Out And About.

[alfred russel]

Hiking trip in the Alps coming up next weekend.

  :jealous:

Have fun.

Poor weather with lots of rainfall and low-hanging clouds made it impossible to reach the summit we had aimed for. On the way down, one of my friends sprained his ankle, so we had to skip the tour we had planned for the second day... 
We still had fun in the evening drinking in a nice alpine hiking hut. 

Which summit were you going for?

[alfred russel]

I finally broke my...embargo(?) and went to NYC's pride parade. After all, it does pass through my neighborhood.

I have to say that I once again realize that I am not a parade person - though the sense of enthusiasm was heartening.

I once went to the Pride Parade...I went to mass at Saint Patrick's and the Pride Parade went past the church. The had a bunch of police there to keep apart the church people and the pride people. I'm not sure who they were keeping from who...

Anyway, so I went around the block and foiled the NYPD's attempt to keep me away from the parade. More interesting than the standard Memorial Day parades I grew up watching. 

[Zanza]

Which summit were you going for?

Just a random 2238m peak in the Austrian alps that doesn't even have an English wiki entry. Some minor climbing though: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellenspitze

[alfred russel]

Which summit were you going for?

Just a random 2238m peak in the Austrian alps that doesn't even have an English wiki entry. Some minor climbing though: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kellenspitze

Cool. Were you doing the via ferrara?

[Zanza]

No, I've done simple via ferratas (grade A and B) before, but that one is a grade D which is way beyond my climbing skills. There were some parts of the normal route that could be classified as a grade A via ferrata as you had to grab a steel rope to get up or down there.

This is the via ferrata there. As you can see, lots of C and D. We passed the entry and then circled around the mountain to get up on the backside of this picture, but even that way was so slippery and hard to see in the fog that we couldn't make it.

[mongers]

And something for the history nerds here: Two weeks ago, I visited the Burg Hohenzollern.

Now That is a proper castle.   

Too bad Cromwell trashed so many of ours.

[Zanza]

Actually it's a fake castle, like say Neuschwanstein and was mostly build by romantics in the 19th century.

[mongers]

Actually it's a fake castle, like say Neuschwanstein and was mostly build by romantics in the 19th century.

Well even our fake castles are pretty crap; here's one I recently walked past, Cardiff 'castle':

[CountDeMoney]

And something for the history nerds here:

Great pics, Z.

See, that's the Germany I like...not Big Meanie Germany of the late 19th/early 20th, Pure Evil on Earth Germany (jew know who) or present-day Germanweenie.

[alfred russel]

No, I've done simple via ferratas (grade A and B) before, but that one is a grade D which is way beyond my climbing skills. There were some parts of the normal route that could be classified as a grade A via ferrata as you had to grab a steel rope to get up or down there.

I did a via ferrata last year..it was rated ks 2-3. How does that convert to the grades you describe? (it must be A-B, because I have limited skills).

[mongers]

Visited Bovington Tank museum this afternoon, nice little trip out ( bike-train-shank's pony )

Good sized collection, well presented in relatively new buildings; I took rather a lot of photos, nearly 400. 

So no point posting any, easier if you ask for an specific tank and I'll see if I have a photo of one. 

[mongers]

On the way back home got suck in the traffic from the air show, which due to the low cloud, one could hear but not see. 

[Maladict]

At the Vasa Museum this morning. 
Even better than the Mary Rose.

[The Brain]

At the Vasa Museum this morning. 
Even better than the Mary Rose.

They're close, man. Real close.

[mongers]

This evening I visited the 'magical land', an area up on the downlands where three counties meet. All the roads and traffic are away in the valleys and there's no settlements up there, just farmyards and lots of byways and paths in all directs making subtle hints of history's passage.

Somewhere I can go, just a dozen miles from home, but a world away from all the distractions of home, family, media and being ever connected.
Just me, a few farm workers in the distance and the occasion crow about their business. Turned around, on the one hand an red-orange sun setting early behind low cloud and on the other the ghost of an early moon.