Tanzania Holiday 1: Intro and Arrival in Arusha

It didn't take long for Frau A and I to decide what we wanted to do on our Honeymoon: a safari.  But when & where?

Due to her crazy job, we had time only at year-end (3 months post-wedding).  We wanted three weeks for the trip.

We considered a number of things to determine the specific destination(s).  Most importantly, where would we get the "best" viewing of animals?  Mid-December is the short rainy season in northern Africa, and that changes the ability to see wildlife (the grass is higher for animals to hide, and water more abundant so animals don't cluster around watering holes).  The Great Migration (Kenya and Tanzania) is not really active at this time of year either -- it is too close to the birthing period in late January / early February -- so wildebeest vs crocodiles was out.

Even without the Great Migration, safari operators and others we spoke to said that Tanzania would provide the best experience, so we chose that over tempting options in Namibia, South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, and others.

There are lot of national parks, conservation areas, and game reserves in Tanzania alone (see map below). 

Source: Wikimedia Commons

We heard that the "northern circuit" would have the densest game viewing -- these are a series of parks near the border with Kenya.  The easiest flight from Munich went through Qatar to Kilimanjaro, a little east of the parks.

Qatar is obviously working to be a key transportation hub for destinations in Africa and Asia (we flew through there for our Maldives vacation too).  They have a TCBY (frozen yogurt) open late, so we love to kill the layover there! 

We wanted a bit of beach (relaxation) time too.  Zanzibar is the largest and most popular option, which is why we went the other direction and chose Mafia Island, further south along the coast.  There's a marine park there too!

Our final itinerary started us in the smaller parks of the northern circuit, moving east to west.  First up was
Arusha National Park, then Lake Manyara, Ngorongoro Conservation Area, and on to Serengeti National Park.  Finally, from the airstrip in the Serengeti, we would fly to Mafia Island (with a bunch of stops in between).

There was one especially unique aspect of this trip:  a "walking safari" in the Serengeti.  There are over 120 firms licensed in Tanzania to do game drives in the park.  Only 3 of them are licensed to walk customers in designated "wilderness areas".  We reserved three days of walks in Serengeti N.P., to be followed later by game drives.

Enough about the planning - on to the trip!  Upon our arrival at the Kilimanjaro airport, a driver picked us up and we drove to the Karama Lodge outside the town of Arusha.  The weather was quite hot, but not too humid.

Karama Lodge has 22 thatched cabins set on a hillside in the woods.  They use local materials as much as possible.

Since things grow so quickly there, they use wood boilers outside to heat water for showers (morning & night only).

After we stashed our packs in the cabin we walked around the grounds, "warming up" the cameras with flowers.

Just downhill from the central building/lodge is a pool.  We skipped this, but it looked tempting in the heat.

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

The next photo is the back side of the central building.  The windows are at a seating area near a small bar.

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

Here's the view from those windows (photo below).  You can't see it in the picture, but you would see Mt. Meru if you stuck your head out the window and looked sharply left.  Nearby Arusha National Park is tomorrow's destination.

Note: above photo was bracketed and HDR/tonemapped using Photomatix

There was a make-shift Christmas tree in the lobby, a nice reminder of the time of year.

We grabbed a seat near the open window and enjoyed the cooling evening air and nice view.

Of course we also had to investigate the local beer options.  The bar had four possibilities:

We opted for the Kilimanjaro and Serengeti, both lagers.  Both were great after a long trip (Serengeti a bit nicer).

From here we'll take you through each day on the trip -- expect a LOT of photos in the coming blog posts.
Stay tuned.

And finally... this was our honeymoon.  For the wedding, instead of registering for physical gifts (e.g., china, silverware, etc.), we registered different parts of this Tanzanian safari.  For this blog post, we wish to heartfully thank:
   -  Jaclyn F, for the car service to Munich airport.  It really got the trip off on the right foot.  THANK YOU!
   -  Aunt Annie and Uncle Jack, for the nights here in Karama Lodge.  The cabin on stilts was fun!  THANK YOU!
   -  Ronnie and Jan M, for the high-capacity camera memory card.  Wait 'til you see all the photos... THANK YOU!
   -  Ted and Teri K, for the high-capacity camera memory card.  Hope you enjoy the pics on the blog.  THANK YOU!
   -  Uncle Bill, for the high-capacity camera memory card.  We used almost every gigabyte!  THANK YOU! 

CNN.com doesn't get Oktoberfest

This post has been sitting in the "to do" list for a while... and even though it's long past Oktoberfest 2012 it must be written.  CNN.com's coverage of Oktoberfest 2012 was sloppy.  To be precise, the photos were fine (some actually quite nice) but the captions were crap.  Some were outright misrepresentations, and some were just poor English -- but in every case you'd expect better.  (Schnitzelbahn's English isn't spotless by any means, but wouldn't CNN reach for a higher standard?  After all, we don't get paid for this!)

We're guessing that an unpaid intern wrote the captions after some Google searches!  Or maybe they just took content from German news agencies and used Google translate?  (It's almost certainly the latter, because a few photos showed German celebrities or soccer stars who don't mean much to a U.S. audience.)  Let's take a look at the issues:

First, notice the "featured" item in the lower half of CNN.com front page called "Photos: Oktoberfest beer festival is back".  This was the link to their series of photos on the CNN website.

To start, Oktoberfest is not technically a "beer festival".  Beer plays a central part (to be fair even Wikipedia calls it a "festival celebrating beer") but it is definitely NOT a beer festival.  There are no tastings or exhibits on brewing, no competitions, crowning Ms. Beer 2012, etc..  Just tents where lots of beer is served. The first Oktoberfest was in celebration of the crown prince's wedding, and for the greater part of its history Oktoberfest has been about agriculture and horse races, dancing and rides.  Are the summer fairs in the U.S. "cola festivals" because of how much is Coke and Pepsi is consumed?

The next photo described guys wearing "mock lederhosen".  Wrong.  The three pictured here are actual  lederhosen.  Wouldn't "mock" lederhosen be made from something other than leather?  These look legit to me.  To be pedantic:  traditional lederhosen are made from deer, so these may not be authentic to the extreme.  But by far, most lederhosen sold in German shops today are from goat, but they are still "real" lederhosen. 

The next photo describes "typical Oktoberfest badges".  These are not "typical" at all!  Lebkuchenherz are typical, but these are NOT lebkuchenherz (just made to look like it).  These are pins are sold in only one tent (Schottenhamel).  Schottenhamel waitresses used such pins as nametags, then Schottenhamel started selling versions to the public a couple of years ago.  So these pins are neither popular nor typical.  I think it's poor reporting to try and elevate a photo into something "typical" when it's not, when there are so many other traditional things to show.

The photo below says "police officers wait for the opening parade to begin".  This could technically be correct, but it's doubtful.  These policemen are standing at the entrance to the Wiesn (Oktoberfest grounds) where the opening parade will end.  And judging by the crowd, the parade has already started on Sonnenstrasse, and everyone is waiting for the parade to arrive at the fairgrounds.  Perhaps pointing this out is nitpicking, but we're seeing a consistently low quality of describing reality.

For the next photo, this may also be English-teacher type grading, but "Bavarian dressed man"???  What does that mean?  Bavarian men also wear Ralph Lauren khakis, suits and ties, Levi's jeans, and soccer jerseys.  Would a "Texas dressed man" be in cowboy boots?  What about jeans and a Cowboy's jersey?  It's just cheap journalism.

The next photo has more D- English.  The woman below is wearing a dirndl.  Or a traditional Bavarian dress.  But not a "Dirndl dress".  Are they also serving bier beer, bratwurst sausage, and playing fussball soccer?  I wonder what my friends who attended Medill would say.

OK, last example below.  The description says "waitresses of the Spaten brewery...".  This is incorrect on a number of accounts.  First, this is the parade cart for the Schottenhamel beer tent.  The people on the parade carts (usually horse-drawn) are mostly family members and friends of the family that owns the Schottenhamel tent.  Sure, they might invite waitresses to be on the cart, but the cart is about the proprietors of the tent.  Schottenhamel happens to have an agreement to serve Spaten beer -- Spaten itself does not have any waitresses, unless they have a restaurant at the brewery.  They brew the beer, and Schottenhamel serves it... and the waitresses are not the focus of the parade carts.  How many errors is that?

 

There was at least one other photo caption that used the phrase "Bavarian Dirndl dress".  (Sigh)  Oddly enough, a different photo said "a woman serves Hendl".  Hendl means chicken in German... but they didn't translate it, whereas they felt the need to say "Dirndl dress".  I wonder why?  (And they capitalized both German nouns... again, why?)

I much prefer positive posts, but this was necessary to show how reality and what you see/read are not always aligned.  It's a fun fair in any case, but be careful about what you read about it!

Day-to-Night photos of NYC from Stephen Wilkes

Following the light paintings and effects by Lichtfaktor, we found some more fresh photography perspectives.
This time, it is Stephen Wilkes' "Day to Night" exhibit in New York's ClampArt gallery (see at Fstoppers).

His idea is to blend day and night views (of NYC, of course) into a single image.  ClampArt describes it as a
"merge of classic street photography and cityscape styles".  Here is the Flatiron Building, my personal favorite:

In order to achieve the effect, Wilkes photographs a scene for a minimum of 10 hours!  Coney Island, below:

Some of the others in this series (see his site, or the gallery) appear to be night photos with unusual lighting --
I prefer the three images linked here because they have a more impactful (to me) difference across the frame.
(Below:  New York Public Library, with Rockefeller Center and part of the skyline in background)

I can't imagine the post-processing involved with producing these, but the result is worth it.  Also would love to see the big physical prints in person.  Exhibit is open through October 29, 2012, for those in or around the Big Apple.

A Schnitzelbahn History: the beer blogs

We've received some feedback from readers that we should add "index" pages for specific content.
An index page is better than the Categories ("Navigation" on the right side of this page) because
you don't have to scroll through entries you've already seen -- instead, just go to the entry you want.

So, here is a brief index of our blog entries about beer:

- We put together a NCAA Basketball Tournament-style, 64-beer bracket, and tasted down to a champion.
   The "beer tournament" has its own index here going through every round of the competition.

- We tasted the starkbiers (bockbiers) from four of Munich's big breweries.

- Pope Benedict XVI is Bavarian, so naturally we blogged about the Pope Beer.
  This would go perfectly with the beer stein with the Lord's Prayer on it.

- Frau A made me a Christmas Advent calendar:  a case of beer.  24 in total, a different one each day.

- Companies are experimenting with champagne-style beers, such as these from...
   -  Sam Adams and Weihenstephaner (follow-up tasting here) and
   -  Sylter Hopfen

- In another German-U.S. collaboration, Schneider Weisse and Brooklyn Brewery joined forces to create a
   "pale weissbock".  We tasted this and report on it here.

- One German company tried using American-style longneck bottles with an opener on the bottom.
  In the same post, a couple of videos show you how to correctly pour a weissbier.

- Passing through Barcelona, we tested two Spanish beers (A.K. Damm and Estrelladamm).

We have also had some fun & interesting brewery and other related tours:

- We took a tour of the Kuchlbauer brewery and the crazy/unique "beer & art" Hundertwasser tower.
   Part 1 is here, and Part 2 is here.

- The owner of the Lamplbräu microbrewery, in the heart of hops country, gave us a great walk-through.

- In the Hallertau region of Germany, we walked through hops fields and later through the Hops Museum.

We'll keep adding to this index page as more blog posts fall into this category...

Lichtfaktor -- painting with light

Instagram has taken photo-effects to the masses, but there's still countless ways to experiment with images.  One example is Lichtfaktor (light factor, or light element perhaps):  Their web site says they are "a collective of light-painting artists" who are "pioneering into new territories".  Hard to argue with that, when you see their work.

I think the technique of light painting is using moving lights during long exposure, but that surely is an over simplification of what they do and how they do it.  The results range from simpler light-added shots...

and

...to full-blown light "paintings":

They will also set up at corporate events -- I need to have my company hire them!  One of their booths:

Employees (or customers, say, at a convention/trade fair) can get an enhanced photo like this Audi guy...

...or something altogether different, like these angel's wings on this woman:

In addition, they hold light-painting workshops.  I would love to attend one of these with Frau A:

They have many more neat pics on their portfolio page.

But their neatest trick to date?  VIDEOS.  Check out this one for Levi's -- production result starts around 1:45:

The growing plants, moving animals, and just-plain-fun and creative graphics are absolutely fantastic.
Well done, Lichtfaktor!

Bobby McFerrin conducts a crowd by hopping

I would love to have more posts about music on Schnitzelbahn.  Until Frau A and I head to another concert (especially with some German classical or pop/modern music), I would recommend these three minutes:

He seems smart, fun, interesting -- one of the people on "who would you invite for dinner" lists.
Fascinating to hear at the end that this is a cross-cultural phenomenon that he's done around the world.

A Schnitzelbahn History: hiking and skiing in the Alps

We've received some feedback from readers that we should add "index" pages for specific content.
An index page is better than the Categories ("Navigation" on the right side of this page) because
you don't have to scroll through entries you've already seen -- instead, just go to the entry you want.

So, here is a brief index of our blog entries about hiking and skiing in the Alps:

Hiking

- Fuschl am See and the Frauenkopf, Austria.

- The Plumsjoch, Austria.

- Pertisau and the Achensee, Austria.

- Breitenstein, Bavaria.

- Spitzingsee, Bavaria.

- The Höllentalklamm (through a gorge), near Garmisch, Bavaria.  The way up and the hike down.

- Bad Dürrnberg, Austria.  A summer sledding run down the mountain!

- Murnau, Bavaria.

- An extended, four-day hike in the Spanish/French Pyrenees.  An Overview, Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4.

Forest Climbing and Zipline Park

- Pfaffenhofen, Bavaria.

Skiing

- St. Jakob in Defereggental, Austria.  The ski slopes and the snowboarder funpark.

- Spring skiing on the Stubai Glacier, Austria.

- St. Anton (am Arlberg), Austria.

- Skiing in downtown Munich.  (made possible by a man-made slope at Wittelsbacherplatz)

Combination Activities !

- Kufstein, Austria.  Hike up, and go snow sledding down!

- Kufstein, Austria.  Hike up, and ride a mountaincart down!

We'll keep adding to this index page as more blog posts fall into this category...