Pen Y Fan and Wales

A friend from Munich and I decided to do a little adventuring and climbing and because we are real men, we didn't head off to Alaska where you can climb in cool refreshing conditions like some people we know, we decided to challenge ourselves in the hot muggy conditions of Southern Wales.

Firstly we headed to Pembrokeshire in the South-Western corner of Wales where we checked out a couple of castles and aclimatised to the conditions on a beach or two.

Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber

We then headed to Brecon Beacon National Park to take on our main challenge - its highest peak - Pen Y Fen!

Its a little known fact that Pen Y Fen is actually the highest peak in the world at 8860m (+ or - a 0, which we all know is zero, so it cannot alter the result), compared to Mt Everest at 8848m. This is generally covered up by the mountaineering community - I suspect simply because they struggle to pronounce the name - which is shameful and wrong (even if Welsh IS a bit weird)!

We started bright and early, as you have to on these bigger undertakings. It was my first attempt at a mountain since breaking my achilles nearly 4 months ago, and Stefan was a bit concerned about his knee, so we needed to leave some room for error.

The weather wasn't looking promising, but like fools, we ignored the tragic story of little Tommy (who came to a tragic end - as described in our guide book) and started out anyway. It drizzled a little as we climbed and the top was normally lost in swirling mist. We figured that if the worst came, we could always catch one of the many sheep on the slopes and cuddle against the conditions.

Stefan near the summit

After a difficult struggle we reached the top where the poor sheep grazing were struggling for breath in the thick, oxygen rich atmosphere, that you only get at these altitudes. After pausing for a quick photo op, we headed back down before we had to worry about altitude sickness - we hadn't bothered bringing bottled oxygen with us.

The thick mist opened up the possibility of making an error and dying on the way back down - the fate of many an unfortunate mountaineer. However after being a little worried we had taken the wrong ridgeline back down, we arrived safely at the campervan.

However, the life threatening danger didn't stop there. The Welsh has an interesting habit of forming field boundaries with dyke like 'walls' - and the roads leading to and from Pen Y Fan were particularly narrow leaving little room for error.

While leaving we were cruising along on our little Welsh autobahn, and very nearly had a fatal accident - as we came around a corner, a chicken was right in the middle of the road - and I only just managed to break in time! I was almost tempted to not break, but we had enough food for the drive home already.

The end.

Yana is approaching her second birthday

Time flies... Little Yana is approaching her second birthday (27.7.) and soon she won't seem so little to us anymore (when we have her little brother or sister to compare her to). It's amazing how much she has changed since she was a little baby. She can now speak two languages (not quite fluently yet), she has her own opinion on things (often that means an initial 'no' until you convince her otherwise or make a deal with her), she loves bikes ('bite'), cars ('audo'), books, cats ('meouw'), rabbits, spiders ('bider') and water (especially out of the tap), and she is very sociable.
Here are some recent photos of our little sunshine...

Yana loves going to the playground and climbing up anything, no matter how high it is.

Yana in her Tumble Tots t-shirt. Tumble Tots is a physical education group we go to each week.

Yana is having a snack outside in our garden. She's wearing her favourite hat and gum-boots, which she often doesn't even want to take off when she's inside.

After Yana repeatedly managed to get herself out of her sleeping bag, like this, we have now moved her into a "big girl" bed with a "big girl" blanket and she seems to like it so far.

Yana in bed with Daddy and Mama.

Exploring more of the Cotswolds

Last weekend we spent a nice sunny day exploring more of the Cotswolds. We took the campervan so that Yana could have her day sleep, while Kerstin explored Bourton-on-the-water and Lindsay was able to do some studying. Once Yana woke up we took her little tricycle and had a look around Bourton-on-the-water. The town was full of people sunbathing along the shores of the river and cooling down their feet in the freezing cold water. There are lots of cute little stone houses and alleyways, low bridges crossing over the river and very expensive ice-cream.

Yana wasn't too impressed by the cold water. She kept pulling her feet up like a little frog when Lindsay tried to get her to touch the water with her feet. She did like the ice-cream though.



On the way home we stopped off in Northleach and looked at the old wool-church there. Unfortunately the pub didn't serve any food yet, so we had to get Yana home quickly on the nibbles we still had left over from lunch.

Visiting friends and family in Germany

In Mid-May we packed up our car and drove over to Germany to visit our friends and family. It was a long drive, but it was worth it.

Our first stop was Munich, where we stayed with a couple of different friends and met up with as many people as we could. It was like piecing together a puzzle, trying to fit so many people into the four days. We were really lucky with the weather and managed to experience our first glimpse of summer. Aside from catching up with friends, we managed to enjoy a couple of beer gardens and visited a wildlife park with a big adventure playground. Yana enjoyed playing with all her little friends.

On our way to Kehlbach, where Kerstin's family lives, we stopped off in Wiesbaden for a night and stayed with Kerstin's grandparents. The remaining time was spent in Kehlbach, meeting up with more family and friends. We particularly enjoyed the time we spent with Kerstin's sister and her family, who had just moved to Germany from New Zealand.

A big highlight of the trip for Kerstin was her 10 year high school reunion. Kerstin spent a whole day with her old school mates playing different kinds of outdoor games, having a barbecue and a nice buffet dinner and catching up on all the news and gossip with everyone. It was great to see everyone again.

Here are some photos of our trip:

Yana playing with her friend Tim

Going for a walk with our friends Stefan, Tim and Anna (and Baby Benjamin enjoying his last few days inside Anna's belly)

Lindsay and Yana having fun on the giant swing

Pekip (Baby-group) Reunion with Babsi, Leopold, Katrin, Lisa-Marie, Kerstin and Yana

The two cousins going for a drive together

Kerstin and her sister Nina with their little toddlers...

... and with their approx. 30 week bumps.