Munich Zoo - Birds

This is our third photoblog-style post after a visit to the Munich Zoo in June.  First a baby elephant, then lions & bears, and now some birds.

Like a number of zoos, Munich has peacocks and peahens that are free to roam the grounds -- although they prefer to stay in one of the large protected pens.  We photographed them in various states of "dress".  At first, we were surprised to see one perched on a low hanging tree branch... you usually see them on the ground. 

    

We also found them walking around with their plumage simply trailing behind...

And then, of course, the peacocks had to try and impress the ladies.  Out came the full display of color and texture.

In the same area were the Grey Crowned Cranes (Grauhals-Kronenkranich auf Deutsch).

This pair had built a huge nest in the pond, not much more than 10 feet from our viewing spot. We'll have to go back and see what hatches from the eggs. We have no idea what the babies look like!

These guys come from sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the fact that they weren't competing for mates (and that the guy has obviously already found one!), the cranes liked to join in when the male peacocks were showing off, fluffing up their feathers and sounding their loud calls to compete with the peacocks. Gorgeous feathers!

To be honest, I'm not sure if this is an Emu or an Ostrich (the zoo has both), but you'll find him wandering around the field with the llama and some other small animals.

And at the end of the day we have the Great Comorants. Not at all endangered, these diving birds have beautiful feather patterns, which they often show off for us when they dry their wings.  It almost looks fake - very cool.

Comorant mating season also is in full swing, with nesting pairs throughout the exhibit. This guy was determined to ruin a good picture with his bathroom break!  The perils of trying to shoot animals....

Next to the comorants we have the African Pink Pelicans. These most likely are juveniles, as they still have some brown in their feathers.  It's late in the day now, and time for them to sleep after a long day of sunning, preening, and being fed by the zookeepers. Wait, are we back at the lion exhibit???

And finally our burst of sunshine, a Blue and Yellow Macaw snacking on some fruit.

   

Munich Day Trip - Fuschl and the Frauenkopf

In early July, friends of ours from Dallas came to visit!  We had to show them a good time, of course, so we rented a car and drove into the Alps for some early Saturday hiking.

We decided the destination would be Salzburgerland - the state (and general area) around Salzburg, Austria.  It's quite close to Munich (about 90 minutes with clear traffic).

The border between the two countries winds and twists a lot - and in fact from Munich you can be in Austria within 1.5 hours heading either East or South!

 

We continued past Salzburg into an area with many small Alpine lakes.  It's a very popular weekend and vacation spot because you can hike, bike, swim, and sail.  We ended in a town called Fuschl am See (Fuschl on the lake) -- the lake is called Fuschlsee, naturally.  Interesting fact:  Fuschl is the headquarters of Red Bull!

Near the southeastern corner of the lake is the trail head leading to two popular peaks:  the Frauenkopf and Schober.  The Frauenkopf is also called the Frauenstein (they mean "women's head" or "women's stone").  The trail (red dotted line on the map below) is numbered B10 by the Austrian Mountain Association and is rated "black" or difficult.  It departs north and then circles east to the two destinations, marked with crosses.  (I don't know what the third cross is for...)

We decided to only climb to the top of the Frauenkopf rather than do the entire circle (we had something else planned in the afternoon).  Here was the starting point, below, at lake level.  At 9am, the weather was already sunny and warn, and the lake looked inviting (even more so after the hike).

The lake lies at 924m above sea level, and the Frauenkopf sits at 1287m, so we the climb would be over 360m (1180 feet).  For those of us that didn't grow up in the mountains, mountains always look so far away from the valley floor.  "We're going up there?" said one of our guests!

 

Did you notice the sand trap in the above photo?  Yes, Fuschl has a golf course, and the trail goes right through it.

After walking through a field of wildflowers and past the golf course, we reach the woods.  The trees are beautiful, and really keep you out of the sun & cool while starting the tougher part of the trail.  The path itself has countless tree roots sticking up - don't turn an ankle.

We then reached the fun part.... the trail starts snaking up the mountain steeply and is lined with gravel or rocks (in some places it's small rocks, in others gravel sized pebbles).  The Austrian Mountain Association keeps it tidy, though, with maintenance throughout the year.  Almost looks like they were dumped here...

You can see how steep the mountain is from this view - luckily the path is full of switchbacks rather than a walk straight up!

As we climbed higher, we solved the mystery of why (and how) the path was covered with rocks - they're actually natural slides from the material on the exposed peaks breaking off.  Between the steep slope and the sometimes slippery rocks, you have to go relatively slowly. Luckily there are some spectacular views along the way - you can start to see the top, which helps when you're getting tired!

 

As we climb higher, we also get glimpses of the lake below.

 

After a little stop for water and to enjoy the view, we start to head up the "summit". It starts with stairs that have been cut into the slope. These definitely help the ascent, though some of them are quite a tall step up!

It's a little bit of a scramble to reach the last peak, but completely doable. We're rewarded with a gorgeous vista and a rocky ridge covered in scrubby little wildflowers.  (You can see the golf course down below)

It always feels great to finally see the cross that adorns most peaks (even small ones like this).  This also has a plaque saying Frauenkopf, and a stamp that you can use to show you made it.  Frau A and I don't have a "book" but we can imagine locals having many dozens of stamps in theirs.

 

We got a nice photo of Mr. C enjoying the view (nothing like this in Dallas, huh?)...

...and then himself capturing a picture of his lovely wife Mrs. M:

In the end, the linear distance there & back was about 6 1/2 km (a little over 4 miles).  It took us about 2 3/4 hours up, and 1 1/2 hours down.  The only hütte (Alpine hut) was at Schober, and we didn't go there, so there was no place to stop for refreshment on the way as usual!  Tired and hungry, we lunched at a local "wellness" hotel , and then headed on to the afternoon activity... to be posted soon...

It was great to see friends, and there's no better place than in the Alps on a beautiful day.

Next time we'll tackle the Schober (seen here from atop the Frauenkopf)!

Kocherlball

On Sunday, Herr J and I got up early to attend the Kocherlball, one of Munich's many summer festivals.

This one is a little different from the average beer+wurst+crepes+bandstand that is put up in any square, especially because it takes place early in the morning. 6:00-10:00, to be exact. And I HIGHLY recommend you arrive early if you want a seat. By 5am would be best - you won't be the first ones there....plenty of folks will be there early to stake out a prime table, and will enjoy breakfast and conversation by candlelight until the sun rises.

As usual, you are welcome to bring your own food, or to buy various breakfast foods (weißwurst, kaiserschmarrm, bread/cold cuts, various meats, and other sinfully wonderful variations on fried dough). Many groups will cover the beergarden picnic tables with fine table cloths, vases of flowers, and even silver candelabras. The drinks (beer, coffee, etc) you buy from the beergarden.

The point of the festival, however, is dancing.

In the last decade of the 18th century, the cooks and domestic staff met each year early on a summer Sunday morning to dance at the Chinese Tower (in the English Garden). Hence the name loosely translates to "Cooks' Ball" and takes place early in the morning before they had to go back to work. The tradition continued for a century or so, until it was banned in 1904 for being of questionable morality.

The event was revived in 1989 for the 200th anniversary celebrations for the English Garden and it continues today.

In addition to the dining and drinking, they have bands to play traditional music continuously in front of the dance area.

You'll see old and young alike, many in trachten or even older traditional uniforms. Even this sleepy little guy is decked out in his finest Bavarian duds:

And the dancing certainly is nothing scandalous today - it's traditional folk dancing, mainly from the Oberfalz (Upper Palatinate) and Niederbayern (Lower Bavaria) regions...polkas, waltzes, and other traditional dances.  Not that many people actually knew the steps, but everyone still had fun trying something waltz-style or following instructions from the band leader.  Apparently the Münchener Francaise is one of the popular local dances (especially after it was taught for Munich's 850th anniversary).  I'm not sure how there is enough room to do it here, but there are German instructions online if you're curious like me. I can picture a ballroom of men and women in formal trachten, dancing as in old Vienna!

For those who want to learn the dances (or brush up on long-forgotten skills), the Culture Department (das Kulturreferat) of the City of Munich offers free Bavarian folk dancing courses on the three Thursdays leading up to the Kocherlball. Herr J and I did briefly join the fray for a dance or two, but perhaps next year we'll prepare ahead and learn the steps.

Until next year, here's a video of the dancing:
 

A lovely morning at the Chinese Tower!

German Lesson: Fußball Fieber

Herr J and I have definitely caught the football fever that sweeps Germany 3 out of every 4 years (World Cup, Women's World Cup, European Cup, then a sad, sad summer with no football). 

So we thought we'd put together some of the more important German terms that you need to know to follow football (men's or women's), along with some of our photos from Sweden-North Korea, Sweden-Australia, and Sweden-Japan games in Augsburg and Frankfurt. (No, it isn't that we are huge Sweden fans...the Quarterfinal  (Viertelfinale) and Semi-final (Halbfinale) matches just ended up that way).

Also known collectively as the Ampelkarte (Stoplight Cards):

Formally known as the Schiedsrichter(in), the Referee is commonly referred to as the Schiri. As unfortunately seems to happen more and more, when the refs make a questionable call you'll hear whistling by the crowd to show their displeasure or you'll hear the announcers on TV refer to the echt Wahnsinn (true madness).

Elfmeter = Penalty Kick. Though the obvious example would be some of Hope Solo's great work in the victory over Brazil, we'll go instead with Clint Dempsey's attempt earlier this year in a Fulham vs Chelsea game. Though his shot is blocked by goalie Petr Cech, we're pretty proud to have an American playing in the Premier League.

Why Elfmeter? Literally translated at 11 Meters, it's the distance (12 yards) from goal.

After the Verlängerung (Overtime), we have the Elfmeterschießen (Penalty Shootout) which brings the Goalie center stage:  

However, you definitely do NOT want to score an Eigentor, or Own Goal!

Traumtor = Dream Goal. There are a variety of examples to illustrate this one, but I'll go with something recent and something patriotic: Heather O'Reilly's goal against Colombia in the Group Stage. Also a great example of a Distanzschuss (Distance Shot):

And what is this whole thing called?? In Germany, you'll usually just hear "WM" (pronounced "vey-em", of course!). This also applies to any world championships....alpine skiing, rugby, etc.

 

Also known informally as "die Elf," ("the Eleven"), we have the teams themselves:

And Germany's beloved Jogi...one of the best in the world, but he often forgets about the cameras

 

Though we can play football anywhere with a flat surface and a ball, the big games are played in a Stadion (Stadium), like Frankfurt's Commerzbank Arena here. (In German, Stadium is a completely different word). A stadium full of Zuschauer (Fans/Spectators).

Schauspieler(in) des Jahres - Actor(actress) of the Year - This one we'll dedicate to Erika of Brazil, who puts even Cristiano Ronaldo and the Italian national team to shame:

In a game with so many Verletzungen (Injuries) - be they fake or real - we'll end up with a few minutes of Nachspielzeit (Extra Time / Injury Time).  It's in this extra time that both the US 2010 and 2011 National Teams made their fabled die pefekte Come-Back Gesichte (the perfect Comeback Story).

A Foul (Foul) often can lead to a free kick, against which the most common defensive strategy is mauern (to build a wall):

 

On the more technical side we have one that sounds almost the same but is spelled quite differently...

Not to be confused with Abschlag, where the goalie uses his/her hands to throw, punt, or drop-kick the ball (and must do so within 6 seconds), North Korea's goalie shows us her skills:

 

Despite rooting for Japan against Sweden last week, we'll be cheering for Team USA tonight.  Will American tenacity take us through to victory, or will Japan complete its fairy tale march to a first world championship?

Random Friday Musings

Cultural Misunderstanding Averted:   

On the walk back from buying groceries today, I noticed a woman shaking her closed fist in the face of a homeless man. My first reaction was shock. My second to realize that I was completely wrong and she was actually giving him encouragement and wishing him some luck by closing her fist around her thumb and making the German gesture for good luck.

(To wish someone luck in the native way, close your fist around your thumb, squeeze it and say Ich drücke dir die Daumen!)

Happy Surprises: 

It's been a long week and hard to keep up with everything. I finally got everything under control last night and was left with a manageable workload instead of a to do list longer at the end of each day. And after two days of travel, I was just tired. So, I skipped the whole getting up and getting dressed part of the morning and just stayed in bed for a couple of hours with my laptop and coffee. (I travel or work from home...it doesn't matter how I look on those days)

So when the doorbell rings at 10am, I'm suprised and not dressed to answer the door. I throw a robe on over my pajamas and quickly answer it to find a wonderful surprise - a "care package" from one of my best friends in the world (from Singapore, to be exact). We met in business school, bonded one night at dinner over a shared love of pink snakeskin, I joined her and a couple others for a trip to Paris, and that was that....we realized we were like sisters that the stork had been dropped off on other sides of the world.

Among other wonderful goodies (pineapple tarts!!!) was a book that will inspire some serious exploration.   Living in Germany and in close proximity to Vienna and Italy makes trying many of these things very possible!

An Ettiquette Dilemma:  

So what's the ettiquette on how to drink wine on a train? Drinking beer out of the bottle is quite common on German trains, and it seems like a tall boy (or two) is in order for many of the men commuting home at night on the LIRR. But how does one drink wine?

I typically take the train to Frankfurt once a week - sometimes there and back on the same day, making it a very long day.  Lately I've been tired but can't sleep, and too bored/tired to read or play games on my Kindle. (Herr J thinks I need a PlayStation portable or something...he might be right).

So I decided a glass of red wine might be a good way to relax, and if I were lucky, perhaps to induce a nap. They do sell little bottles in the train station, but they don't have plastic cups. I felt a little weird drinking it out of the bottle. OK, I felt a LOT weird - enough that last week I didn't get wine because it seemed weird.  This week, I decided I didn't care what people thought and went for it.  I felt good about that decision when I realized that the girl in the seat next to me didn't seem to care about not having showered in a few days!

Crazy Penalty Kicks

There were some strange penalty kicks in the USA vs Brazil quarterfinal match of the Women's World Cup.  Twice a penalty was taken and saved by the keeper, only to have the referee say it must be retaken.  Each time, the second kick was successful (although in Brazil's case, by a different player!).

In the first one, a USA player was called for "encroachment" (entering into the penalty box before the Brazilian player strikes the ball).  Technically illegal, but it is usually never called!  Here is the moment of infamy:

Christiane, who took the first penalty, was replaced by Marta who made the second.

Then in the penalty shootout -- the very first kick -- Shannon Boxx's effort is denied but the referee cited the Brazilian keeper for coming off the line before the ball was struck.  A keeper may move along the goal line before contact, but not towards the player.  Here is the snapshot in time:

 

These were strange, but YouTube is a wealth of more strangeness!  Let's look at a few.

PK #1:  This video comes from a Moroccan league.  The player hits a low, slow shot to the keeper's left.  It's so soft and low that it bounces just before the keeper hits it away.  Tennis players know that this creates backspin...

PK #2:  This is from one of the lower leagues (Italian, I think).  The player hits a hard shot high and middle, flying off the crossbar up into the air and outside the frame of camera.  It bounces back down, with backspin...

Strange, that in the comments there is an update that the goal was later disallowed and should have been called dead as soon as the ball hit the ground.  Hmmm.

PK #3:  Similar to #2, it's a hard shot off the crossbar, but this one doesn't waste any time getting back into the goal.

PK #4:  This is from a U19 (under 19 years old) game, Spain vs Italy.  Pretty tricky.  I'll let you see for yourself.

PK #5:  From a Swiss lower league game.  This is pure showing-off.  Pretty athletic though.  Watch the player, not the ball.

PK #6:  This is from a training session in the Italian top league ("Totti" played for Rome).  Anything you can do, I can do backwards...

PK #7:  Before you ask - yes, this is legal.  In a penalty kick during the game (but not a shootout, of course) the other players may enter the box as soon as the kicker hits the ball.  Could go badly with a great goalie, though.

PK #8:  This is not pro, semi-pro, or interesting in any other way than schadenfreude.  Keep your eye on the ball, goalie.  (but that doesn't mean to NOT put your hands up)

Soccer and Technology

Frau A and I went to our second Women's World Cup game in Augsburg, this one a quarterfinal matchup between Sweden and Australia (Sweden won, 3-1).  On the train back to Munich, mobile phones kept us up-to-date on the first half of USA vs Brazil.  We rushed home to catch the second half on television (and extra time, and penalty shots...).

What a game.

Of course, I was starved for ways to re-live the experience, and found some interesting web sites with more than just video replays.

ESPN.com has "Gamecast", which provides real-time (and archived) commentary, statistics, and neat graphical depictions of what happened.  For example...

Their timeline shows key events in the game, such as goals, yellow/red cards, and substitutions:

 USA vs Brazil (First Half)

USA vs Brazil (Second Half)

USA vs Brazil (extra time)

It was a real fight -- three yellow cards in the last 8 minutes of extra time.  And I love seeing that US goal at the very end...

Gamecast also has a running feed of information throughout the game.  If you're stuck at work without a live video stream, this is the next best thing (you end up waiting impatiently for each refresh, not knowing what to expect):

Statistics for the team and individual players are also updated in real time:

USA vs Brazil - team statistics

It's interesting that even being down to 10 players for the last 56 minutes of the game, the US still managed 51% possession.  Other than the US advantage in corner kicks, things look pretty even.

Here are the player stats...

USA vs Brazil - individual statistics

Wow - Carli Lloyd is a magnet for fouls, with 5 drawn and 5 committed!  Wambach gets hammered (5 fouls against vs 1 committed) whereas Boxx must be our 'enforcer' (just the opposite).

Gamecast gets even better when you click on "Shots" and it shows a map of the location of every shot from the two teams.  The US clearly favored the right side (or just had more success getting open there) while Brazil mapped more strongly to their left:

USA vs Brazil - Gamecast shot map

Then, if you click on a shot (for example, the solid blue Abby Wambach goal on the left of course!) it will show you an animation of how that play develped!  This one goes from Ali Krieger taking the ball from the Brazillian attacker, pass to Carli Lloyd at midfield, pass to Megan Rapinoe on the left wing, then her cross to Abby Wambach, and the shot:

USA vs Brazil - development of game tying goal at 122'

In contrast, Marta's goal early in additional time was set up by 5 forward passes, 4 backward passes, and a cross, many in tight quarters:

USA vs Brazil - development of Marta goal at 92'

In addition to raw statistics, you can see the "average" position of the players for each team.  In this case, look how spread out the US defenders had to play (#6, #3, #19, and #11), whereas the Brazilian defenders stayed much more in the middle of the backfield (#3, #4, #5, and #13):

USA vs Brazil - average position USA

USA vs Brazil - average position Brazil

Gamecast also provides even more "where-they-were-most-active" detail info for individual players, called a "Heat Map".  We can compare Abby Wombach with Marta because they both play the Center Forward - Left position.  Wombach spends little time in the defensive end, whereas Marta ventures deeper (and obviously more often) into her own end.  And look at how disciplined/consistent Abby seems to be lining up above the box - definitely not the organic Brazilian style!

 USA vs Brazil - Heat Map for Abby Wombach

USA vs Brazil - Heat Map for MartaRapinoe spent her time almost exclusively on the left side, and because she took most of the corner kicks gets mapping there too: 

 USA vs Brazil - Heat Map for Megan Rapinoe

Even more interesting is the comparison of the goalies.  Clearly Hope Solo has a much more aggressive style, coming further out and mirrors the left-weighted shot map of Brazil.  (Obviously, the effectiveness of the Brazilian attack has a role in her positioning too):

USA vs Brazil - Heat Map for Hope Solo

USA vs Brazil - Heat Map for Andreia

Of course there are many other web sites with similar features.  Adidas Match Tracker looks very in-depth, probably designed for the hard-core fan:

VisualSport keeps and displays data over an entire season and league, so performance changes over time might be trackable but it looks a little cartoon-ish: 

Finally, of course, there are iPad and iPhone apps too!  TotalFootball looks sharp:

An iPad option is the World Cup Visualizer.  The engineer in me likes these things, because it allows you to look at the sport in a different way.  I think statistics will continue to get more use by soccer clubs themselves and perhaps have the same impact that sabremetrics has had on baseball in the U.S..