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A winter that was almost forgotten 幾乎無聲無息的冬天

In a year when Europe has experienced the warmest November in several hundred years, and newspaper headlines were exclaiming 'The Alps are sweating!' it is perhaps not a surprise that this winter has not really made its presence felt. It finally made an appearance when my friend arrived from Hong Kong. After all, he came to Europe at this time of the year to expect something!

今年歐洲經歷了數百年來最暖的十一月，報紙頭條標題也高呼：「阿爾卑斯山流大汗了！」怪不得入冬以來甚無冬意，直至有朋友從香港來後，冬天才終於露面，好讓他有個真實點的感受！


25 December, 2006 2006年12月25日

My friend and I were hiking in the woods of Philosophers' Walk in Heidelberg, when we spotted some pretty frosts dangling from and between tree branches. We wondered how some of them could take up curvy shapes - perhaps there was enough water hanging on old spider webs before it all froze.

我和朋友在海德堡哲學家徑散步時，在山林間發現樹掛，有些還是曲線形，大概是聚在舊蜘蛛網的水份多，全都結冰後便成了這個樣子。



















26 December, 2006 2006年12 月26日



We were back in Munich and went to visit the Nymphenburg Castle.
回到慕尼黑後，我們前往寧芬堡城堡參觀。





A big part of the canal in front of the castle turned into a long ice-skating rink! Many locals took the opportunity to play ice hockey or do ice-skating, oblivious to the fact that some of the ice closest to the banks showed signs of melting!

城堡前的運河原來搖身一變，成了長長的滑冰場！人們還在上面玩冰上曲棍球和滑冰，似乎並不擔心堤邊的冰好像開似溶了！












We hesitated to walk on the ice at first. In the end, we chose a place where the ice was thick enough, 'took the plunge' - not literally, of course; we didn't fall into the water - and took a couple of photos on the ice.

我們起初也不大放心走到冰面上，後來找到一處結冰看來夠厚的地方，也大着膽子走上去拍了些照。




Some of the waterways inside the garden of the castle were also frozen. We were in a playful mood and tried 'ricochets' with small pieces of stones or nuts. Interestingly they could bounce a few times off the ice and fly for a good 10 metres or so. That was our idea of having fun on ice ...

城堡內有些水道也結了冰，我和朋友隨手拾些小石和果殼拋到冰上，但見其在冰面反彈數次，在十米外左右才停下。我們就如此冰上作樂了。



27 December, 2006 2006年12月27日

Some unexpected snow greeted me as I just stepped out of the house for work. It was pretty decent snow too as the roads, trees and fields were covered in white. Just as I thought the snow would be here to stay at last, sunshine and rain worked together to wipe it out in the next three days. Well, there are still three more months of winter so I don't need to be disappointed, yet.

剛出門上班，就驀然踏進了一個白色世界，街道、樹林和田野都鋪了層雪，看來也不太薄，滿以為可以維持一段時間也不會溶，但事與願違，那些雪三天後便經不起日曬雨淋。幸好冬天還有三個月，總有機會再看到更好的雪景。


















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