One thing that never changes is that you need to visit your customers to find out what is really happening, so I headed to China and Korea for 2 weeks in April.  I had visited Beijing once at my previous job, but this time I got to see a lot more of China.  Shenzhe/Shunde were my least favorite, but they are really industrial places.  The places I went were not really geared to visitors which made it quite a bit harder.  Qingdao was a little better, or maybe I was just getting used to it by that time.  Shanghai was my final stop and much more interesting and cosmopolitan.  I spent the weekend there doing some shopping, visiting the Jing An Temple, and seeing a Chinese acrobat/circus performance.  The latter was completely kitschy and touristy, but the performances are really amazing and make for a fun night out.

My next stop was Korea, where I’ve been before.  However, I find that each time I visit, I like it more.  For me the food is great – spicy, generally good quality, and well cooked.  In China, many of the dishes had a little too much sauce or oil for my tastes, and some of the ingredients were just unidentifiable.  Even when I asked my co-workers to describe what I was eating in China, I got strange answers (pig throat?) or none at all (it’s something very popular…  OK, but what?).  I don’t have much food phobia any more, but there were a few times when even I was pushed to the limit. I tried the sea snails.  I tried the chicken, even though I couldn’t figure out what possible part of the bird the pieces might have come from.  But finally, there were some seafood dishes that I just could not eat.  Defeated.

The other thing I totally enjoyed in Korea was the late shopping hours.  Unlike Austria everything is open, all the time.  And it’s generally less expensive than Europe too.
Finally, my last complaint about China is the coffee, or lack thereof.  I fully understand that it’s a “tea country” but after a week with either no coffee or just bad coffee, I was very happy to see the streets of Seoul.  Nearly every corner has a Starbucks, Angels-in-us or Coffee Bean.  Caffeine replenished, headache gone.

The weird thing for me is that unlike the US, nothing really changes or stops when it snows. Kids go to school – there are no snow days. I go to work, get groceries, and go out. They are much better about clearing the highways and everyone has snow tires, but otherwise everyone just goes about their daily lives as if the snow wasn’t there.

It has generally been a fun winter, but I’m really looking forward to some warmer, sunny days. Here’s a quick review of what we’ve been up to the last few cold, dark months.

We did a lot of skiing in the local mountains, but also enjoyed a few weekends away in Zell am See, Mayrhofen, and Sölden in Tirol. The weather, the conditions, and especially the après-ski were all great. The music they play usually consists of goofy party songs in German or old American songs from the 80s.  Anywhere else they would be terrible, but on the mountain with a beer, it’s perfect.

Unfortunately, the really cold weather started too late in the year for many of the lakes to freeze, so we didn’t have as many opportunities to skate. Instead we spent some time exploring the Christmas markets in December in Nuremburg, Munich, and of course Villach. We did manage to visit the Weissensee for the first time this year. It’s an 11 km long lake with several skating tracks, where the Dutch speed skating team (and tons of their fans) come to train and race.

We also decided to enjoy some winter sports as spectators for a change and attended a world cup giant slalom race in Kranjska Gora, Slovenia. It´s only about a 30 minute drive and we got to cheer on Ted Ligety to a victory with a few other Americans in the crowd. We also went to a ski jumping event in Planica, Slovenia. Seeing the jump in person, I realized these guys are even crazier than I thought.

Here are a few photos of our Winter 2013…

At the Weissensee on one of several 6km long skating tracks.

The finish line at the Giant Slalom.

View of the ski jump at Planica.

Close up of one of the brave jumpers to give you some perspective on how big the hill is.

The beautiful Austrian Alps – ski heaven!

A photo opp at the top of the slope in Tirol.

]]> http://blogs.bootsnall.com/halftime/schnee-und-eis-snow-and-ice.html/feed 0 http://blogs.bootsnall.com/halftime/kaapstad.html http://blogs.bootsnall.com/halftime/kaapstad.html#comments Mon, 11 Mar 2013 06:53:14 +0000 halftime http://blogs.bootsnall.com/halftime/kaapstad.html This will be my last short post about the trip to Africa.  It was such an amazing trip that writing about it has been tough. It’s too hard to describe everything that happened, so I’ve been putting it off.  However, I just wanted to write one final note about our last stop, Cape Town.  It’s such an interesting place – the city itself is very diverse.  We ate everything from great sushi to Nando’s chicken.  The harbor area where we stayed is a good mix of touristy restaurants and working port.  We spent our last few days wandering around the city, walking on Table Mountain, exploring the wine regions (and doing a little tasting of course), and finally visited the beautiful coast and Cape.  A nice way to end our time in Africa!

We have gone rafting before a number of times in the US and New Zealand, so we thought it would be a good way to see the river.  Normally the trips that I’ve been on have a couple of class 4 or 5 rapids, more smaller ones, and lots of time to float, swim, or paddle leisurely for a couple of hours.  To say that this trip was more intense is an understatement.  Over 4 hours there were 19 rapids, nearly all class 5.  They just kept coming one after another until I literally couldn’t lift my arms to paddle anymore.  Needless to say in that condition the raft ended up flipping and we all went for a short, but exciting swim.  To his credit, our guide nicknamed Colgate was fantastic – serious about safety, but had us laughing with his stories about how each of the rapids got their names (Devil’s Toilet Bowl might be obvious, but Creamy White Buttocks refers to all the tourists who fall into and lose their swimsuits in the churning water).

In the end we survived the rapids, the crocodiles, and the walk up the canyon to tell the tale.  One more parting view of the falls:

We stayed inside the National Park at a mobile camp called “Chobe Under Canvas”.  They actually move it every 5 days, which is incredible because the tents even have toilets, and each night you get a warm bucket shower in your tent.  The food is all prepared fresh onsite, including the most amazing scones served at tea which were cooked in a charcoal oven.  I can’t say enough about the level of service at this place.  It’s “roughing it” like I’ve never experienced before.

But enough about the camp… the real stars of Chobe are the animals.  Chobe lies along the river between Namibia and Bostwana.  Since the Namibian side has farmers who chase off game with guns, the preserve on the Botswana side has a fantastic array of wildlife.  Elephants, hippos, zebras, giraffe, water buffalo, lions, warthogs, turtle, guinea fowl, baboons, crocodile, and more birds than I could write down.  Everywhere.  And finally the elusive leopard.

Staying inside the park has a distinct advantage in that just before sundown all the other tourists are heading quickly out of the park, but we were heading back to camp in the opposite direction. Our guide was intent on finding a leopard that had been spotted (no pun intended) recently.  On every drive we followed her tracks, listened for alarm calls from the birds, and stared into the bush hoping for a sign.  Finally one night on the way back to camp, she was literally right in front of us, lounging on a tree branch over the road.  We were the only jeep in sight, happily snapping away with our cameras as the sun set.  All we could say to each other was “This is Chobe.”

Here she is, posing for us:

Another type of kitty:

Stripes!