After a long break, I’ve got some impressions from my visit at the International Automobil Ausstellung (IAA) at Frankfurt, Germany.

OK, it is obvious that things change in the automotive business. Saving money rules. Less staff and personal contact at the stands. White an blue illusions of green technology. The effort is obvious that everybody tries to squeeze the last drop of fuel out of the existing models – and that true changes, what in fact would be urgent, is not tangible and within reach. So are the efforts profound and credible ? And hardly any design highlights and spirit. The few of them I tried to capture …

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For accomodation I can recommend Hotel Adler at Niederdorf. A beautifully styled traditional hotel. Charming rooms, amiable staff, excellent food & wine and good facilities make it a nice place to relax. From here you reach the skiing areas of Alta Pusteria (Hochpustertal) and Kronplatz, the famous Tre Cime (Drei Zinnen), Prags Valley with its beautiful lake and many other nice places easily.

Helpful general information about Alto Adige you find here …

• www.suedtirol.com
• www.suedtirol.info
• www.hochpustertal.info

Maps & Guides for the Region

To get good maps in Italy is quite a problem. According to my personal experience and talks to local people and guides, if you need a scale of 1:25.000, you can go for the Tobacco maps. At a scale of 1:50.000, I’d recommend Kompass maps, as at that scale the Tobacco ones I had were desperately outdated (from the 1970ties).

There are lots of guidebooks out there. Many nicely pictured. My personal favourites are the ones from Rother (the tiny red ones) and Bruckmann.

These following activities we liked very much - but …

many of them depend on snow conditions. Don’t underestimate the risk of avalanges, so be very careful and ask at your hotel or at a local tourist information office:

• Hike from Sesto (Sexten) via Hahnspielhütte (operated in winter)  to Mt Elmo (Helm)
• Hike from Misurina / Lago Antorno to the Rifugio Auronzo (southern side of Tre Cime) via Malga di Rin Bianco (operated in winter, own cheese production) – and especially lending a sledge and going all the way downhill from the Refugio to the lake
• Hike through the Fischleintal up to Rifugio Tre Cime (Drei-Zinnen-Hütte) – the northern approach to Tre Cime, very impressive
• Hike from Taisten (Mudlerhof) to Taistener Vorderalm (both operated in winter, challenging sledge downhill) and to one of the summits around
• Snowshoeing from Valle di Braies (Pragser Tal) to Prato Piazza (Plätzwiese) – and further up
• Hike from Santa Madalena (Gsies Valley) up to Uwald Hütte
• Cross country skiing at Lago Dobbiaco
• Walk around the Lago di Braies (Pragser Wildsee)

Most impressive that winter was the phenomenon of huge white frost crystals (Raureif), which build at high atmospheric humidity and temperatures below -8 ° C. Didn’t see that before. The crystals had the size of a hand palm. You’ll find some pictures of these crystals and of the hikes & places in the collection above. For details, don’t hesitate to contact me.

There are lots of guidebooks out there. Many nicely pictured. My personal favourites are the ones from Rother (the tiny red ones) and Bruckmann.

Have you been there ? If so, please email me your highlights and impressions. Otherwise: It’s really worth a trip in winter as well as in summer …

A long break – hope you all started well into 2009. I’ve got a lot of picture work from last year to wrap up and present. This little bouquet of flowers is from our visit at Keukenhof, NL (http://www.keukenhof.nl). I visited this exceptional park landscape and tulip exhibition in May last year. I’d recommend going there two or three weeks earlier as at that time it was already the end of the flowering season of the tulips.

So have fun and enjoy the beautiful colours …

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These pictures are from a nice walk in spring 2008 through the flowering cherry trees at the hillside of Burg Teck near Kirchheim, southern Germany.

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This ist the first post in my blog. Just a try, so don’t expect a long story with loads of interesting things. This is still to come. Hopefully. So stay tuned and show up frequently!