Kaltenberg Knight Tournament

In July we saw again a knight tournament. This time it was in Kaltenberg (between Munich and Stuttgart, about two hours drive from us). Many of the riders and knights are professional stuntmen, so they were really going for it. As it turned out all of them were from France, with the exception of a lone Austrian. The foot soldiers were Czech. Lances were broken on a regular basis, and they unseated each other as well. I thought that the bad guy, the "Black Knight" was the best. Both kids, but especially Mark was in heaven. After the tournament, the kids were doing various trials, and obstacles, after which both of them were knighted. There was also a nice medieval market, with lots of cool stuff. Please see below, some really cool jousting video, Victoria and Mark being knighted.

Midsummer Night Festivities

On Midsummer Eve we spent a pleasant evening with neighbors and kids. The festivities included a giant bonfire, folk dancing and torches for the kids. The adults had fun with some local bear and sausages.

Medieval Market and Tournament

Last week we visited the medieval fair and tournament in Horb, which is about half an hour drive from our house. The whole old town is turned into a fair, where you could buy all kinds of medieval stuff, such as weapons, clothes, food and drink. I did try mead (brewed with honey and flowers), which I always read about in books when I was a kid, but could never try it. It was OK, somewhat similar to a desert wine. The best thing about the fair was that about half of the attendants were completely decked out in medieval regalia. This gave the whole place a colorful, happy atmosphere. To fit in Adrianne and Victoria had to get matching outfits. Mark settled on a chain mail head cover. I had mead....

We also attended the tournament, which was a re-enactment of a power struggle some 800 years ago in this part of Germany. There was even some real jousting (see two clips below). It was quite nice, but still the best part was the market. Pictures below: Mark shooting with bow & arrow, the cheese stand, market scene.

Vacation in Greece

In short: Our two week family vacation this time took us to Greece. The first week we traveled on the mainland in and around Athens. We visited the canal of Corinth, the old capital Naupflio, the ancient theater of Epidaurus and the Mycenaean ruins, which predate the Greeks. Finally we spent time in Athens, with all its museums and ruins from the classical Greek times.

The second week we spent relaxing on the island of Crete. Here we hiked the narrow Samaria gorge with all our packs. After arriving at the Libyan sea, we took the ferry to the charming fishing village of Loutro. We spent five nights here doing not much, but swimming, kayaking and exploring the surrounding area. Finally, we took the ferry back to Athens and flew home.

Visiting Greece in May and June is perfect (we went May 10-24). There is no oppressive heat, significantly fewer tourists (except maybe in Athens), plenty of available hotel rooms and - at least in Crete - the water was warm enough for swimming.

Here is the trip report:

Arriving in Athens we rented a car and drove to Naupflio, the old capital of Greece under the Venetian and Ottoman occupation. On the way we stopped at the canal of Corinth connecting the Ionian and Aegean sea. There happened to be a strike of the tanker truck drivers delivering gasoline to the gas stations. At that moment I understood why I did not receive a full tank of gasoline from the car rental agency (at the end we managed to find gasoline, that required finding the only gas station in Naupflio that sold gas the morning we wanted to return to Athens). Thanks to the efforts of our hotel front desk.

By the way Naupflio is a beautiful old town, with a central square made of shining marble surrounded by restaurants. Our hotel was also located on the square. In Naupflio we visited the fortress, and made side trips to the theatre of Epidaurus (one of the few Greek ones not converted by the Romans), and to the Mycenaean ruins. We saw a still standing three thousand year old Mycenaean bridge. Amazing! See the picture below.

We also visited Mycenaea, the center of this civilization. They used giant stones for their building projects, and the Greeks could not understand how this could have done. They thought that Cyclopses built these towns. The entrances to their covered tombs (built into hillsides) reminded me of Egyptian ruins. The kids had fun, as you can see below.

After Mycenaea, we spent three days in Athens. We stayed at the Plaka (below the Acropolis), where most other tourists stay. It was packed. I would try to avoid it next time. The food in the Plaka is mediocre and expensive. As Adrianne said, we can do either or, but not both at the same time. From the sights the Acropolis (Parthenon), the National Archeological Museum, and the Temple of Zeus stood out. I did not know, but the Acropolis was built in just 9 years. The Parthenon used building techniques that corrected for optical illusions. I am not even sure how they could calculate how much to tip the columns inward so that they appear straight, make thicker corner columns so that they appear the same width as all others. Here are some pictures. Shown from top to bottom: the Acropolis; Temple of Hephaestus; finally Mark and Victoria admiring the remaining colums of the Temple of Zeus.

This concludes the sightseeing portion of the trip. We boarded a large overnight ferry; had our own cabin, and enjoyed watching the hustle and bustle of the trucks trying get onto the ferry. With people weaving between them, we were clearly reminded that we are more in developing country than in a developed orderly one. Below the kids are watching the neighboring ferry being loaded.

Arriving in Crete in the old Venetian town of Chania, we took the bus into the mountains of Crete, to hike the narrow Samaria gorge. I was first of all amazed by the lush vegetation of Crete. It must have been like that all over Greece in ancient times, when the weather was wetter than it is today. The gorge was great, Victoria did no even complain once about the six hour, 10 mile long hike (all downhill though). The pictures do not do justice to this gorge. Unfortunately this time of year there was only one bus, which meant that we did not hike in solitude.

After arriving at the rugged south coast of Crete, we had a nice meal before boarding the daily ferry to Loutro. Some words about the food. With the exception of the Plaka in Athens we really enjoyed the food. The yoghurt in Greece is the best I ever had. Mark enjoyed his daily fix of fresh squeezed orange juice (squeezed right there). Victoria (see picture) had plenty of octopus, while I enjoyed other seafood, especially the fried whole sardines (see picture), and Adrianne was adventurous to try foods like Cretan snails (see picture).

Finally we arrived in Loutro, a small fishing village with no road and only twice a day ferry access. The village had a grade school with three students. We had no hotel reservations, but upon leaving the ferry (only one other person got off) quickly found a clean room, with shower and sea view and super friendly, English speaking owners. The place was relaxing, the water crystal clear. We stayed five nights, and did nothing but explored the area by kayak, foot and boat. It was wonderful. Some pictures below: Our room; Mark jumping into the water with Loutro in the background; The goats of Loutro; the clear waters of the Libyan sea.

This concludes our trip report. On the way home we stopped in Chania, the old Venetian town with some flavors of Venice. If you are ever there make a point to eat at the Chani restaurant (next to the old restored synagoge). A family run place with really good food, fun conversation with the owner that has almost as colorful of a family tree as us. We want to go back to Crete next year.

Around Portugal

Last week Adrianne and I spent a wonderful week in Portugal. The children stayed home with Oma and Nagypapa, which turned out to be great for everybody.

We started our trip in Lissbon, where we visited and stayed with Ivo (Adrianne's cousin from Brazil). We really enjoyed his friends company. We had a downtown dinner with a group of friends from his PhD program, as well as a wonderful lunch prepared by his landlady and friend Alda. The wine, the octopus and the olive pate was delicious. We also visited Europe's largest aquarium, which was very nice.

Following Lissbon, we took to the coutryside with our rented car, and for the next five days visited and stayed in stunning castles from the XIII-XIV century (the castles were actually part of a network of goverment owned and operated properties called Pousadas).

We drive through the "Tuscany of Portugal" the Alentejo region. This region of rolling hills is dotted with whitewashed, walled villages, countless cork oaks, gnarled olive trees and wineyards. It is known for its food and wine, and we did enjoy both. The many well preserved castles and churches often show moorish motives, since Portugal was only reconquered by the christians some 800 years ago. Being outside the tourist season there were very few tourists.

At the end of our trip we joined HP's High Achiever celebration to which Adrianne was invited. We stayed in a five star resort outside of Sintra that is 40 minutes from Lissbon. It was really nice, but after eight days we did not mind going home to the kids. Next post is after our Greece trip in the middle of May.

Weekend trip to Luxembourg

This past weekend we met up with my brother and his family in Vianden Luxembourg, a four hour drive from our house. This sleepy medeival town is situated among the Ardennes in a deep valley of the Ourn river. Above the town is the dramatic castle of Vianden. Originally a Roman fortress, the castle exhibit nicely showed its development from a Roman outpost to the 17th century castle. Our hotel was a former abbey. It had nice creeky wooden stairs, and friendly service. No monks though!
From Vianden we drove to Echternach, where


we visited an old church (built in the early 11th century in early Roman style), which in its cript had a spring! The drive through the countryside was spectacular. Gently rolling hills dotted with deep valleys and mossy rocks. The latter somewhat reminded us to the Pacific Northwest. We also visited the capital Luxembourg, but the weather turned bad, so we left for home.

Easter

Last week was Easter weekend. Good Friday and Monday is a holiday here, and we also took off Thursday. It was nice, except we had white Easter (i.e. it snowed) and thus were couped up at home. Anyway, we did not have a white Christmas, and actually this was the only snow that we had here all winter. On Sunday we went to church in Tubingen. It was a nice drive through the snow covered Schoenbuch forest, but it melted off the trees by the time we were coming back. Mass was quite nice with a full Baroque orchestra, organ and choir playing and singing beautiful music. The kids liked it too, and nobody complained that mass as a result lasted about one and a half hours.

I almost forgot. Our little Mark turned 11 this week. He now enjoys his present, a computer game (Age of Empires). Next week we are going to hook up with my brother and his family in Luxemburg. It should be fun. Let's hope the weather will be good.

Apassionata, Gala Night of the Horse

Last weekend we saw a colorful horse show that told the story of the relationship between horse and man. As a result it took the audience from Asia to North Africa and South America. One of our most favorite act was a cowboy from New Zealand doing his tricks with a lasso, including twirling it around his horse and himself on the horse while riding. Another of our favorite was this guy from France who was standing on the backs of two horses and jumping with them while standing, as well as leading as many as six horses at once. Victoria, as you can imagine, really enjoyed the show. We were lucky that all four of us could attend, since the days before Mark was ill.

Swan Lake, Chinese Acrobatic Ballet

Last night our family went to the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart and saw Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake". This version was a mixture of classical ballet and Chinese acrobatics with some changes in the plot. The kids both loved it. The costumes and some of the acrobatics reminded us of Cirque Du Soleil. The most advertised image of the performance is when Odette performs a piruette on prince Siegfried's head. However, all of us liked the four little frogs doing hand stands and dancing upside down. This was the famous piece when in the original version the prince meets the four swans that dance in unison.

Seville, Spain

Andras spent four days at an HP fun offsite in Seville. The weather was beautiful, the town clean and relaxing. One of my favorite spot was the promenade along the river, which also served as my early morning running route. Next to our hotel (by the river) was also an international training camp for water sports (mostly rowing). Walking along the river one could hear coaches shouting instructions in English, German and other languages that I could not identify. Were they preparing for the Olympics I wondered? On my first day, I was lucky enough to see a religious procession that carried Jesus on the cross from one church to the main cathedral. It was strange because the whole procession was in complete silence.