Back in Germany

I came back today after an exciting drive to JFK airport in New York. I got my plane, but it was pretty close in the end due to the traffic.

It seems that my 5 week long holiday has come to an end, unfortunately. It was a nice time in Mecklenburg, Poland and the States. But, as always, time has passed to fast.

So here is a nice last picture of my last days in New York State, which I really did enjoy. On Saturday I played hockey with a local team at the public ice-rink, which was great!


Winter impressions from Lake Cayuga near Ithaca

Jolle.net is back

Finally, after almost 8 weeks, I got my domain www.jolle.net back. My webprovider had problems with his registrar and it led to a closure of my domain. Then an annoying domain trader got it before they could solve the issue. But finally, they sorted things out and I have it back.

So I guess it's a fair thing to thank Crazywebspace for their good, fast and friendly support.

The Chicago Experience

From Monday to Thursday I've been visiting friends in Chicago. It's an impressive city with a lot of interesting architecture. It's the city of the first skyscrapers, the first elevator has been installed here etc. And right in the very center it has sandy beaches and a yacht harbour. A cool place, in both meanings. ;)

I especially liked the Millenium Park in the loop. It's great in winter with its free ice rink surrounded by skyscrapers, and must be great in summer with all the free concerts.

Following see some impressions:


Part of the loop district, the center of Chicago, seen from the Lounge in the 96th floor of the Hancock-Building.


Skyline at night


A skyscraper prison in the middle of the city. What a cool concept. No fences, just small windows.


Video-fountain at Millenium Park


The free ice-rink at Millenium Park


Ling jumping in front of the Cloud Gate, a 110 ton steel art piece, that reflects the city's skyline and more


The Cloud Gate at night


The Jay Pritzker Pavillion, an outdoor concert venue designed by Frank Gehry


The Crown Fountain from the back, taken from the ice rink


Ling and Joan (Singaporean and Dutch), the friends I visited. I met them during my Cambodia/Vietnam trip almost 6 years ago.


The Chicago Bulls playing against the Atlanta Hawks at the United Center and we experienced a 94-86 victory of them. :)

Back from Outdoor Paradise

I just arrived from my weekend trip to the Andirondacks. Let me tell you, this is a paradise for every outdoor fan, in winter as well as in summer. A mountaineous area with hundreds of lakes and streams. In summer you can go mountain biking, canoeing and hiking, in winter it's mainly a snowmobile and skiers paradise, from cross country to downhill. And the villages are pretty nice, too. I found a nice shop in Old Forge, the most general store. What a name. I wonder what they sell. Unluckily I was too early to check that out.


The most general store ;)

I started early on Saturday (3 am) and arrived and was lucky to see the sun coming up already in the park. Overall it was a 6 hour drive to Lake Placid, mostly on snow covered roads, as it was snowing wildly. I have never seen so many snowplows in one place like there, alone in a small village like Old Forge have been as much like a fifty, and that on 5 am on a Saturday morning. Mostly it have been private pickups with a snowplow attached to the front that tried to keep the snow from their private roads and parking lots, but the battle was lost from the beginning as long as the snowing didn't stop.


One of the typical snowplows here

I went straight to Lake Placid, home of the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Wintergames.


The old ice hockey rink from the 32 Olympic Games in Lake Placid

I went to Whiteface ski resort near Lake Placid. They had great slopes and pretty nice powder snow, but some of the lifts had been closed because of strong wind. It was damned cold, about -19°C plus the added cold from the wind, so I didn't ski until the very end. Even with face mask and several layers of cloths I was freezing like hell!!! It wasn't even possible to take the gloves off for some seconds to make a photo, I had to manage doing it with them, so here's the only picture from up there:


Freezing at Whiteface ski resort

So around 3 pm I quit skiing and went back to Lake Placid to check out on snowmobile tours. I found an operator which offered guided tours, but I was the only customer, so they didn't want to take me out first. But the guide, a young guy called Austin insisted on going, so they finally agreed to let me go with him. We went to a private farm at Saranac Lake, where we started the tour into the sunset through forests and on highspeed snowmobile roads. What a fun!


Jolle on the snowmobile after the tour

After the tour I drove to Tupper Lake and checked into a real American motel, not before getting some real takeaway food for the All-American night in the motel (fast food, lager, NHL match in TV).


My dinner at the motel ;)

On Sunday I drove some minor roads and just enjoyed the nice winter scenery. I did some short hikes, for example the one to the Buttermilk Falls. I guess you can do some nice cayaking in summer here.


Buttermilk Falls near Deerland


Buttermilk Falls near Deerland


Winter wonderland at the Buttermilk Falls

Later I did a longer hike on top of Blue Mountain to have a full panorama of the Adirondacks. The weather was good, perfect blue sky, so I had a very nice view. And the trail up the hill was a lot of fun due to the nice winter scenery, even it was very icy (the trail sometimes went over frozen streams) and I had problems not to get too fast down to the mountain. ;)


On the way up on Blue Mtn.


View of the mountain range around Lake Placid


View to the west side of the park. In front Blue mountain lake.

Overall I drove more than 600 miles on the weekend, and many of them on snow covered roads, a lot of fun. The Ford Focus made no problems, and I could practice a lot of sliding technics during the weekend. :)


The red devil!

Tomorrow I'll fly to Chicago to visit Ling! I haven't seen her since my trip to Cambodia in 2001, more than five years. Wow, time is running.

Weekend Ski

I'll leave now to go skiing over the weekend to Whiteface, the skiing area around Lake Placid, place of the former Olympic winter games.

On Monday I'll fly to Chicago.

Hiking in Indian territory

One of the activities here is definitely hiking. And it's pretty nice, the trails are icy and covered with snow. But because it got cold just lately, you break through the ice from time to time, which is especially interesting when crossing streams or small rivers, or swamps. So shows and trousers change a lot between muddy and clean and wet. :)

So I hiked the Interloken trail from the beginning to the end and also the No Tan Takto Trail. Both run on the mountain range between the Cayuga and the Senaca lake and they are all part of the big Fingerlake trail system.


Starting my trail tour in front of my pick-up truck


The Interloken trail start, an arm of the Finger Lakes Trail


Hiking in beaver country


Mud and snow, a nice trail



Bright landscape by the low sun at a road connecting the Interloken with the No Tan Takto Trail, seemed to be old Indian territory once

Niagara Falls

Wednesday I made a day trip to the Niagara Falls. Originally I didn't plan to go there, as I have been there already some years ago. But I couldn't stand to be so near and not seeing it, so I just drove there.


Jolle, happy about the cold weather, that finally arrived

And let me say, it was worth it. I was extremely lucky cause that day the winter finally arrived with full power here. It was snowing heavily and the night before there has been some ice rain, so that everything, from trees to traffic lights, has been covered by a centimeter of ice. It looked awesome.


Wine trees covered in ice near the Ontario lake

So driving in the snow with that four-wheel Dodge pickup was a lot of fun, I chose a lot of seasonal backroads, which are not maintained during the winter.


My Dodge Dakota SLT Pickup from Enterprise Car Rental, a 260 PS V8 4x4 machine. Roaarrrr!

The Niagara Falls looked also great with all the snow and the ice. Moreover I have been one of the very few tourists who have been there. The town looked like a ghost town and where normally thousands of tourist walk around every day, there have been 10 or 20. Almost unbelievable.

And at night they lighten the falls in different colours, that are changing. Awesome.


View of the American Falls, the Canadian Falls can be seen in blue color in the back

Adventures in the country

After visiting New York city I arrived at the countryside. I am currently relaxing here, just driving around a bit, going hiking and maybe skiing.

Yesterday I found a village near Ithaca called Mecklenburg, what a surprise. It doesn't contain much more than some houses, a merchant and a post office, but it's a nice place.




Mecklenburg Mercantile and my rental car, a Saturn Aura, car of the year 2006 in America. It's a GM brand an the same platform like the Opel Vectra. I got the smaller of the two motor editions, a 3.5 litre machine with 224 PS. ;)

And another good thing you'll find when cruising around are the food exits on the interstates. What a paradise for junk food lovers. :)



Have fun, Jolle!

Arrived in the States

I arrived in New York City. They let me through with my illness and even let me import my food. ;)

I feel a little better, but still I think that I will hit the bed for a day before I start exploring the city.

See you, Johannes!
PS: I added two impressions of my night walks through the city.


The World Trade Center site under heavy construction for the Freedom towers


Smoking drains - Yeah, I am in NYC

New Year in Poland

We've returned from Poland on Jan 3rd, most of us with a slimy virus which quite got us. I had and partly still have stomachache, headache, a soar throat and infected eyes. I hope I'll be well soon.

Nontheless, the vacation was great fun. We had a nice wooden hut in Zakopane and went skiing, hiking, swimming and went out to pubs and restaurants a lot. The food is great there.

Following a small extract of our photos from Poland.











Tomorrow early in the morning I leave to New York. Hopefully, cause I am feeling really ill.