Thursday, August 27, 2009

Canyoning

While in Switzerland this past weekend, one of the activities that Cameron and I did was canyoning in a glacier. It was a couple hours of wandering through canyons dug out by years of glacial streams. We rappelled into the canyon from a mountain road and climbed, hiked, swam, and jumped our way down to the end of the gorge.
Cam had a blast rappelling, but he had done it before. It's a long way down!
I, on the other hand, was not so enthusiastic- it was the scariest thing I've ever done. The photographer and guide kept telling me to jump and let go of the harness to wave to the camera. A 30 second one-handed wave was all I could manage!
The best part was where the water had smoothed the rocks and created natural slides, although on most of the slides, the rock dropped off and became a free fall.
On this jump you could choose if you wanted to jump from a higher rock or lower. I obviously chose the lower, and Cameron obviously chose the higher. In this picture you can see Cameron jumping, and me below getting a pep talk from the guide (something along the lines of me being a scaredy-cat...) while gripping the rope.
...us at the bottom of one of the jumps
On the route they had two zip lines set up- one went down and was stopped by a guide, the other went halfway down and you had to let go of the rope holding your harness and fall into the water. This photo was taken as I was gathering up the courage to let go of the rope... below is after I finally did it.
Yes, I am holding my nose. Glacier water up the nose from a 50 ft. height is not pleasant. We wore long wetsuits with shorty long sleeve wetsuits on top and socks and booties, so the water didn't seem much colder than Birch Point.
We made it out alive!! AND I got to have delicious chocolate fondue for dessert as a reward for my bravery :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Berlin, take two

If you remember, last time we went to Berlin it was freezing cold, and that put a damper on all the sightseeing and fun the city has to offer. We decided to give it a second chance and went to check it out last weekend. The weather was a million times better, but Berlin still ranks pretty low on my list.
We did a bike tour of the city- my favorite way to see the sights. Its a great way to get an overview of the city without getting tired, bored, grumpy, etc. The picture above is of a building near Checkpoint Charlie (the gate between East and West Germany). The window in the building was bricked up during the cold war because East Germans would try to escape by jumping out of windows or off of buildings near the border onto West German soil. Residents were relocated to apartments farther from the border to further prevent escaping. One family created a home made zip line to go from a window across the border, and successfully escaped.
This photo is of a long piece of the Berlin Wall that was not torn down. A fence was constructed AFTER the borders were opened, to prevent people from chipping pieces off and damaging the structure. To the right of the sidewalk you can see a line of bricks- that was where the other wall stood. There was not just one Berlin Wall, in many places there were two, with a no man's land in between.
This is the last standing sniper tower out of several around the wall. The tour guide said that typically young soldiers would be assigned to the towers- in theory they would have less connection with outsiders and be less hesitant to shoot escapees and their helpers.
Going back a bit further in history, this parking lot/ apartment complex is standing on top of where Hitler's bunker complex is/was. The bunker was completely sealed and covered shortly after WW2 to prevent it from becoming a shrine for extremists. The apartment buildings were built so that the West Berliners would have a good vantage point to see how nice they were, and be lured back to the East. I don't think it worked.
Lastly, we went to the Berlin Zoo on Sunday. This seal was posing for us... we also saw the famous polar bear Knut and a lot of other cool animals. The polar bears were very sleepy though, I think it is far too hot for them here.

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Giddy Up Cavalry!

Giddy Up Cavalry!!
As Cameron's regiment is historically a cavalry unit, the soldiers have a tradition in which they go on a "Spur Ride" to "earn their spurs", which are then worn over their boots on certain days and at events. In typical Army fashion they dumb it down to get families involved at the "Spouse's Spur Ride". This Spur Ride was a test of physical and mental endurance in which the spouses proved they were worthy of being spur-holders through a series of grueling, near impossible tasks (just kidding, everyone who showed up got their spurs).
Here I am after completing the first task- camouflage. We had to paint our faces in the same technique the soldiers are instructed, with only one mirror between 8 of us on our team. Some got more carried away than others- I didn't do my neck or ears, knowing if I did I would be walking around Berlin with camo paint in crevices all weekend (more on that in later post).
The other events were a jog in a chemical suit/mask (NOT comfortable, very sweaty), a physical fitness test, medical litter carry/triage, and a low crawl obstacle course/grenade throw. The low crawl was the worst, I took the push ups as punishment because they were easier than crawling and getting grass stained. After the low crawl we had to cover each other to move our positions forward, which is what I am doing in this picture- running between sand bag "cover".
Don't worry, the gun is fake.
This after I got a "go" on grenade tossing (also fake) and successfully completed all the physical tasks and sweat off most of my camo paint.
The final task was going before the "Spur Board"- we were asked questions pertaining to the Regiment and Squadron. After answering all correctly we completed the arduous Spur Ride.
Our team earned the most points and won the Golden Spur, which will be displayed in the Squadron headquarters with a plaque with all of our names. Wohoo, I will be a part of SQDN history! As Cameron said, "well, at least one of us has made it into the display case". My certificate is hanging in a place of honor next to Cameron's Ranger School diploma.