Climb, Camp, Eat and Drink in Deutschland

Adam and I hit three very different areas in Germany last week.

Other towers seen from our first Elbsandstein summit

Elbsandstein in the east is one of the most unique climbing areas in the world.  It's beautiful towers of sandstone that literally turn to sand when you climb and is only protected with gear made entirely of knotted ropes.  So imagine this, you're climbing up and see a little crack or notch in the rock.  Well instead of putting in metal gear you have to tie an overhand knot in one of several different sizes of rope and shove it in, clipping your rope onto it and praying it stays...crazy fantastic! 

A knot wedged in a crack for protection

 We met a really nice guy working in a climbing store who gave us directions where to go for some beginner routs and then...of course...Adam went SHOPPING :)  He bought five different size ropes to make different size knots, some slings that are sticky that you can't find in the US and a Monkey Fist knot (look it up, way cool) he's like a kid in a candy shop when it comes to buying gear...I think he'd sleep with it if I'd let him :)

Soo, shiny, new gear in hand we went climbing :)  The routes were very interesting and get this, at the top of the peaks there's a little book where you sign your name and put the date you do the climb...we were stoked!  On our first peak I think we were on a major climber high as we looked at each other and said "Let's just move here.  I bet they need electricians and government workers"  Don't worry, we came to our senses later.

Beautiful crag in the Czech Republic where we went with Gereon

 We also hired a real-life German climbing guide "Gereon" for a day there.  He spoke very little English so it made the day "interesting" to say the least.  Now... when climbing in Germany you'd think the guide would take you to a German climbing spot...um...no, we were driven to the Czech Republic!  It was about 30 minutes away from where were and the place was great!  They filmed part of the Chronicles of Narnia movie there :)

Through very broken English, charades, drawings and some singing and dancing with Gereon to communicate, we had the best day climbing so far.  We climbed some hard stuff and I think Adam's favorite part was not having to be my pack mule for a whole day :)

All in all, the sandstone climbing was fantastic except that now the car and all our climbing stuff looks like it's been to the beach :)

Way interesting grave-site of Wolfgang Gullich

Frankenjura is in the south and is weird, sharp, pockety limestone.  I didn't like it at all and had my grumpy pants on the whole day.  My fingers hurt, I was climbing crappy and really didn't want to be there.  I guess I finally felt homesick and maybe a little over the whole "camping" experience :(

The cool parts were that we stayed in a famous climber campsite and got to chat up climbers from all over Europe.  We also met an old German climber dude who name dropped like 10 different famous climber names that he'd climbed with but also helped direct us to the grave a Wolfgang Gullich.  Gullich was a famous German climber whose grave is covered in climber stuff and has one of those peak books I mentioned above that you can sign.  We also checked out Action Direct: a 5.14b climb, super hard overhang that probably only 2-3 people in the world can actually climb!  Frankenjura was like a climbers Disney with all the attractions to check out :)

Pfaltz in the west was a great spot.  Several sandstone towers popping up all over the towns.  For the first time since our cruise Adam and I checked into a pension for the night.  It was basically some German family's home that they had converted into a bed and breakfast.  We literally collapsed at the old German lady's feet and kissed them when we saw a real-life bed and bathroom all to our smelly little campin' climbin' selves.  I then spent the next hour or so hand-washing all our funky clothes in the bathroom and hanging them around the room...I can't tell you how nasty our clothes were, but really, it was gross...Anyway, clothes strung all about the room, Adam and I went into town and had a yummy dinner of kebab meet, over fries, topped with ranch-like dressing and pizza...oh yeah, and there was German beer as well :)  We met some German peeps who told us what to order...food here is so good and all you have to do is look what other people are eating and point to their food :)

On top of our first climb in Pfaltz

The next morning, after a yummy breakfast at the guesthouse where I had my first cup of coffee (Adam's trying to get me addicted...I think so I'll make it for HIM back home) we headed to a climbing area and befriended three German guys who said to just come with them for the day.  The climbing was great...well...my grumpy pants reared their ugly head again for a little bit, but we did a really hard climb in the end of the day the whipped them off.  The climbing was crack, which Adam loved.  The camping area was also really neat.  Basically it's a farmhouse with horses, pigs and chickens and they let climbers camp there overnight for a few Euros...Adam and I spent some time petting the horses, picking out which piggie would be the best for bacon and topping off the night with a dinner of a local beer :)

Really, the climbing is great, the food and beer delish and everyone has been sooo nice to us!!!  We love it here!!!