maanantai 18. marraskuuta 2019

Road trip to southern Germany


For a couple of odd reasons we decided to make a late autumn trip to Heidelberg were we lived twenty years ago.  We left Jyväskylä on Thursday afternoon, had a nice walk at Ruissalo before embarking the ferry. At dawn on our way from Stockholm we found nice forest with cliffs and nature trail. So, the dogs had a nice outing somewhere around Kungens Kurva. First destination was to see our daughter, Henni, in Lund. We arrived just in time to have a nice walk with her on the beach before the sunset. In the first picture the bridge between Sweden and Denmark is on the background.




Our base in Lund; the dogs on Henni's stairs on rainy Saturday morning before leaving for our walk to Skåneleden. Our choice included lots of stiles between the meadows with or without cows on the way. The reward for our rainy walk was a very nice brunch in the country cafe. Kind of grey and wet - no pics.


The doggies on the bright Sunday morning on the lawn behind "Henni's" house.  



On Sunday we headed to Falsterbo, the most South Eastern corner of Sweden. We walked around the western peninsula of Falsterbo. The bridge is now to be seen from the east. There were hundreds of swans on the Swedish cost.


We walked under the dark and blue sky. The trio enjoyed.

Being stalked at.

The stalker

Some windmills and the autumn colors


Heading towards the outer side of the peninsula

The last quarter of our walk was pretty damp, the wellingtons were a necessity. Prikka was pretty good jumping over the the puddles and streams (the other two not, so later we had very smelly dogs).

Prikka and the white sand.


The swimming huts. 

Jinga on white sand by the dunes on the other end of peninsula.


The woods between the dunes and naturum where we had a lovely lunch.

                Early next morning we left for southern Germany and left Kiila to Henni.

Finland had been quite grey for a few weeks, so we really enjoyed seeing the autumn colors again. The trees had colorful leaves starting from southern Sweden. This picture is taken on Tuesday morning from Neckargemünde where we stayed a few nights. The Monday was the most awful driving experience of our all journeys. The journey from Lund took 14 hours, 12 hours of driving, one hour in the ferry and a couple of lousy meals without any decent walks with the dogs. Lots of  rush hours (Staus), construction work on German Autobahns and driving in the darkness. Earlier we have been quite lucky with our choice of stops but not on Tuesday.


Just up the hill from our airbnb.


The beautiful sceneries next morning made the trip worth while.


At noon we met my agility team mate back from 2000. Anette and Tara showed Hoopers, which is Tara's favorite sport. Anette's dog club has been offering it for a few years. Of course I had to try it too with Jinga and Prikka.



We visited also our friends at Forbach in Black Forest (Schwarzwald)

We had nice walk there, too. This was partly a familiar path for us since we started
our 100 km Wine path (Wein Pfad) hike 10 years ago with Kiila from here. 

Walking up the hill


Coming down 

There was a mystery stone in the nearby village

Jinga and Prikka climbed up, of course.


Piece of steep wall, we three who witnessed Prikka jumping up this, will hardly forget her grace doing it. She had jumped on the dirt road before us, we could not join her immediately because it was too steep. The car was approaching Prikka, so she decided to jump back to us (and not run in front of the car).


Coming back to Forbach

There was snow on the top of the hills close to  Forbach. We saw more snow when climbing up via Freudenstadt on our way to visit friends in Tübingen. These were the furthest points on our trip.


The autumn holiday was supposed to be Heidelberg holiday but I only spent one afternoon looking at the familiar sights in our hometown 20 years ago.


Luckily, our journey back up to Lund was a lot nicer. It took 13 hours (only one hour less) to get back up north but we had a nice one hour walk in Lüneberger Heide besides a couple of other nice stops.

It is always pretty calm and silent at the dog compartment, very seldom they raise their heads up. Now, they are just checking if they might get out while visiting the gas station. We stayed again in Lund for the night when picking up Kiila. She had a good time with Henni and her friends and the other two had much more space for themselves on the long rides we did. 



The doggies after 4 600 km in the car, the road trip exceeded 5 000 km, ferry trips  included. The Volvo needed gas worth of 290 euros, not bad. Since there is only one driver in this family, the next trip might be inter-rail one (like we did 10 years ago with Kiila) or many more days without hardly any driving. Two long days of driving (if we forget the way to and in Sweden) should be compensated with more days in the destination(s). Quite a road trip but it gave us a nice and colorful break for a grey November.

A tip:
There is quite a difference in money affairs  between Sweden and Germany.
In Sweden there are many places where they do not accept any cash. In German it is the opposite. Some restaurants e.g. accept only money, some places accept cards in theory but then the European cards ajust does not work in their systems for one reason or the other.




lauantai 2. marraskuuta 2019

Meidän syksy





 Viime viikolla oli pientä härmää maassa ja aurinko ei ihan ehtinyt karata metsän taakse. Mustavalkoiset ovat pariin otteeseen olleet Erikan käsittelyssä. Jingan arvelinkin oleva tukossa elokuisen jalkaongelmansa jäljiltä. Prikan kuvittelevan olevan elämänsä kunnossaa mutt ei, melkein oli yhtä tukossa kuin "isosiskonsa". Tämän viikkoisen käsittelyn jälkeen olivat jo molemmat ihan joustavia kalustoltaan.


Kotikatujen ruskaa


Välillä trioa on istutettu kuurassa, 


välillä ikäänkuin lumessa. Usein "meidän mäellä" saattaa olla lunta vaikkei kaupungilla olisikaan.




Prikka sai yhtenä aamuna olla ihan ainoana koirana treenimässä ja poseeraamassa.


Iltapäivällä pyydettiin kaveri mukaan ja käveltiin Köhniöjärvi ympäri ja aurinko yhä vain helli.




Tämä syksy oli mieletön tattisyksy, mahtavia herkkutatteja ilmestyi ja ilmestyi poimittavaksi.



Onneksi myös suppiksia saatiin jonkin verran. Prikka on aika taitava silloin, kun haluaa.


melkein lämmintäkin lokakuussa.







Lokakuun valoa mökillä ja joutsenten kokoontumisajoja.





Pari kuvaa Oulun korkeuksilta syyskuun lopulta.