Blog Ani i Radka
I posted an autumn post just in time, since just hours later winter came in full bloom. With mist and temperatures below zero, we are experiencing something that I personally think are the most beautiful landscapes throughout the year. The omnipresent frost does marvelous paintings outside. Yet again, perfect timing, since Radek’s special macro gear has just arrived. Don’t ask me about the technicalities, have a look at those shots instead.
This week we’re experiencing first snow in Jura mountains so I went out hiking to check it out. The conditions on route were rather difficult. The slope was slippery and visibility was almost null at the top because of mist.
A month has passed, some snow melted and I was able to reach Le Recule top. In lower part of Jura mountains spring was already visible.
But because this May is the coldest May in Geneva region since 1908, when I went higher I still saw fight between spring and winter.
Closer to the top winter was wining. All this snow fell last week (it is quite unusual for this time of year).
Finally after three attempts I reached the pick of Le Reculet (1717 m). Cross on top looks really spectacular during winter weather.
Route down was very long and exhausting because of slippery snow and mud in lower parts.
One again I hit the track of Le Reculet. This time the whether was better, snow was less slippery and I had trekking bats. But once again I didn’t reach the top. During the trip I had a few nice encounters, though:
Also there was a lot of spectacular views, without the mist 😉
Unfortunately not so far away from Le Reculet top I was forced to turn back because there was too much snow. When I fell into snow up to my chest and I needed to dig myself out I decided that this was time to go back home. Nevertheless, because of beautiful weather and spectacular view, this day was totally successful.
Today I did my first mountain hike. The weather was not perfect, but in the end mountains get a very majestic look when in clouds, so it’s worth hiking even without the sun. I tried hiking the most well-known summit – le Reculet (1717 m).
Higher parts where covered in the soft snow and it was difficult to walk ahead without snow shoes. On top of that, I didn’t see any trail sign (everything was covered in snow) and the fog made the view limited, so in the end, I didn’t reach the cross which stands on the top of the mountain. But that’s fine, I will have plenty of opportunities yet to climb le Reculet. Most probably I’ll have a next trial the next week.
Today we went for a longer walk around Ségny. As you can see from the photo above, it wasn’t sunny. I bet that Jura mountains would look spectacular, if only we could have seen them through the mist.
Anyway, I liked the walk, so different from the usual city-walks in Szczecin. I really appreciate that it takes only 5 minutes on foot from our place to find ourselves in the middle of nature – with horses, cows, wild birds and who knows what else.
Today we had a marvellous occasion to go an a real sleigh ride with real horses. Such sleigh rides are very popular in south of Poland. In the north – where we live, it’s rather unusual to have such rides with real horses. For us it was the first time and I really liked it. Horses are awesome! The weather was fine – cold enough to keep the snow and not freezing to the bones. A stud farm was situated in the outskirts of Szczecin where snow was pretty much intact. Before we started the ride we had had some time to get acquainted with the animals.
All in all there were 2 horses, 12 people, 1 big sledge and 5 little ones. The best fun was at the back, on the little ones. I liked the sound of bells ringing (they were hung on the horses neck – felt like Christmas!). And the ride was real fun!
We had exceptional fun when someone fell off and had to run fast to catch the others 🙂
After an hour of amusement and laughter we came back to the stud to warm up a bit by the fire, grab a sausage to eat and drink warm tea with a slight addition of rhum or cherry brandy.
Boy – we had a lot of fun taking that photo!
Our tour cycle around Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in Germany continues. I already described the story how we decided to travel around Szczecin (see: Greifswald post).
This time we chose Stralsund for our destination. However, before we reached Stralsund, we went a bit further west and north – to Darsser Ort (Parow).
I came across that spot when I was checking out places around Stralsund. It’s a typical summer resort, with a lot of (what we call) junk-stalls, summer houses etc. – all of that of course deserted in winter. But we didn’t seek for hustle and bustle of summer, to the contrary – we went there to breathe in the tranquillity of winter. And undoubtedly – we got it.
It was very cold (around 8 Cels. below zero), so to warm myself up a bit I slid a couple of times on frozen water. It was fun though my boots were not designed for that activity. Ice skates would have been better for that occasion.
In principle, we were looking for Natureum – museum of nature at the Baltic See. There was supposed to be a lighthouse and a building with sea life exhibition. What I didn’t discover in advance was that the place was located in Vorpommersche Boddenlandschaft Nationalpark. That meant no car access and a walk of around 12km (both ways) in order to see the lighthouse. But OK – we said „A” – we needed to say „B”, so we marched courageously in the cold. Fortunately, the views were worth it.
To reach the lighthouse we needed to turn away a bit from the beach and traverse a field of cane and a forest. The path was very narrow and sometimes we needed to watch our steps in order not to fall down to the bulrush. When we finally reached Natureum we were pretty tired and cold, so we rushed back to our car (which was not that close).
Szczecin is experiencing winter return so Radek took the opportunity to take some winter photos in the daylight.
All the photos were taken in our City Park (Kasprowicza). There are a couple of must-photo spots, like the lovers bridge (I’m not sure if that’s the official name, but I like to call it like that), ducks, amphitheatre etc.
Kasprowicza park is a very important place in Szczecin. It’s actually full of live at every season. In summer there are concerts in the amphitheatre, in autumn people stroll under the extremely colourful leavesm in winter people go ice-skating, ski running, sledging, snow ball fighting etc, and in spring the place is swarmed by flowers and walkers admiring them.
Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is by no means the most heart warming festivity in Poland. Every year huge amount of charity money (this year around 10 000 000 EUR) is collected all over the world. All of that thanks to one person – Jurek Owsiak.
I really like that day of the year – it was particularly important for me when I was a child. I remember how all the fuss about the event made my spirit elevated, I really could see the cause for all of that. Now it’s the same, maybe without this unlimited, childlike trust in everything.
Anyway, each year Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is accompanied by events all over the world. We had one in Szczecin as well.
Except for stage attractions (hard music concerts and charity auctions) there was a snow park (I perceive the name a bit over the top as it comprised only of one snowboard ramp – and even that was not really splendid as such) and an ice skating rink. There were also ice sculptures, an exhibition of army vehicles and first aid stands prepared by emergency rescuers.
We also took the occasion to shoot a few Szczecin-at-night photos. Our cathedral looked very pretty at night, with the lanterns put at its entrance. Maybe we don’t have the most spectacular old town in the world, but at least what we have is pretty.
