A couple more photos of San Felipe from back in March 2008 while I was there for the Baja 250. The beach is covered with fishing boats, which often take out tourists on ‘sport fishing’ trips, but the locals seem to use them for their own fishing needs as well. By day the beach is alive with activity but in the first hours of morning all is quite as the sun rises across the Gulf of California.
Somewhere along highway a bit south of San Felipe is some abandoned development of some sort. It looked like it would have been some nice place at some point in it’s history but now it sits abandoned; the old paint fading under the harsh Baja sun and the remaining roads ever more covered by the encroaching dunes. I parked the truck just inside the old rusty gate and cautiously wandered around, not sure if anyone still cared about this place or not. I walked down the ‘main street’ which led towards the sea and came across a couple sets of Mexican fishermen drinking beer out of the back of their old rusty pickup trucks. The beach was thoroughly covered in trash, so it looks like this was a common hang out place which helped fade any thoughts I had of trying to bribe the police as they come to arrest me for trespassing. At the beach was a nice view across the small bay and back towards San Felipe so I decided to come back a few hours later at sunset for a few photo.
Arrived at the Walhalla temple on new year’s eve as the sun was getting low on the horizon. Warm light on a cold winter day.
Last light of 2008 over Regensburg.
Nuremberg Christmas market last night (Friday).
Christmas markets here are quite popular and a large and historic one like Nuremberg’s draws tourists from all over. Hot Glühwein is a popular drink which helps keep off the cold and every stall selling it always has a huge crowd standing around and talking with friends in the crisp winter air. Lots of cool little crafts to see along with all the cookies as sweets to be bought.
This past weekend marked the beginning of a month of Christmas markets (Weihnachtsmarkt in German) all across Germany. Although Regensburg in not especially known for having a good market, we decided to head there for the afternoon anyhow. Hopefully I can get to the Nuremberg market on this coming Friday, as its supposed to be much bigger and better.
Sunday was a thoroughly cold and snowy day; perfect for a nice hike. Snow kept me from taking many photo, but here’s a couple from a little hill above Pottenstein. I’ll be coming back to this spot again in early January, as there is a festival where they light hundreds of little fires on all the surrounding hills.
One of the cool things about the north is how quickly the weather comes and goes. One April morning after a night of snow I woke up to nice sunny weather. First thought of mine was to head up Steinetind (the mountain in the center of the first pic) and take in the view. Around the half way point, while I was climbing a smaller middle peak the winds picked up as some clouds blew over and brought about 20 minutes of snow. I huddled down among some rocks and waited for it to pass. And soon enough, as quickly as it arrived, it was over and I was looking at nice blue skies again and a gently breeze. now back on my way up the mountain…
Continuing on the Lofoten theme of the last couple days…
The Hurtigruten is a daily coastal ferry that runs the length of Norway from Bergen in the south to Kirkenes, far into the arctic circle in the north. Stamsund is one of it’s ports of call. And twice from there, I’ve caught a ride south. The first time to Bergen in summer 2001 and the second to Trondheim in spring 2007.
A full price ticket and cabin is quite a fee, but with a student discount (many things in Norway have a ‘student’ price) and being willing to sleep somewhere on the floor for a couple nights, it can actually be one of the cheaper ways to get up or down Norway. Anyhow, the journey is so spectacular that there’s not much time for sleep anyway, though the ticket lady gave me quite a funny look when I said I didn’t want a cabin. “It’s a 3 day journey…” she said. “Yep, I’ve got a sleeping bag.” I replied. “Ok then, here’s your ticket.” And that was it.
I’m amazed at the skill of the captains. They bring this huge ship to port better than most people can park a car! It’s simply incredible to watch them navigate this giant boat like it’s some little toy. Most of the modern ones have propellers in the bow which help them turn the ship around. But on some of the older ships, they drop a front anchor, hit the throttle and spin the ship around the pivot point, then arrive absolutely perfectly. So cool.
Hurtigurten arriving at Stamsund as viewed from a nearby mountain one spring evening…
