Frankfurt/home

So I am now home, and have been for a week, my luggage however, has yet to make it home to me, last I heard from West Jet, it was Puerto Vallarta....without me, how dare it!

Altenberg was a great last week, the girls finished really well with Canada 1 winning and my pilot, Canada 2 coming 6th. The boys 2man went well, but not nearly as well as expected. Altenberg is a tough cookie of a course.

On Thursday we drove to Frankfurt loaded some bins with sleds, pried an old sled out of a bin which was clearly too small for it, but trust it to the 6 girls there to be able to pull the sled out, by rocking it back and forth and shaking the bin...brains over braun won, as the men were unsucessful! Then we drove back to Altenberg, a whopping 11 hours in the car that day...made for a very long day. The following days we just watched the 4man training. Then on sunday drove back to Frankfurt for real. 

That evening, our last in Germany, we went to the Frankfurt Christmas market, which was the most amazing thing I've ever seen in my life. There were carousels, two of them, one was two stories, simply amazing. The best food, candy, coffee and Gluwein you could ask for. They shut down most of the city centre and set up all these booths to sell christmas things, food, etc, and put out rides. It was the best part of the trip, and a great way to end it.

Altenberg

So I've now been down and survived my 5 runs at Altenberg, which is the hardest track in the circuit...and I'm still ALIVE! very exciting.

The girls race tomorrow, I am not racing, as this track is better to have heavier people and me being the lighest brakeman on tour (the entire tour, with all the other countries) will sit this one out, almost gladly...as this week has definitely taken its toll...lots of new bruises :( We're so busy here, as the track sessions take over 4 hours, every day, and that isn't counting the prep before the track or the clean up after...so it makes for very long days. Heather and I are trying to sleep lots, but apparently sleep doesn't care much about us, thank goodness its almost home time.

Can't believe I've almost been here for four weeks now, where has the time gone? 

Winterberg...

So the week at Winterberg has already come and gone! How tragic that I didn't get to write about the many snowball fights, and snowman making that went on in the 3+ feet of snow we received over the 6 days we were there.

Winterberg is beautiful, its surrounded by snow capped mountains. The track, although not too difficult overall, has some nasty corners, 9-10 are well, awkward is the best way to put that.

Our runs and races went well, although our 2nd start on race day 2 could not have been worse, and yet it was still a top 10 start time out of 26 sleds. It started with the hit, my pilots and my timing was so off, that when I hit the sled, she was mid step, so that when she hit the sled, I'd already died from my hit of the entire sled...our run was awesome, pilot loaded, I went to load, like I've done a million times before, but instead of making it into the sled I drive my shin up into the back end corner of the sled, causing me to be thrown forward up and over my pilot, then back down, instead of the smooth, long jump like catapult my load normally is. I get to the bottom, and my shin is screaming at me, as well as bleeding, one of the race officials feels so bad for my pain that he gives me a bottle of some german alcohol...

Then we load up the sled trucks, eat lunch and drive the 7 hours to Altenberg, note the 'e' in berg, not a 'u'...which leads me to say, WHY ARE THERE TWO CITIES NAMED THE SAME THING WITHIN A 100KM DISTANCE OF EACH OTHER....terrible.

Alex and I driving, we follow the Dutch team for a while, then I decide to strike out on my own, while Alex is asleep...I make it the 200+ k to Dresden, and then Alex wakes up to see a sign saying Altenburg, so course we take that exit, make it to the exit ramp on 2 of our 4 wheels...and get to Altenburg, only to realize, its not Altenberg.....so back out onto the Autobahn, and away we go for another 100km...make it to Altenberg, and our hotel....phew! although not a bad nor too stressful of a drive, surprisingly...as the first part, was a bit rocky...but after the first 150mins of driving it was good, and smooth sailing, only stopping for gas once! I'm now a fully qualified Autobahn driver in any vehicle.

Push House Koenigsee

Here are some lovely pictures of around the track as promised.

Our last day in Koenigsee was spent at the push house doing tryouts as one of the pilots retired and a new one was flown in. Heather and I got some pushes in as well...after our warm up run around the river.

After our 8 hours spent in the car on sunday to get us from Koenigsee (Southern Germany) all the way up to Winterberg in Northern Germany. I got to drive the first 90 minutes on the autobahn, which was good although a little scary as one of our passengers got sick, so we had to pull over, resulting in us losing sight of the sled truck, which knew where we were going...so at 180kmph I drive us and catch us up, passing some massive turn offs and hoping I was going the right way. But we got to Winterberg finally, to this gorgeous hotel, which reminds me of Harry Potter, with all the different floors and the fact that there are stairs everywhere, leading to who knows where. We are located right by the track, so close, that we can and do walk there. Our first day of sliding is tomorrow, and it looks like it could be a good time on this track. Hopefully no more crashes like last week, from which I'm still recovering. But in the mean time, have to go and work on the sled, then do a workout.