Mmmm Bavarian Beer!!

So I can only imagine that by now you are all totally confused as to where we are, what we are doing and where we are going... I will therefore backtrack a bit to put you back on track.

Really the reason we have been changing our minds so much in the past few weeks is the weather. I think the rain chassed us all through Italy, as we wanted to climb in Val di Mello and it called for rain... so instead we drove to Arco, and got Ok weather. On the friday it had called for rain, so David and I decided we should try canyoning! (as per an earlier recommendation we had received...) My original idea of canyoning was repelling down into canyons and having to dangle 60-100m in the air before reaching the base of the canyon. Obviously, i was clueless. Canyoning is described by "jumping, sliding and repelling....", and involves wearing a full wetsuit and harness. Get the idea?? We were a group of about 14 plus 2 guides. Half girls half guys. All italian, and a hilarious group they were as well! Turns out that canyoning involves jumping from cliffs into the water below...from various heights. Of course the guides give you the option of rappelling, if you are too scared. Obviously, all the italian men didnt hesitate at the first jump - and i totally chickened out and rappelled. It was about a 7m drop - and all i could think of was that i wouldnt jump far enough and land on the rocks below :S Now I did manage to get my courage together and jump a the next opportunity, though it took me quite a bit of guts - as well as a terrible shriek to make the jump! It was a longer jump than the one i had just avoided. I do pride myself however in that of all the girls present, i was the only one that did any of the jumps woot woot. Now, to put the icing on the cake, the final jump was about 10 or 12m high! And both David and I did it! A few of the guys had opted out and repelled...And the last guy after us, we were told, said to the guy "I have to be brave like the canadian guy and just do it", which he did :)) Fun to try, though I dont think I have discovered a passion for canyoning...

After that, we had planned on meeting some of davids family in Verona - mostly for a quick stop to pick up some stuff we had left with them and jump in the shower. There was some confusion when we got to Verona however, and we only stayed with Davids family for a few hours. We had gone to Venice that same day - and walked around and got lost in the town for several hours. Venice really was beautiful, and we enjoyed it as long as we stayed away from the extremely crowded touristy streets! (And getting away from the swarms really wasnt all that difficult)
I have to admit i was really disappointed that the "gondeliers" didnt sing to their passengers :( Although of all the boats, we did see one which had two musicians singing and playing the accordeon, the sound filled the tiny "water streets" and we listened for a while as they floated away...

After Verona, we headed to the Dolomites. We couldnt possibly come to Europe and not climb in the oh so famous dolomites. We had planned to stay for a week, and had even picked 5-6 climbs that looked really exciting. I was slightly nervous, having heard the reputation of the dolomites... Loose rock, hard to protect, mostly pitons, difficult route finding... Yikes! Of course, the weather once again threatened to ruin our plans. For this, and also to get used to the area, we chose a "shorter climb" as our first pick. A 9 pitch, 250m ish route. I LOVED it! Ok, so you have to be a bit gutsy because protection is difficult, but no worries - the route difficulty was well within our reach and at no point did we fear we would fall...
(In red, the route that we climbed, in green, the long convoluted route we took to descend...)


Thankfully! The following day, because it was suppsoed to rain in the afternoon, we did an even shorter climb, of 150m. While still enjoyable (and David would say with more varied climbing), we got overtaken on the first pitch by a father and son, who stupidly slowed us down for the remaining 6 pitches. Not only were they climbing slower, but they decided to stretch out their pitches, making us wait at each anchor longer - and frustatingly wait while the father downclimbs because he has run out of rope. Gosh. That aside, it was fun, and the walk down was even more interesting. Turns out that there is a really easy descent from the mountain, and it used to be some sort of trench system dug into the mountain side probably from WWII. With tunnels, trenches, caches, rooms dug into the rocks... Pretty cool!! Seeing as we had our headlamps with us, we did a bit of exploring...
After the climb, we checked the weather only to realize that it called for rain for the following days, which cut our dolomite experience short - much to our displeasure... We were looking forward to the 500m climb Heiko had recommended, as well as a few others we had picked. Sigh.

Our spirits were brought up again however after we discovered Munich and the delicious Bavarian beer and food! We spent most of today walking around the Englischer Gardens (apparently one of europes largest city parks) and enjoying ourselves at the BeerGardens! Yes, both David and I endulged in a 1litre beer (ok, so i cheated and had half lemonade - half beer, miam, much better in my opinion).

We had a chat with a German couple, talking about our travels and their trips to Canada. Its amazing the random people you can meet while travelling... We also found this english bookstore where we replenished our stock! Yes, no denying that we are reading tons of books this summer, having guilt free reading time has been awesome for the both of us. Especially now that we had this series we had started and really wished to know the end...

The plan for the next few days remain blurry. We may go climbing in Frankejura which is north east of Munich, but the weather may have more rain in store for us... if that is the case, we will see... We now have only 11 days left, and time is running out... We do eventually have to make our way up to Amsterdam prior to Aug.31st! And we have to be back in Utrect on the 28th to sell Lucy, as well as go back to Brussells...

Going back in the past, 2 pictures from switzerland... Though we did quite enjoy Bern, we were very sad to see they keep up the very old tradition of keeping bears captive in pits in the park... They looked rather miserable...
The dying lion of lucerne - in memory of the swiss mercenaries, carved right into the rock.
And some random pictures... Anyone willing to give information on the meaning of the picture below, we re interested about thoughts-ideas

The grapes are becoming juicier every day...
And after climbing our first climb in the dolomites we drove past this man... and decided to stop by for some cheese. Perhaps the tastiest Pecorino I have ever encountered... And ironically, we only wanted a little bit of cheese...and ended up with 13$ worth, HUGE chunks. Thats what the man thought "a bit" was (I suppose a lot of cheese would have meant buying the entire thing! And they were huge!)