Rainy Ski Week-end in Germany

Knowing that our ski days are numbered (what with February rolling into March and -9 becoming somewhat alarmingly +9), we are cramming in as much ski time as humanly possible. This week-end after viewing the webcams and confirming that there is infact still snow on the mountains, we decided to head back to our traditional haunt - Arber.

During the night, the sound of very wet precipitation started to cause some alarm about the feasibily of actually skiing the following day and waking up, we confirmed our fears... it was raining cats and nearly dogs. There was the occassional snow flake in the flurry and then an attempt at something more solid when it showered down inches of hail stones. We decided to lay low for the morning, updating blogs while the girls caught up on some German lessons. I am sure that if they were to have watched as many cartoons in Czech as they have in German that their grasp of the czech language would be far more advanced...

We eventually managed to persuade to girls to leave the warmth and comfort of the TV and head for the blustery outdoors with the allure that lunch is only available outside of the apartment. We had planned to take a drive past Arber ski area to see what was happening, and then to drive through the forrests and generally just explore somewhere new. After looking at options on the GPS, we headed course for Deggendorf.

This was also the week-end that the world cup ski race was planned for Arber, so there were slopes all nicely marked out and TV cameras and vans all about, but no actual skiing on the go. The slopes were all looking decidedly slushy.

There was still much attention being paid to the race course - probably the disaster recovery team eventually consoling themselves to the fact that this was a non-recoverable disaster. I am sure that the snow groomers and cannons will be working this evening to try to recover for skiing tomorrow.

Driving through the forrest, the whole mountain was becoming one big waterfall. There were rivers cascading down every hill and all the rivers below were in full flood.
Not far from Arber, we came across a beautiful lake. I had seen it on the maps before, but we had never ventured this way. I was somewhat sad that we had never been this side of the mountain previously as I could very easily see myself skating up a veritable storm here (on a somewhat more frozen verion of the lake).

Seeing the melting layer of ice sheets, it reminded me of Ice Age 2 and I almost expected to see some giant prehistoric creature swim under the shallow ice..
Next stop was Deggendorf. The hunger mites were growling from the back seat of the car, so lunch was more of a priority than siteseeing at this stage. Nevertheless, we got a good stroll through the town square before finding a suitable restaurant.
And had enough time to pick the flowers en-route

After lunch, I couldn't help but point out the sign below to Colin, who promptly whipped out his camera:
Saturday evening, while still blustery, the rain had subsided long enough for our 2 adventurers to hit the great outdoors.
We all went to bed full of expectation for a sub zero night and zero precipitation for the next day. Unfortunately our prayers were not answered and we woke up to an equally sopping day as before. Today we decided to visit the glass factory in Bodenmais, the neighboring town to Arber. We were in luck to have the girls try their hand at glass blowing once more. Sarah has repeatedly asked for us to visit the glass factories with her fond memories of her previous glass blowing experience (Sarah the Glassblower, April 2007). This time, Amber got to have a turn as well. The results of their blowings were beautiful plant watering balls.
Sarah also having a turn:
So, you fill them with water, stick them into the pot, and then they slowly feed the plant with water as the soil dries up. This very gladly replaced the wonderful invention of Colin's, which was an old milk bottle that was filled with water and turned upside down in the pot...
Aparently it is supposed to get cold again this week and slip below zero again by the week-end - here's holding thumbs!!!