Our mother passed away a week ago. I was fortunate to spend a great weekend with her a few days before her sudden death. She was on that weekend, happy, laughing at jokes and with clear sparkling eyes. Aged 96 ! The photo is at her 90 th birthday.
Uncategorized
The Peleton Geelong
The Great Ocean ride –
A beautiful day ideal weather, a bit of wind which thankfully was either a cross wind or even better, a tail wind when ascending a few challenging hills! The climbs were vicious especially the last – but a few kilometres from the finish and as I rounded the sharp corner to see before me an incline of 16%… physiologically and more to the point, psychologically, I got off and walked as did more than half the others who were to a man, half my age! So I was not unduly ashamed.
My one disappointed was that the route only followed the actual ocean road for the minority of the ride! I have of course travelled this road along its length at least three or four times! Once for 10 days the year that I brought my new Olmo bike only laid to rest this year – it’s carbon frame slowly turning to diamond. And a couple of times by car and then lastly by camper van about 5 years ago
Is it Uluru?
The Wild Horse Pass Sheraton Resort sits in an arid part of Arizona. It is the venue for the 2017 Breakthroughs in Neurology conference. No doubt this is a great facility and I am going to book in for a Spa treatment and rejuvenating facial mask rub using a very expensive “mud” of cactus sap, coyote saliva and fine particles of Arizona desert sand.
The resort has a similar ambience to the resort complex of Uluru but it comes no where near to the magic of the geography and geology of the Australian Red Centre. But I pen this before I visit the Grand Canyon national park
Golf anyone?
Check out my Trip
Classical Cleats
nothing like Rossini to get the cadence up!
This is Sooooo much better than ” bash, beat and bass ” !
Is it really Spring in Adelaide
The rain and floods are truely a once in a life time weather event, even disrupting my Saturday cycle route! This is Norton Summit Road washed away…
It’s Spring
Warm days and the sun rises earlier each day. The garden is in bloom and the chance to get back on the bike
Yes – Lost in the “Wellness Centre”
So it appears that these large hotels nestled in the small valleys of the Schwarzwald – and these establishments are the only apparent buildings of the village- exist for those Germans seeking wellness, of which there are obviously millions!
As I sauntered through each of these centres, all by the way have a heated 25 metre pool as well as the listed spa, saunas, massage and aromatherapy, I pondered the cost of running them in terms of water and power! It must be astronomical.
The accommodation on the trail has been brilliant and given the facilities, food and rooms, some of the best places I have stayed and at a price which defies economics! I am paying about 70 euro a night including access to wellness centres and full breakfast included!
I am by no means a young man – it is all relative and I am at the younger end of the spectrum of the clientele at the Wellness Centres. Nakedness is the norm. So large and complex are these centres that like on the Red Deer Trail, becoming a little confused could be a real dilemma, especially after 20 minutes in the Steam Room or even less time in the Finnish Dry Sauna.
So it was rather delightful so see here that with your Wellness package on the bed were slippers, thick cotton robe, towels and…… a badge with your room number suitable to pin to the robe so that the ripped male masseur could safely escort you back to your room! ….
Mr and Mrs Schaefer of Schwarzwald
The Hotel Schwarzwald
This hotel is remarkable on many levels. It is almost impossible to know where to begin. The hostlier is Herr Schafer. As an adolescent at the end of the war, he witnessed British soldiers dancing- not in the streets but what I guess we would call Ballroom Dancing in the clubs of Berlin. He was mesmerised by the fluid graceful movements of the couples , so at odds with the stiff precise routines of a German dance! He promptly enrolled in a summer dance academy in London over the next three years.
Somewhere along the way he met his German Wife – his partner in life and dance! He hosted a national TV programme on Ballroom Dancing for many years.
He took up teaching and in 1964 built the hotel with the aim of setting up a dance academy with live in accommodation. He rose up the ranks of professional dance teachers and was admitted as a Fellow of the Academy of International Dance Teachers!
His hotel and dance studio situated in the Schwarzwald became just as famous as a stopping point on the walking trails and he then added to his CV by his active participation in the regions tourist organisation.
I think the best way to indicate this man’ achievements, are by photos and the fact that on his 80th birthday he received a personal greeting from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel! He and his wife are so unassuming!
whilst I abhor senseless killing, I offered to take a pictute of his hunting trophies. From the 1960’s – deer!
Max the Red Deer Bull in s reserve that Herr Schafer has adopted almost like a pet and which he takes all the walkers to see!
Some pictures along the trail day 3 and 24 km
graham3693 