Oberstdorf

Grüss Gott!

Welcome to Bavaria, where cross country skiing World Cups will take place on Jan 3rd and 4th.
I arrive in Oberstdorf on Jan 1st and spend the following day walking in the area, exploring the stadium while the athletes are training (which gives the opportunity to go everywhere you won't be able to go to on the days where the races take place).

Wednesday, Jan 3rd
- we have had wind and rain during the whole night, and it goes on when I get up. Honestly, I don't really feel like going to the stadium and spending the day under the rain. I could stay in bed with a good book... But I haven't travelled so far to stay at the hotel while my favorites cross country skiers compete a couple of kilometers away, so I finally head up to the stadium, in order to get there about 30 minutes before the start of the qualifications (no early arrival today, they can warm up without me...)
- when I get out of the hotel, without the equipment to walk on ice (because I stupidly thought that after a full night of rain there would be no ice), I slide, manage not to fall, but seriously hurt my back. OK, I head back to the hotel to change my shoes, fortunately I hadn't gone further than 2 meters
- after 35 minutes of walk under the rain, I reach the stadium, which is empty: apart from the athletes, there are about 20 spectators sheltering under a bridge, looking perfectly miserable, and the official photographers packed against each other to get protection from the wind and the rain, as penguins do it
- no problem, I can manage. Half an hour won't be that long. Except that we start having thunder and lightning. It's getting scary...
- one of the inflatable gates has just collapsed. Fortunately there was noone below, but the warm up track is now blocked, just after a bridge, without any visiblity. Several athletes almost crash into it before the staff is able to remove it.
- the women qualifications eventually start, the camera will remain in the bag today, no way I use it with such a weather (yes, I have taken it this morning, being amazingly optimistic: "Such a bad weather cannot last very long"...)
- the wind is getting stronger by the minute, some of the skiers stumble on the track. One of them even falls right in front of me, knocked down by a gust
- another inflatable structure got loose, and is now flying in the stadium, crossing the tracks between 2 skiers
- there are plenty of other things flying above us: advertisement banners, umbrellas, a raincoat, a German flag...
- at the end of the women qualifications, things seem to be getting better, less rain, less wind, men start their warm up, I even manage to make a couple of pictures
- the French athletes will start their race in about one minute
- no, they won't. The race is cancelled. Good news for the athletes who were skiing in a swimming pool, and good news for everyone, as it was starting to get pretty dangerous...
- let's go back to the hotel. First, I have to walk 2 kilometers uphill, and as the road was changed into a river I am actually walking upstream. Just in case you had a doubt, the walking shoes specially designed for the snow are not designed to walk in the water (I said IN, not UNDER). They get not only wet, but literally full of water in a few minutes
- ok, those 2 kilometers are covered, it should get better now. And then... surprise!!!! Plenty of trees have fallen on the road, because of the strong wind. Each time, I have to get out of the road, to walk around the tree, through the fields which are covered with wet snow, I sink into it until the waist

Activity report of the day:
- 3 French women supported during their qualification (for nothing, as the final race was cancelled)
- 2 pictures taken during the warm up
- full test of my equipment in extreme conditions

Shoes: soaked, no clue how I will be able to dry them before tomorrow, and I don't have any spare ones...
Socks: soaked
Ski jacket: soaked
Sweater (under the jacket): soaked
Second jacket (under the sweater): soaked
Hat (under the 3 hoods): soaked
Trouser: almost dry, congratulations to the manufacturer
Camera, purse, phone: humid, but all of them seem to have survived

Everything ended up spread in the bedroom and bathroom, with heating at its maximum, which turned the bedroom into something between tropical forest and hammam.

You know what is the most funny? I am here, and not in Oberhof where the biathlon World Cup takes place this week, because Oberhof is famous for its nasty weather, and I wanted to escape it. Let's call it fate...

Note for the next 30 years: never go back to any German place called Ober-something for a competition...