61. PR achieved and BC road trip

North Vancouver, Canada, 16.07.2018.

It is done. Two days ago, I finally received a message from IRCC saying that my Permanent Residency application was approved. 🙂 And it is actually very hard for me to express how happy I am about this. At this very moment, it still feels a bit unreal and I think that this piece of news still has to “sink in” before I will be able to realize that I actually achieved the first of my two major goals for 2018. However, I do already feel somewhat relieved and happy and I will most certainly be very joyous once I get to hold the actual PR card in my hand. This whole development is actually pretty crazy considering that just 6 months ago, the chances of me staying here in Canada were very slim and I thought that I would have to stop working there and then. Yes, at that point I definitely got lucky but I also never stopped focusing on my goal to get Permanent Residency here in Canada and now it happened. 🙂 That’s so awesome that I can now stay here for at least another 5 years, I can hardly put it into adequate words. Thus, I will probably write a little more about this whole PR thing in a future blog entry and now focus a little more my recent BC- road trip with Glenn in June.

Bridal Veil Falls near Highway 1, east of Harrison Hot Springs.

View on the Fraser Valley from Bear Mountain near Harrison Hot Springs.

Othello Tunnels in Hope, BC. We only stopped in Hope for a few hours on our way to Coalmont.

In less than three weeks, Glenn and I saw so much of BC and it was an absolutely awesome experience. I love this province because it is so diverse and it has so many nice spots and stunning nature. And even though we were almost on the road for three weeks, I still feel that we only managed to see a fraction of the province. So there is more to discover in the future. 🙂 This is what we did on our road trip:

04.06.: Fort Langley, Bridal Veil Falls, Sandy Cove Hike (Harrison Hot Springs)
05.06.: Bear Mountain, Bear Lake, Hot Springs Pool in Harrison Hot Springs
06.06.: Ruby Creek Gallery, Hope, Othello Tunnels+Hike, Hope Landslide, Princeton
07.06.: Granite Creek Ghost City, Blakeburn, Coal Seam, Coal Mine, Moskito Hike
08.06.: Grizzly Bears around Princeton, Ochre Bluff, Hoodoos, Otter Lake near Tulameen
09.06.: Hedley museum, Drive from Princeton to Penticton, Orga- day in Penticton
10.06.: Kelowna City, waterfront walk, three Wine Tastings around Kelowna
11.06.: Last Spike Craigllachie, Moses Falls near Revelstoke, Swimming Pool Revelstoke
12.06.: Mount Revelstoke trails, Glacier National Park: Bear Creek Falls, The Hermit trail
13.06.: Forestry Museum Revelstoke, Swimming Pool Revelstoke, Orga- day (shopping,…)
14.06.: Begbie Falls and Sutherland Falls close to Revelstoke
15.06.: Golden downtown, Sinclair Falls and Juniper Hike in Radium Falls
16.06.: Yoho National Park: Takakkaw Falls, Emerald Lake, Hamilton Falls, Hamilton Lake
17.06.: Diana Lake- hike near Radium Falls
18.06.: Kootenay National Park: Paint Pots, Marble Canyon, Stanley Glacier
19.06.: Quiet & Orga- day in Radium Falls
20.06.: Drive to Edmonton, West Edmonton Mall, Beercade Bar in the evening
21.06.: Farewell in Edmonton. Glenn stayed with his family and I drove up north for my Death Race Training Camp at Grande Cache

Open coal seam near the Ghost Town of Blakeburn, close to Coalmont.

Hoodoos near Princeton. Close to this place, we saw two bears playing in the meadows.

View on Revelstoke city from the Nels Nelsen Ski Jump on Mount Revelstoke.

Overall, our road trip was absolutely awesome. We visited four National Parks (Mount Revelstoke, Glacier National Park, Yoho and Kootenay), drove almost 3000 Kilometers and experienced so many awesome things along our way that I can’t possibly mention everything. Writing about every single stop on our road trip would surely be too much for this blog entry so I will just write a little about the National Parks. When I hear people talk about the National Parks in western Canada, Banff and Jasper are undoubtedly the two most mentioned National Parks. And they are really beautiful so they absolutely deserve to be mentioned. Then again, Yoho, Kootenay and the Glacier National Park are absolutely stunning as well. But somehow, they are not nearly as much in peoples’ focus as Banff and Jasper are. Interestingly, many Canadians who asked me where I went during my holidays haven’t actually been to Yoho and Kootenay yet. That’s quite surprising because these National Parks are so beautiful and scenic that I don’t really understand why everyone seems to be so focused on Banff and Jasper. Anyway, the bottom line here is that I can only recommend visiting these National Parks to everyone who is interested in doing hikes, experiencing nature and wildlife and getting to know beautiful BC a little better. We saw quiet mountain lakes, stunning waterfalls, black bears and mountain goats by the road, canyons, glaciers, blooming meadows, snowy forests, wild creeks and rivers and raw mountain cliffs. And much much more…

View from the trail of “The Hermit” hike in Glacier National Park into the valley.

Takakkaw- falls in Yoho National Park. Pretty impressive how high it is!

A very unstable bridge on our hike to Diana Lake. We made it without falling into the water!

Some of the most stunning pictures of our trip (black bear at the road, Stanley Glacier in Kootenay National Park,…) are already on my Facebook page so I decided not to include those in the current blog entry. Aside from all the beautiful nature experiences, Glenn and I also enjoyed exploring many of the small towns and villages along our route. We managed to try quite a few vegan restaurants (yum yum!) along our way and, of course, we also had our share of wine tastings in the Okanagan. 🙂 Overall, we definitely had a lot of fun on the road trip and I am glad that we could finally make this trip happen after Glenn wasn’t able to join me on my 2016- trip to Canada. This was our third trip together after having visited Amsterdam in January 2016 and Scotland in October 2016. I hope you will be back in Canada soon, Glenn, so we can continue our sightseeing trip through BC and Alberta. 🙂

Paint Pots in Kootenay National Park.

The lower end of Marble Canyon, also Kootenay National Park.

Glenn and me playing “House of the Dead I” on our last evening of the road trip.

Our road trip ended with us playing a longer game of “House of the Dead I”, a real Arcade classic, at the Beercade- bar in Edmonton. It was a lot of fun and definitely a worthy last activity during our road trip. Then, on the next day, Glenn went to his family that lives close to Edmonton and I drove up to Grande Cache to take part in a training camp for the Canadian Death Race. But that is a different story and I will save it for the next blog entry that I will hopefully be able to write before I will actually be running the Death Race on August 4th…

If you are still looking for a good music track to listen to during your next road trip, try this one. It worked quite well for us and it is definitely great on sunny days with your car windows down:

Five – Everybody get up

60. A lazy writer

North Vancouver, Canada, 30.05.2018.

It is more than ten weeks ago since I last wrote something for this blog and I really should have taken the time to sit down and write a little bit a lot earlier. So when it comes to writing my blog, I admit that I have been very lazy lately. Thus, the title of this blog’s entry. 🙂 Alright then, let’s catch up on what has happened in the last ten weeks, shall we?

After the Dirty Duo- race in March, I had a pretty quiet rest of the month with running and working as my main priorities. It was a little bit challenging at work since both of my managers were gone for the whole month and I had to manage my store mainly on my own. However, I did get quite a bit of support from my store regulars so that I did not have to work too many extra hours. The situation itself turned out to be pretty interesting as it forced me to focus on the really important things and delegate or let go of all other duties that were not really vital for the store’s immediate performance.

In April, I flew back to Germany for two weeks to meet friends and family and to deal with a few organizational and bureaucratic issues. The first thing I had to do was to fill out a lenghty report for the Canadian Immigration Agency about my history as a former officer of the German Army. The information they wanted included posting dates, names of superiors, promotion dates, the names of my units and a comprehensive list of my duties for every single position I held during my career. In the end, just dealing with this request and finishing my Canadian tax return kept me busy for a few days already.

Beautiful weather in Köln (Cologne) when I went there to meet Martin, a good friend of mine who still works for Lidl.

At the Motorjesus- concert in Mönchengladbach. It has already become a tradition to do that together with my brother.

A stretch of my favourite trail, not far away from my mum’s house. While I was in Germany, the sun shone almost every day!

Aside from this “work- part”, I also found the time to visit my family and some of my friends as well during my Germany- holidays. I stayed at my mum’s place for a few days, I went to a rock- concert with my brother and I also spent a quiet and relaxing day with my dad, chatting about a lot of things. Then, I also met my army friends from the Captain’s Mafia, a good friend from my Lidl- days and, of course, my best buddy, Glenn. He and I spent quite a bit of time together planning for our roadtrip through British Columbia, starting either on June 4th or 5th. That is in less than a week from now! We will probably drive through and see a few places in the Okanagan and then spent a lot of time in the YOHO and KOOTENAY National Park. Needless to say that I am already really excited about that! Finally and before I flew back to Canada on April 24th, Rachel flew in from Vancouver and we spent a lovely weekend together in Hamburg. It was great to show her the city that I lived in for almost six years and it was good to re-visit some of my favourite spots. These are just some of the highlights of that fabulous weekend:

We visited the Hamburg’s magnificent town hall and found this greek- inspired statue in the backyard.

The original “Heiße Ecke” on St. Pauli’s Reeperbahn. We ate a Currywurst here before watching the “Heisse Ecke” comedy play at Schmidt’s Tivoli theatre.

We had a “Dinner in the Dark” at this place. It was a challenge and an absolutely stunning experience to eat a four-course surprise-dinner in complete darkness, served by blind waiters.

Soon after I came back from Germany, I had a fitness weekend coming up in early May. First, I met up with Emilia and we went for two hikes at the Golden Ears Provincial Park. Again, the weather was beautiful and we got to enjoy a sunny day at this beautiful park. When hiking to the waterfalls (see picture) and a lookout, I noticed that there is another hike in the park that goes all the way up to the 1500m summit. This could be something that Glenn and I may do next week, at the start of our road trip through BC. We’ll see about that…

Scenery at the Golden Ears Provincial Park with view on the still snow-covered mountains.

The lower part of the Golden Ears waterfalls.

The upper part of the Golden Ears waterfalls with a large pothole on the right side.

The day after we hiked at Golden Ears Provincial Park, it was race day in Vancouver, May 6th. I already ran the BMO Vancouver Marathon last year and that was the very first marathon I ever ran. So at the start of this year, it sounded like a good idea to me to sign up for this race again. The weather on race day was lovely again and I felt really good when the race started. Since I knew from last year that there would be plenty of good aid stations along the way, I decided to run without my backpack and rely on what I would get from these aid stations. Well, it turned out that this time, they only had ONE!!! aid station that offered gel packs instead of at least three of them last year. So that was pretty bad as it serioiusly impacted my nutrition intake. In addition to that, I probably ran too quick during the first 20ish- kilometers so that the second half of the marathon was not at all enjoyable anymore. Also, I felt that running on tarmac for the whole distance really put an extra strain on my body and I felt a lot worse after these 42 kilometers than I did after the 50 kilometers of trail in March. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to even sign up for this race since neither the distance nor the elevation profile nor the running conditions of the race mirrored what I will be facing at the Death Race in August. So not a good training run at all, I suppose. Anyway, lessons learned. With the way my knees still feel even three weeks after the race, I don’t think that I will run a tarmac-only race anytime soon again. Better focus on trail running. In the end, I finished the marathon in 3 hours and 35 minutes, so it took me 8 minutes longer than last year.

This was a so-called “Yoga for runners”- session on the day before the race. When I was a kid, people used to call that “sleeping in the sun”. 🙂

Just seconds before the race started. Again, we were really blessed with the weather on that day.

In the weeks after the marathon, I continued my training for my next big racing event: The Death Race training camp in Grand Cache from June 22nd to June 24th. Judging from the prelimiary training plan I saw, this camp will be quite a challenge on its own already. I believe the goal of the training camp is to run the whole course of the Death Race (=125 Km) in those three days. That will surely give us a good idea of what awaits us in August when we will have to do the same course in just 24 hours. Fun times! 🙂

With regard to my Permanent Residence application, I have not heard anything back from IRCC since I submitted the last documents at their request. Judging from their usual processing times for new PR applications, I should hear from them soon though. Hopefully there will be something positive to report in my next blog entry, which will probably go online in July sometime.

In the meantime, I hope that all of my readers enjoy life as much as I do and that you will have an equally glorious summer with lots of great activities and events coming up. Let’s get the summer started with this nice summer song by Bam Bam:

Bam Bam – Bags packed 

56. Current status PR & 2017 in a nutshell

North Vancouver, Canada, 30.12.2017.

When I wrote my last blog entry three weeks ago, I was in a great mood because it seemed to me that I had a good chance of getting my Canadian Permanent Residency at some point in the future. Then, I received an E-Mail from IRCC that struck a serious blow to my dreams of staying longer in Canada. See for yourself:

Rejection of my application by IRCC.

Now there is a lot I could say about this but I will reduce it to just these few comments:

1. When I applied for my current visa last year, I did not submit a translation of my German Police certificate and it was accepted by IRCC.
2. My German police certificate symply said “Keine Eintragung” which means “No trace”. Even without a translation, I think that this expression should be known at IRCC because there are thousands of Germans who send in their Police Certificates each year when applying for a work & travel visa, PR or a young professional visa.
3. Simply cancelling the whole application now and not even giving me the opportunity to obtain and submit that translation seems really harsh and also inefficient. By doing this, they actually produce more work than they save. In a previous blog entry, I was full of praise for the Canadian bureaucracy. Seems like I was a little too rash with that judgment…
4. In the end, it is my own fault that this happened because I did not provide this specific translation which I was supposed to according to their regulations. So I did not read all of their regulations in detail and that was probably a mistake. Or I should have maybe invested a few hundred dollars and have an Immigration Consultant have a look at my application. That would have been another option…

Anyway, there is nothing I can do about this anymore now. As of now, I can still continue working and staying in Canada after January 2nd since I also applied for a work permit extension so that I will be in “implied status” from January 3rd onwards. However, since my PR application has been cancelled, there is a high probability that my work permit extension will also be cancelled once they start looking into it. Now I would still have a chance to get approval for the work permit extension if my current employer AND the government of BC (they already noinated me to become one of their citizens) supported me. Both of them have to provide me with a specific letter/offer that I already requested more than 2 weeks ago. And guess what? I did not receive anything from either one yet. So time is ticking for me now and there is nothing I can really do about it. Not the greatest of all feelings, that’s for sure…

A heron sitting in a colourful autumn- tree in Stanley Park.

Now people keep asking me if I can’t simply reapply for Permanent Residency. Yes, I can and I already have but the whole process takes a lot of time and I fear that I don’t have that time. First of all, my BC provincial nomination has to be tied to my new PR application again. That will take a few weeks probably. After that, I will score enough points again to be invited by IRCC. However, I will first have to wait for the next round of invitations. That can take up to another three weeks. After that, I will be allowed to submit all of my documents again and wait for the application to be processed. Now it is very likely that my application for the work permit extension will be rejected a lot earlier than me being able to finalize my new PR application. And in that case, I would have to notify IRCC and BC PNP that I am not working anymore. This again will probably lead to BC PNP withdrawing my provincial nomination and thus IRCC voiding my new PR application on the basis of me not having enough points anymore. Sounds like a vicious circle to you? Not quite but close I would say.

A family of racoons visiting “my” backyard in late October. And they were pretty curious.

Vancouver in fog. View from West Vancouver. Note how the Lions Gate Bridge and parts of Stanley Park are above the clouds.

 

Anyway, this is my current situation now and so I can’t even start planning anything for 2018 yet because it is totally unclear what will happen when and how. Just a few years ago, so much uncertainty would have driven me crazy and left me fearful und helpless. Today, I am a lot stronger and experienced so that I know that every change also offers opportunities and that life goes on, no matter what. Still, I am incredibly sad that I potentially have to leave Canada again soon and that this is mainly my own fault because I was not diligent enough with that first PR application. Probably one of the biggest mistakes I ever made in life. And definitely one of those mistakes that have a huge huge impact on one’s future.

My personal drink discovery of 2017: An amazing red wine from the Bonterra winemaker, California. Resonably prized!

Alright, enough of the whining about the PR. Let’s do a little review of this beautiful year 2017 instead. And let’s talk about the pictures in this blog first. I intentionally chose not to show any pictures that I already used in previous blog entrys. Why? Because there are way too many meaningful and great things that I would want to show again here. So instead I went with a much smaller set of pictures that I haven’t shown in my blog yet. Some are already a few months old, others only a few days, but all are worth showing. Finally, I chose the title picture because it mirrors exactly how I feel right now about my future. Arrows pointing in all kinds of direction and I have no idea yet which way to take. I took that picture on the Camino in Spain (October) and despite this irritating situation, Rachel and I found the right way then and did not get lost. I have faith in myself to do the same for my future once I have clarity about my application- situation.

Left, right or straight ahead? Which way is the right one? Who knows?

There were so many highlights in 2017 that it is hard for me to remember them all. Looking at my travel highlights, there was my hiking trip to Portugal and Spain in October, my trip to Vancouver Island in September, my trips to Saskatchewan and Texada Island in August, my trip to Germany in June/ July, my trip to Salt Spring Island in June and my trip to Olds/ Red Deer in May. All of them amazing trips and I am truly priviledged that I was able to do every single one of them.
My running highlights include the halfmarathon in Langley in January, the marathons in Vancouver and Red Deer in May, the 30K race in Whisler in June, the marathon in Texada in August, the 50K Trail race on Vancouver Island in September and finally the awesome 80K race in Whistler in October. A lot of running for the year and hopefully also a good preparation for future endeavours in 2018.
Aside from the running, I also did quite a bit of rock climbing in 2017. Actually, I just started climbing in 2017, that’s probably why it is worth mentioning here. 🙂 So far I have only climbed indoors but if the opportunity arises, I am definitely open to climbing outdoors as well in 2018.

Great view on Mount Seymouor. Snow begins at roughly 900 meters elevation.

Gentian Lake at the Brothers-Creek-Loop, West Vancouver.

In 2017, I also managed to do a lot of hiking. I hiked the Camino with Rachel, I hiked quite a few routes together with Emilia, with my Mum, with Martin or simply alone. During those hikes, I got to see Spain, Portugal, Grouse Mountain, Mount Seymour, Cypress Mountain, the Chief, Lynn Canyon, Bunzten Lake, Lighthouse Park, the Brothers- Creek- Loop, Quarry Rock and the interiors of Texada Island, Vancouver Island and Salt Spring Island. And probably, I even forgot some of my hikes in this enumeration….

Above everything else, I feel that I was very fortunate to spend so much quality time with so many wonderful people in 2017. My Mum and Martin from the Captain’s Mafia came to see me in Canada in July (Martin) and August (Mum) and we spent some really nice days together. An unbelievable feeling to receive visitors here, several thousand kilometers away from my former home. In the first months of the year, Verena was still in Vancouver and I remember doing a lot of different things together with her and having a lot of fun. During our trip in Portugal and Spain, I spent two great weeks together with Rachel on the longest hike I have done so far in my life. Even after that hike we kept in touch and I really enjoy the time we spend together. In August, I was invited to a family reunion in Saskatchewan and that weekend was a real blast. It was great to meet so many wonderful people (again), to be at that beautiful lake and to be introduced to a family’s tradition, the strudel- making. Big hugs for Dawn, Jo Anne and Doug for also inviting me to their places from January to March (Dawn) and May (Jo Anne and Doug). I really enjoyed spending time together with you! In July, I flew back to Germany and I met Glenn, Martin from Lidl and two of my buddies from the Captain’s Mafia. It was great to see you all again and I am looking forward to meeting you all again in April. We will have a great time together, I know it! During that week in Germany, I also met my Mum, of course, because I mainly stayed at her place. 🙂 Hugs and kisses for you, Mum, for being my Mum and for continuously supporting me while I am away in Canada!
Now I will stop mentioning people right here because otherwise this blog entry will become way too long. Sorry for not mentioning everyone explicitly who helped to make my year 2017 as great as it was. I haven’t forgotten you!

Majestic waterfall on the Brothers- Creek- Loop, West Vancouver.

My Mum and I at Cypress Mountain, after a hike. Looks like I have quite the belly on the picture. 🙂

Overall, 2017 was probably the best year of my life so far. No close friends or family members got really sick or died and I myself also stayed pretty healthy. In addition to that, I had an awesome year in Canada with lots of highlights and only very few things that did not go my way. Even though the above outlined PR issue is a looming dark shadow in the otherwise really light and shiny appearance of 2017, I do not let this single and tragic mistake make me feel bad about the whole year. I am grateful for every experience in this year and I am still full of hope that the new year 2018 can be as amazing and exciting as the current fading year. 🙂

Time to close this blog entry with a crazy song (Russian/ German- lyrics) that will supply us with all the energy we possibly need for a good start to 2018. Cheers!

Russkaja – Energia

52. Texada Island and Run the Rock

From Texada Island to Horseshoe Bay, Canada, 29.08.2017.

After five beautiful days on this amazing island, I am now on my way back to Vancouver’s north shore, back to normality. What a great experience it was to explore Texada Island and to meet its friendly people.

It all started when I luckily got the last ferry to the island on Thursday evening so that I could still drive to my final destination in the night: The Shelter Point Regional Park with its campground. Of course, the campground was already closed when I arrived significantly after 10pm but that did not bug me. I just simply parked in front of the campground and slept there overnight just to wake up at a beautiful scenery in the morning. Then, I decided to get a camping space for 3 days, pay for it and take a shower. Since my marathon was still 2 days away, I decided to climb the highest “mountain” on the isle: Mount Pocahontas. The hike was pretty short and the ascent was not a big challenge but the view up at that “mountain” was really beautiful. Also, I did not encounter a single other person during that hike and that happened to me more than once during my whole trip. In the afternoon, I decided to mainly relax so I drove to Bob’s Lake, swam a little and enjoyed the solitude there while taking a longer nap.

View from Mount Pocahontas to the north. The white spots are the quarries.

Bob’s Lake. Quiet and remote place to enjoy some solitude.

On Saturday, I decided to do the “nature walk” that starts close to the campground and I got to see some really old growth trees there. Also, I took the opportunity to take a walk on the beach and collect some beautiful shells for my apartment. Again, it was all but crowded and I merely met a handful of other tourists during the walk. In the afternoon, I figured it was time to explore the island’s main village, “Van Anda”, to get a coffee and to see the local Heritage Museum. Normally, I am not a fan of visiting a museum if the weather is that good (we had pure sunshine all 5 days, just gorgeous) but in this case it was well worth it. The museum was very informative, had some very nice pieces in it and you could feel that the people who built and maintain it put a lot of love into its exhibitions. Also, I met Peter over there and he guided us through the whole museum and gave us a very informative tour. I have never had a personal guide in a museum and it was so nice to have him with us and bring Texada’s history to live for us. When I say “we”, I mean myself and an American couple (Keith and Becky) who also visited Texada Island and who were also great people to talk to. I later met them again at the “Run the Rock” event when Keith actually ran the half marathon. After the visit to the museum, I spent the rest of the afternoon reading a good book at an abandoned limestone quarry filled with water where a few other people actually took a swim. When I became hungry again in the evening, I went for a good tasty dinner at the island’s only real restaurant, the “Ravenous Raven”. And no, I did not have pasta although it is always advised to eat that prior to a marathon. Back at the campground, I was a bit surprised to see a tent in the middle of my camping space. It turned out to be Rob and Kerry’s tent and they put it up there because they thought this camping space was not yet taken. As there was no empty spot left on the campground (a lot of marathoners there!), I offered them to stay the night in my spot since there was enough room for all of us there. Later it turned out that they were also from Vancouver and that they would also do the marathon. So we had a lot to talk about and it was good to have them around. 🙂

The nature trail near Shelter Point Regional Park.

Heritage museum at Van Anda.

View on an abandoned limestone quarry. Today: A great place to relax and swim.

Early on Sunday, I got up, prepared a little breakfast for me and made my gear race- ready. In this Marathon, I was determined to try out two different things: Firstly, I would carry my own running pack during the whole race to see if I would be able to comfortably run with something on my back the whole time. And secondly, it was my goal to constantly feed on my drink, consisting of 1.5l of water and 5 gel-packs. I just poured the content of the gel-packs into the water prior to the race and made it dissolve by furiously shaking the water bottle. In theory, I thought that constantly consuming this drink during the race would help keep my muscles work and feed them properly so I would suffer less pain in the last quarter of the race. It turned out that this was not the case as my muscles responded exactly as they did in the last races. No problems in the first 20 kilometers, some notable changes in the next 10 kilometers, considerable pain in the last 10 kilometers. So drinking all these gel- packs did not make a notable difference for me. Maybe I will try a different brand for the next race and hope for the best. In any case, I found out that I don’t have an issue with running with a running pack on my back so at least one of my two experiments was successful. The course of the marathon was a lot more demanding than the courses of the previous races I had done. No severe and long elevation changes in the course but a lot of small hills and up- and downs. Also, it was quite the challenge to run one half of the course on packed and loose gravel and one half of the course on tarmac. Overall, I managed to come in second overall at a time of 3:40 (that’s what the official timekeeping says…) which I am totally fine with. On that day with that course and my current training state, I feel that this was as fast as I was able to go. The winner was quite a bit older than me and finished in 3:29. I lost contact to him after roughly 10 kilometers when I decided to not chase him anymore but started running my own race instead. Now do I feel prepared for the 50K Finlayson trail race on September 9th? Honestly: no. That race has a much more demanding elevation profile and it will also be a lot more technical than the “Run the Rock” marathon on Texada Island. But I don’t shy away from challenges so I will just do it and see what happens. It is my great strength to just take the pain and go on. And if that’s what I need to do in the last 20 kilometers of that race, so be it. In any case, it will be a lot of fun and I want to see where my limits are. I also don’t worry too much about the outcome of the race since I will have a lot of time to complete it so that I can run slower overall and maybe even walk the stepper hills…

Start and Finish of the “Run the Rock” marathon, right next to the campground.

After the race: Chatting with fellow runners. This is Keith from America, a relly nice guy.

Just chilling…. well deserved. 🙂

 

From Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo, Canada, 07.09.2017.

Yes, I was unable to finish this blog entry during my way home on the 29^th of August. I was quite fortunate to actually catch every ferry I was waiting for and I did not have to wait too long for boarding each time. So I did not have the time to continue writing. Then, I wanted to finish writing this blog entry after work last week but never got the chance to do it because I happened to be pleasantly distracted a lot in the last days. However, now I am back at the Horseshoe Bay ferry terminal, waiting for the ferry to take me to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. Thus, I now have the time to finish writing this blog entry.

After the marathon, I decided to chill for the rest of the day and to read a little in a “new” Peter May- book which I had borrowed from my local library. On Monday, I decided to look for the caves near Davie Bay so I got in my car and tried to find a road leading to Davie Bay. This was more difficult than I thought since there was no real road at all leading to that bay. Now that did not really deter me. I just parked my car at the side of closest road passing Davie Bay and started hiking through a forest to get to that bay. When I finally reached Davie Bay, I was generously rewarded for my effort with a breathtaking panorama and a really unique experience. Although I looked for the caves all along the rocky and rough coast (great opportunity to do a little scrambling and climbing), I was unable to find them. But then, on my way back, I suddenly heard a loud “Splash” and I wondered who was jumping in the water here since there was no other human being around anywhere. So I went in the direction of the sound and discovered… about 15 sea lions, some swimming in the water, some lying on the rocks. It seemed like they were as curious as I was because they all kept looking at me, swimming around a little but always keeping a distance of roughly 20 meters or more. It was a beautiful experience to actually be so close to them and see them in the wild and not in a zoo. After a while, I figured that I had disturbed them enough so I left and made my way back to the car. Since I had heard lots of good things about Shingle Beach, I decided to camp there for the last day of my stay on Texada Island. The beach itself was as beautiful as promised and I could not resist to take a swim in the clear water. Finally, I spend the rest of the day relaxing at an elevated spot above the beach, enjoying a great conversation with a very sweet and interesting lady.

Rough and rocky coast at Davie Bay.

Sea lions in the water, looking at me.

Curious sea lion, diving near the place where I sat.

On Tuesday morning, I decided to visit Turtle Lake before trying to get on the ferry at noon. The lake itself was beautiful but I did not see any turtles and the hike around the lake was less exciting than promised by the reviews I had read about it. In my mind, Turtle Lake is not necessarily a “must- go” on Texada Island. Later, I still had the time to take a brief look at one of Texada’s active quarries when I waited to get on my first ferry at Blubber Bay. And that’s about all there is to write about my little adventure on this beautiful island. In case the Canadian Government allows me to stay here, I will definitely consider returning to Texada next year, not only for the marathon but also to finally find the caves I was looking for…

Coast of Shingle beach. Mostly very fine gravel but very scenic.

Small crab trying to attack my feet. 🙂 I left the little guy alone…

Start of the hike around Turtle Lake near Van Anda.

Active quarry at Blubber Bay.

So right now I am on a ferry again (the “Queen of Oak Bay”) but this time my destination is Nanaimo. Then, in approximately 36 hours, I will start running my first Ultra Marathon, the 50K Finlayson Arm trail race. I am excited to do it but there is also a fairly big amount of doubt about my state of training and the wisdom of choosing to do this race so soon after the last marathon. Anyway, there is no turning back now, just anxious anticipation and an unbroken will to overcome any obstacles thrown in my way. I will write about it when it’s done… Until then, have a little bit of relaxing music, a lovely piece that Glenn made me aware of today. Thanks! 🙂

Yiruma –River flows in you

51. Busy times

From Horseshoe Bay to Texada Island, Canada, 24.08.2017.

I have been lazy with my blog lately, I agree. There has not been much time for me to sit down and recapitulate what I experienced in the last weeks. But now there is a little time because I am on a ferry again and on my way to Texada Island. This trip will include three ferry crossings and quite a bit of driving and I hope that I will make it to the island by this evening so I don’t have to stay somewhere on the Sunshine Coast overnight. But even if I have to do that, it won’t be the end of the world. As usual, I will be fine in the end. 🙂

Another ferry crossing our way from Horseshoe Bay to Gibsons.

Sunshine Coast: view from the ferry.

So why am I making this trip to Texada Island? Well, it is time to start running again and on Sunday the 27th of August, there will be the “Run the Rock” marathon and I am happy to do it. Also, it is always nice to explore new places so I decided to stay a little longer on the island and travel around a little. Right now, I feel I am in a fairly good training state but I have to admit that I haven’t done much running in the last two weeks. I was really busy with working long hours or exploring the Vancouver area together with my mum.

The next big event after my last blog entry was the Stefan/Henderson reunion near Saskatoon on the weekend of August 4th. It was an amazing weekend full of good conversations, great sport activities and exciting new experiences. I got to meet many interesting and very friendly members of the Stefan/Henderson family, I learned how to prepare the famous family- Schtroodel (Jo Anne, did I spell that correctly?) and I got a very interesting insight into the Canadian past when we watched the old family pictures on the slide projector. Overall, I had an awesome time and I feel really grateful that I was allowed to be there and meet everyone. Now since I don’t know if everyone is okay with me posting family pictures or going into details about our activities on the internet, I will not do that here but instead I will only post a few pictures of the cabin and the nearby lake.

The cabin at the lake.

View on the lake from a nearby hill.

Sunset at the lake.

After returning from Saskatoon, a lot of work awaited me at my store. Due to our then upcoming transition to a new computer system, there was still a lot to prepare and to take care of. I had to work pretty long hours because one of my managers was attending the training course for the new computer system while the other manager was on vacation. So I pretty much had to do all by myself. But I won’t complain ab out that because it was still manageable, I like being busy and it is my job to do that, right? In the end, all the extra work paid off and we had a really smooth transition to the new computer system on August 15th.

Chilling at the lake in the morning.

Beautiful lake to swim in. Especially early in the morning when everybody else is still sleeping.

Then, my mum arrived in Vancouver to visit me. I took some days off to do some hiking with her and to show her some of the sights in Vancouver city. First, we hiked up to Mount Seymour and I finally made it to peak 3, the “real” Mount Seymour, together with my mum. The hike itself was really nice and I was so proud to see that my mum was really fit and strong so she had no trouble to hike all the way with me. However, there were two things about the hike that were pretty annoying. First of all, we encountered a lot of hungry flies and mosquitos on our way up. And secondly, we partly had to hike in clouds which also covered the entire mountain during the whole day. So we did not have the great 360- degree view that Mount Seymour usually offers. I felt really sorry for my mum because it would have been really great for her to see that nice panorama live. Not much you can do about that I guess. In the end, it would not have made a difference had we done the hike one day later because on that Friday, the sky was covered by clouds again. Instead, we spent that Friday downtown and I guided my mum through the city. She went on the Vancouver lookout, tried the Fly Over Canada simulator, visited the CatFé to meet some cats and went to a comedy show at YukYuks with me in the evening. In between this full day, we ate at 2 different restaurants where we got some very delicious food. On Sunday, I took my mum hiking again and we conquered the St. Marks summit together with a few friends of mine. Fortunately, the weather was good on that day and we could enjoy the great view on the Howe Sound and the many mountains around the area. It was a wonderful and sunny day that really compensated us for the rather bad weather on Thursday. On Saturday and Monday, my mum went out to discover other places in Vancouver on her own. After these few but really intensive days, my mum had to fly back to Germany on Tuesday. It was really great to have her here in Vancouver and show her the beauty of this country. I guess that she now understands why I love it here and why I will definitely stay here if the Canadian government allows me to do that.

My mum at Mount Seymour taking a picture of me and vice versa. 🙂 Later on I noticed that she is actually quite well camouflaged in that picture. 🙂

Skilift at Cypress Mountain. We hiked to St. Marks from there.

View on Howe Sound from the St. Marks summit.

This week, I had to work from Monday to Thursday (today) and now I have a few days off again to spend some time on Texada Island. So far, I have made it to Earls Cove and I am currently waiting for my second ferry. I guess I need to be very lucky to actually make it to Texada Island today. Maybe I will be able to catch the last ferry to Blubber Bay but that depends on the length of the second ferry trip and the amount of time that I need to drive to the third harbor. Well, we will see about that I guess…

Last update: It is 9:20 PM and I just made it onto the last ferry to Texada Island in time after 6 hours of travel. Yay!!! 🙂

Today’s music advice is as straightforward as possible but it also contains a good amount of irony. Please find out for yourself, see link below. Thanks for being here in Canada, Mum, it was great to have you here. See you again in Germany next January!

257ers – Mama

47. Salt Spring Island, Part 2

Ferry between Long Harbour (Salt Spring Island) and Tsawwassen, Canada, 14.06.2017.

After five amazing days on Salt Spring Island, I am slowly making my way back to reality. It is Wednesday morning and the “Queen of Nanaimo” (again!) is already taking me back to Tsawwassen. My mood is not the best, I am still really tired (I got up at 4:15 AM) and I am looking at a long day with my late shift in the store starting at noon. Anyway, I don’t want to complain because I just had a great time on the island and I feel blessed that I have a job that allows me to do all the travelling and sightseeing that I am doing in the moment.

So, what happened on my last two days on the island? Well, first of all, I met one of my AirBnB- hosts, Roxy, on Wednesday evening. We talked quite a bit and it was really interesting to hear what is currently happening on the island and what she did so far in her life. Also, it was a great experience for me to see how an alternative way of life may look like and how different lives and ideas can develop with time. Unfortunately, I did not meet Heather since she came home when I was already asleep and she left before I got up again. Pretty tight schedule for someone who lives on an island that seems to offer such a relaxed and peaceful life. So after I got up on Monday, I drove to Reginald Hill to do some running and hiking. By accident, I missed the first turn that would have led me straight up to the hill and instead, I ended up on First Nations land with a magnificent coastline. I happily walked along the coast for several hundred meters and enjoyed the sunshine and the great view of the ocean and the small islands along the way. Finally, I decided it was time to do some exercise so I took a nearby trail that eventually led me up to Reginald Hill. The view up there was also quite nice so I enjoyed that for a little while before I descended to the parking place again. Since I felt still felt fresh after this little excursion, I decided to drive further south on the island to also do the Hope Hill trail on that day. This trail mainly led through a relatively dense forest so it did not offer any particularly great views. That’s why I took this chance to actually train some uphill running in the comforting shade of the trees.

Coast line near Reginald Hill.

View on several other small islands.

View from Reginald Hill. The mountain on the right of the valley is Maxwell Mountain.

View on the bay leading to Fulford Harbour.

After all the hiking and running, I felt like I wanted to do calm down a little for the rest of the day. That’s why I decided to do yet another wine tasting and to also visit the local cheese “factory” and buy some of their local produce. The wine tasting at the Garry Oaks winery was quite nice and their wines were absolutely okay but none of them really appealed to me strongly so I only bought one bottle of a crisp and fresh white wine. In contrast to that, the different flavored types of cheese at the cheese factory were just amazing. I only tasted different types of goat cheese there but they were all really nice so I bought two different packages there despite their relatively high price. I guess paying these kinds of prices is what you have to do if you want really good quality and organic produces, right?
The day ended with me sitting at a beach on the northern part of the island, reading a little in my book and enjoying the sunset.

Garry Oaks Winery with tasting room.

Quite a few of their wines actually won prizes!!!

Goats and chickens roaming free nearby the cheese factory.

The cheese factory on Salt Spring Island.

My shoppings. Truly delicious. 🙂

Another beach, another great view, what more can you ask for?

On Tuesday morning, I decided to finalize and post my last blog entry before heading off to new adventures. So I did that before I drove to a parking place near Baynes Park and the Andreas Vogt Nature Reserve. That morning, I felt like running again so I put on my proper shoes and headed on to the trail that led to the park and the reserve. In the end, I only made a few pictures on this trip but I had a good time and still got to see many interesting things along the route. When I was done with that exercise, it seemed like a good idea to me to drive back to Ganges and finish reading my book while sitting in the small but beautiful Centennial Park. About 70 pages later, I was done with the book (good piece of literature, see below!) and it was time to get another great lunch at the Oystercatcher restaurant. This time I ordered grilled fish and raspberry ale (wow!) and it was really good again. Also, I met a few very nice and friendly islanders, including Shawn, who had been to Germany in the 80s. We talked a lot about Cologne, the people in Bavaria, the purpose of life and a lot of other different things. Surprisingly, Shawn was still able to speak a good amount of German although he had not been able to practice this language for years. In the end, he offered me to stay at his place for the night but I had to decline because I had to get up early today to catch the ferry that I am currently on. Also, it seemed like they would continue drinking and talking for a lot longer time than I intended to stay at that restaurant. Anyway, it was a great and joyful encounter and I will make sure to contact Shawn should I ever return to this beautiful island.

Wild flowers (I guess it is foxglove???) in the Andreas Vogt Nature Reserve.

I admire how the Canadians maintain their heritage and sights.

The Vape- Shop at Ganges. Symbol of a lifestyle.

WW1 and WW2 memorial at Centennial Park, Ganges.

A great book to read! Also, I generally like this author’s style of writing.

I guess this was everything that was worth reporting from this trip so I will conclude this blog entry, as usual, with a nice piece of music. Today’s piece is already relatively old but “rock-solid” (pun intended!) and it just came up on the playlist that I am listening to while writing this blog entry. Enjoy!

Foo Fighters – Monkey Wrench

46. Salt Spring Island, Part 1

Ganges (Salt Spring Island), Canada, 11.06.2017.

So far, I have already spent three of my five days on Salt Spring Island and I really enjoyed every single one of them. This island is quite unique in its atmosphere and although it is pretty small, there are really many beautiful spots to see and to discover. Now since I wrote quite a lot in the last two blog entries, I will try not to write as much in this one. (Spoiler: I just checked how many words the final draft of this blog entry has: Over 1400. A lot more than I wanted to write!) Instead, I will rather let this blog entry’s pictures speak for themselves to give you an impression of what it’s like on this amazing island.

On Thursday evening, I arrived at Long Harbour at about half past ten in the evening. Not the best time to find a place to park the car for the night but I nevertheless finally managed to do so. Early on Friday morning, I got up and drove to Ruckle Provincial Park to do a little running and hiking over there. There was a beautiful coastline- trail and I also got to see a heritage farm and parts of an old orchard. Also, I noticed that there is a well-maintained camping ground nearby and this may be a good place to stay if someone is looking to just do some camping. However, since I wanted to see all parts of the island, I decided not to stay in this rather remote area but to drive in the direction of the center of the island. On my way there, I made a stop at the Salt Spring Vineyard and tasted some of their wines. Their white- and red wines were really okay but the two sweet dessert wines (blackberry and apple) were really great so I got two bottles of each of those. After that, I looked for a place to stay overnight and found one at Bader’s Beach on the west coast of the island. A rather small beach but it was quiet and it offered a beautiful view on the sea so I was really happy to stay there for the night.

One of the coastal bays in Ruckle Provincial Park.

Heritage Farm with grazing sheeps at Ruckle Provincial Park.

Salt Spring Vineyards, view from the tasting house on to the estate.

Really nice desert wines. A bit pricy but absolutely worth it.

Bader’s Beach in the evening.

On Saturday, I went to the famous market in Ganges, the main village on the island. Many different things were offered on that market and almost all of them were made on the island. Also, it was clearly visible that there are many “alternative” people on the island as many shops advertised their products to be “nature-only”. I had a great time on the market and I also bought a nice piece of jewelry from Tony, one of the many craftsmen on the market. It is a silver bracelet with one cougar and six lynxes, all linked together. Did I already mention that I like crafted silverware with illustrated animals? Anyway, after the visit to the market, I got really hungry so I bought some of the local goat cheese (very good!!!) and a very good-smelling local bread. But instead of eating that right away, I decided to go for a proper lunch at one of the popular seafood restaurants, the Oystercatcher. It turned out to be a good choice because the food was really good and it was great to sit outside and eat in the sun.

Saturday market (mostly art and food) at the Ganges village.

My new silver bracelet: One cougar and 6 lynxes.

A great meal at the Oystercatcher restaurant.

After having eaten so well, I decided to go to the local BC Liquor store to have a chat with its store manager. I met Robert, a very nice guy and we talked a little bit about the daily business, our upcoming transition to a new computer system and about the local beers, ciders and wine. It was a pleasure to meet him and have this really good conversation. Following up on his advice to try the ciders from the local company, I drove to their brewery and tasted all of their current ciders. And it turned out Robert was right because some of their ciders are incredibly good and tasty. Needless to say, I also bought some bottles of their most delicious ciders (elderflower, hopped apricot and pear) for later consumption in North Vancouver.

The local BC Liquor Store on Salt Spring Island.

A lot of good ciders to taste. I liked all of the three non- apple ones better than the ones containing apples (dry, semi-dry and ginger-apple). Strange, eh?

In the afternoon, I decided to do a little hike so I drove to Mount Erskine (448m high) to climb it. The trail to the summit was pretty steep but the magnificent view at the top of the mountain more than overcompensated me for my effort. Also, the sun was out and I just sat down at one edge of the mountain and relaxed for quite a while before hiking back to my car. Later on, I drove to Burgoyne Bay to stay there over night because I wanted to hike up to Mount Maxwell early the next day.

Found a few Fairy doors on my way up to Mount Erskine. Never got to see the Fairies though…

View from Mount Erskine.

Another view from Mount Erskine.

On Sunday, I started hiking up to Mount Maxwell (602 meters) early in the morning and it did not take me too long to reach the top. On my way up, I saw several eagles circling over me and I also encountered some deer that went running as soon as they became aware of me. At the top of the mountain, once again, the panorama view was just gorgeous. It was quite fitting when I overheard a piece of conversation between an older lady and her husband that went like this: “…it is so beautiful up here, such an amazing view. We are blessed to live in a country like this, don’t you think? All the wonderful nature we have here…”. Well, I could not argue with her because that’s exactly what I think. After having climbed down from the mountain, I hiked up to Daffodil Point near Burgoyne Bay to just sit there at the beach and enjoy the sun for a little while. So relaxing if you don’t have any dates or appointments and you can just take your time to do whatever you feel like in the moment.

View from Mount Maxwell. The boats are anchoring at Burgoyne Bay.

View of the Valley with the vineyards and the beer brewery.

Daffodil point. A nice and quiet spot to relax and enjoy the sun.

Later in the afternoon, I drove to the Salt Spring Island Ale Brewery to do yet another tasting over there. Yes, my job keeps me busy, even on my long weekend. 🙂 Now I am not the biggest beer fan but some of their brews were really enjoyable so I did some shopping at the brewery as well. Of course, I also bought some bottles for my staff because I want them to enjoy some of this “exotic” stuff as well. Before driving to my AirBnB- place for the night, I made a quick stop at Beddis Beach and I decided to just lie on the beach, read a little and sunbath as long as the sun was still there.

So many beers, so different flavours. They are all organic and exclusively made with ingredients from the island.

Beddis Beach. Canada has it all: Mountains, Beaches, Wine and Beer, you name it 🙂

Now I am currently sitting in my room at Heather’s and Roxy’s place (AirBnB), I just had a hot shower and I feel like eating a little bit. My two hosts told me they would be working late and none of them has showed up yet but that does not worry me. I will probably meet them later in the evening.

Probably, this blog entry will not go live today as I still need to upload and edit the pictures and I don’t want to do that right now. Anyway, let’s finish the writing part of the blog with the usual music advice. Today’s song has absolutely nothing to do with the content of this blog entry but it is just a nice song that I stumbled upon when playing random playlists on YouTube. Check it out:

Fangclub – Bad Words

27. Berlin- trip and job developments

Siegen, Germany, 15.11.2016.

When I was planning for the Scotland- trip with Glenn, I realized that I had already spent a lot of time visiting non-German cities this year but that I haven’t ever even spent a full day in my own capital, Berlin. Thus, I decided to spend a few days in Berlin before leaving Germany in January 2017 for a longer time. This is what I did last weekend. Aside from doing sightseeing in the city, I also planned to see two friends and former colleagues of mine and the CEO of a small German company that I could work for in Canada.

The “Siegessäule” in Berlin, central point in the “Tiergarten”- Forest.

Overall, I am really glad I made the trip. The weather was okay for this time of the year so I had no problems running around and visiting everything I wanted to see. And Berlin has a lot to offer: Many shopping malls, big and lively public places and streets, churches, political buildings, historical sites and places, museums and many vantage points. Conveniently, many of these sites, especially the most important ones, are all pretty close together. This meant that I could see many of them all in one day. And it was worth it. I felt that Berlin has its own charm and that the city is absolutely worth seeing for anyone: Tourists and Germans alike. In hindsight, I should have already visited the city some years earlier. Anyway, if I have the chance to come back to the city one day, I will definitely do that to see what has changed since I left.

The “Reichstag”, German Parliament.

*** Update ***

I almost forgot to mention a very important detail of the trip. When walking through Berlin, a friend of mine pointed out that the Canadian embassy was nearby. So far so good, nothing really exciting yet. BUT there is an area outside the embassy that is also considered Canadian territory. It is marked with bollards, see photo below. Of course I had to go there and make the shortest visit to Canada ever. Strange though, it didn’t really feel like being in Canada. Anyway, I still wanted to share that experience and post the picture.

Canadian embassy in Berlin.

*** Update end ***

Aside from the sight- seeing I made, I also met two former colleagues and friends of mine. It was really good to see them again after several years and talk face to face instead of writing E-mails or phoning each other. We had great times together and I really enjoyed our lively conversations. Generally, I think it is really important to keep in contact with friends you once made, especially if they or you move away and you don’t see each other regularly anymore. So it was really good to see them again and to renew our friendship. Both of them have always lived in Berlin although their places of work were often somewhere else in Germany. Having seen Berlin’s beauty for myself, I can now understand why they never left the city but instead travelled a lot between their home and their place of work.

The “Brandenburger Tor”, right next to the “Reichstag”.

And how was the meeting with the CEO of the German company? Well, unfortunately, there was no meeting at all. However, I got a phone call from him and we did talk for quite some time. To cut a long story short: I won’t be selling software for his company in Canada because they already decided to continue working together with their current distribution partner. No good news for me because I would have loved to work together with them and to develop the Canadian market on my own. But nothing I can do about that now so it’s best to move on and pursue the other major plan I have.

This means that I will start to look for open positions for the job as a Park Ranger now. And that I will start to apply for these positions as soon as I see them. Also, I will have to start organizing how and when I want to acquire all the certificates necessary for the job. For example, I will have to do some medical training and get a certificate about that as a part of my application. However, I do not yet worry about that since I will probably have enough time in January and February to get all the necessary qualifications. And I also think that any kind of course that I need can be found in such a big city as Vancouver. But I will see about that in the next weeks…

Castle “Bellevue”, home of the German president.

Apart from looking for jobs in Canada, I now started to seriously clear out my German apartment. There are still many pieces of furniture that I need to sell or throw away and many unopened boxes that I need to check for their content. And as I do not want to keep anything that I do not absolutely need, I also need to get rid of most of the things that I will find in my many unopened boxes. Fun times but my apartment currently looks like someone dropped a bomb. 🙂 Anyway, I am confident that I will be able to sort out everything in time, so nothing to worry about in the moment.

Due to certain circumstances, I am a bit sad today so today’s music advice is a rather slow and sad song from one of the best rock bands ever. Rock on, Lemmy!

Motörhead – Dust and Glass

26. Scotland holidays in a nutshell

Siegen, Germany, 02.11.2016.

After three beautiful weeks in Scotland, I am now back in Germany to prepare for my upcoming Canada- adventure. However, this blog entry will not be about my preparations but about the holidays we had. Let’s review briefly what happened and lets see some pictures of the last part of the trip.

On October 10th, I drove from Gravesend to Aberdeen to pick up Glenn and then we went on to Aviemore in the Cairngorms National Park. We spent a few days there before we headed up north to Achiltibuie for my half marathon and to Ullapool. Unfortunately, we then only spent two days in the spectacular area north of Ullapool (Assynth). In hindsight, we should have stayed there longer. But what can you do when you plan a trip? After Ullapool, we drove south to Portree, Isle of Skye. We stayed there for four days and drove into each direction of the Isle once to see its most important attractions. Our next stop was Duror, next to Loch Linhe, where we probably chilled the most during our trip. But that was also necessary and we enjoyed that as well. After that, we spent some time in Arrochar which is in the Loch Lomond & The Trossachs National Park. There, we had our most memorable mountain climb at Ben Lui, which became known to us as the “Fog and Mud- Mountain”. Could have been more fun. 🙂 Finally, our last stop was Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. We spent another two days there before Glenn flew back home on October 30th and I drove down again to Gravesend.

23.10.: The hot Seafood platter at the Seafood Café, including: Scallops, lobster, crab, langouste, oyster, mussels, clam and razor clam.

24.10.: Dunstaffnage castle.

24.10.: McCaig’s “Tower” at Oban.

25.10.: Ben Lui (1130m, left) and Beinn a’Chleibh (916m, rechts), both in clouds.

25.10.: Muddy way up to Ben Lui. Very uncomfortable way up to the pinnacle.

25.10.: One of the very rare moments in which the pinnacle of Ben Lui was NOT in clouds.

 

Now, what was really nice and enjoyable about Scotland? Actually, very many things of which I will now only mention the most outstanding. We had truly amazing food at the scorrybreac restaurant in Portree and the Seafood Café at Loch Leven. Of the many mountains we climbed, the Sgurr na Banachdaich (Cuillin, Isle of Skye) was the one we enjoyed the most. The whole way up was already great but the view on top of the mountain was unbeatable.When it comes to the landscape, the Assynth area was outstanding with the Achmelvich beach being an absolutely amazing sight in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. And what castle was the best one? Probably the Eilean Donan Castle but Sterling Castle was also really nice. Finally, the city of Edinburgh was also really amazing and the Old Town as well as the many sights of the city (especially the Scottish National Museum) are absolutely worth seeing. But these were only the absolute highlights. Overall, we have seen very many beautiful things on the trip which cannot all be mentioned here.

Okay, and what was not so nice? First of all, my car trips up and down from Scotland were a nightmare. On each way, I lost between 2 and 3 hours in traffic jams, really bad. Then, our accomodations in Portree and Arrochar were far away from beeing great. Food- wise, we really tried to get a good apple-crumble but despite several attempts, we could not get one. The apple- crumbles we got were between 2 and 4 on a scale of 1 (very bad) to 10 (greatest ever). Also, we were a bit disappointed about the Isle of Skye. The Isle is always advertised as being especially beautiful, having the greatest landscape in Scotland, etc. Yes, there are very beautiful spots on the Isle, including the Sgurr na Banachdaich. But overall, we found that the Assynth- landscape was a bit rougher, diverse and more colorful. Overall, in our mind the Isle of Skye is not bad or anything but we felt that it its beauty is overrated in the public opinion. Thus, we should have spent less time on the Isle. But all in all, there were only very few negative aspects on our trips. Interestingly, the often chastised Scottish weather was not too bad during our trip. We only had 3 days of rain during our time while it was mainly at least dry if not sunny. So we were really lucky in this regard. 🙂

25.10.: Ice buildups at the top of the Ben Lui.

25.10.: Pinnacle of the Ben Lui in clouds. While we were there, it never cleared up.

25.10.: While climbing Ben Lui, we could witness how new clouds formed continuously and moved towards the pinnacle.

25.10.: Ridge between Ben Lui and Beinn a’Chleibh.

27.10.: Wallace Monument at Sterling.

29.10.: View from Calton Hill onto Edinburg City. Edinburg Castle is on the right.

 

And what did we miss on our trip? What else is there to see in Scotland? Well, first of all we neither saw the Orkney- nor the Shetland- Islands. Also, we were told that Harris- Island north of the Isle of Skye is really nice. Then, we had no chance to see the regions way up north and east of the Scottish mainland. There are no more bigger cities up there but for someone who loves nature, these regions may be worth seeing. When it comes to the major cities, we were not able to see Glasgow and Dundee. Glasgow is said to be less beautiful than Edinburg but as tastes are different, I would rather see the city for myself before judging here. In the Highlands, I would love to spend more time in the Cairngorms National Park and in the Assynth- area. Finally, we were also not able to see the Scottish Lowlands as we spend most of the time in the Highlands. So visiting the Lowlands could also be an option during another Scotland trip.

Our trip to Scotland was just beautiful and I am very grateful that I was able to do it. In Glenn, I had a great companion with whom I had a lot of fun during the whole time. Thanks for coming with me and being part of this magnificent trip, Glenn. Hope to see you next year in Canada as well. Wherever we will be there then, East Coast, West Coast, Yukon or somewhere else.:-)

Today’s musik advice is a piece of good old punk rock. I especially like their older albums. Here’s a classic, already caricatured by Weird al Yankovic.

Offspring – Come out and play