Thursday, April 28, 2005

Wow, what a great trip, but it's sure good to be back. Lots to do, lots to post, so let's get it started! Exactly one week ago I was suffering a wee bit of a hangover from the previous nights' festivities and decided it was fine time to enjoy the bright sunshine and re-start some good hiking. The goal was the new Pforzheim memorial, erected this year in rememberance of the complete bombing of the city 60 years ago. Thousands died and the entire city was flattened (as you'll see from pics in another post). Anyways it was a great day for hiking, we hadn't seen the memorial yet and since it was located on top of a huge hill on the edge of Pforzhiem (a hill actually made out of the rubble of the war's destruction) with a great view of the city it was definatly the place to be.

The call went out to the gang but only Russia seemed to be mobile so we tagged teamed our way through the city, picking up some water and chocolate to power us on, and headed towards the hill. Let your eyes do the walking/talking -

Walking along the river through the city to get closer to the hill:



One of the bridges... SUPERSTAR!



Another bridge, another great view:



Enjoy:


A side channel from the river:



A small lagoon pooling where a bunch of swans, ducks and other birds nest, feed and tan in the sun :-)



Do they use lotion?



This pic reminds me of a great book I read in Grade 5 called "Bridge to Terabithia", basically the first book I read that had a shocking ending and made me cry. I actually bought this book a couple years ago just to re-read it, it was just as good the second time despite being written at a grammar school level, for those of you learning English, I highly recommend this book.



A duck couple enjoys the married life:



The goal:



The path continues upwards:



Soon we will leave civilization behind. It's at this point that I realize that there must be 4 gardens (small plots of land Germans own away from their house to do gardening etc, no I do not know why they don't just have a backyard instead) for every living German in Pforzheim. We litteraly walked by about 500 different gardens without having even gone to the main garden hosting area of Pforzheim!



The flowers captured within the barbed wire seemed powerful to me at the time.



Half way up the hill:



Zoomed:



The wickedist gazeebo ever, very near the top of the hill. We sat here for about a half an hour wondering why we didn't have more hiking trips up the mountain with some food, beers and good friends and resolved to start more of it very soon:



The top of the hill monument:



What a great hike, it really took the edge off and was a perfect way to enjoy the sun and afternoon! If Saturday's nice (which looks like it has a chance) we're planning to take the BBQ up there and share some good times... everyone invited.