Christmas Holidays Back Home Again

After we spent the last Christmas holidays in Calgary and in the Rockies, we were looking forward to be home again this year. Since my internship ended in mid December, I had plenty of time to go skiing and snowboarding with friends. I don't wanna show you the routine "such-a-great-bluebird-powder-day" pictures, but rather some stuff around that. For instance, having friends over after boarding in the Zilletal a.k.a. Chiller Valley and making pizza.

Or drying my wet hair under the newly set up lamp and being laughed at by Kat ;(

I guess my friends from Stuttgart know by now who this guy is, right?

I and Katrin also had to prepare our TOEFL and GRE tests with our old Windows computers... I am so relieved this is over now, both the tests and the Windows machines :D

And finally, there was Christmas and everybody was getting ready for it. Especially my Mom was preparing a lot f stuff, such as 3kg of cheese fondue.

But we are hungry bros, right Tom?

Here Tom is apparently worried that Wolfi might steel his share of the fondue!

And after the usual gorgeous and endless eating ceremony, we finally had time for our skew Christmas tree. In fact, Tom "organized" the tree at 6pm on Christmas eve ... ? True story, ask him!

So it was time to open the sometimes amusing presents,

celebrate together with Oma,


and have mastermind discussions with Wolfi.

In the end, I fell asleep in front of the Christmas tree while waiting for Anna and her boyfriend Adam. Well, they showed up the next morning and Adam was truly surprised about his present, a dolphin fairytale.

Last but not least, Mom and Fini also got what they always desired - Aragon, at least on paper :)

It's so good to spend the holidays back at home, now I know it again!

A Sunny Ticino Weekend

As you have already guessed, I enjoyed my time back in Germany and went to all my home crags with my old friends. We had weekend trips to Austria, Frankenjura, Alsace, Black Forest, Danube Valley, Basel Jura, and the Ticino.

This short blog is about a fun weekend in Ticino. Although it's already late in the season, you can still climb topless in sunny Southern Swizzy a.k.a. Ticino. I met up with Julia, an old friend of mine,

and together we picked up Sibe.

Then we went on a sunny weekend trip to Cresciano and Sobrio!

That weekend I was even able to send a route I tried before I went to Canada. This time Ghandi (7b+) even worked out on the first go!

But as we all know, climbing isn't about grades, but about having a good time with friends. And definitely there's nothing that can top a sunny breakfast at Chironico!

Buon Giorno, Ticino!

Fun Times in Stuggi and Alsace

What's the best about work in a large company? Free time, right! So starting on Thursday until Monday noon is weekend time and thus time to do whatever, for instance, slacking in Stuttgart downtown with a bottle of beer ;)

Or one could stay the weekend in the cottage of Katrin's parents in Alsace, France. We've been there countless times the last years and I just have good memories of the biking, climbing, and bouldering there. The pic below shows me in my favourite boulder spot Rocher de Laurenzo close to Saverne, just taking off and launching for the lip... such a great place!

Of course, I had to go there again after one year abroad in sandstone-free Canada.

And it was fun again! Crimping, hooking, targeting the final sloper, launching, and catching! So great!

Katrin worked on her bouldering skills in Calgary, remember? If not then consider this link. Anyways, she also had fun manteling les blocs des falaises de grès.

Well, and there are also all the magnificient trails in the Vosges de Nord around Saverne, Lutzelbourg, Phalsbourg, Mamoutier,... always worth a trip. Below is Kat high above the Loire valley mimicing a howling wolve :)

One of the great bike round trips we discovered in the last years connects the ruins of various old castles, such as Chateau de Haut-Barr.

And now comes the amazing and truly outstanding proof to the theory of everything: The ancient dukes and castle-lords of Alsace knew about the power and the magic of π. And here is the proof found in the ruins of Chateau-Barr:

π - this makes me just going nuts and upside down


Yeah, each weekend trip to Alsace was just a wonderful experience, right guys?

But it's also always fun to return to Stuggi, go slacklining in the Schlosspark, visit old friends, and hang out with Katrin!

Here you can see Kat standing in front of her new apartment, what's the house number again?

Especially for slacklinig, Stuttgart is just a great place. I never realized it before, but now it seems to build for slacking:

Oh yes, Katrin is also making progress on the line :)

Not to forget: Not only the Canadians have an Indian Summer but also we in Germany do! Here's a pic of one of my home crags, the Donautal (Danube Valley), or short Däle.

I had a fun weekend there with Achim working on bold and "semi-trad" routes... but that's another story and we were way to frightened to take pictures.

Hasta pronto,

Florian

Internship at the Bodensee

Who is thus cool guy with his earphones and shades behind the steering wheel?

Make a good guess, it's me driving to my work at the company EADS ASTRIUM.

I just started my industrial internship there in mid August. My work is on attitude and orbit control of three-axes satellites. In particular, in one project I have to come up with actuation algorithms for attitude regulation and attitude manoeuvres using thrusters as only actuators. The other project is about H_infinity control of satellites. Sounds boring for those of you who aren't into cybernetics, right? So let us skip this part, I am not allowed anyways to publish any pictures or confidential information. One of the best parts of my work besides the 35 hour week is the location of the company at the Bodensee (Lake Constance).


We even have our own company beach ;) The Bodensee is renown for its almost mediterranean climate at the Northern side of the Alps. And indeed, you could feel the mediterranean in the summer:

Nice, isn't it? And the best part of the Bodensee is that it's right at the Alps.

I have a cute room in a filthy shared appartment. But my roommates are fun and I only have a 5 minutes bike ride to work. Here you can see me riding through the apple gardens in the morning... another day of satellite control begins.

Since I only have a 35 hour week, I usually work from Monday afternoon to Thursday evening, the rest is free time! And what is there better to do with free time than spending it with Katrin, who just got back from Canada!

It didn't take a lot of effort to infect her with the pleasure of slacklining. So we hiked up a small hill at Bregenz high above the Bodensee

and did some slacklining there.

A really pleasant atmosphere on an Austrian mountain, next to cows, and on the line!

We also went cycling there and passed through the Bavarian island of Lindau. Here you can see the Bavarian Lion ... home sweet home :)

Another trip took us to the region of Appenzell in Switzerland. Appenzell is just as Swiss as it could possible be, but see yourself:

We passed the Arizona bar (not typical Swiss for those who don't know)r ight under the mountain Säntis, where we wanted to do some mountain climbing.

Unfortunately, we missed the right way leading to the summit, but we had a fun afternoon as well. Now isn't that Katrin in a picture card Swiss alpine meadow?

Well, bikers weren't allowed there :(

So in short, the Bodensee is a wonderful place to be, really scenic, and my work is fun, too. But as soon as it got Autumn

such picturesque weather became quite rare and fog was rolling in every day. It feels a little remote down here at the Bodensee because most of my friends are either in Stuttgart, Inssbruck, or Munich. So I will make use of my four day long weekends and visit Katrin and my friends every weekend.