This morning after church, we went downstairs to get coffee and tea as we always do. The coffee hour is run by volunteers, and today the server was a man that we had not yet met. He introduced himself, his name is Bertold, and he and Michael spoke for a while about the usual--where are you from, how long will you be here, etc. Bertold was born in Jena, and Michael and I were talking about how much we like it. "Until the weather changed, we were doing a lot of walking", said Michael. (Only auf Deutsch :) "Yes, but now that it's cold you can ski!" said Bertold. I won't bore you with the dialog, but here's what unfolded: Bertold explained that we were only about an hour from excellent skiing, both cross country and downhill. He asked if we had a roadmap, we answered that we don't have a car. He said, "well we can go sometime. For example, what are you doing today?" One hour later, he picked us up outside of our apartment and off we went!
It's worth noting that there is absolutely no snow in Jena right now. In fact, there was scarcely and snow anywhere for most of the drive! Gradually, we began to see some, then a bit more. Finally, we drove through a very long tunnel--nearly 9km, or 5.6 miles. (Michael just told me that it is the longest in Germany. Who knew?) On the other side of the tunnel it was a Winter Wonderland.
The day was practically perfect. The conditions were great, and it was fun to see so many families out together--parents pulling babies in covered sleds that looked like mobile cradles, kids with sleds, and tons of fellow cross country skiers. It was active, but not crowded, and there were great tracks which made the skiing a bit easier.Easier--but not easy. We started off with great gusto. I, especially, was hauling away as quickly as I could, leading the pack and just loving the winter air. Suffice it to say I failed to consider just how much work 2 1/2 hours of cross-country skiing is. As I write this, I am happy to be able to move my fingers. My arms and legs are feeling a lot less fortunate. But I am happy! I have been doing an awful lot of sitting around lately, and it felt so good to be outside and in the snow. It helped, of course, that he scenery was beyond beautiful. At one point, the sun even came out! It was a fleeting view, but a lovely one.
In this picture, you can see Bertold. We had a blast with him! He's absolutely hysterical. He is also a man of strong opinions, and he and Michael had some heated discussions in the car. Not hostile, just animated. It turns out that he was not permitted to study in the University. He disagreed with the worldview of the Communist party, and he was honest (indeed forthright) about this, so he was not allowed to enroll. (I believe he told them outright that he disagreed with their fundamental conception of human nature.)All told, we covered roughly ten miles on skis. It really was cross-country skiing, too; sometimes we would go uphill for what seemed like an eternity, then we would coast (ideally) or flail (often) down gradual, but lengthy declines. The weather was perfect. The activity kept us more than warm enough in our light jackets and sweaters. (Our real winter weather gear is in Atlanta, not having made the cut for our first trip.)
Once we stopped moving, we got pretty cold. In fact, after the hour-long drive home in fairly wet clothing, we ran shivering into our apartment to get changed and crank up the heat. I looked in the mirror, and my lips were blue. Actually blue! I don't know if this has ever really happened to me before. It made me laugh.Now for the truly great news. This astonishingly beautiful area is just over an hour away from our apartment. Much of that was driven on the autobahn, so there's no telling how far it actually is from here, but whatever distance it is can be covered in about 70 minutes. So, for those of you who are considering a winter visit, let this be your motivation!
PS-If you would like to see more photos from today, I posted them on my Facebook site. You don't have to have a Facebook account to see them, just copy and paste the following link into your browser
http://nd.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2121294&l=8f63e&id=5622074
3 comments:
What an awesome day! I am so glad that you could move your fingers so we could enjoy the details. Notre Dame wins on Saturday (with Zibby getting in as a QB for senior day) and you and Michael looking healthy and happy on your skis. Does it get better than this? Love you both!
Mom
I guess I should have mentioned Notre Dame after you and Michael, not before :)the order does not indicate importance.
What a life! You two look great, the x-country skiing sounds amazing, and the energy from the day comes across glowingly in your post. My urge to visit is so strong - I wish we could just hop on a plane and be there tomorrow! - Lots of love, Rach
Wow, y'all - what a terrific-looking outing you had! The pictures were lovely - made me want to be there right about now. Some of those snow-covered evergreen scenes, my goodness - talk about the canonical winter forest shots! Makes me very happy that both of you got to do that - especially being invited to do that by someone as friendly and engaging-sounding as Bertold seems to be. Also good to know that if I ever do some x-countrying, I should very much pace myself, so as to avoid whole-body paralysis and everything =)
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