Mountains and Valleys

Happy Sunday everybody, and happy Oscars! February is coming to a close soon and tomorrow is a Leap Day, which is exciting, I guess. This past week was both quick and slow, like I'm sure for many of you, but I'll get right into it.

After getting back from Hamburg this past weekend, a wave of sickness swept through our study abroad group. There were only three of the fifteen of us that were healthy, and all of the rest had some version of a cold or stomach virus depending on who. Personally, I have been coughing for the past week, and not having easy access to medicine like in America has been quite the adventure.

On Monday we visited the Neues Rathaus as a whole class, and as a part of the tour, we were able to climb the tower to see all of Leipzig from the top down. It was raining, and foggy this day, but the view was wonderful all the same. It was exciting getting to see something that we are in most every day from a top down perspective.

Courthouse from tower

Leipzig from above

Library

MDR tower and University

The Movie theater with a chasm in front

Peter Parker and I

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were all spent in a wonderful sick fashion, where I didn't do much else other than sleep and homework. Not too exciting.

All of this time of resting while sick was in preparation for this weekend's group trip to the Saxon-Swiss mountain ranger on the east coast of Germany, bordering the Czech Republic. We went to the town Konigstein which was a narrow town directly in between the Elbe and the mountains. We stayed in the Rock Hostel which had a wonderful owner, and an excellent location. We set out on Friday with nothing but a map and good spirits to hike.

The woods leading up the mountain were beautiful. Massive trees along towering slopes lined the path we went down. After a short time on the trail, we passed through an even smaller town in a valley. The houses were quaint, and everything was silent and peaceful. On the other side of the town we continued our path to the top of the small mountain. We continued along the path where there were massive sandstone giants surrounding us. There were holes all within the rocks, which fits with the story that Konigstein was the birthplace of free climbing. Near the peak, we had to climb a short distance up to see the top, but the view was worth it. Peaking a mountain is a great experience no matter how it is attained. 

First Path up mountain

Small grove around a pond

Farm land in the mountain

Birthing Cave

What's gonna work?

Mountains

View after Day 1 peak

Path on the way down

Weather Rock!

Saturday, we spent some time in the morning around the hostel enjoying the location. Tanner and I took some day hikes near the hostel in the morning, before we met up with Jacob, Nevan, and Reuben for the afternoon. We boarded the train, and took it one stop over to the town that holds the notable Painters Way and Rock Bridge. We took a ferry across the river, and went into town, following the instructions we were given. Here's where things start to get a bit odd. We ended up in an amphitheater stage show area, where a guard came out and pointed in a direction for us. This took us behind the light shack, and around an odd path to the scaffolding behind the main stage. We climbed this, and hiked along steep grade paths till we ended up underneath Rock Bridge. Realizing this was not the right way, we turned back and went around the original cliff to climb even steeper "paths" up the side of the mountain. Somehow, these "paths" took us up to Rock Bridge where we saw some of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. It felt like the rock formations couldn't have been part of our world. It was like they had to be from a fantasy story, and yet I was standing there, hundreds of feet off of the ground, looking right at them. The German people take having this so near them for granted, yet they use the land to its full use. You would need some extra space when living in such close proximity.

Wall touching our hostel

100% dead here

View down from the wall

Konigstein from above

The deserted amphitheater stage

On top of the scaffolding

Our "path" to the top

Doin fine!

Underneath Rock Bridge

Rock Bridge from afar

Along Painters Way

Rock Bridge

Painters Way

Me after scaling the side of a mountain

The Elbe River

Now we are sitting back in Leipzig watching Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It is time to go back to being sick, and doing homework, so until next week, have a good one.

-Tad Kile