Part 14: Christkindles Mart

Old Father Christmas taught Germany a thing or two about Holiday Festivities. Markets, decorations, miniature pickle ornaments, and real “Tin”-sel for the tree. Ah, there’s nothing quite like it.

We enjoyed each and every German Christmas with vigor. One thing we loved was visiting Nürnberg for the annual Christkindles Market. New Mexico Man would use his trusty flame thrower to assist the street vendors with their fire-roasted chestnuts. And of course, I climbed the Christmas Advent Tower at the request of the adoring German Folk !

While the age of the Nürnberg Christmas market is uncertain, the earliest recorded date is aprox. 1628. Some say there is evidence to indicate it is much older.

Part 13c: Eis Eis Baby

After a “towering” expedition, we’d occasionally visit one of Germany’s Eis Cafes. There’s nothing like a Spaghetti Eis after a day of stretching those climbing muscles! Nothing except maybe a serving of Schinken und Kartoffeln eis.

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Most people are afraid of eis mit sahn. Admit it, I am Fearless.

Part 13b: Marienburg Fortress Mission Accomplished

The question was asked “Did you ever make it to the fortress?” Yes, yes we did indeed. We built a giant tailgate sandwich in a hollowed out loaf of shepherd’s bread (scaling buildings is hard work) and jumped on the Autobahn.


Upon arriving at the Fortress we wandered the site and went to the museum housed in the old arsenal. On display were artifacts depicting Franconian life. In the courtyard there was (what else) a tower which was climbed (of course). We ended the day by purchasing little cap guns (for causing a ruckus) and eating spaghetti eis (mmm).

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Most people are afraid of claustrophobic towers. Admit it I am Fearless.

Miscellaneus Meandering: Honey Bees - Encore!

...It's hard to look cool in a Honey Bee suit!
(We got to be extras, can you find us?)

Miscellaneous Meandering: Honey Bees

While in Germany, one of New Mexico Man's favorite hobbies was Honey-Bee Herding. Over time, it became a bit of an obsession. In fact the compulsion became so great he could be found herding honey bees in nearly every spare moment. Day or night he'd herd those little buzzers with nothing more than his bare hands. Only one honey bee was ever a match for him and that little stinger had 'high-flying" super powers. Sixteen-stories-high flying abilities to be exact.

Anyway there was a plethora of honey bees in Germany. Certainly more than a country's fair share; especially a rather small country. At one point we even worked on a campaign to export the excess honey bees; even helped put together some marketing materials for the U.S.A.. Alas, we were ahead of our time and the U.S.A. didn't see the need for importing honey bees.

Suppose they'd be more receptive now, perhaps this little video would do the trick. (New Mexico Man was the stunt double for the guy on the pogo stick and I was in charge of the bee smokers).
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Most people are afraid of honey bees. Admit it, I am Fearless.

Part 13: Marienburg Fortress (January 1991)

Friends were supposed to meet us at our apartment for an outing to Marienberg. When they didn't show, we gave them a sufficient buffer of time. Still they failed to arrive so we started to go on our merry way. We were walking to our car when we heard someone yelling "Help... help". We stopped and listened: the faint hoarse cry of "Help...we're locked in our apartment and can't get out". German apartments had the craziest doors and this was an actual daily danger. We looked up and there they were hanging over their balcony all red in the face.

Apparently our two friends had been yelling for over 40 minutes. Unfortunately the passers-by lacked both super hearing, and the ability to distinguish a prank American cry for help from an actual plea for assistance.

Of course we sprang into action (this being our first official rescue and all). I scaled the 16 story building while New Mexico Man rode the elevator. Together we used brute strength to extract our friends from their apartment and after a two hour delay; away we went to the Marienberg Fortress. Climbed many towers and ramparts on this day.
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Some people are afraid to spring in to action. Admit it, I am Fearless.

Part 12: Senckenberg Museum Frankurt (October 1990)

October 8, 1990

“Only took up an hour and a half to get there. Had to Park at the Palmen Garten and walk. Saw 3 dinosaurs from Wyoming-USA. Also saw a narwhale skeleton, as well as a baleen whale and duckbill dinosaur.”

The Senckenberg Museum in Frankfurt is the largest museum of natural history in Germany. The building is from circa 1904-1907.

While I am fearless and have the power to climb tall towers…navigation is not a skill I possess. And while New Mexico Man is super, he is also super bad at reading maps. There were no towers to climb so had to be satisfied scaling those Wyoming Dinos. What a ride!

Caution: Climbing Leads to a need for Renovations.

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Most people are afraid of skeletons. Admit it, I’m Fearless.

Part 11 (c): Dippamess Fest Ferris Wheel Analysis

(click to enlarge)

And now....Back to the Fun.

Riding this Ferris wheel was incredibly fun. It was so tall you could see everything; in fact New Mexico man could see clear to Denmark! The question was asked, was the Dippamess Ferris wheel bigger than the Elitch Ferris Wheel. Based on first hand experience and a little web research, I believe it was bigger than even the newest 100ft wheel at Elitch Gardens. 1) You can't see Denmark from the top of the Elitch Ferris wheel. 2) Looking at the two photos, you will see that the Elitch wheel (on the left) appears to have 20 spokes while the Dippamess photo shows 24-25 spokes. 3) The cars are attached to each spoke so the dippamess Ferris wheel would also have more cars. 4) The distance from the center axel to the outter rim appears greater. 5) The dippamess cars appear to be farther apart. 6) Those Elitch cars have safety bars! What’s up with that?!

I hear a new Ferris wheel being constructed in Bejing is expected to reach over 200 feet in height.

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Most people are afraid of wheel analysis. Admit it, I am Fearless.

Vacation Alert

Away for the Marchmas Holiday. Stay tuned...will return in May.

Miscellaneous Meandering: Fearless, the Video

Jay Chou needed a crew of many when working on this video for Fearless. Naturally he chose me, The Furchtlose Schloss-Aufsatz-Bergsteiger-Frau , as one of the technical advisors. It was fun working with the actors to help them overcome fears of falling off the fighting platforms; and fighting in the lush meadow (which was filmed on the edge of a cliff).Thanks to my childhood dance classes I actually got to work on some of the choreography as well (note the footwork 34 seconds in). And it was a kick to be an extra in the outdoor crowd scenes - I wore a pointy hat to blend in.

Being my faithful side-kick, New Mexico Man came with me and helped the actor in the blue uniform work on "military bearing". He also got to be in the video, right in front of the scene! He's the crazy guy bobbing his arms up and down in the outdoor fight scene (2:03 minutes in) . It took hours in the make-up chair to add those hair extensions.


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Most people are afraid of crowd scenes. Admit, I am Fearless.

Part 11(b): Dippemess Fest - Mission Possible

September 1990: “We drove around for 4 hours trying to get to the festplatz-parked very far away.”

We headed out to the Dippemess fest on Saturday afternoon. Signs clearly marked the way ….until we got within an approximate 10 kilometer radius of it's location. This was actually a common phenomenon in FRG. It is also proof that the Philosophy of the German Tourism Board is in fact summed up by their slogan “We’ll gladly get you to the general area…but if you can’t solve the last leg of your journey by yourself, then you don’t truly deserve to complete it anyway”. We drove in circles and u-turns until we found the fest right before closing time. Not a problem as we had one more weekend day left to make a second run and successfully complete our mission. Used failed attempt to do some reconnaissance; pinpointed the entry point and relevant fees planning to return the next day.

The Dippemess Fest was kind of like the old Elitch Gardens…except that it would be torn down in a matter of days. The following day when we arrived at the Dippamess Fest, we were greeted by a Giant Viking (yes, the face was modeled after New Mexico Man). He threw his head back, laughed, spoke in deep booming German, and put a bull horn up to his mouth and blew a long rumbling blast. New Mexico Man and I were entranced for approximately 30 minutes.

Excerpt: “We played many games and got our picture taken by shooting bb’s at a target. We won 6 glasses by tossing ping pong balls. Bought fireworks, my favorites were little bees that twirl up into the air. Bought a black jacket with tie die panels on the sleeves and won a little stuffed moose.”

In addition to their love of Animatronics Vikings anything with a Western Theme was big. We rode the Goldener Westin which was a hokey ride through western themed dioramas. It reminded me of the Ol’ Mine Ride at the Original Elitch Gardens.

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Most people are afraid of Animatronics. Admit it, I am Fearless.

Part 11: Dippamess Fest (September 1990)

Okay, this was not “climbing”…but it was too cool to overlook and it did involved heights. It also involved the biggest Ferris Wheel I have seen in my life (to date). Doesn’t my drawing look like a little Arc? I think that’s Noah on the left…

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Most people are afraid of giant ferris wheels. Admit it, I am Fearless.