Trip to Ringberg, 2004
This is the last gallery from 2004, and is of a conference held at Schloss Ringberg in the Bavarian Alps. The theme of the conference was Planet Formation: Theory Meets Observation, and it was organised by MPIA Heidelberg. The conference was scheduled for 19th to 22nd December, which made for some interesting juggling in Christmas travel arrangements. I was flying through Heathrow, and in order to get to the conference in reasonable time, I stayed the night with my sister - dropping Christmas presents off at the same time. I then flew on to Munich, discovering that it had far more snow than Stockholm.
My trip was not going well by this point. Due to a spot of over-efficiency on my part (that is, wanting to book more than ten days in advance in the run up to Christmas), I'd chosen a flight which arrived too late for the bus being laid on to take participants to Ringberg. I therefore had to negotiate my own way across a snow-covered Bavaria - not an easy task when you consider my lack of German.
The journey didn't go well. First, my flight was late. Then, the airport took its own sweet time unloading the plane. Matters didn't improve until I arrived at Tegernsee, and found a taxi waiting to take me up to the castle. However, I mustn't get sidetracked into a lengthy diatribe. Suffice it to say that I ended up waiting a long time at this station, Donnersbergerbrücke. Hiding in the background is an ICE unit or two.
It was rather dark by the time I arrived, so I didn't take any photos on the first evening. Instead, I rushed into the meeting (it had already started by the time I finally arrived, although the snow had put everything behind schedule) and then enjoyed the rather fine cuisine on offer.
The next morning, I headed out, armed with my camera. This is a view of the tower, which contained my room. I found the room to be very comfortable (and warm - in sharp contrast to outside), although being on the ground floor, it didn't have much of a view. I should explain at this point that Ringberg isn't a real castle, but was built as a home in the early years of the 20th century. Hence, it was an excellent place to stay.
This is the terrace leading up to the tower - the tower itself is just off to the left of the photo. We're looking down the valley to the south of the castle here, and almost straight into the Sun. As you can see, Ringberg Castle is even equipped with an outdoor swimming pool, but there were curiously few takers while we were there.
Looking in a different direction, this is a view of the Tegernsee itself. This is looking slightly more than ninety degrees to the left of the previous photo, and from a room in the castle itself. At this point, someone was very annoyed with himself for neglecting to bring his polariser. Can you guess whom?
One lunchtime, I ventured out with some of the other attendees. We didn't go far - just a short way down the mountain. This is the start of our expedition: the front gate of the castle.
We weren't the first group to do this. Soon after setting out, we met this one on their return trip.
On our way down, we discovered this very prominent warning sign. However, I can testify that, despite all precautions, at least one did make it up to the castle.
OK... so `discovered' was a slight misrepresentation....
And a final photo - a view of the Terasse Zur See. The snow on the terrace was knee deep in some places - I know this because some of the footprints down there are mine. I'd made the footprints the day before, and my shoes had spent the afternoon drying out.
That concludes this selection of images. There are more, but they are just variations on a theme - the theme in question being `Ringberg Castle in the Snow.' If anyone should wish to see more of them (or larger versions of those above), just drop me an email.
