golegrand

beautiful south tyrol. it's time to bid farewell – to the places we became attached to, to the companions on life's journey, and to those majestic mountains which gave me time, peace, and quietude. i’ll miss them so much. as well as apfelstrudel . we have been living in this beautiful area for over 4 years now... and we had enough time to get to know the other side – that one of the pesticide-farmers (may-the-apples-grow-big-and-abundantly), of the construction sites, piste extensions, and ever-increasing hotel complexes, yes that face of environmental damage and sad mise-en-scène of the alps. it's really heartbreaking. south tyrol suffers from overtourism (call it human pollution ) including stupidity and tourism-related greed for money, as well as from a plague of hypocrisy and lobbying. because one thing really counts: the so-called (german) guests (term in use to avoid calling them tourists) and their pocketbook. during the corona-spring and over this lousy year ruled b...

we've not been much snow-enthusiastic this early 2019, so the hike on the first day of the year  remains our single snow activity and we put the 3rd winter quickly behind us – this one didn't bother us too long and was rather windy and dry with lots of sunshine. until feb 1st – when it snowed tons of flakes all day and night, in merano 45 l/m2 , as much as per 2 months else. a state of exception. then snowfalls stopped and bright sunny weather was back. on feb 22nd temps went up to 21 °c, in the first week of march new grass and first flowers already appeared. spring begins officially today, it greens and blooms, it's beautiful . apart from that, it's international day of happiness too!

just for the records, here our hiking highlights of spring-summer 2018.  . one nice warm-up early june with 24 km from avelengo to the omini di pietra (stoanerne mandln, 2000 m) and back. . two weeks later, things got more serious with 17 km from falzeben to the piccolo ivigna (kleiner ifinger, 2552 m) and back. a steep and tough climb that brought me to the limits, getting the feeling that my legs would no longer have the strength to bring me up the last 100 meters and i really was about to give up. but i'm resolute, and it's lucky – at the top it's like on an island surrounded by a stunning scenery, just as a mountain movie and you're the actor in it. . first week-end of july we packed our backpacks for 3 days out in the alta val passiria (hinterpasseiertal) where we walked a total of 50 km. as usual we chose zeppichl near plan  as our base camp. first day we went from merano to moso  by bus and hiked from there to zeppichl (11,5 km). on day two w...

it was quiet here over the summer while i was busy with the move of golegrand.de on blogger, or with life offline. those who track us on the iCloud shared album or by checking the photo page are already in the picture, for the rest here comes a recap of the last months. the guns n' roses played in munich mid of june and we were there too – the olympic park was crowded by far much more folks than the merano population counts! slash ran the show while axl rose showcased a line of clothing. at the turning of june/july we spent some days in hamburg. fun time back with friends, as well as a 50th birthday on 7-1-17. for the rest however it was... too rainy. too cold. too noisy. too crowded. too rat race style. a scratchy throat got me after two days – something not seen since our move to merano. and there were no mountain around… so at the end, we've been more than happy to get in back home. summer in south tyrol is made of days and days of sun and heat. one day you may...

hooray! after almost two broadband-access-less months, me setting on tenterhooks (try to imagine!), our home is finally connected to the internet. that was like pulling teeth. so here they are, some photos of our new environment , enjoy. that aside, south tyrol is the very antithesis of hamburg: here you count the cloudy days, no the sunny ones. it's winter, and it's cold, however with nearly blue sky and sunshine non-stop. we made the right decision. i remember a friend native of the region saying once south tyrol is a land of plenty… he is so right.

griaß-enk! living in south tyrol, getting up in the morning looking at the mountains soaring up toward the blue sky, breathing the clear air, believe me, it's a big big gift of life. experiencing the beauty of mother nature to that degree is literally intoxicating for us guys-from-the-big-city. first advent, the last sunday of november, was supposed to be sunny again after a whole week with no sunshine – yeah things like that may happen here too. after a couple of days they also become a real talking point in the news. so, anyway, we decided to take that opportunity of nice weather returning for a hike to hochmut , a farmer hamlet at 1,360 m above see level, that we already visited several times during summer over the years (for those who activated the link: i wrote "a hike", not a cable car ride to the upper station). we started our tour up 1,000 m in a strange low sky scenery: low clouds were covering the valleys and mountains around, letting just the merano ba...

today’s featured image: la mescla – where the verdon and artuby rivers meet. a detour off the martel track in the verdon gorges. so, this is what's been up since that awesome night with my friends the foo fighters in hamburg… june rocked hamburg. slash featuring myles kennedy & the conspirators were playing here too, and obviously we went to the show. great gig. july didn't brought us the summer as expected. hamburg was mostly stormy and felt cold. the fact remains that now, we're trained to run under pouring rain ;) we had an aussie migration consultant evaluating our chances for a permanent residency visa in australia, but the assessment results were not too optimistic – meaning a race against time (let's face it: we're too old), a lot of money and stress, and at the end no guarantee to be welcomed to stay – so, sadly, we've decide to abandon the project of spending the rest of our lives down under. instead, we switched to plan b, also...

today’s featured image: clean and clear blue waters of the indian ocean. that's it. today we're closing our perth chapter for this winter, or summer in either case. it's sad to leave that fantastic place but we also feel extremely lucky having been here, and we'll come back, for sure. tomorrow morning, we'll head to the airport and qantas flight qs-592 will bring us to adelaide for some more australian adventures with our friends there. on schedule: the foo fighters on march 4th and a visit to the flinders ranges. the last three weeks have kept us busy. we've been at the incredible and phenomenal journey of the giants to the streets of perth , a street theater in a crowed city at #perthfest. we've ridden many more kilometers around swan river and along the indian ocean. we've been in fremantle, aka the busiest harbour in australia... haha. shouldn't beat cuxhaven or brest i guess. and we've spent another day on rottnest island (on t...

today’s featured image: perth's cbd at swan river. now, the two last weeks in short… january 26th was australia day, and another beautiful cloudless day. watched the firework show with up to other 300,000 people in a hot summer night at the swan river foreshore. then, after 4 weeks of heat and dry weather, we got a low – 4 days of thunderstorms and some rain, mix of blue sky and scattered clouds, very humid and hot. next, uncommon intense thunderstorms hit perth 3 days in a row. on one night, we even had to have dinner indoor (omg!). still temperatures didn't dropped. back in the dry heat, haze across perth: two massive bushfire in wa's south and a wind change saw the city covered in a blanket of smoke. upper swan ride to guildford and back on two hot days, along swan river and through some wetlands that remind of the camargue. from guildford, cycling the swan valley , aka perth's valley of tastes, the home of the oldest vineyar...

today’s featured image: clear blue waters of rottnest island. just back from rottnest island, west from perth on the indian ocean. a dream day for a birthday – biking around the island, birthday cake watching the waves of the turquoise-blue ocean at west end, enjoying the sunshine in a cloudless blue sky, over 30 °c. it's now time for food and a bottle of aussie shiraz :) photos in the stream.

today's featured image: gum and palm trees – fav trees everywhere! day # 13 in perth, the first day a bit cloudy as i opened the curtains this morning. only scattered little clouds. as i'm writing these lines, they're all gone. in fact, perth is a particularly sunny city enjoying a mediterranean climate and an average of 8.8 hours of sunshine per day – since we arrived on january 1st, temperatures have stayed in the 30th, we get endless bright blue sky, and it's like in paradise. monday jan 5th was super hot with 44,4° c on record, a layer of clouds passed over in the late afternoon, next day was back at lower 36°. thanks the " fremantle doctor ", the cooling sea breeze, it's never really too hot. well. ok. except on those days over 40°. we're staying here in subiaco , a western suburb of perth, known colloquially as subi. our apartment is located close to rokeby road, the main street of subi, and coming from ottensen it's not really compli...

colorado enjoys  300 days of sunny days per year . noteworthy difference between oceanic and semi-aride climate which makes it unbelievable for us north-german frogs that we saw no rain since dec 21st in hamburg! that's 39 days in a row. we have been snowed instead, yes, but considering one week-end of snowstorm, as well as some other snow in-between in more than five weeks, the deal is still not too bad for seeing the sun almost every day, and some of these days are lovely warm. temperature variations, however, are extreme – while last saturday was making me the gift of a deep blue sky with temps around 62 f/17 c (was bliss!), temperatures suddenly dropped on sunday late afternoon and we went back from dinner under the cold snow. it lasted all monday long, yesterday was back sunny. so. we enjoyed some hot summer time in colorado 2012 , and we went back with the aim to feel the winter. well… we got it! we started today in our fifth week in boulder and are about to close ...

boulder people call themselves outdoor enthusiasts and  fresh-air fanatics . the town, home of trail and road runners, mountain bikers, cyclists, rock climbers, skiers and hikers has been recently rated the  #1 sports town in america . this week-end has been gorgeous: blue sky and highs of 60° f/15° c, a no-jacket-hut-scarf-glove dream weather, outdoors was calling and so we went for a couple of nice hikes in the mountains around the town. it was tremendous and sportive – partly walking on ice and still fighting with the elevated altitude to catch our breathe, a more intense exercise than in the italian alps or in the provence… we'll be as fit as a fiddle, when we'll be back at sea level! pictures here .

winter in sunglass mode! colorado gets lots of sunshine in a very bright blue sky, not the milky blue one we used to in hamburg. the air is clear and dry (got bad cracked hurting lips),  it's  cold but still some days are warmer (last week temperatures went up to 70° f or 21° C!), and when the snow comes, it all twinkles white, although it doesn't last forever – here in the great plains it quickly melts away under the sun strength. oh yeah, and there's tons of geese here, huge flocks in the sky, millions in parks, on lakes and reservoirs, canada geese that stood in colorado on their migration way. so. what's been up so far? we've spent the end of 2013 in broomfield , denver metropolitan area, in the middle of family life at its best, with 4 rockers between 3 and 10… an unknown universe to us. new year's eve has been a great party and similar to our wedding in florida at frank's and amy's home 10 years ago, we were surrounded by people we didn...

yesterday's flight to denver was exhausting. we were not in best form after a boozy friday night (this year's last coming together with friends), followed by a shortened night, and another one even shorter as we had to get up at 4 am to catch our flight to heathrow at 7:20 am. after a quick jump across the channel, four hours inside heathrow airport with a second security check, having a coffee, hanging around in duty-free shops, another coffee, and finally almost 10 damned  boring hours in a 777 over water, greenland and half of the united states, we landed in denver. cold and sunny. warm welcome from the le grand colorado clan, two or three glasses of wine and a delayed hanukkah first night took us on the first hours there. today, sunshine pulled us out of the bed at 8 am, neighborhood was beautiful white of snow (yes, right — i just associated the words 'beautiful' and 'snow'), so after a coffee, we went out to breathe the clear cold air at mckay lake— ...