Amsterdam: marathon 2012

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/29273.html]

TL;DR: 3:55.

To Amsterdam for the marathon. Just like last time: cycle to the station, train to Harwich, ferry to Hoek van Holland, train with one change to Amsterdam. And just like last time, I'd torn my left calf 3 plus weeks ago, but was now mostly recovered - at least, I'd survived the Peterborough half marathon last weekend, though I was to find that its not a good preparation for a marathon.

Instead of being picked up from the station, we'd arranged to meet for lunch, so I just mooched around very vaguely. I'd had some thought of finding the Rembrandthaus, but it was only a vague thought and I didn't try hard. I found a tiny cafe whose back hung over a canal and had a coffee and croissant there; I walked past the KattenKabinet though the museum was shut; I walked down the Keisersgracht. It was a soft grey day. Lunch with Si+Becky, then after-lunch coffee outside under the "bathtub" with Gregor and wife and child: the sun almost came out, briefly. Then I went off to pick up my bib number and so on, then back for dinner and a quiet evening in.

The day itself

Was grey, and somewhat but not very windy; cool but not too cold, hints of rain but no actual rain. Becky had left the porridge soaking overnight and then walked me down to the stadium - after last year, no-one trusts me not to get lost - and at 9 am I'm joining the stream of people. Absurdly, I have a "rose" strip, i.e. I'm one of the nominally 3-3:30 folk, I'm not sure how that happened, perhaps over-enthusiasm on my part. But no matter: just like last year, I'm in the loo when the gun goes off, and I happily let a minute or so worth or people past, so I can start in a sane place. Then just before the line I realise that my GPS has power-saved, so I have to stop for another minute or two to let it catch up. but no matter.

The GPS managed to lose about 350m at the start (which is why the first set of splits is so slow, not because it was crowded) which it gradually caught up during the race.

The race itself

I settled down at 5:10 ish, sometimes below 5, sometimes above 5:15. fairly comfortable, though perhaps not quite as effortless as it should have been - I began to feel last weekends half. Since I'd started late, I was slowly going through people, which was encouraging. It felt like quite a long time before we started going out down the Amstel, and I didn't have spare energy to watch the rowing boats as I'd had last year. but on the plus side, I kept the pace up fairly well, better than 5:30 out to nearly 30 k. After that, though, life became much harder and I slowed down. I kept calculating and recalculating in my head, but my hopes for 3:45 flowed past me, then 3:50, and then the question became whether I could beat my PB of 3:54 at Brighton.

In the end, the answer turned out to be No, by a minute.

Which was disappointing, but not crushingly so. When asked, I said I was content with my time, but not happy with it. I'd set myself a target of 3:45, but it was only a playful one: I'd done little marathon-specific training over the summer, and my injury a month or so back had put paid to the last set of long runs I'd hoped to do. At some point close to the end - perhaps km 39 - I managed to kick the in-facing legs of one of the barriers and mis-stepped, which pained my right calf, to the extent of making me deliberately slow down for 500m just to make sure I wasn't going to tear that. So with that, and the left calf, I didn't feel that I could run all-out; or, reversed, I had an excuse not to push myself too hard into the pain. I spent the last 10 k talking to myself inside my head, wondering whether I had the Strength of Will to push myself harder; and I decided that I didn't. Even looking back on it, I don't think I'd have chosen differently. But I look forward to the next one.

Refs

* GPS track

Yorkshire: Chris and Sally's wedding

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/28687.html]

  To Yorkshire (Kilham area) for Chris and Sally's wedding. And a good time, too. Though I was a bit tired from socialisation by the end of things, and rather happy to be back home leaning against the sofa with my laptop, and M behind me still reading the cycling blogs - she has become a fanboi. Or fangrl I suppose.

We drove up on friday night, and arrived rather late - past 11 - at Wold Cottage just outside Wold Newton. Which is in the Yorkshire Wolds, I think, shock horror. Not too far away from Bridlington, and Flamborough, and Filey. WC, as you'd expect, completely belies its name and is a fairly large place, an ex Edwardian gentleman's dwelling now renovated, and a very pleasant place it is too. Chris had arranged for all the visitors to stay there and was footing the bill. When we got there Annie was still up, and Michael (aka Mick, Chris's eldest, currently in Y2 at Catz and trying to work out whether he is studying cricket or chemisty), and a guy who I didn't know but who turned out to be James who was from the ex-Roland's side of the family, so to speak.

The pix are all on Flickr, or will be.

We did a small amount of pretending to talk to people we didn't already know but gave it up fairly quickly. We're really bad like that, but I've given up trying to improve. Though I will now fairly happily talk back to people I don't know, if they want to talk to me. As long as they don't talk about traffic or other such nonsense.

Anyway, to bed, via marvelling at the enormous size of the bathroom - Miranda was dead impressed, but we really must teach her taste some time. The bedroom was big enough to take two floor beds for D and for E - we'd brought sleeping bags, thinking they would be necessary, but they weren't, although D for reasons of his own chose to sleep on the floor anyway. As to the place: pretty good actually, nice house, lovely grounds (especially the west facing terrace and lawn and fountain, on the lovely calm sunset day we had; and the east-facing entrance porch with sunlight was good too) and the owners were friendly etc. Take all that as read, note a few minor fiddles, but the major problem was that they didn't bring the breakfast coffee until after the cooked food.

Next morning's breakfast was indeed splendid - they boast of it - and then M and then I went for a run. Hers about 4-5k, mine 16k - it would have been longer but I slightly broke myself on friday evening running fast, and didn't want to cripple myself before Amsterdam. Very hot, and the actual real hills slowed me down somewhat. But its fun to run somewhere new. Would have been about another 4 k to get to the sea. Back, bath, then its time to Dress for the wedding - I've brought my suit, M something formal, D his school uniform, E one of her cute dresses. I wear the suit so rarely now that I don't really mind and - whisper it - almost enjoy dressing up.

A few miles down the road to Kilham church, where it appears that a large section of the village has turned out to see Sally in a dress - apparently she doesn't do that usually. I vaguely remember the church, from when? Possibly Georgina's baptism - she is now 14 ish. And, there was a service, in the usual way of these things. Nothing exciting, the reading was the familiar "love endures all things", there was one quick photo taken afterwards, then the bride and groom went off in a cute old Morris Minor 1000 - much like you'd see at any wedding. The difference this time was that this was actually one of Chris's cars - he buts them as near-scrap and restores them; this one was immaculate, but also slow: despite giving him a good head start we nearly caught them up on the way back.

An image: the road ahead, dipping down in the sun, and then climbing up again into the shade of woods. And their car, alone on the road, in the sunlight. Heading off alone together. Lovely, but I'm afraid I didn't do what I should have done which is: braked to a sudden halt and rushed out with the camera.

And so back to Wold Cottage for an afternoon shading into the evening of drinking things (in abundance, though it was a very hot afternoon and they could have done with pitchers of iced water outside), eating things (very good, too much indeed to do justice too, I don't think we managed to touch the cheese course at all), watching the children on the bouncy castle, playing connect4 (I was fairly good until I got drunk) and talking to people. A traditional cake-cutting, and a speech from Chris so short I missed it (I think it was "thank you for coming"). There was no music and no dancing, which was to Chris's (and I presume Sally's) tastes, and to mine too.

Next morning... M woke up for a run before 8; I decided to give myself a break due to my injury. A better breakfast this morning because I got there before the children and knew to order a coffee first, so got to read over it.

Croquet on the lawn, donchaknow Carruthers, though the "speed croquet" quickly degenerated into violence, mostly instigated by Toby I think. Lunch was chez Chris, so we packed off and went for a quick trip to the seaside at Filey (next time make sure you know where the car parks are). BBQ at Chris, first sight of his house though he has lived there for many a year, and a tour of his extensive workshop where he spends his evenings instead of wasting them online :-)

The backstory

As I recall it...

Chris was a bit wild when young... ahem. The text that was here was from the LiveJournal blog and was non-public. So, I've removed it from here; it's in my gmail, should I ever want it.

Mallorca: Saturday

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/28961.html] 

[This post written weeell after, indeed on 22nd September, so it will be mostly pictures and some fill-in wurble.]

Up early again to watch the sunrise, this time bringing E, but D is resolutely still in bed. Like yesterday, a low bank of cloud out to see means we don't actually see the sunrise, but its still lovely. E and I go for a wade, then I swim all the way out (and just beyond) the marking buoys.

The days main activity is to Lluc monastery, which is here.

Oh yes, but before anything else we had to pack up. When M booked this hol, she left the Saturday night free - we'd originally thought it might be fun to stop somewhere else the last night. But now it comes to it, we're fairly happy here. But we need to move to a new appt, and so we do. At least it means we're fairly packed for the morrow.



Ah, and now I remember (thank heaven for photographs) first we went to Alcudia which had been sort-of-on-the-way to several places (and I'd run through it) but we hadn't stopped. It doesn't have anything terribly to-see (some roman stuff we didn't go and look at) but is a fairly pleasant place for cafes and to wander around.

That one gives you some idea of the white heat. Compare to a more balanced view of the same scene (or another. Yes, I did rather like the image of the chap sitting quietly outside his house in the street). The old stone windows were good, but there weren't many of them.



Street corner with flowers, found when I went for a little walk.



We played a lot of Knock-out Whist (running scores on the right; in the end, I won (was lowest, since we gave points according to which round you were knocked out in) and Risk (some of our amended rules to the left).



Lluc monastery: view from the little hill above and behind the monastery, looking away from it (north). Its hot and its dry, but greener than I'd have guessed.

When we got there we had a coffee in the coffee-shop-in-the-main-square, so to speak. That was OK-to-good, and I had a nice meat pastry, too.



Lluc monastery, view from above.



Lluc monastery, face of the "cathedral", with M and E. Ave Maria indeed.



Lluc monastery, interior. They're pretty keen on Mary, you know.



Lunch in the restaurant inside. Again, good: D and M had some kind of you-need-to-order-for-two spicy rice soup (arros brut). In the old high-ceilinged refectory, nice and cool after the heat of outside. Only problem was some wasps then bees getting in, and freaking E out poor thing. I must have killed at least 5 of them.



There is a "treasury" which we looked around. Its quite big. The place has been around for a while, after all. But after a while I realised that, well, it was mostly just stuff. Here is a picture celebrating some miracle - the saint (Black Madonna?) saving someone from something.



Coming south from Lluc, possibly around here - just coming out of the hills, but still in the hairpins. Again, surprisingly green, but hot-n-piney: view through the trees to the olive terraces opposite. I came to feel that it was, indeed, a lovely island but unfortunate in its visitors.

Mallorca: Friday

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/28568.html] 

Got up with M again to watch the sunrise. We intended to wake up E, too, she having asked (D was a definite No) but we forgot to make sure we had one of their cards. So since she wasn't responding to knocks, we left without her (there is always tomorrow). Again the pre-dawn grey light, thought its warm already. This time there was a low cloud bank on the horizon about two sun-diameters high, so we didn't quite see the "true" sunrise - probably we were rather lucky yesterday. Afterwards, M went for a run along the beach, about 4.x km, taking about 1/2 hour. I just sat watching the sunrise and the light, and pondering various things that may have seemed weighty at the time but are now gone.

Breakfast, a splash in the pool, then I think a morning risk game. Lunch was bread cheese and ham from the complex's shop: we're not too hungry, since breakfast is pretty filling, not just because its an all-u-can-eat buffet and so good value that way but also because its good food. Afternoon another risk game, and then watching La Vuelta at M's instigation, but I'm now interested too. Some reading by the pool. Late on, we all go down lead by E and end up having swim-underwater-across-the-pool competition (or rather challenge: I can do 2 widths and a bit; E and then eventually D can just manage one). Also D and E try diving in (and M, after initial amusing hesitation/fear); somewhat surprisingly they're both rubbish. I and M try to explain diving and realise that I don't really know how I do it. Try to analyse what I do but it doesn't quite work.

Go to dinner not-too-late so that I get a bit of rest after and then run along the beach for 12 km in total, getting "to the end", i.e. the end of the sand in Can Picafort. Since I started about 20 mins earlier tonight I had light for the first bit, so could see the hotels disappear for the backed-by-nature-reserve section. But I still finished in darkness. I lose my CSR running top! I left it on the sunloungers left on the beach, and when I got back to the start it was gone. Hopefully I can get another.



This picture is actually from tomorrow, but I don't seem to have any from today so it will do. Near the entrance to the hotel were some trees that, after a bit, we noticed were pomegranates. And some of them were ripe to splitting.

Mallorca: Thursday

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/27902.html]

[Its too late now to do this properly. Here are some notes before I forget.]

We decide to get up for sunrise. Due to a slight watch error (when I examine it, I find my watch froze a few minutes after I set the alarm last night. Odd. It did this once before. I think its a symptom of the somewhat buggy software - it can also freeze when uploading) we're only just in time - I guessed that 6:45 would do, we actually got up about 6:50, and sunrise was probably about 7:10 ish (I can check: the photo of first light says it was taken at 5:16. And the camera is 1:51:00 behind watch-time. So it was taken at 7:17. Ish). But it was gorgeous and still, no breeze, gentle waves lapping at the shore, just a few other people about. Once the sun was clear of the horizon I went for a swim, just a little way out, float around enjoying it, and M for a run. And then took pix of me as I came back in.

The actual sunrise sequence itself was lovely - the horizon was completely clear, so you could see from the very first tip of light, to the sun separating itself from the mirage on.

Breakfast early (notice coffee machine implies that the Spanish root for "wait" is the same as "hope", which surely says something) and off, following our plan, to Cap Formentor, which is the long rocky cape enclosing the Pollenca bay on the north. First stop is the Mirador Colomer (mirador = viewpoint, they helpfully provide these, and amusingly the sign is an old-style bellows camera. I do sometimes wonder if they should also provide a download of photos, so everyone doesn't have to take the same shots).

After that its a pleasant windy thin road through mountains (and a tunnel) and plains/forest, with occasional views to the sea on each side, and some more stops to look out which the children quickly lose patience with, until we reach the lighthouse at the end.




The scenery is great (views back along the cape, down into the blue ripply sea with teensy tinesy boats), but its hot by now - about 11:30. So we get some drinks from the cafe and settle down to hands of cards. Somehow this is far more fun up here with a wonderful view that we spend most of our time ignoring than it would be at home. After a while the sun moves round and we need to move the table into shade, then edge it further, eventually running out of room to retreat. Its more crowded now, so after a last look round we leave. There is a near traffic impasse on way out - the road is narrow, people are parked in it, there are hairpin turns. But a few cars squeak past and we're out. The road would be good to cycle, and some are. There is also a network of walking paths, if you get up early or come at a different time of year.

Then, Port de Pollenca. We don't really know where we're going - we just want some beach and a cafe. The side nearest the cape is a thin block of stuff, with parking behind, and then the sea. So we park, go down a little alley, find the sea, and then the hotel Bahia which is as good as a cafe and does us a light lunch and we swim in various combinations, but mostly E. D is quiet and doesn't swim that I recall. We deliberately didn't book a room for Saturday night at the Viva, in case we wanted to move. But we've done nothing about finding another place, and now we're nearly out of time. Inquire at the Bahia re Saturday, but they are full, so decide to ask back at Viva. I've revised my opinion of the place - apart from the noise, and the guests (:-), its fine; and we've learnt how to cope with the noise.

And so, back at 5. Watch the cycling - quite exciting at the end as they "sprint" uphill into Jaca (where we went last year); dinner the buffet. I go for a run along the sea front, having realised that I can. Due to dinner etc I leave it until late, and don't start till 9, when its getting dark, and finish just before 10, when it definitely is. But its lovely, trotting along (I wasn't sprinting) just at or above the wetting-line of the waves. D meanwhile is browsing online, exciting news about his favourite Ace-of-Spades game and a rumour or stronger of buyout by Jagex. Decide that we'll get up to watch the dawn again tomorrow.

Mallorca: Wednesday

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/27591.html]

Yesterday was just a bit too exciting, especially the second visit to Pollenca. So today we all agree to have a relaxed day "at home".

E and I get up at 7:30 to go to the gym and the indoor pool. I was hoping to use the running machines, at least as warmup, but don't get on with them at all - they are hard to work, and don't run at the right pace, I think, or I'm not in the mood. Anyway, I give up and use the dumbbells and then the stationary multigym instead. By starting on low weights I get a warm up anyway. This is my second time in the gym (other than erging) in 20 years, so I just do some simple arms stuff: lifting the dumbbells up, 10 reps or 3, 4, 5 kg. And then on the machine, the pushing-the-weights-away-from-you exercise, 10 reps from 5 to 45 kg then 5 at 50 and 55. That was about 30 mins. Meanwhile E has been swimming in the pool, which is no warmer than the outdoor one.

Back for D and M and to breakfast, though due to misc delays its past 9 when we get there. As usual, there is far too much choice and I eat too much. There was a how-do-you-like-our-hotel survey, D+E filled in one and M+I the other. I was surprised to find how much they liked the place, and perhaps even more so how much M did (I would rate this as far below the Parador San Marcos in Leon; because the ambience simply can't begin to compare with the peace of sitting in the cloisters there. But the children have different criteria). But I was pleased that they like it - E in particular raves about how wonderful it is.

But I (and M) do get to relax over coffee and read Hobbes as the children depart early. Hobbes quote, well actually its Aubrey, of Hobbes: "He had read much, if one considers his long life; but his contemplation was much more than his reading. He was wont to say that if he had read as much as other men he should have known no more than other men." I think that applies somewhat to me, and perhaps I should do something about it: read less, think more.

Afterwards, a bit of swimming, a bit of coffee in the pool cafe, lunch in the appt (bread, ham ("casa westfalia"), cheese (still have a bit of the stuff we got in the local fruit-n-stuff store), etc.), the Great Risk Game (todays variant is to have more binding treaties that are actually written down secretly, with rules for breaking them. We have achieved the Risk Event Horizon, and now spend longer writing and arguing rule variations than we do playing). D and M have a "take out W" treaty, it transpires, but since I have N and S America and peace with Miranda across the Arctic I brush them off and we crush them in return.

Tonight's dinner - we go back to the buffet, everyone is happy with it, there is no tedium with ordering or waiting - is seafood, so D is even more happy. I even try a langoustine, to show willing, but if you ask me they are more for display than consumption. they do make a superb display though. Rice pudding with strawberry sauce and strawberry ice cream is more my style.

Then a quiet walk down to the beach and a lovely swim in the sea - get got there about 8:30 as the sun was setting (behind the hotels, no glory of a sunset out to sea; plus the noise of the disco removes any hope of peace) and swam in the warm shallow sea until we got out of our depth. And gently the light faded out of the sky and the arms of the bay came into relief.

Mallorca: Tuesday

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/27185.html]

I got up at 6 to go running. 6 turned out to be too early - still dark outside. So I fiddled online for a bit, then by the time I'd finished that, and realised it was time to get my kit on, it was 6:45 and easily light enough. Oops. Motto: getting up at 6:30 is about right for the early light. Still, it wasn't sunrise, and I ran up through the town as before, then to the roundabout and over the isthmus through Alcudia and down to the sea at the far side. None of this was fast - I soon gave up on keeping to 5 min/km, and settled for "whatever I felt like running at", which turned out to be 5:15 ish - but it was going fairly well and I was enjoying it, perhaps especially the long road along towards Port de Pollenca on the far side - nice to run on, as there is a wide cycle path. As I was going down that the sun was coming up over the sea, nice. So I decided to extend the intended 21.1 k to 25 k, which also got me as far as the outskirts of P de P, not that I saw much. Turn round and back again, passing a few other people, getting tired up the hill, and accidentally running down into Port de Alcudia, which meant getting back would take 26 k, but I couldn't face the extra 1 k, so walked it, as I'd decided long before that I intended 25 k. And the track is here. Overall: nice to do the distance, haven't for ages, but need to keep the speed up especially past 21 k.

When I got back - 9:30, including a quick fall into the pool after - the others were in breakfast, so I quickly showered and followed them. Again, breakfast buffet is splendid, and (over)indulge myself.

After this, its a day out, because I want one, and so does M. And there is lots to see around. The only problem is the insane heat (Carruthers) which means that except indoors, or in an a/c car, or under the shade of awning or pinetree, life is impossible. So we drive to Alcudia, with me saying exciting things like "I ran here" and everyone ignoring me. The old city walls interest no-one else, so we don't stop, but try to get to somewhere nice on the cape, which turns out to be the Mirador de la Victoria, after several diversions. Its high up above the sea, and shaded by pines and by awning, so is tolerable in temperature, and we have several games of whist (mostly notable for D doing well and me badly) while I swig limonade (fanta) - very nice, especially for one dehydrated after a morning run. And we look out over the blue sea and across to the dry rocky cape that runs out from Port de Pollenca to Cap Formentor. Hopefully we can "do" that some day. By now its about 12:30, and we decide to go back down to the beach we passed on the way up here, which is just a little pull-off by the side of the road, and a path down to a pebbly beach. Again, lovely, but its v. hot unless you're in the sea or in the shade. Here it is - its the beach by the island, which I swam round. D and E floated on the lilo (OK, I did too, and so did M) and it was good. D complained that the water wasn't clear enough - hmm, maybe not, but this is an embayment in the Med. After 3/4 hour we'd used up our quota of direct noonday sunshine and were in danger of broiling, so retreated off towards Pollenca.

Various people had sung the praises of Pollenca at us. No-one had mentionned the near-impossibility of finding your way into the bastard place. So we drive in, following "Centre" signs, expecting ermm well to find a centre. And totally fail. Really, it was the famous "you are in a maze of twisty passages all alike". Eventually we find something that looks right (but isn't) but at least has a map, and after more confusion we get close enough to find the main square. And have more drinks and more rounds of whist, again with D doing very well and me pulling back just a little. However, I'm still not too impressed by P, which is nice enough, true, but hardly wonderful. Perhaps I'm put off by the heat again, and maybe a little by us having failed to bring out much cash and the resto we're in not wanting to take a card. Also, M and I wander off to look at the Big Church only to discover that entry is by "donation" and that, from outside, it doesn't look too exciting - just yer typical Romanesque. Anyway we left our cash with the kids and don't feel like walking to and fro under the hot hot sun again.

So instead we have an ice cream, and this turns out to be a very good idea, since they are excellent. My limon flavour is very lemon, delightful.

And so, back to the VivaBlue at about 5. When I get there and we unpack the car I have a sudden thought: where exactly is my wallet. Urgh. So when did I last have it? Aie, when I gave it to M so she could get out a few coppers to finish paying the ice cream lady. And then when I walked back to the car I had my book in one hand, and the ice cream in the other, and I was wearing my running/swimming shorts, which have no pockets, and therefore... Sigh. Back M and I go to Pollenca, and yes we get hopelessly lost once again, but yes the nice lady still has my wallet (phew) so we reward her and us by buying more ice creams: I have mango and limon, again. So at about 6:30 we're back, pick up E who has been floating in the pool, and after quick showers all round we're ready to go to dinner.

Last night's buffet was good, and the kids are keen to go back, so do that. This night is Mexican night which means they have a lot of the same basics, but the cooked-bit is centered on Mexican (but again I have nothing cooked). They have some oaxaca cheese which is a new one on me (is more solid and less stringy than that pic) but tastes similar to solid white cheeses. Manage half a hottish fat dark green chilli, but am otherwise content to stuff myself as per yesterday on olives, cheese, melon, papaya, eggs, oh and all sorts of stuff. Oh, and the "melon soup" which M decided was mostly cream was quite new to me and good.

Then the event that the children have been waiting for: today's Risk game. Using yesterday's rules variant, plus a new "retreat rule": if attacked, you can just retreat. It was going well for me (partly due to my secret pact with M) and I'd nearly killed off D, when M broke the truce and in a decide-the-result-by-9:30, E was the winner. Kids then off to bed / their appt, and we mostly talked to our pooters: M catching up on the Tour d'Espana, or whatever its called.

[Updated: added a couple of pix.]

Mallorca: Monday

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/28077.html]

I'm only writing this for completeness. Monday was declared a "stay around the apparthotel complex" day, and that's what we did. Since I'm writing this on sunday the 26th, I really can't recall in any detail what we did. Swam in the pool, played cards, played Risk, I should think.

Oh, and I got up early-ish and went for a 10k run: into Port D'Alcudia along the main road, then realised I could go beachwards after the river/canal and run along the beach; turn around in the centre of the port and come back, turning inland once the back-of-beach paved track ran out, about 2k from us.

But since I therefore have some spare space, here is a picture of Darling Daughter looking happy (taken on Tuesday, note):

Mallorca: Sunday

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/28168.html].

The alarm goes off at the ungodly (but that's OK, we're atheists :-) hour of 4 am. Or at least, it was supposed to, in fact it seems to be 4:25, oops, we're a bit late. We stumbled through the last of our packing last night and its all in the car apart from a few last-minute things we sweep up, and off we go. I'm sure, once upon a time, when I was 10 (E) or 14 (D) I would have been wildly excited to be flying. But now, even though we don't do it much, it is but routine. Anyway: zoom down to Stanstead, making up some lost time, but then have to stand for ages in the queue to check in our hold suitcase, which is uncomfortably heavy. Also, because we couldn't work out how to online (we booked through lastminute, not easyjet direct, never do that again) we need to pay for the suitcase. But when it goes on the belt... it weights 31 kg, 11 kg over the limit. Oops. I thought it felt heavy as I struggled to get it downstairs. Part of this is, errm, me having brought the bathroom scales :-). Which was why I couldn't weight it :-)). A very rapid trawl through pulls out 2 kg of books into E's sac, but we're running late so take the rest of the £10/kg penalty (!). And so (after a bit more scare, in which D's carry-on luggage proves not to quite fit in the measuring device provided, but never mind, it fits in the lockers) off we go, about the last on the plane and no chance for a coffee. And the flight (prompt at 9 am) is as usual dull and packed, so I read.

And so we arrive, with a bit of faff getting off as they delay the steps, then we need a bus to stop us walking 100m, but then we're through and go along to the car park I remember from 2010, and pick up our Europcar. M had booked us the smallest, but for a mere 3 euro/day we can upgrade to a 4-door, which is useful, and it may have a boot just big enough to take our giant suitcase, so we succumb to their blandishments.

Its now 11:30 ish. We're not really supposed to arrive till 2 ish, and its about 1h off if we go straight, so where to go?

We end up heading south and east, because we didn't really see this bit before. Probably because it seems less interesting than the mountains to the north, but its worth a quick peek on our way. We end up in Campos - Rondo de Jaume II - at a very nice fruit shop, whose like we never saw again, but of course because we just found it once we assumed its like was everywhere. Highlight was raw undried dates, which I've never had before, and which had a not-quite-ripe-hazelnutty flavour. Although that makes them sound less appealing than I found them. Then, via various narrow streets that all looked alike (a foretaste of Pollenca) we got lost but eventually found a nice side cafe for, errm, cafe and a few rounds of Whist.

After than, straightish to the resort. We weren't exactly sure where it was - M had handled all the booking, it was on the coastal strip near Can Picafort / Ses Forges, but to spare you the tension it was here. Looking at that I'm amused to find that the next-door hotel is almost a mirror-image of ours: I'd barely realised it was there. We are (slightly disappointingly, but this turned out not to matter) a block back from the sea. The place is all gleaming marble, air-con reception, nicely turned out staff, palm trees inside, and is basically a set of blocks surrounding a set of swimming pools. We're in block 4, which is the one in the bottom right here (I know, you don't care, this is for my reference only) but be careful, the kids swimming pool with pirate ship, that was directly under our windows, hadn't been built in that pic.

I forget what we did next. Unpacked, flopped in the cool after the heat, looked at the beach, had dinner in the resto (we hadn't learnt to trust the buffet yet). Etc.

Pix: inside block 1 (where we were on Saturday night); dawn view out of the back away from the beach over the nature reserve that I didn't visit but M did; the appt blocks from the back, where we parked our faithful chevvy.

  

A short walk in the Stubai: day 3: LisenserFernerKogel

[Originally: https://wmconnolley.livejournal.com/27103.html. And, yes, the original does end abruptly. I must finish this one day...]

* A short walk in the Stubai: day 1: arrival

* A short walk in the Stubai: day 2: Aperer Turm

Today's adventure is available as a GPS track.

This was a half day together; we were to climb to the Rinnensee, and perhaps the Rinnenspitze; and (I secretly hoped) I might get M over the RinnenNieder. So, we started just after breakfast. Breakfast starts at 6:30 (except perhaps at the weekends or by special request) which is one way you can tell these are really walkers huts not climbers ones; by 6:30 it has been light for several hours; the real climbers get up at 4 am at this time of year. Having thought b'fast started at 6 we set the alarm for then, so have at least got time to get the sacs downstairs, etc. Over b'fast M realised she needed a restish day, so restricted her ambitions to the See.

The path to the See and Spitze diverges from the Starkenburger hutte path soon above the FSH, just at the stream / waterfall, in an uncharacteristically poorly marked way. My main pic shows a view down from the path to the deep gorge cut by the main stream, and to the half-way-alm (really, the 3/4 way Alm), the Alpeiner Alm, with its Resto that I've never visited. And the little pic is a view back to the FSH and upvalley. As you see, it was yet another hard blue sky day.


At a semi-plateau at ~2500 m (ie, ~350 m up, ie about an hour in) there is a bench and picnic table in memory of "Harry Parkes Esq", an Englishman who loved to walk and climb in the beautiful Austrian Tirol. And indeed this spot does have a lovely view; and a picnic table is very English.


Just a little higher (M on the path up, Rinnenspitze on the skyline) up we come to the RinnenSee itself, nearly all frozen at this time of year. It is obligatory to photograph the opposite mountains reflected in the See, so here is my take. Other people have much more patience and wait for a totally windless day when the lake is ice-free and get nicer pix. Behind is the Sommerwand then the skyline may be the Nördliche Kräulspitze (3292 m); see here. But I've never been that way, alas.

At this point the third sunny day in a row is beginning to tell on me - in fact yesterday, at the Aperer Turm, I was just a touch blase about the sun - so today I'm all cammed up and have put a lightweight tee-shift under my hat to shade me from the Heat of the Noonday Sun. Why don't they make hats that shade you properly? I bet the French Foreign Legion had them.

The book Trekking in the Stubai Alps has a reasonable section on this route - see google books. The map on p 113 is useful, as is the pic on p 114 - although be aware that the very top of the route is misleadingly drawn in: you go up to the col, and then the ridge on the skyline, to the L of the peak; not straight up the face. Or at least, I did. Which is what, to me, their description says. That book, also, talks of Bergschrund and Crevasses, none of which were in evidence in this snowy season.

Route markers: if you did the Aperer Turm, or one of the other semi-tourist routes, you'll have been amused or possibly exasperated by the number of route markers paint-splashed onto the rocks (unless, of course, you did the route in cloud or mist or when half the markers are covered in snow; then you'll have realised why there are so many and been grateful for them). Don't expect to have your hand held for you when you get higher up. Once over the RinnenNieder you can expect no route marking at all, which is as it should be. Although I have a clear, but possibly false, memory that the base of the PlattigeWand ramp was marked in 2001.



At the RinnenNieder, you are presented with a wide and glorious view of the LisenserFerner, with the LFK on the skyline; and if you swivel your head, a view down the glacier north to Praxmar. Very likely you will, like me, find a set of footsteps to follow in the snow. And quite possibly, like me, you'll discover that you're actually following a Chamois not a person after a while. Well, I reasoned, they probably know better than people where the pitfalls are.

Below the LFK you can see, foreshortened, the RotGratFerner. It looks fairly gently sloping from here... it doesn't look nearly so shallow when you get to it.

So, you trudge (or skip lightly, according to mood and snow conditions) over and then up the LisenserFerner (pausing to admire the view back to the RinnenSpitze and col), and the PlattigeWand looms over you, looking very wall-like. But you continue up the glacier, and eventually the obvious weakness - a ramp rising back- becomes obvious, and you follow it up. In 2001 it was snowless. At the top there is some lovely rock that would surely be climable was it less remote; and you may look forward to your way ahead. The snow from here to the col is moderately steep and in one place has a moderately interesting run-out.

[NOT FINISHED BUT SAVING NOW]