Mina veel jõule ei tähista, aega küll. Esialgu tuleb pea kuu pikkune puhkuse ja eksamiperiood üle elada - kuna meil oli vaid üks eksam, siis tähendas see kuu ajast puhkust ajal, mil kool polnud veel korralikult alanudki. Täna proovime uuesti.
Vahepeal vaatasin natuke Hollandis ringi, näiteks käisin nendes kohtades:
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| Den Haag |
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| Rotterdam |
Ja kirjutasin Katrele ühe loo, mis Hanze Mag-is ka avaldati:
Excalibur, a climbers dream-come-true
Red grip, green one, finally - a blue one!
A grip by grip by grip. The 40 meter rope on the shoulder
of a wall climber is keeping her down. One size too small climbing shoes
– to make the grip of the legs stronger – are making the feet hurt.
20 meters… 17 to go. Don´t look down, don´t look down.
Red grip, green one, where are all the blue ones of my trail?
Finally, I´m up!
37 meters of different trails to climb up makes the
outdoor climbing wall Excalibur the highest one in the world. Located at the
border of Groningen in the Bjoeks Climb Center it
makes the student city even more appealing for those who are looking for a
little adventure to go with their studies.
“I am afraid of heights but not while climbing – the
walls are usually 13 to 15 meters. But this was high,” nevertheless, Anna
Richterova, a student from Czech, has already climbed the Excalibur three
times. “The first thing I went to see when I arrived in Groningen, was the
climbing wall.”
The pale orange coloured wall is first of all named
after a rock in the French climbing area Buoux, that the climbing centre is
named after. “Since Excalibur is also the name
of the sword of King Arthur, and the tower kind of looks like a sword stuck in
a stone it seemed like a suitable name,“ says Gert Van Der Veen from the
Bjoeks Climb Center. And being higher than a 12 story house it well deserves
the famous name, says a climber Jones Hä from Germany. “The tower is huge! And
it is the worlds highest climbing tower - it deserves a name like that,” he
says.
“You have to be an
experienced lead-climber,“ says Gert. “The
ones that do climb on it come from around the world and we have quite a few
people - couple of hundred a year - that visit Groningen solely with the goal
in mind of climbing the tower,“ he adds.
But besides climbing enthusiasts the Excalibur, built
in 1996, also attracts many people to just admire its majestic appearance. “I
don´t climb, but I really wanted to see it. And it was amazing!” says Hannah
don Simon from Czech. At first, the idea of climbing the wall crossed her mind,
but that quickly changed when seeing how high it really is. “I don´t think that
as a beginner you should climb 40 meters, that’s crazy! But it was still very
nice seeing it and you can take some coffee or tea there and just sit, look at
people climb and enjoy the awesome wall.”
But for those of you who are planning to conquer the
wall, the timing now might not be the best one. “It is already a little cold
now and imagine if you are 40 meters higher. It gets colder,” Jones stresses.
He is planning to come back next summer, to enjoy the view and climb.
Anna agrees that climbing that high with a cold
weather is not the easiest thing. “There might be a problem with the fingers
that can´t do a proper grip,” she says. And grip is the thing that you need –
one of Excaliburs charm is a sleek curve at 11 meters from the ground. This
means that on the negative side of the wall the climbing gets tougher because
of the overhang. “I chose the positive side because it was easier. Climbing the
negative side you need more strength in the hands, you are hanging all the
time,” Anna adds. “It is tiring. But when I got to the top, I didn´t want to go
down because the view was very nice.”
In the legend of King Arthur the mission was to pull
the Excalibur out from the stone. In Groningen it is done differently – legend
says, that all you have to do to feel like a king, is to climb the Excalibur.
Photos Anna Richterova
1 kommentaar:
Vau!!! Kelli, aitäh! Üliäge!
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