1978

Between my company's and our riding stable's christmas parties on Friday and today I went to Austria for the 30th birthday of my old mate Steffi. After riding the Alpine Coaster (a kind of roller coaster in the snow) we went up the mountain above Bludenz to party in a very scenic mountain hut of the ski club.



Tony and Steffi filled the guests with delicious local food and drinks,...



...local friends guided a torchlight procession...



...and triggered some fireworks.



Just before crawling in our sleeping bags Tony and me escorted Steffi circling around the hut barefooted in the snow, which seems to be a local tradition when getting 30 without being married, at least somebody told her to do so. :)



In the morning I hiked back to the cableway enjoying the nice mountain panorama.



What a great short vacation in the mountains. Living here does not look like bad idea.

November

The November is almost over and I haven´t run very much so far due to lot of work and other activities. We have been to concerts of Udo Lindenberg and Die Toten Hosen. Moreover was my sister visiting with Mikael Babajanyan who was singing the Marcello in the La Boheme opera.



Last weekend the the first (and seldom) snow was falling in Mannheim, so I show you one more garden photo for this year, our last wine grapes I harvested 8 days ago.



My haflinger Andor is quickly becoming familiar with his new surrounding. The neighbouring mares are already fallen in love with him. On Sunday I could go on my first small trip outside the riding stables with Andor, yet still on led by Astrid.



The December is already planned with lots of Christmas and birthday parties. I will be in Mecklenburg around Christmas eve before leaving for a weeklong ski trip to France with Astrid and her home ski club.

Andor

We just came back from a weekend in Hesse and bought a new horse, a 3 year old Haflinger named Andor.



It is a very cool character, taking everyting as it comes. Now it´s mostly up to Astrid to teach him. :)

The last warm and sunny sunday this year?

Last Sunday was a big exception in the last weeks with its very warm and sunny weather. So it was a perfect fit for our small trip to Freinsheim in the Palatinate where a wine festival was hold.



We met some actual and former collegues and had nice food, fresh and old wine.
And Lea had a big hangover afterwards. At least it looks like. ;)

Yearly birthday

September is birthday time. As the weather continued to be rainy, I invited for a bbq session in the garden on short notice and some friends could really make it.

As a preparation we temporarily changed a part of our living room into a dining room. As we liked it we kept it. So we have now a new dining room and a sofa in the kitchen. :)



Below one of my birthday presents, a new phono player from my Camelot colleagues.



Lea also likes it. As she rests and relaxes in the living room every morning, she is happy about the new phono as well.



We are still very happy with our garden and especially the previous tenants which managed to plant colourfull flowers for every season...





...and present us with some really delicious apples. Yam yam!!!

4 legs are faster than 2?

Not yet, just started to be a rider. ;)

On Indian tracks

Do you know the book "A walk in the woods" by Bill Bryson? After passing by it at the Delaware Water Gap two times in the last year I couldn't leave it there again this time.

So I used the chance and convinced my colleague to run a small part of the 2600 mile long Appalachian trail after arriving in New Jersey on Monday afternoon.



We went up a most of the way up to Mount Nimsi from Delaware Water Gap, having wonderfull views on the Delaware River from time to time.



We will stay until Friday doing workshops on a production site in Belvidere, an hour and a half west of New York City. It's quite rural here and our hotel is in a very small town called Hope, founded by German pilgrims.

See typical Belvidere below...



...and the crossing over the Delaware.

Summer garden parties

Last weekend was a party weekend. We had our annual summer party of the company with lots of sport, relaxing and fun and perfect weather on Friday.



And we had a nice "bbq in the rain" garden party on Sunday. :)

Happy 2nd birthday, Lea!!

We love you!



Leave a message on her website if you like.

Kassel Marathon

My 21st marathon, but an important one. After last year with very few training, a bad marathon in over 4 hours and an unfinished ironman I started a regular training in January and had some very first signs of better performance at the Strongman and the Lichtenwald half marathon. So my goal was to finish a marathon in under 3:30 h for the first time since the end of 2005. And I did it. 3 hours and 27 minutes and I saw the finish line under this extremely hot and sunny conditions. It's a nice track with nice people cheering during the race. The photo below has been shot by Astrid just minutes before the start.