are continuously moving and collapsing. The last rock collaps was reported in 1963 in Bavaria.
The Berchtesgaden Alps are formations of limestone and dolomite. Some chains of this chains are today even human property. How someone can posses Earth?

Limestone

Limestone

Time in space

Time in space

The route to the Kühroints Hut goes on the easy mount ridge, through the woods, it ends on the open road and it is described as a moderate. Wonderful scenes. The winter roses are all over in the woods.

Watzmann from the East

Watzmann from the East

Watzmann view from the East  

 

KührointshütteThe Kühroints Hut is the starting point to the Watzmann Hut and the famous Watzmann Ridge Traverse. There are two climbing routes from this point, one is known and singed and another is extremely demanding, not singed and it is kept as “secret”.

Route to Archenkanzel

Route to Archenkanzel

Love is in the snow ;).
The Archenkanzel gives a wonderful view on the fogy Koennings Lake and the majestic Schoenfledspitze  right before the darkness.

      

Schönfeldspitze

Schönfeldspitze

Totaly darkness in the woods on the way to the Lake.
The silence is tearing ears appart. Divine silence. Answers all the questions.

 

The Route To The Grünstein, 1304m

… starts at the Lake. Fog, houses of my little friends, amazing trees and their roots and snow roses talk their stories teaching us. In the German Alps there are no bears so far, the last one was shot more than 150 years ago. In Austria they made a comeback in the 60’s and today they feel good between Linz and Vienna. In others Alps there are bears as well.

      

     Fogy silence    

      

 

There is no one who will not arrive to the little but very steep summit totally sweated :). A wonderful wide view from Grünstein at one afternoon right at the beginning of the year 2016.
Beauty of age.

          Grünstein and Watzmann

On the Grünstein is based a German “fake satellite”, a test-brother of the GPS. It is called the GATE.
This place is a starting point to the via feratta, the so called Isidor. Here you will need a good physical and mental condition together with climbing equipment. The wooden hanging bridge is part of the climbing route.
In the Berchtesgaden Land a woodcraft is famous and in the woods you will very often meet wooden owls or other birds and animals. One perfectly peaceful chamois was standing steady on the edge and looking from far I was thinking it was one of those wooden tricky things in the woods, continued my looking around, but then I looked again at the same edge and than  I saw two chamois. Sweet little things :).

     

Somewhere left on the picture behind the clouds and between the mountains lies Salzburg.
The bobsled run and the Lake.
And the Watzmann Family.

 

      

      

 

Why the “Watzmann Family”?    watzmann

Long time ago there was a king who didn’t like people and animals so much and together with his family he was treating people and animals following his feelings. The higher power decided to transform him and his family into stone.

 

***

Time.
Time in space.
Evolution.
Rocks. Water. Air. Light.
230 millions years ago.
Beauty of age.

Without wind, light, forests, water there will be no us. And the first us, as we today behave and act, appeared on the planet only 200 000 years ago. We also have a evolutional name: Homo sapiens sapiens, which means not only simply wise but double wise, super, incredibly, amazingly, unbeatable wise humans.

Those species have done great things but are unfortunately also unbeatable in killing the own race. They are able to change the climate indeed faster than nature should do itself, but however the nature has own laws and the climate change is no new thing in the evolution of this planet.
We humans came on the Earth to be part of everything and we also posses hidden supernatural powers which even our own rational mind can not capture. The opportunity to find the truth is given to each of us jet a very few people have true experience with those things.
However, everyone has the right to live his own life as he thinks, wants or can. There is always a opportunity.

Wonderful opportunities on the wonderful planet.

Thank you mother Earth and all great hearts and minds.

🙂

Then and now

The Harz Mountains.
North Germany.
14. November 2015
21. Century

The Harz Mountain is a cuddly forest. Long time ago, in the 18. Century the Brother Grimm’s were inspired by exactly those mountains for writing their fairy-tales.
“Cinderella”, “Sleeping Beauty”, “Snow White”.

Brocken,
… a little mountain which caries plenty of the mythological, historical, meteorological and other stories. If you find yourself on this 1.141m high Summit when the sun is low, you will experience yourself as a huge shadow as a game of light and little watery foggy particles. Brockengespenst-und-Glorie_TdT_2014-10-03 This natural phenomena in German is called “Brockengespenst”, well, it means Brocken Ghost and it has been very scary for people of the 18. Century in a Brother Grimm’s Land which is situated in the vicinity of the Harz Mountains.

I have not seen neither my 3D giant me, A,  or the B variation. The C we all know and like, and I wish that the Sea is and will not be a fairy-tale with a sad ending for the whole humanity, today and tomorrow.

But let’s walk some steps down the Brocken Summit, to the paths which many people walked on and one of them was Goethe, in 1777.

Some impressions from the path from a little town Schierke up to the Summit…

 

Faust and Mephisto, the two characters from the Goethe’s story about Faust, were also climbing the Brocken to take part in a party called Walpurgis Night. Faust is a smart fellow who read many books but can’t find the meaning of life and Mephisto doesn’t like life so much.

Faust 1 route

“Devil’s Steps”

Walpurga was a catholic saint and Walpurgis Night is a Witches’ night which was celebrated on the night between 30. April and 1. May in several countries of Northern and Central Europe.
It is the night when witches from all over the World meet on the Brocken Summit where they make sum of the acts they did in past and make plans for the future, just like some people today meet to make plan for the future of our society, our freedom, our rights.

The “Devil’s Steps” are snaky and mossy and kind of mystical.
You need anti-slip-boots, thats all. Ok, and loads of belief and positive thoughts too. If you search for the meaning of life, it is good to mix time and good will and pass by this path.

Somewhere around this place, walking the path Faust felt the spring all over and Mephisto felt only cold.

Me myself I enjoyed the mossy, mystical path. It is a really wonderful forest. I try to do my best. Whatsoever.

Harz         Harz

Brocken SummitThe vegetation stops right under the summit. The extreme weather condition will give you a feeling that you are standing on a over 2.000m high mountain or in some place on Island.

It is extremely windy high up, the peak stands alone in an open space and the messages coming from its isolation are not to be underestimated at all. You never know what the giants intend, especially the isolated ones.

300 foggy days per year.

 

A sweet steam train’s sound is merging with the extreme weather conditions…

Steamy      Steamy

Each moment is different up there and while taking those couple of photos without gloves my fingers were almost frozen. I could not stop thinking of the climbers, the mountains and the recently seen movie  “Everest”, about people who are paying 65.000$ more or less and torture themsleves very often to death… on this planet, our planet, here and now, when every 15 seconds a child dies of hunger. Right HERE and right NOW.
Mister Ego… the dark one, which lives only for himself and for himself only. A worshiped hungry creator of the fog which kills human hearts, the most valuable thing in the Universe.
The good thing is that the mirror (read: the Ego) has always two sides. One is dark and the other is light. The light one is able to notice a illusion. This is the road which guides somewhere.

 

Brocken Summit, 14. November 2015. Temperature -1,9C, wind is blowing 67,0 km/h

On my visit the Brocken, on November 14Th, 21. Century, where the human brain is the most developed thing on the Earth, I was also thinking of the issue of the Faust’s story. A man, as a unique creature with his dubble existence, his limited mind and unlimited soul, his frustrated passion and noble optimism, and the merging of all this with the Universe.

 

 

18. Century?
No. 21. Century, why?
Goethe, then and now…

“Hatred is something peculiar. You will always find it strongest and most violent where there is the lowest degree of culture.”

***

Brocken

***

“What lies beyond doesn’t worry me.
Suppose you break this world to bits, another may arise.
My joy springs from this earth,
this sun shines on my sorrows.
When I leave here, let come what must.
What do I care about it now, if hereafter
men hate or love, or if in those other spheres
there be an Above or a Below?”
Faust, Part I

***

          “Those who hope for no other life are dead even for this.”          

         ***         

Brocken    

“I love those who yearn for the impossible.”

Goethe, Faust 

***

Good night.

Good morning.

Good luck.

***

One step closer

SlovenijaThere is a wonderful small country where East meets West and which has always been closer to the West than to the East.
Where warm-hearted people are laughing what ever comes their way.
Where there are sooo many waterfalls and there are four different climate zones.
In the mountains everyone is greeting everyone and most people will say to you „Dober dan“ and „Srećno!“.
Hello and Good Luck!
This little jewel Slovenia was a part of the former Yugoslavia, a country which I was born and grown up in.

A valley between Austria and Slovenia and Sava Dolinka, one of two sources of the river Sava which flows through ex Yugoslavia and into the Danube in Belgrade. Those two fellows flow then into the Black Sea.

Sava Dolinka    Ribice

Jezero Jasna (Lake Jasna), Triglav National Park, near to Austria and Italy, is a stage of the Alpe Adria Trail. “The Garden of Eden” is an easy route of about 750km which starts at the foot of the Großglockner, the highest Austrian Giant 3798m above sea, and ends in Italy.

Triglav National Park, named after Triglav, a wonderful Slovenian Giant of 2864m above sea. . 

          :)      washing free style

A source of Soča (Isonzo), a crystal green-blue heart which flows into the Adriatic Sea in Italy. A real jewel for those addicted to liveliness.

 Soča Source       Soča Source              Solkanski Most, Solkanski Bridge     Soča Soča      Love  Italy     

Some of many flowing beauties…
Waterfall Boka and its play with water caves…
Peričnik and its photon games…
Virje, a noble all-is-one feeling.

Boka Waterfall     Boka Waterfall

 

Peričnik Waterfall     Peričnik Waterfall   Peričnik Waterfall     Peričnik Waterfall

Virje Waterfall     Virje Waterfall

Silence and tranquility merging with uncommon vegetation around Pokljuška Luknja, a semi-open cave in Pokljuka gorge.

Pokljuška Luknja, Cave    Pokljuška Luknja      Gorje     GorjeGorje    Gorje

Triglav (three heads), that wonderful giant is the heart of the National Park and it is surrounded with wonderful valleys. Vrata (Door), Kot and Krma valley will lead you directly to the summit.

Vrata, Kot and Krma Walley     Triglav

There are different routes from three directions to approach the summit and all the last climbs are Via Ferattas. Wonderful scenes will slow your breath, calm your mind, warm your heart…

Triglav     Triglav

Love    The Aljažev Dom is a starting point

Vrata Valley and the majestic Stena, The North Face. The Aljažev Dom is a starting point which will bring you to the summit over three different routes, Tominskov Pot and Pot Čez the Krederica Dom and the Bambergov Pot (Plemenice) leads over Luknja Pass. The north face route is, like in the most mountains, the most difficult Via Ferrata. You will need a helmet, ropes and harness. Take gloves too because you will get blisters on your hands and you will need your hands a lot :). Some people say climbing the mountain is for those who have no hight fears, no, take your fears with you because confronting your fears is the only way to be(come) free giving change more chance.
Take a challenge with you, too.

Vrata Valley     Vrata Valley  Vrata Valley      Foot of the Luknja Pass    Vrata Valley  Triglav, The North Face      The North Face

The Pokljuka route, a south-east side. To every distance sign add 15-60 minutes… Slovenians are very active people but those signs were written by those in extremely good condition. 🙂

The Pokljuka route    The Pokljuka route  The Pokljuka route    Triglav

Vodnikov Dom and the path to Planika Dom.  This hut provides water. The iron paths are very well protected with iron ropes but as the Julian Alps are formation of limestone the rocks are very steep and slippery and the right step and right shoes are needed. Btw, many of alpinists love the VIBRAM soles and I now can agree that they are really very good.

Vodnikov Dom   Vodnikov Dom to Planika Dom

 

 

On the way I was asking climbers what do they find easier, to climb up or down, most of the hikers feel better climbing down and backwards though. 🙂

 

 

 

Take a challenge.

    

Couple of us arrived at the Planika hut at the same time and we had to wait for the lady who was responsible for accommodation.

The temperature outside was already about 7 degrees. The hut was very busy, very cosy, warm and it smelled at food. Lovely happy Slovenians were singing their traditional songs <3

Are you alone?
Yes, I said.
OK, nice, as we have just few free beds today. I will find a nice little place in a hut for you. In one room there is a family and I will give you a bed in their room.
Great, thank you very much, I said.

And WOW, WHAT a family!

With a warm cup of “bela kava”, which is warm milk with a bit of coffee (which I usually don’t drink but the body-system is working different up there) I sat on the stairs outside where I met part of my room family.
The children were sleeping.
They were telling me wonderful stories from their alpinism and cycling tours from all over the World…
They are walking the mountains since the children, which are now eight an nine, were two years old :). The father is a very experienced alpinist. All the family was also already cycling very long distances together. The woman said, her mother was also a mountain lover and she always took her with but when she was a teenager, she said, she left her mother and the mountains on account of discos, drinking and all that stuff and when that episode was over she came back to the mountains and she will never leave them again, she said.
We were laughing a lot imagining future girlfriends of their boys who are quite free spirits, already… And about all the 324m of the „mountains“ which they even have to share with Belgium and Germany, as they are Dutch 🙂
Never enough of laughing with experienced people and listening to their stories, but a couple also wanted to drink a beer…

Voices of travelers were cutting the mountain’s silence.
Two voices were the loudest. Oh no… why I have to understand that language, right here and right now… :).
They were caring five times more things than anyone else, a loads of stuff. Why simple if it can be complicated :). They were yelling about everything what moves and what does not.
Not so inspiring as nothing original, boring to listen.

In the meantime came another traveler with her cool stories from the Russian and many other great giants, and than another traveler, and then I went to sleep together with my little roommates.

***

Walking with the abundance through the Journey make us very insecure, immature, intolerant, uncreative.
I hope they manage it with all their abundance…

***

Planika Dom    Shadow of Triglav Tower

Planika DomAll those sweet, dirty, heavy shoes came here from different paths caring sure legs, shaking legs, any legs 🙂

Every mountain hut provides blankets and you don’t need sleeping bags, if you choose the walk hut-to-hut.
Of course do the blankets smell at sweat but for most of those who reach the blankets it is the smallest problem, if any at all.
In summer the huts are very busy and it can happen that, if you arrive at the evening and you have no reservation, you will end your day up on the bench. You will of course get an blanket :). Almost all Via Ferrata routes on Triglav are well secured with iron cables, ladders and metal spikes drilled into the rocks. You will often hear helicopters flying around.

Most climbers stand up early and make themsleves ready for the mission. The Planika hut had a few drops of water for all of us, just enough to brush your teeth 🙂 Mornings are very cold and often cloudy but that day we had luck to witness the majestic mountain’s giving birth to sunrise.

Planika Dom to Triglav Summit    Planika

Half way up. Incredible landscape, divine silence. The path is already quite steep, the heart is beating faster.

    

Some voices, once again, were louder, cutting the divine silence and bigness of the Triglav’s morning.
A family, I could hear.
„You have to eat this cheese because it is good for you, you need lot of power to walk!“ The father said to his son.
The mother was telling her husband that she wants to walk slowly and not to stay without her breath, and everybody was talking in the same time but the father was the main leader of all Journeys…

Soon I could see them sitting on the little flat rock direct under the summit of Mali Triglav.

Oh nooo, not only that I perfectly understood that language but I also brought that genetic with me on my Journey… 🙂

***

Genetic of the nation is a very strong thing but luckily it can be deprogrammed. There are so many downloads out there.
It is possible only when your mind is healthy enough to recognize that you and your nation are not the center of the Universe, regardless of how hard your and the paths of your country are, or how big pile of cash you posses and how good your marketing is.

Both permanent complaining and laughing at others (but not at own-self) and following instruction and command of one single person is a style called (and felt) how-to-miss-the-life.
One can not have only one teacher in life, we all teach each other one way or another.
And, who is a TEACHER, anyway?
It is a mixture of you as microcosmos and your endless game with the macrocosmos.

***

Triglav Summit view from Mali TriglavThe summit view from Mali Triglav. Not many people on the way right now.
“Dobar dan”, I said.
“Ahoj”.
“Everything OK?” I asked my co-traveler, he said yes, well, OK, I have pain in my knees.
“OPS, not the best place to have knee pain, but you have to go forward, look, we managed it  just this short Ferrata left.”
Just is good :).
“And my leg muscles hurt as well.”
I said OK, see you soon.

One by one, people were slowly approaching the summit, some were climbing down, many smiley faces, shining eyes. Happiness all over.
On the summit, a whole party. A stunning view from 2864m.
Here is where you can take a stamp if you wish.

Triglav Summit

Here he is, my co-traveler coming up slowly smiling.
“How are you? How are your knees?”
“You know, I have to tell you, I didn’t really have pain in my knees and legs, I was afraid.” 🙂
“I know, I saw it in your eyes, you really did a huge thing”
“Yes, I am staying on the peak and now I want more, I will find another peak soon!” 🙂

 

Everybody was taking photo of himself and Aljažev Tower and with the group, and some people were asking me do I want them to take a photo of me, I didn’t want, but then my Polish co-traveler asked me the same question and I thought OK, everybody is doing the same thing it must be good for something.

 

North west view of the Alps, somewhere in the clouds is amazing Mangart, also part of the Julian Alps. On the right side should be the amazing Grossglockner 3798m, the highest mountain of the Austrian Alpes.

 

 

A very nice feeling to stay on the summit. One step closer…

The path between little summit and the peak is in some places very narrow and steep and you have to wait very often in line to go forward. I haven’t seen many people with harness and ropes on this path. Coming the way up some of Slovenians said: Is there any beer up there? 🙂

In one moment there was a complete traffic jam on Triglav.
The family which I left under the Summit eating were coming up very slowly connected between themselves by ropes and one by one attached to the iron rope. All the family were talking with tremulous voices, the father was still spreading wisdom around about what is the best for all and where they should step on, but in one moment the first child, fighting his own and his parent’s battle, raised his voice and said to the father that he should stop pulling him when he is not attached to the iron.
All of us were silently waiting for them to pass.
„Slowly. Don’t be so afraid, nothing can happen, we are here all together. Just don’t look down and it will be OK“, I said to the mother, she said, No Way, that I will watch down…
I mean… what means „we are all together“ when all the party is created in your own head…

I hope they manage it without big trauma. They really did a big thing and I hope they learned something from their own sweat.
But it is also sad seeing parents transferring their own fears and frustration on their children.

***

:)    

***

One of those great, inspirational people walking on the Earth.

Going down the mountain I could see someone walking his way up extremely slowly. The person was not talking, just walking, caring all his one pointedness and tranquility as his best equipment.
This equipment, a mental equilibrium, you can feel from far away. It made me very curious.
It was exactly this place where I stopped walking waiting to meet this person in person.
Dobar dan.
Dobar dan.

She was faster:
Ah, you have sunburn in your face, do you have Suncream?
Yes I have, I said.
Why didn’t you put it on?
… I have no smart answer.
Take care, she said, I was also young…

She is a 73 year young lady and she is walking and climbing the mountains since her twenties.
She was telling me about other mountains she had climbed and we also talked about fears.
I asked her is she going to climb the Triglav Summit, she said she is going „just“ to the last Mountain Hut and for the climbing she has a fear that her bones will not manage the last part between Mali Triglav and the Summit. The high anxiety, which she had when she was young, she does not have anymore.
She also has cancer behind her…

***

Now. Do I talk here about Yoga?
Yes, also.
Because Yoga is a complete Journey with all it’s facets.
Shaved heads, Sexy Yoga Pants, Private Coaching and many other things which can be found on the yoga market are products of fabricated truth.

A mental equilibrium and wisdom we gain from walking the paths, many paths, sweaty paths, steep paths, silent paths, and not closing ourselves in our cocoons and especially not in all-inclusive, so called spiritual, buildings where, in many of them, dominant people manipulate people’s insecurities and immaturity making their inner conflicts and anxiety a habit.
Sexual abuses in some of those places were/are a common „spiritual“ practice. A sad thing.

Dominant people are dominant because they are not fantastically illuminated and liberated people but because there are millions of people out there who have lost themselves on the way living in a huge fear of authority, what ever authority may mean. With a little bit higher intelligence than the masses and inherited gens for successful business it is easy to dominate.

Your well-glossed exterior will not help you (and inspire us) at all if you have nothing to offer from your inner interior.

However, I am sure that time will come when people will start listening to seekers or/and arrivals poor in cash but multifaceted in spirit and not to the (business) superheroes which are mostly selling emptiness pleasing own ego and confused masses.

Take a challenge and never stop exploring because that will bring you to the person you didn’t know you can be.
The level of your curiosity will determine where you will end up in your life, I certainly don’t think here to be curious what your neighbor or cousin is doing, you have no idea about it anyways.
Curiosity yes, fear no.

Let permanent repeating of positive and open-minded thoughts become your habit, stop asking what you see and what you hear because it will also become your habit which will make you a perfect mechanical machine waiting for a command. A rusted wrack waiting to die. It’s a pity, because the beauty is all over, inside and outside. Being a perfectly programmed machine is also not inspiring for others, who needs machines… People need love and tenderness.

***

A mountain, a harmony of all elements. A steady and self confident earth… lively and creative water… fire which you will produce yourself in your belly and mind being part of a mountain, just in order to burn impurities… oh, air, the element which fills your heart and… the space…

We can learn so much from nature…
It is so nice being so small, thank you my giant for the mirroring.

   …

All in all, a fantastic meeting of fantastic souls on fantastic Planet, and further.

We all cary a package on our back.
The goal is the same but the paths are different.
All is one.
Keep moving.