SÜDDEUTSCHE SPIELEMESSE!

So, this past Thursday I took the afternoon off work to go to a board game show. I know it is nerdy, but I know what I like right?

This is advertised as Southern Germany's biggest games convention. Of course this is because the biggest one in Germany (and I think the world) is in Essen and just finished. This was my first visit and I have to say I was blown away with how great it was. I am even thinking about going back on the weekend...

So, as it was the first day, it was a special offer of only FIVE EURO to get in and see all the exhibitions, you can click for links to the pages, but I think they are only in German:

Southern Germany Board Game Exposition
Hobby and Electronic Exposition - Computers and Video Games
Southern Model Builders and Trains - Trains, cars, planes, boats, rockets
Crafts World - arts and crafts
Home and Family - well, stuff for the home and family I imagine...

The Stuttgart Convention centre is brand new and I was looking for a reason to go and check it out. I cannot believe I have lived here so long and missed the chance to go and see this before now. I can promise I will be an annual guest for sure!

I arrived for the initial door opening at 14:00, the place looked a little deserted from the outside... Architecturally not all that interesting, but I think most convention halls could fit that category.
I strolled in the majestic front doors, expecting a big empty room, maybe a geek or two waiting to get in.
However it just seemed like I was the last guy from the parking lot to get in. The queues inside for tickets and entry were pretty substantial.
My ticket gave me entry to all the expos, but I was there for games and headed down the big hall for a long walk to building #6.
Take a deep breath and prepare yourselves, the next few days posts will be my coverage of the shows. If you don't like boardgames or other awesomeness, why not take a break from my web page and come back in a week or so.

Otherwise, get ready for some good good stuff.

A milestone in life

Well, last weekend I decided it was time for the next step in Liam's development.

ICE SKATING.

Any good boy with a scrap of Canadian in him needs to get out on the ice at some point and last weekend seemed like a good moment. I had a good feeling about it since Liam helped me pack my hockey equipment pretty often and he always likes to hold my "special shoes"

We drove over to the arena where I play for one of the public skating sessions. I actually had visions of epic failure as Liam is not the sort of kid who sticks with things when they are too difficult and skating is certainly a bit intimidating in the beginning.

First step was to go and rent some tiny tiny skates. They closed with buckles like those on ski boots, not laces like grown up ones.
Then we headed over and got all our gear on, you can see Claudia next to him tightening up her skates. She has a nice pair of figure skates that she bought while living in Canada. I of course have my goalie skates.
Then it was out on the ice. I held his hands to keep him on his feet the whole time. His feet were shooting out from under him in every direction and he was not too sure what was going on. a few times I would let him get down onto the ice and then he would sit there, laugh and yell at me "I'M SITTING ON THE ICE NOW."

It was a total hit, he liked the crazy legs, he liked the ice and he liked to go "so fast" when I helped him. After 30 min or so, he could stand reasonably well with support. Here are a couple of proud daddy with the ice boy. Look Dave, I am in TWO photos.

There is also some tiny skater support devices there that you can borrow. A 1 meter tall penguin with handles you can hold on to and push, and a chair with metal runners. We opted for the chair, so Liam could alternately skate pushing behind it, or sit on it and get a ride. This was also a big hit and he is still talking about how he "drove the chair so fast."

When it was time to go home, he held on to the rented skates and told us we needed to bring them home with us, and in the car he kept telling us that we had to go skating again tomorrow. I am sure we will go again quite soon, it is still a popular topic of chatter at breakfast.

Saint Martin's day

Well, Sept 11 is St Martin's day, something that has some fun elements for kids over here. As I bwrote about last year, little kids go out at night with lanterns on a stick and sing songs. Liam's kindergarten did this the other night and I went along and tried to take some fun photos.

I changed the sync on my flash to rear curtain, so I could try to get some neat effects of the light trailing behind the lanterns. I don't know if they would count as good photos or not, but I think the effect is pretty cool.

Here is Liam and our neighbour Annika, she is in the "red" group in kindergarten with him.
Liam and his pal Emil, the only boy his age on our street. They have many adventures.
Claudia was there with her lantern too. I think this one turned out quite well, you can see the movement blur and Claudia is still visible. Sometimes people end up looking pretty ghostly when I try this effect.
And finally one of the procession walking along the road.

Hiking in Austria

Since the weather was so nice, we took advantage of it to enjoy a nice mountain hike. Hiking is something Claudia and I have long enjoyed doing, but have not had so much opportunity since Liam came along... This was a nice sunny day in a perfect location, so we went for it.

After leaving our car at a nearby lot, we started out and found that the way was pretty well indicated. Austria handles tourism well, and outdoor activities like hiking are a big part of it. We were hiking up a trail to a peak called "Pendling" which was around 1570 metres. Not a giant mountain, but enough to be classified a "middle" difficulty hike.
After a fairly short walk, we encountered the world's least effective gate. one prong of the turnstile was totally broken off, the rest were blocking nothing, and the fence itself was two strands of barbed wire....
As mentioned, it was a beautiful day. It really felt like fall, it was around noon and I thought the sun came through the trees like it was much much later in the day.
Looking out the other direction it was looking pretty fall-like
There was a fair bit of vertical to the trail and there were a few segments where it was like walking up stairs.
After a while, we got to the peak, where as usual there was a cross and a plaque. We took the obligatory photo of wife at cross.
Of course, 10 min further down the path there was also the customary alpine restaurant where weary travelers can stop for snacks. Claudia had a Germknoedel and I had a soup for lunch here.
Here is a view down the south side of the mountain, into the valley where the Inn river is running. That is Kufstein, the largest nearby town, about 20 min from the village where our hotel was.
Looking in the other direction, we could see the village where our hotel was located. Here in the centre of the image you can fairly clearly see a church steeple. directly below that is a larger white building, that is our hotel.
Well, that sums up our vacation hike. I had quite a good time, the weather made it a perfect day to be outside.

Mini Holiday at Hotel Juffing

This past weekend I took a day off and Claudia and I went on Liam-less trip. We wanted to have a nice relaxing time away from the noise-bear and just have a pleasant quiet time. Liam was bundled off to Oma's place for the weekend where he could party with grandparents and uncle Bernhard.

After an exhaustive search, Claudia found this hotel in Austria that we decided on visiting, Juffing Spa hotel. It is in an area called Hinterthiersee, which is just over the border next to Kufstein if you know the geography at all. About 1.5 hour drive from Claudia's parent's place. The criteria was that it had to be affordable (Austria much better than Germany,) have a very nice restaurant, and Claudia wanted a spa area.
The first nice surprise when we arrived was that they upgraded our room to the nicest suite they have, which was pretty darn nice. Here is the sleeping area, very modern minimalist look.
Next to this was a giant window zone with huge windows so we could look out on the mountains. There is a ski hill across the street for the winter season.
The big object in the picture there is a ceramic oven that you can sit on and be all toasty warm. Claudia sure looks relaxed without Liam or schoolchildren screaming at her doesn't she?
Just down the hall from our room was the restaurant, which was really good. Six course meals in the evening, many plates with tiny portions of interesting foods.
On the lower level was the spa area, which included a pool,
and a "wellness" area with a variety of saunas, stem baths, massage rooms and the like. I have to say, the sauna thing was for Claudia's benefit, I am not into that at all. I find it tremendously boring to sit around in a tiny hot hot room. The pool was fun though and they had a neat "rain-ceiling" shower when you came out. The whole ceiling was full of little holes and it was like being in a heavy warm rain, that was fun.
All in all an excellent hotel, I would go back for sure.

Snow

This morning when I opened the blinds, Liam let out a gasp and then yelled "SNOW BOOTS"

He has been waiting for this day since Mummy bought him the new boots a while ago.

Awesome Pumpkin Action

Ok, here are the good bits.

It seems that someone had the idea to make a theme for this pumpkin festival. A theme that would dictate what the glorious pumpkin sculptures would look like. I want to find the person responsible for this theme and thank them.

When you think pumpkins, what is the first and most logical theme that jumps to mind? Thats right, OUTER SPACE.

First up was the solar system. This thing was huge, an entire solar system made from pumpkins.
I HIGHLY recommend clicking this one to see it a little bigger. Clearly the sun is in the centre, then lots of green pumpkins to represent space, and orange pumpkins to represent the orbits of the planets. At certain points in the orbits, there is a bigger pumpkin for each planet. The planet-kins have the names written on them. Here is Saturn and Earth (Erde)
Once you have seen this awesomeness, I am sure you are thinking, OK, pumpkins are round, planets and stars are round, not too much of a stretch really. The impressiveness was all in the size of the display.

So we move on to man's exploration of space. Here is a pumpkin rocket.
Which of course flew to the moon. Where the pumpkin astronauts landed....
The pumpkin astronauts needed to get around... so they would of course need a pumpkin moon rover....
And what would those brave pumpnauts discover on the moon? They would drive around until they found some strange looking moon volcanoes...
I am sure the pumpnauts were amazed to discover moon volcanoes, since there are really no such thing, but I am sure this impossibility was nothing compared to what was behind the volcanoes.
That is right, pumpkin aliens. Just like something out of the X-files (p-files?) This was the pinnacle of awesome for me right here.

Close up on the alien. I will call him pumpy.
As strange as the outer space theme was, I thought it was made even more amazing by the path from some fact based displays on planets and exploration off into fantasy land of volcanoes and aliens.

This was truly the worlds greatest pumpkin themed exposition, the signs did not disappoint.

Whet Your Pumpking appetite

I am a little slow on the next pumking news, some busy busy days at work again. I will try to cover the REALLY good stuff tomorrow, but until then, have a look at these pumpkin sculptures.

Worlds Largest Pumpkin Exhibition

On this past Friday evening, I asked Claudia if there was anything going on this weekend. She asked me if I was interested in going to the world's largest pumpkin fest, which she had just read about in a magazine.

Did she even have to ask??? yes.

The festival is on in Ludwigsburg, just on the other side of Stuttgart from us. We have been there numerous times in the past as it is home to the fairy tale garden and a nice castle grounds.

I took quite a few photos, so lets embark on a pumpkin journey.

There was little question which way to go...
And it seemed that this was a big event. Indeed there was no parking for blocks, all lots full and we walked almost 20 min from the spot we found. Look at he throngs of pumpkin fans.
Something I expected was HUGE pumpkins, and that was delivered. Here are Claudia and Liam in front of the 4th largest pumpkin in Europe.
Off in this glorious tent are the top 3 pumpkins in Europe. First place is in the middle, it is from Belgium and weighs 610 kg. that is a lot of pumpkin.
Down the path from here was the area where they sold pumpkins. I have not seen so many in one place before. I did not know there was quite this many types to choose from. I will let you look at the glory of these stalls.
Stay tuned, I have not even scratched the surface of the awesomeness yet....