Christmas 07

Christmas this year was indeed different. That is putting it VERY mildly! Being used to the large family doos where everyone is together and there is much merriment and entertainment, cooking and feasting... our christmas was very different. Not bad, just different. Colin and I, being very sensitive to the fact that the girls were used to the big gathering with lots of fuss and attention, we probably overcompensated with presents. considering that for their birthdays this year they only got 2 or 3 presents and their stash of belongings was only very slowly being replenished after it was all hauled off to the orphanage before we left, we didn't feel too bad in spoiling them this year. Afterall, we had enough family members who were not with us who we labelled presents from - all the grannies and grandpas, aunts and uncles, and of course the nearly arriving cousins!

So, Christmas eve Colin & I sat up until the early hours wrapping pressies and making christmas stockings. We had organised christmas candles for the girls to light (for Father Christmas to find his way around) and of course, the standard cookies and milk.

The array of gifts was truly a sight!

Sarah has been making christmas decorations by the bucket load since early November, so the walls were also adorned for the occasion.
The christmas stockings were filled and tied to the (turned off) heater, including stockings for Mandy, Michael & A.Mish & U.Pierre.
Inevitably, the girls woke up earlier than the sparrows and we were woken up with the very loud protests that the lounge door was locked (all precautions necessary) and they could barely restrain themselves long enough for us to switch on the camera and adequately aim and fire.
After much examination, the pressie handout and unwrapping began. The tree was stashed with the Marais' presents as well, so the gifts were carefully examined and unwrapped.
Colin managed to find Ambee another cow (her "orignal" cow (stage left) really needs to retire), which was adopted as quickly as the first and has been a firm favourite ever since.
During the afternoon, we made our way to the Plzen lake (Bolevec) and enjoyed a couple of hours of play time on the sleighs before it was too dark and cold to see any longer.
Tomorrow brings the arrival of the long awaited couzins ... and round 2 of Christmas! Today was a glorious christmas day - different, but isn't that what we live for these days? Wonderfully different!

Lake of Glass

After a few weeks of max temps round about the -5 mark, and watching everything just freezing over including the running waters of our local river, it occurred to us in a flash of inspiration that we should go see the if Bolevec lake near our apartment was frozen.

Hayley has had a bee in her bonnet about going skating... I have about as much interest in skating as I have in frontal lobotomy, but you know, marriage is about doing whatever your wife wants, so off we went to see...

As we came around the last bend to the lake, the Bugz could already sense that there was much frozenness nearby, and the accompanying excitement was quite evident. Sure enough, the first thing we could see were the hundreds of people skating, playing hockey, walking dogs, pushing prams and doing all kinds of other things that can be done on a frozen lake. These photies were taken during the later afternoon when most of Plzen had already gone home. Just the die-harders, for whom the novelty value is still high are left.

In CZ, there is no limit to where you will find babies, here on ice, in summer on the roller rink and, on the pistes there are even prams (buggies) with skis on so you don't have to miss your black run on account of your nipper...

After parking in the overcrowded lot, we all went to see this new thing for the first time in all our respective lives and were suitably impressed, yours truly included. We set off onto the ice and walked along well onto the surface looking all ways at once at the stuff going on around us, and jumping on the ice, or inspecting it below our feet to be sure that it was thick enough to walk on.

You could land a plane on this lot mate - the ice had to be 8 inches thick from some of the sheers we found.

There was some major skating talent on display esp with the hockey jocks who were doing their very acrobatic stuff all over the place - things that make you want to skate, because it looks so darn natural and graceful... cool even
Still, without skates, and left flat-footed on a slippery surface, what are you to do...?


Dads have a particular purpose in life, in this instance it involves going there...


... and then coming back...


... with babies in tow.

For giddy-happy children, repeat this simple procedure at various speeds an indefinite number of times. Include the occasional gracefully executed turn for added effect.
Without more than a few minutes passing it was decided (Bugz declared) that "we're getting skates!" It was lateish... probably 16:30 or shortly after when the decree was made, so off we set to the car to get to the nearest sports shop to do the necessary deal.



Unbeknownst to us, the whole town shuts down for Christmas eve - Nothing wrong with this, just that it's not something we're accustomed to, what with all the last minute shopping done at 10pm on Christmas eve in ZA. The dissapointment!



Christmas day is Christmas day, there really is nothing that can detract from the pile of pressies under the tree, for those who get them of course, and so the idea of a skate took a back seat for a while as all the available attention was absorbed by the sheer bounty of China's economic boom awash beneath the tree. Later that afternoon we went back to the lake, keen for an outing, and this time we took the sleighs...


And again, it is the Dads duty to go here, then there, then everywhere, then spin in circles etc, etc...
Sleighs work very well on ice, I will try and upload a few video clips for your amusement...


Well, with all the anticipation, and now having to wait until the 26th - after the shutdown is over - before there is going to be a shop open anywhere. Needless to say, the anticipation was high for a day or 2...
On the appointed day, we set out to get skates, me included in my now altered state, with a plan to fit in a skate before we had to get to Prague to pick up the incoming family.

And there we were, all skated up and miles and miles to go... the lake almost to ourselves


Ice and smiles for as far as the eye can see...



Did we forget to mention... "Winter rules!"

Frosted Coated

This week the real winter came to Plzen. The snow falls and chilly weather up till now did not penetrate or even leave behind white trails on the ground. Now, whole rivers are freezing - now that's what I call cold!

After waking up to this very white, wintery scene.. (no snow, just frozen)... I couldn't resist taking my camery with me to work and taking extra long along the route. People must have thought me completely mad taking photos of every tree on my way to work :).

This next photo was actually taken inside the brewery grounds...

This week-end's plan was to visit the Czech Christmas Market (in our little local Plzen town square). Here we found some christmas prezzies and sampled some czech gluwein equivalent - a hunny wine which is warmed up. Pierre promptly got a bottle for christmas.
The cold was bitter! And once we passed a tent that was serving sausages with gas heaters indoors, the girls went on strike and would not go an inch further until their demands for lunch and warmth were met. (I did manage to get them to pose for some photos outside the tent however).

Visiting Beyerisch Eisenstein and Grosser Arber again

After discovering Grosser Arber (Große Arber) just outside Beyerisch Eisenstein (10km from the Czech border), it is unlikely that we will stop in Špičák and not go the extra 40kms to Germany. What a difference! Anyway, so we made a second week-end of it and again had an absolute ball! The girls getting more confident on their skis now came down the family slope with us every time. We even ventured off-piste and skiid along a little forrest path alonside the main piste, the video of which was promptly e-mailed to the Marais as a little taste-teezing-mouth-wetting appertizer for what was to come for them. It was much colder this week-end with all the trees covered in snow... Check out some of the photos:

Nuremburg Christmas Markets

Some introduction... Yonks back, Sarah discovered her true calling in life. Collecting money! Not for the purchase of sweets and candy mind you, but for the purchase of presents for children. This calling started off very vaguely with no particular children in mind, until she focussed on the fact that 2 very important children would be arriving the day after christmas.... The arrival of the Marais clan the day after christmas! Now, this arrival has been a MUCH anticipated affair. Sarah and Amber have been very excitedly making christmas cards and decorations and ... saving money to buy presents. So, in comes the story...

After discovering information about the German Christmas Markets during internet searches for ski accommodation, we plotted that the very next week-end we would head to Nuremberg, famed as the best christmas market location in Germany. This was going to be our opportunity to both explore a new city and experience a new culture with it's traditions as well as to shop up a storm for the christmas presents of the arriving Marais clan.

We found accommodation that was described as a children's haven - an apartment that was kitted out to distraction for children. We arrived on Friday night and found the most unique apartment - a one-bedroom that truly lived up to it's title. The girls had a double bunk and slept under the "stars".
Under their bed was a play area kitted with trains and games. There was a table in the centre of the room with all manner of games and playthings.
Our bed was a fold out couch in the same room - so we just had to make sure that the girls were really asleep first ;)... The kitchen was made out as a medieval kitchen decorated with bats and knights. Each morning we woke up, we found a gift basket outside the front door "delivered by Santa c/o the owners" with various gifts and goodies for the girls. (A highly recommended accommodation for children: http://www.bambini-events.de/).

Saturday morning we cought the train in to Nuremberg (Nuernberg) and made our way into the medieval old town of the city. The streets were all lined with markets all of a christmas kind - the Gluwein stalls being the most popular. There were cookie stands, ginger bread stalls, fruit and veg vendors, balloon modellers, chocolate and fruit dipped chocolate sellers, toys and widgets, glass ornamets and christmas decoration shops. The best was the german traditional boerie rolls - 3 finger sized bavarian sausages in a round breadroll - a great hit!
We made our way to the children's square where there was a stunning fun-fair - all with really old world rides - carousel's and ferris wheels. The girls had few rides before our tushies were completely frozen and we huddled into the nearest stall that had an indoors to allow some thaw-time.
We then continued browsing the christmas stalls, each baby with a bag full of their coins that they have been saving, each wanting to buy the first item that catches their eye at every stall, each item costing waaaaay more than their few euros, and each item completely the most impractical gifts imaginable.

The main square was a complete zoo.
It was shoulder nudging, bellie bumping full. We pretty much skirted the outside of it, amuzed ourselves with the christmas hats on sale while watching the enormous cart horses lug their passengers up and down the streets before heading back to the underground and catching our train home. (Therein is another long story as we missed our stop, had to double back with a return train which dropped us off at a different station than where our car was parked and we had to walk the 3+ kms back through town in the minus something at about 8pm.... but we will save that one for another day ;)..)

Sunday was a repeat affair, but we finished our purchases around lunch time and then headed home at around 2pm with packets full of goodies and still enough money to explore the Plzen christmas markets for some of the local fare.

Bayerisch Eisenstein

The little German town one nanometer past the CZ border has the greater share of the same mountains that špičak is built on. It's a slow and winding route through the characteristic myriad of small-towns in the Czech countryside en route to BE. At the end of the road a series of snow-covered hair-pin bends adds to the driving excitement and makes sure you're wide awake by the time you cross the border.

Deciding that there was a lot of skiing to be done this season, and having experienced the consequences of poorly fitting boots on a recent outing at špičak, the wife and I ventured into the, as we discovered, highly technical and complex world of ski-boots and ski-boot fitting.

Having shied away from the prospect of braving the technical discussion with a technical Czech, we decided to look into the matter on the web and read through a thesis-sized plethora of, a thankfully largely convergent, commentary and advice on the art of ski-boot fitting.

Our first attempt, at a large sports store in Plzen, found us attended by a linguistically proficient sales assistant who, to his ultimate demise broke every rule and caution highlighted in the aforementioned thesis. Eventually leaving the store with nothing but a few pairs of socks, we determined to solve the problem ourselves and spent a few more hours in another store across town.

We made all the technical measurements, felt for the different flex factors and went through the list of fit elements, wore the boots as prescribed etc. Hayley in her characteristic decisiveness, a trait shared well with her sister, wavered till the end, and even then wasn't sure.

We left the store, 2 pairs of boots in hand (for better or for worse), boot bags, new gloves for bugz, and an unscratchable itch to hit the slopes again.

The set-up in BE seems a lot larger and varied than those in neighbouring špičak, there are slopes of every permissible colour and one in particular that was to be a great hit, but I'll get to that in a minute. On the Friday of our arrival, the entire region had been blessed with a good covering of snow just in time for our foray. Huge piles of graded snow, in places 1.5 M high, lined roads and driveways - the girls wasted no time in conquering the one in the yard of our B&B.

The view from the B&B verandah

We checked into our B&B, for the evening and, after cursing for not remembering that German B&B establishments rarely provide bath soap, forcing us to improvise by showering with the shampoo, we passed out and dreamed of the slopes waiting for us the next day. Next morning we got ourselves all outfitted with skis at the local hire shop and headed out for the slopes. The babies had a 2 hour ski lesson with Vanessa, one of the local instructors who turned out to be great for the girls boosting their confidence and desire to be in skis to new heights.

Hayley and I used the time to ski the slope adjacent to the girls and had a great time carving perfect arcs with complete confidence thanks to our properly fitting and custom chosen boots.

After the blood had abandoned all hope of ever reaching my right pinky toe again, and two decent spills on my part, (Hayley not blemishing her poise by giving way to gravity even once!) we made our way back to the babies who had finished their lesson and were waiting for us to pick them up.

Lunch at the on-slope restaurant, and a beer to soothe the shattered ankle was welcome, warm and rejuvenating. Afterwards, we decided to take the girls up the slope we'd been skiing and bring them down with us.

The slope has 2 parallel drag lifts that have "T" shaped bar that is supposed to fit under ones bottom and drag one up the slope. The "T's" are made for a pair of skiers to ascend together. We went through the turnstiles together and made our way to the lift with the expectation of taking a single lift up the slope. One of us on each arm of the "T" and a baby each between our skis, and up we go... right? Well, not precisely. Amber and I somehow lost communication with Hayley and Sarah even though they were less than a meter behind us in the Q. We made our way onto the launch pad, moved over to the left side of the T as had been strategised, and looked right expectantly for Hayley and Sarah... who were not there... in an instant the next "T" bar found my bum, Amber was waiting between my skis and the tension in the tow line was being taken up... off we went, and I am thinking "they'll be fine - perhaps on the next T after us..." up we went.

About 100m into the ascent we look back, again with expectation and there is nothing but a bunch of empty "T" bars behind us... odd... oh well, they must be there someplace and we carry on chatting, admiring the frosted trees and generally enjoying the scenery.

Suddenly the entire conveyor is brought to a stop. The soft sound of snow squeaking under the skis, the only one apart from the wind was gone and a peaceful silence descended on the slope. one of those silences that makes even Amber whisper to me. We speculate as to what could have happened, here, another soft sound enters - it is the intuitive voice in my head that tells me that Hayley has something to do with this breakdown... I tell myself that it can't be true and we wait... and wait... and wait. The line of people ahead of us is now looking around wondering what to do, the conversation has died down and there are increasingly confused people deciding if they should just left go of the line now and ski down the slope that they've climbed so far...

The line starts up again and a few minutes later, we (Amber and I) disembark at the top of the slope and once again, turn to look for Hayley and Saz in the oncoming stream of people... but they are not there...

"There they are!" I tell Amber as I spot them about 500M down the slope, "where?" she's straining to see them that far away...

When they eventually crest the slope I ask the most pressing question. Turns out that after missing a hook, being bonked over the head by the second, catching the third and being pulled over by it, conked again over the head by the fourth the line operators, bringing themselves back to sanity after the spontaneous onset of hysterical laughter stopped the line and some bystanders helped Hayley and Saz stand up, approach a stationery "T" bar and hook it under her bum. Making sure they were still standing, the operators then started up the lift again... slowly...

The downhill run went rather more smoothly than the uphill one had gone and the girls loved the trip. The slope steepens toward the end and Amber (still between my skis) and I put on some speed - a bit more than I would have liked, but I can't snow plough efficiently enough to brake for the both of us, so I made her affirm how exciting it was to be going so fast down the hill ensuring that panic remained a second option as I brought the flying company to a controlled stop at the bottom of the slope.

Hayley, far more poised, with Saz came down as slowly as they went up, but with lots more control and finesse.

If you want an early night, one of the nice things about winter here is that the days are only about 8 hours long - 16:30 is dusk and the illusion that its later than it really is almost impossible to escape. We bundled the girls into bed by about 8 and followed them an hour later. Lovely.

Sunday was a slow day to start with, we got to the slopes at about 11 and hyped the babies up about going up on the bigger slopes. We had done the "family slope" the previous day while Amber and Saz were having their lesson and found it gentle enough to put the girls on. It runs for a good few Km's and is a pleasant, sometimes too gentle run which the girls took to instantly.

We held our ski poles together and out to the side so that Amber and Saz could hold onto the poles for any stability that they needed. They loved the huge 6- seater chair lift that gets you to the top of slope probably more than the subsequent run down the mountain... at least for the first time. Displaying less nerves than I thought we would have to deal with (thank you Vanessa) they both ski'd the slope next to us with not a whimper or sign of panic. By the second run Amber was wanting to attempt parts of it alone, with Sarah imitating too. The third run, Amber did substantially alone and even took on the steep ending where the slope bottoms out into the last part of the red run. Sarah also was far more solo, but a still a little more tentative than her older sister.

During the last lift run, I had dropped a glove from the lift and we'd stopped on the decent near the bottom where the family waited while I trudged up the red slope in my ski boots to retrieve the glove.

If walking up a red slope is that difficult, I can't wait to see what it's like to ski down!

This is the red slope on the left of the lift... someday soon...

Anyhow, a snowman bust was erected at the spot to greet skiers with a smile as they ended their runs.

This place is wonderful - we'll be back.