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Published: February 7th 2008
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"The Small Young Gentleman" and I
Once upon a time, briefly settled in a German village. Hi Friends and Family,
As promised, a new journey is beginning yet again. "The Small Young Gentleman" and I are going to Oberhof in Thuringia, Germany for (hopefully) a spot of skiing and a means to which we can spend some quality time together. We’ll be leaving early on Friday morning and returning late on Sunday evening.
Oberhof is a town in the Schmalkalden-Meiningen district of Thuringia, Germany. It is a winter sports center and health resort. It has roughly 1,600 inhabitants (2005), but is visited by tenfold as many tourists every year. Situated directly on the Rennsteig - a classic among the long-distance hiking paths in Germany due to the marking of almost 168 kilometre in length - it is home to many famous sportsmen and women. The holiday region of Oberhof is a venue for World Championships and renowned for active holidays in a beautiful landscape setting.
Oberhof was settled in 1641, and remained a small town until the late 1800s when the town was connected to the railroad line from Erfurt to Ritchenhausen, and skiers and other tourists discovered the place. From the early 1900s, Oberhof became a center for winter sports, with luge, nordic
skiing and ski jumping taking place in the town. In recent years Oberhof has also seen the construction of lift-equipped alpine skiing slopes and an international competition standard biathlon stadium. Their bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track has hosted many world and European championships in luge. In fact, the World Luge Championships 2008 took place from January 21-27, at the bobsleigh, luge, and skeleton track and was hosted in Oberhof for the third time after having hosted the event in 1973 and 1985.
A luge is a small one- or two-person sled on which one sleds supine and feet first. Steering is done by flexing the sled's runners with the calf of each leg or exerting opposite shoulder pressure to the seat. Luge is also the name of the sport which involves racing with such sleds. It is a competition in which these sleds race against the clock.
Bobsleigh, bobsled (North America) or bobsledge (Brazil) is a winter sport invented by Englishmen in the late 1860s in which teams made timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sled. The various types of sleds came several years before the first tracks was built in St Moritz,
where the original bobsleds were adapted upsized Luge/Skeleton sleds designed by the adventurously wealthy to carry passengers. All three types were adapted from boys delivery sleds and toboggans.
Skeleton is a winter sport in which competitors aim to drive a one-person sled in a prone, head-first position down an ice track in the fastest time. This differs from luge, where the rider drives the sled from a supine, feet-first orientation.
Oberhof offers its visitors lots to see and do in every season. In winter, the spa town with its pure mountain air is a paradise for fans of cross-country and Alpine skiing. In summer, hiking tours on the famous Rennsteig are popular. Above all, the area of the Rennsteig is a paradise for cross-country skiers although downhill skiers and snowboarders can enjoy the use of two Alpine downhill runs.
In winter, snow machines are used on parts of the 800 m long Fallbachlift run that leads to the Grenzadler, and it is also possible to ski in the evenings under floodlights so we're expecting to do some sort of skiing activity. We've never skied in Germany before but rather in the Czech Republic so it should prove
"The Small Young Gentleman"
Always on the move, in one form of transport or the other. both fun and interesting as Oberhof is one of the relatively few areas of Germany where snow is guaranteed!
We're going to be staying at the Hotel Panorama in Oberhof which is part of the RAMADA PLAZA hotel grouping. We'll be going by train pretty early in the morning and so I have to get up at 04:00 and somehow I just haven't finished packing our stuff up!
See you sometime tomorrow!!
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