iced rose hip.
the first three pictures are from my parent's garden when i visited them in late january. i love visiting my parents this early in the year because chances increase to witness a beautiful icy landscape. they live in a pan landscape and it's possible that, whereas in other places there might be sunshine, in their area it's going to be foggy and ice cold. which means perfect conditions for frost galore. these pictures i shot very early in the morning, just before we drove to thuringia's most known ski resort oberhof. when we arrived in oberhof the sun was out all bright and shiny, which probably wasn't the case in my home village for the whole day. the benefits of a mountain site: being above the clouds while the rest is trapped in fog & rain.
oberhof is a ski resort that's really well-known ( even world-wide ) for being the host of several winter sport tournaments. we try to visit it at least once yearly, because obviously there's a whole lot more snow up there than in the rest of the thuringian state. back when i was a kid we went sleighing & skiing which is something we don't do anymore - please don't judge, but we love to walk around places and get lost while wandering all kinds of paths more than doing sporty stuff :P
in general, oberhof is truly lovely to visit when snow is everywhere, and its main appeal are, of course, the extented ski & bob sleighing facilities. it isn't exactly what you would call a bigger city, only about 1600 people live here all year long, but as it is a tourist destination this little city can house up to 132.000 guests per year. outside of high season it's a rather sleepy town, with lots of woods & nature surrounding it, a little bit backward & secluded with not much else going on.
we were visiting while a junior world cup for bob sleighing took place. maybe it also was just a training, but fact is that a lot of international kids were running around and sleighing their way down the toboggan run. we watched them for quite some time, but to be perfectly honest it's not actually a sport i am very passionate about :P of course it's interesting to see them speeding down the run, but everything is over so quickly that you cannot, as a spectator, get a feeling for cheering them on. i think it's probably a lot more interesting if YOU are the one speeding down that icy tube.
on our visit we had perfect weather ( after starting foggy in my hometown ) and it continued to stay like this for the whole day. it surely was a treat to wander in oberhof's snowy streets & woods.
glittery & untouched snow everywhere! i think this might be what i like most about snow, its magical sparkle when the sun's shining her best light on it.
cleared pathways. i'm always astounded by the amount of snow in oberhof, especially since i rarely get to see so much. i can remember years, though, where the snow was about 2 meters high, especially so when i was a kid. global warming also effects such destinations in full force that actually are warrantors of yearly snow.
the panorama hotel. it was build in 1969 and first was a luxury destination for the high society of the GDR. it was planned by walter ulbricht who, to achieve his masterplan of a completely modern ski resort, expropriated several hotel owners in the once very idyllic little village to rebuild it drastically. the architecture was designed to resemble ski jumps and the hotel could accommodate 900 guests, had 7 restaurants & offered all amenities you could think of. amongst the guests it was known as a luxury hotel on west level. it was only a luxury hotel for about 2 years, though, erich honecker decided that to fill this hotel, about 80 percent of it should accommodate working families & locals.
it's still a hotel today, but i hear it has problems to get booked out completely. wile it surely is a good example of brutalist GDR architecture, the dimensions were surely too large for a little resort like oberhof. especially after the fall of the wall it was clear that the resort wasn't on the international radar anymore.
icicles on roofs.
oberhof has a lot of modern architecture, because it's been rebuilt in the 50ies. because of that there is lots of space between buildings and old structures are rare in the cityscape. this is a contemporary house that i kinda liked.
typical thuringian mountain houses are always tiled with wood/shale slates.
the icicles are always very impressive :D
whenever i'm in oberhof i like to focus on the old houses, because the facades are what is most outstanding to me. i love when a certain region has a very specific architecture style.
snow was shoveled quite high in some places.
cute shop offerings.
roof triangles.
strolling through the city park.
mirror elements.
i haven't focused on self portraits at all recently ( i think i'm not what you would call a fashion blogger or someone with interesting looks ), but let's have a silhouette of me for the time being.
one of the most beautiful traditional houses in oberhof is this former imperial post office building, which nowadays houses a pharmacy.
the embellishments are really beautiful.
and the colours so bright and jolly.
snow flake sculpture.
the view from the old ski jumps towards the panorama hotel. the wooden ski jumps are a historical relict of the city and to my knowledge aren't used aymore. it seems the city actually doesn't want to maintain them any longer, which is a bit sad, because these are real beauties! but apparently, even ski jump design is developing and advancing, so these probably will be demolished in the future and make place for new jumps. it would be nicer, though if they tried to keep them up for landmark purposes.
the top of the hotel again! it's just so damn striking.
the tribunes of the toboggan run. not much to see there, though. at least at that moment. the kids were operating their bob sleighs from a different point of the tube. in the back you see the distinctive panorama hotel again.
yup, another one! it looks different each time you change your perspective :D
i had a hard time getting a proper picture of the contestants, but i kind of am pleased with this one. even though it'd look better with the sleigh and driver in the middle of the picture ;)
one of the run turns. when the drivers speed down here the sleighs can be so fast that it often looks like they will fly out of the tube. accidents happen in these turns. it can be a dangerous sport, no matter if you think it's boring. like i said... spectators might not find it very entertaining but it must be an adrenaline kick for people performing it.
even though this shot is slightly blurred, i'm still proud of it and am including it here! action shots are most difficult!
the restaurant & hotel obere schweizerhütte is a beautiful building in the middle of the woods and when we approached it it looked straight out of a fairy tale. we had coffee and cake here ( my father stepped out of the lane with soused herring, i think ) and had a little rest until we slowly made our way back to the car.
the general vibe coming from the house is a very rustic one, and what they offered on their menu is exactly that, plain fare, but truly delicious.
the clearing next to the restaurant.
and on the way back again.
we passed by some sleighing grounds.
and emerged from the darkness for a little walk in the city park.
interesting architecture with climbing wall in the background, dad making photos of me & my mom in the front. the building is an event & shopping center called oberer hof. there's an exotarium inside, as well as several restaurants & shopping facilities. it's also a relict of GDR architecture ( construction year 1971 ) and was part of the restructuring as well. there are a lot of quarters in the new länder that are called 'neue mitte' ( new center ), which basically means that old structures were re-assembled ( and oftentimes destroyed ) in order to fit the views & conceptions of the GDR regime.
more sparkling snow.
we walked over that little bridge ( through very deep snow ) & enjoyed the last rays of sun on our way back.
yes, that's the building from the top of the post again!
dad & daughter shadows. don't know where my mother was, i think she tromped ahead of us, always impatient to our insignificant experiments :P
passed by the old ski jumps again.
the setting sun created a beautiful light in the woods.
saying goodbye to the valleys & mountains of oberhof.
and just like this our winter walk in thuringia's most well-known ski resort ended with the light of the glorious sun ( and we had to return to foggy schloßvippach again, my home village :P ). but fear not, my last day in thuringia farewelled me with a very special surprise the next day...
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