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Post by kk on Sept 5, 2015 21:37:47 GMT -5
What a trip!!! Going to places so close to your heart and, even more important, being able to show these places to your daughter. Priceless. Adrian Absolutely, nothing beats being able to show family where you really com from. Adrian, are you traveling back and forth to your home? Can't remember having seen a report from your home.
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Post by kk on Sept 4, 2015 11:29:41 GMT -5
Great series of pics. Weather seemed quite hot? While the stones are great looking, the environment alone makes the trip and the pain worthwhile. Next time, try to stop and relax a bit by the creek. Have your legs tangling in for a while, that might just about get you faster back on your feet (it usually does for me ).
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Post by kk on Sept 3, 2015 6:26:46 GMT -5
Great trip, nothing better than getting away from the masses and relax for a while. Thanks for taking us along.
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Post by kk on Sept 3, 2015 6:17:33 GMT -5
Gorgeous photos and a wonderful story. I grew up not in but near similar landscapes. The quiet and grandeur of it all can really change a person for the better. Thank you for taking the time to take us along. Russ and I went on a hounding trip yesterday and after seeing your thread I am going to wait a day or two to post our trip because it pales in comparison to yours except for providing an opportunity for Russ and I to get into some wilderness and gather some awesome rock. Jim Ahh yheah rocks..... we are here for them..... Got some of those too, and actually wearing one of them since a few days already. Unfortunately nothing too exiting, found lots of shale, limestone and other things. The one that stands out is the one I'm wearing and that seems to be some sort of marble. As said, nothing preccious, but still worth a lot to me for where it was found. Don't worry, just go ahead with your post, looking forward, as always to your exploits..... Kurt
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Post by kk on Sept 3, 2015 0:09:52 GMT -5
Your probably the only person that has shown me how incredibly alluring and spiritual Austria seems to portray in your pics . I sorta can see why my grandfather stopped in Alberta and made it home. The fascination and beauty of the alpine must of reminded him of his roots. Thanks for taking me along the journey. Yep North America has a lot of Topography that looks extremely similar to my part of Europe. I have on several occasions, told you on your posting, how homesick some of your pictures made me, kk, my apologies for being late to wish you the Best on your Birthday. Happy Birthday!! I'm glad you were able to return home and share it with your family. Amazing that you saw the sons of your dad's best friend while out on your trek, and that your brother had a rescue mission with a good ending. The church and scenery is beautiful. I don't blame your wife at all for being a bit anxious, lol. The Ibex is looking at your daughter as if it is asking, "are you lost?" Thank you for sharing!! No need for apologies at all. Lots of wonderful surprises waited around every corner. 3 things stood out: Besides watching with glee my daughter taking everything in, I was enjoying more than anything as to how my darling responded to the environment. She is a very practical person, but there need to be rules and a form of plan is a must for everything. Watching her completely dropping everything and taking things in as they come along, walking along without questioning purpose or destination, and even drinking water directly from springs and creeks, etc., without questioning safety just on pure trust that things will be fine, is something that only such an environment can give birth to. And I hope that some of it took hold enough to last. But the other thing that surprised was how easy it was to fit in. I was worried that our life's had ensued that we had very little in common, and hence would be absolutely strangers. Combine that with the current immigration problem affecting the whole country and you see why I was worried. But while we heard lots of cussing and negative discussions about immigrants, we where sincerely welcome wherever we went, and it turns out that I got a lot more in common with my brother than just looking similar. I reckon there are tens of thousands of pages of posts here on this rock related forum. This page may be my favorite one, and I will return to take it all in again. Your pictures here bring me a welcome peacefulness - hard to explain. Thank you for sharing with us. By the end of the day, its the simplicity of things, the stillness, basic communion with nature without the need to hurry, and agreeable company that makes visiting those places so worthwhile, and in my opinion, those things (not the height), brings one closer to ones faith. No shrink can ever provide that.
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Post by kk on Sept 2, 2015 6:56:33 GMT -5
Will not bother you with all the meetings of friends as that would take up even more space. But this final installment is the most important and most memorable part for me on so many levels. My post about my undertaking on my B'day was the most emotionally charged moment of the trip as I had nearly given up to ever getting there again. Sorry folks, I know that I should be ashamed (and reluctantly, I am), that places mean more to me than people, but its the truth......... So here we go: After my B'day, it was high time to visit father at his last resting-place. While I'm too late to introduce my wife and daughter to him, we where able to celebrate a large part of his life and handiwork; from the house to this church My fathers hands are all over this place in form of restoration on any wooden objects and creating the benches. After that, it was time to gain altitude. We planed an easy walk to a cottage up on high pastures, but found closed cottages or they where already filled for the night. So it was a loooong walk for my wife (being a city girl through and through) and my sister in law. Ideal hiking weather at, for us a chilly temperature in the lower forties, but at 4.5 hours in, it looked tiring for the girls. The height now did not help either, but somehow, my wife overcame a near panic attack and pushed trough despite of passages that where unstable and full of gravel next to what must have seemed for her endless slopes. All was well, once we came to more stable and level ground. A cottage that promised some rest and some hot drinks most likely helped too. Here with my daughter, who seemed right at home around here, walking like a mule at a pace that I had to admire then and many more times in the next few days. In the end, our 1.5 hour walk ended up a monstrous 8 hour walk (incl. lunch and a few drinks at different cottages). After a good night sleep, the next day started with breathtakingly beautiful weather, so we decided to let the girls sleep and tick off another big ticket item from my bucket-list. Another mountain, somehow incredibly close to my heart Not too hard to walk until you are nearly on top, but one of those typical mountains where every time you seem to reach the top, another hill appears. We saw all sorts of creatures on the way, including wild rabbit, groundhogs, Ibex as well as quite a few the extremely shy mountain goats, so that took care of a lot of other things from the bucket-list (mine as well as my daughters). The way to this mountain-top is just so charming, with lots of plants, wildlife, and views to die for. Got lots of (to me exiting pictures) at the summit, but I think the best is the one of my daughter and my brother just at the cusp of the decent. Its rough around here, but it has some sort of primal attraction that I cant explain. That creates a longing that simply cant be really understood by city and/or flatland people. Here, you fight the elements, not other people for the right to be here, comfort comes from within, and from the people who traverse this landscape for the pure pleasure to be here. Any stranger is a friend to be greeted and conversed with openly. The only thing you ever have to worry about is nature and with it, your next step. And sometimes, nature and its inhabitants allow you encounters that are not managed or staged but are based solely on mutual trust like here where we where incredibly lucky to get within 10 meters of this magnificent creature (Ibex). Just after the Ibex, my brother directed us to a memorial for a fallen comrade Edi, a longtime best friend of our father, and mentor/friend to a lot of us young folks, teaching us to love nature, alpine winter skiing, climbing and many other things. Unfortunately, he lost his life a few years (8) ago in an avalanche, doing things he loved most. I tried to speak to his sons many times since, to deliver condolences, yet never reached either one of them. AND barely 5 minutes after the picture, my brother starts talking with a fellow hiker, coming up the hill, and the next miracle happens, as he introduces me to that person, whom I could not recognize, as one of Edi's sons and former school colleague of mine. The days went on and we went on easier hikes so as to allow our wife's to enjoy it too. Landscapes after landscapes kept surprisingly clean (people here are still kind enough not to leave their rubbish behind), flowers aplenty, but unfortunately too late for my favorites Edelweis and Enzian. We did spot some garden-variety Edelweis at some cottages though; but its just not the same as coming across the wild one........ Eventually, on the last day up in the alps, it was time for my wife to conquer her first mountain Using the safety of gravel-roads most of the way along some spectacular unstable drop-offs And a half an hour uphill battle through forested areas, we got our reward in the end, overlooking the whole valley of my hometown now the other way round. Thats a good 16-1900ft drop down to the lake below. Even I do not go closer than a meter to the edge. That flower was sticking out over the ledge, I took that picture crawling on all four and on my stomach to get that shot. Give me solid rock, but that thing with its unstable gravel, looks suicidal to me. Like everything else, eventually you got to wake up and the dream ends, but our return to base before returning into the valley still had two surprises in store. The first was a flower I had heard often about, but never actually seen. Do you recognize this beauty without looking at the answer under the picture? Wolfs bane, said to be one of the top ten deadliest flowers on the planet. But ohhh so beautiful! And just minutes before departing for the valley (we had backpacks already on our shoulders), my brother got a call to service. He is a member of the local volunteer Mountain rescue service here. Within minutes, he was picked up by a police helicopter to do a visual search of nearby mountain-tops, where they suspected that an emergency call came from just minutes earlier. And gone he was,...... leaving us to decent into the valley by our own. My brother is an over the top clown, but the moment the call came in, he changed completely, becoming everything that I could only wish to be. I'm immensely proud of my brother for what he has become and for the selflessness in which he and his team risk their own lives at a moment notice to help others in need. To be able to witness this and for my wife and daughter to see it too was one of the greatest moments of the trip (even more so, as they where able to find the distressed caller, and brought him to safety virtually without a scratch). So the only things left after that where meeting people and ticking of simple pleasures from the bucket-list like just rolling in the grass. Eating lots of food. Would you belief that each of us came back with less weight? I lost nearly 10 pounds despite eating my way through the menu-card and ensuing clean plates whenever the girls could not finish. Even more surprising (we only found out last night), we spend 14 days in the land of chocolate, yet did not eat a single bite of the stuff while we where there. The first chocolate was taken upon arriving back home in Hong Kong with our other kids. It was the best trip ever for me, and despite the physical demands on my wife, seems to have brought us closer. We needed that! So finally ending this summer report with my favorite picture of the summer.
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Post by kk on Sept 2, 2015 6:55:05 GMT -5
kk, you and your brother could almost pass for twins. The home your father built is gorgeous. I think his creativity and an eye for beauty in art was passed on to you. Beautiful countryside!! Passed on for sure. But never accepted (by me) until I started with stone. Beautiful Countryside? You aint seen anything yet! Give me a minute, I'm just about ready to finish this report.
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Post by kk on Aug 29, 2015 21:54:43 GMT -5
What a trip. I go 300 miles to Florida - big deal. Kurt goes across the world. With the whole family and pups. striking views and sore legs. VERY BIG DEAL. Every time you go where your heart is! Sore legs are just a bonus to/for memories not soon forgotten. Now here is part two, homecoming and B'day on the 17th. Day after day, it gets better. On the 17th. fulfilled my biggest personal B'day wish. Thanks to my family working together on both continents I was home and...... Met my brother again after 29 years At the house my father build for us Cold, wet, rather tired, but the biggest B'day wish fulfilled, standing on top of Thalerkogel, my house-mountain (1650+m/5000ft) with my daughter, looking down at Tragoess my hometown and playground of youth. Water to drink and a sausage at hand; what more could one wish for? "Kusser" my home for the first 12 years of my life. That was basically my playground. When you see where I grew up, then you understand why I feel sorry for most young children today.
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Post by kk on Aug 29, 2015 10:42:04 GMT -5
Awesome!! That looks very familiar. As much as I'd like to see it all again, I'm not so sure that Europe would be the idyllic place I remember. I was there in much simpler times. How did you find it now with all the immigration problems and strife we hear about on the news here in the U.S.? The sediment about immigration in Vienna and Salzburg was obvious hostile. We heard it discussed and cursed all over the place. I have abstained from news in general since about two years, so I can not really say whats going on. As for idyllic? Wait for tomorrows post, and you will see that its still to be found..... Hardly anything had changed in my home-valley and surrounding mountains. If you got FB, you can jump ahead and see a lot more pictures from the first 3 days (as seen above) and the rest of the trip up until Monday this week here www.facebook.com/kainzer.kurt
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Post by kk on Aug 29, 2015 9:41:36 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing your trip with us! Absolutely beautiful country and magnificent architecture and history. The salt mines bring back memories. The one we toured had long wooden slides to get down to the lower levels and there was a vast lake at the bottom of the mine that we took a boat ride on. I also well remember how cold the water was in the streams. There was a swimming pool on the post where dad was stationed that was filled from such streams if you can believe it. Needless to say, I didn't go swimming while living there. Glad you had a great time, got to see your mom and made it home safely. I assume your dad was stationed in Berchtesgaden and the mine you visited was Bad Reichenhall on the other side of the mountain in Germany. All three mines have a similar tour ( saw the one in Reichenhall about 30 years ago) So trip down memory-lane coming right up: Could not get a single shot clearly showing the water, but here we are on the boat
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Post by kk on Aug 29, 2015 9:13:29 GMT -5
Happy Anniversary. How about a pic of both of you then and now?
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Post by kk on Aug 29, 2015 8:13:18 GMT -5
OK ready for the final showdown. I'm back in Hong Kong and wade through tons of pictures (1400+) to search for a few that represent places of interest and mean much to me. Lets start in Vienna and Salzburg first, and then move to my hometown tomorrow. So, after landing in Vienna, we stowed our luggage and went to the City Center to see St. Stephens Dome. Odd angle, not always seen. Have heard about the mixture of styles that where added over time, but the real thing is just overwhelming when you are interested in sculpture and/or architecture. We where on foot and with 4+ hours time, so we went to an avenue with nearly all the important buildings lined up State Opera (In the latest Mission Impossible, Tom pretends to jump off the side of it) Parliament with Neptune and Goddess of Justice present And many more, but of course also a castle as seen in soooo many movies: The Belvedere Unfortunately, our time did not allow to actually visit the inside of that grand place. On we went to finally meet up with mom in Salzburg. After a restful evening, we decided to give the two girls a little taste of what was to come. Nature and all the goodies in it: Bluntau With mom And then the highlight for me that day. An ice-cold river, looking for some rocks. Found some that might work out and got them here in HK. But that water was so cold, I could not feel my feet after just about ten minutes. Only after about two minutes out of it, got that stinging feel in my toes back. But the highlight of it all? We emptied our bottles and filled them with the water from the stream in order to drink, again and again. Even took some with me for that evening. That kind of water is a treasure to behold, no money can ever buy that kind of quality. The following day, we still visited Hallein with the church where "Silent Night" premiered. And the salt-mine that gives the valley its name We where so deep in the mountain that we officially crossed over to Germany at times. Can you imagine working here? And naturally some more castles And did I mention Food? I think that would take up a book of pictures, so lets keep it to just one desert. Incredible food, intense welcome, wonderful nature, that about sums up Every day we spent there.
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Post by kk on Aug 11, 2015 10:53:15 GMT -5
Yep, and I hope to have a front seat window to it. Will be in the air all night tomorrow first flying north to Beijing, and then flying west till dawn to Vienna. Hope to be able to see a few coming in.
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Post by kk on Aug 10, 2015 10:23:51 GMT -5
We got a challenge on opposites running right now, but with limited time available, I just did something on the quick. Australian Zebrastone. Fantastic and surprisingly solid material. Can imagine using this material for faces in the future. Should make for some awesome designs. Lots of different design-possibilities with that stuff. Marijana, who send me some rough, also send me this fantastic pendant.
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Post by kk on Aug 9, 2015 21:00:20 GMT -5
Jealous, big time! Good luck, and the best of hunting!
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Post by kk on Aug 9, 2015 6:18:32 GMT -5
Thank you Lilacmoth.
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Post by kk on Aug 8, 2015 12:21:26 GMT -5
So now the fun really starts, need to get distance as well as height into the practice. Originally, I thought of making the second run, just about distance, but had another idea to ensue that Monday would not need a doctor flying in for me. So I asked my girl to split the two mountains and do it one at a time. So instead of going along the mountainside, we decided to go to the top of the first and then down to the beach for a swim. While the hills around here are pretty lush, they are also quite steep. Something easily overlooked when one looks at all the green. Gaining height early, we where lucky to avoid the sun for most of our way up. First we where covered in forest, and then all the way to the top we had a cloud protecting us from direct sunlight, while it was sunny everywhere else around. Could easily imagine having a weekend retreat up here While the beaches are overcrowded, and the water is polluted more than ever; up here we met about ten people in 7 hours, everyone with a smile on their faces despite sweating a waterfall. Up here, things are as they should be, and people still largely respect nature. Orchids are found all year round at this height as different species seem to bloom at different times, yet while they are at easy reach, they are still in their rightful places. People who do make the effort to come up here, do not often just go through here and take them away. Down in the valley, flowers by the wayside would not survive an hour despite of being protected. Its easy to forget where one is; and then,.... a few steps later,...... a reminder,..... airport down below. Just before reaching the summit, we got another first for my daughter. Literally getting into the clouds. Looks dramatic, when you are not used to it, but what a joy. Cool wind and a slight drizzle of water, there is no better way to cool down. The buildings here just under the summit, are abandoned barracks, left behind by the British military who used this area for training purposes. Largely unattended, they slowly decay. I'm told that a few of them are in private hands now (including one of my neighbor). Will have to ask him next time if I could spend some time up here. At 869meters (about 2700feet) the summit. Was hoping for 2.5 hours, but must admit that it took us 4 hours to get here. We took a wrong turn on our way up, so we had to take "short-cut". Picture here is on the way back down. Man, I'm not build for that kind of incline anymore, or at least not my lungs. The hardest 200 meters for the whole day, with an incline that I estimate at 75%+. Yet as you can see, I'm still ahead and had time to take pictures. So it looks like I'm still in better form as my girl (at least here it was, later we where barely home and she asked to go to a beach B'day party... ). On the way down, we came face to face with our next target. As said, we will not repeat today's mountain, but the distance is similar, and then instead going down to the beach, we will go to Lantau Peak, the second tallest mountain in Hong Kong. But for now, it was down-hill to get a refreshing reward. Once the shoes where off, we decided to try our luck and called a taxi for the last 3km home. At double fair, the driver overlooked that we had no mouth-pieces for our dogs. Fun day out, but the downhill section in the end was in full sun and gave me a swollen bridge on my foot numbing some toes. Has healed itself out already, but need to have that looked at soon, as I presume that something is blocking proper blood-flow (had it a few years ago, but went away with massage).
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Post by kk on Aug 3, 2015 8:17:13 GMT -5
Just found some pictures of Amazonite on the net, and crystal structure and colour match up perfectly. Quick look at Fleabay looks like I got a good deal at about 7$ for the 2 pounds of material I got. Looks like Madagascar apatite Kurt. Which would be a good bit softer than amazonite. Whatever it is, its some horrible stuff. Crumbles in my hands like nothing I have ever had to cut. And once you take a crumb of a piece, you got two different materials to deal with: I presume feldspar plus something harder (the bluish stuff), the two are interwoven, so its like peeling onions, in the hope of getting rid of the feldspar. Trying to get one piece in place for two days now, and nowhere close to a finished piece.
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Post by kk on Aug 3, 2015 7:47:27 GMT -5
Back in Hong Kong, so its time to start practicing and even more important, walking in, new hiking-booths. At 80+ humidity, that's easier said than done. 2.5 hour easy walk today, up and along the ridge on the left to about 1000 feet. Next up the hills to the right going to about double that height and expected to take at least 6 hours including the return trip on foot along the shoreline through boulder fields. Not getting any younger, huffing and puffing like a steam Lock, sweating like in a sauna, but at least my feet /legs seem to have missed the message about the advances in age. Looks like the dogs had a harder time with the heat than me this morning. They did enjoy a good cool down, before we started, as well as at the beach later..... :lol: Mommy of the two boys gave up and returned home, as soon as she realized that we are not going on a flat-out walk. At an estimated 13-14 years of age, she is allowed to do that!
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Post by kk on Aug 2, 2015 8:53:46 GMT -5
Stunning possibilities..
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