La bella vita - e dappertutto.. .

In August this year, we had the opportunity to join the ESEB (European Society for Evolutionary Biology) 2015 conference in Lausanne, Switzerland. It's one of the largest and most diverse Evolutionary conferences in Europe, and attracts all kinds of people from different fields and from as far away as New Zealand! Alexei Drummond, one of Micha's supervisors from Auckland attended the conference, as did colleagues of mine from Dunedin. But we also met friends and colleagues from around Europe, attended numerous talks of hitherto unknown researchers (unknown to us, of course), as well as talks from "Biology-Superstars". :)

In any case, the setting could not have been better. Held at the University of Lausanne, the beautiful lake and mountains were never far, the culinary supply was excellent, and the weather was brilliant. We enjoyed several evenings watching sunsets and swimming in the lake, and the single free afternoon with a hike to one of the highest peaks around the lake: Le Grammont (2172 m). Can life be better?

Sunset at the beach of Lac Leman during the ESEB2015 conference in Lausanne.

The peaks of Le Grammont and Les Jumelles.

Lac Leman	Climbing up Le Grammont.	Life is good! :)
At the summit of Le Grammont.	Chamois - wild mountain goats.	Pardutzer Kletterhütte
Swiss Monopoly with Paradeplatz!	Pardutzer Kletterhütte	Blue sky in Italy!

Maybe it could have indeed been better on the following weekend. Of course we stayed in Switzerland. We had big plans for numerous hikes in Ticino, or even for the really big peaks. But first of all, we had plans to keep traditions alive and meet up with friends at the rustic "Pardutzer Kletterhütte", a basic mountain hut in the eastern part of Switzerland, which we had visited many times before with the very same friends. Sounds better than a conference? Oh yes. But the weather-goddess was against us. Just upon arrival - we had not even unloaded the beer from the car, it started to rain. Such bad luck. Switzerland had one of the warmest and driest summers so far this year - but now it changed, and according to the forecast it should continue to rain for at least the coming week. Arrrghhh.... . Well, at least we had a roof, a fireplace, cardboard games, beer, wine, and Schnaps, and good friends - more than enough to keep well entertained for at least a weekend!

Bad weather in the Alps.

The real peak!

Finale Ligure.

Climbing with a view!

But after this weekend - what to do next? It was raining all over the Alps. We checked the weather forecast from the eastern end as far as the Austrian and Slovenian Alps, to the western side of the French Alps, and from the northern end of the Alps in Germany, to the southern end in Italy. Rain everywhere. Oh no, why??? There was only a single spot around the Alps that was not rainy: the northern end of the Apennines, the mountain range of the Italian peninsula. It coincides that this area is also one of the best climbing spots in Europe, it is next to the beaches of the Mediterranean coast, and it offers delicious Italian ice cream and pizza. So after a short (very short) consideration, we just drove south until we found sun, climbing, and pizza. Life is good again!

Beachlife!	More beachlife!	And even more!
Finale Ligure's old town.	Piazza San Biagio	Small alleys in Finale Ligure.
Limestone caves...	..and fantastic flowstones...	... offer superb climbing!
Best of Finale Ligure.	Painted windows?	Ligurian coast.
Mmhh.. ice cream!	And real Italian pizza!	Medieval festival in Finale Ligure.
Olive trees.	Impressive building in Genoa.	Piazza del Ferrari in Genoa.

Beautiful Finale Ligure!

Actually, now life could hardly have been any better. We enjoyed la bella vita to the fullest. Swimming in warm water, sun-bathing whilst burying the feet in the hot sand, climbing on impressing flowstones, through caves, and with a fantastic views over the sea, hiking through the thick jungle of the Ligurian forest, biking along the cliffs and shores, and up- and down between olive trees and wineyards, and having tasty beer in the narrow alleys of Finale Liguria's old town during the annual medieval festival. And every evening: the very best pizzas and pastas. Oh bella Italia, you're treating us so well!

But after one week, it was time to move on. With a short stopover in Genoa, the capital of Liguria, we drove back towards the Alps. Luckily the weather had changed to the better and offered us a fantastic weekend in a Austrian valley of the Alps (Kleinwalsertal), where we met up with some of Micha's cousins. We climbed the Hoher Ifen (2230 m), a very popular mountain for weekend-hikers, and above us was just blue sky and some Alpine choughs (Alpendohlen). Life is still good :)

Climb up "Hoher Ifen"

Karst landscape.

Alpine chough

Summit of Hoher Ifen..	..and the vie below.	Approaching Hochthron..	.. via a Via Ferrata.
Watzmann in the back.	Hochthron summit.	Philosophy of life :)	Salt in Bad Reichenhall.

After this weekend we just had two days left, in which we planned to climb Germany's third highest peak, the Watzmann, and do the challenging Watzmann-traverse. But first we warmed-up with a Via-Ferrata following up the exposed flank of the Hochthron mountain (1973 m), offering fantastic views of Watzmann, Watzfrau, and their kids the Watzmannkinder :)

Austrian Alps seen from the Hoher Ifen.

Hochthron Via Ferrata and the Watzmann family in the background.

Königssee and Germany's southernmost Biergarten: St. Bartholomä

Unfortunately the weather-goddess seemed to have decided that we had enough fun with the good weather, and switched the sky back to rain-mode. We got up very early nevertheless and attempted to do the Watzmann traverse. However, as the ridge is very exposed and the finely grained Plattenkalk (a kind of limestone) in that area gets super slippery when wet, we gave up after about half-way up, and instead descended into the Königssee valley to have a rich German lunch in Germany's southernmost Biergarten: St. Bartholomä. Beaten by the weather, wet, and cold, we spend the last evening of our summer holidays in the relaxing warm waters of the thermal bath and Spa of Bad Reichenhall. Being a traditional center of salt production, the thermal bath of Bad Reichenhall has a range of pools with different percentages of salt, reaching from 4% brine, up to 12%, which is enough to float weightlessly at the water surface. Very relaxing! It has also big panoramic windows, offering an excellent view of the surrounding mountains. If you're in that area and it happens to be bad weather, I can highly recommend this spa!

Alpine choughs

Watzmann in the clouds :(

Route of escaping the rain.

Although the rain seemed to have been following us all the way from Oslo - we found some nice spots in and around the Alps and had a wonderful time with sun, mountains, colleagues, friends, and family. La bella vita - life was very very very good!