Winter pleasures: enjoy the winter now!

Sylt: Soul landscape of ice

Beguiling, magical, magical - the words are worn out. The reality is not. For Karin Weber-Duve, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN, a walk along the winter-like sea on the North Sea island of Sylt is one of the most beautiful experiences of the whole year.

One step, one breath. One step, one breath, one step, one breath. The frozen beach hem crunches under my feet. I'm at the elbow, the northernmost part of the island - light years away from the Kampen whiskey and champagne miles. The walk is like a meditation: The head is free of disturbing thoughts, musings, worries. Dirt is drawn from the soul, and I only have eyes for this winter wonderland, to which I rejoice 360 days in the year: the wild foaming North Sea, the pale blue sky, large and overpowering. The snow-covered dune landscape - like a miniature alpine panorama -, the filigree, with thin layer of ice shrouded beach grasses, which look in the back light like ornate Japanese ink drawings. My breath is steaming, and I wonder if gulls are actually taking a different breath than we are - there is no steam, even though they are always screaming.

As always, when I am by the sea, I remember the notion of "orderly chaos". The beach near the sea is full of wavy patterns and prints, but no line is the same. Each shell is unique, each dune has its own form and every grain of sand as well. Nature is unique - the perfect counterpart to the world of information technology with its alias, copy and duplicate functions. Something glittering like a rock crystal, just here, at the northernmost point of Germany! If you look closely, the white-gray jagged semiprecious stone turns out to be Talmi: a giant lump of wax.

The Hamburg author Fritz J. Raddatz once wrote that every person has a landscape to which he says "you". Raddatz and I probably have not much else in common - except that our both "you" the North Sea island Sylt applies. With him all year round, with me a few December days "between the years".

Restlessness, anticipation, yearning. When I'm balancing from the parking lot on ice-smooth Holzplankenweg across the dunes in the direction of the beach, I have heartbeat with excitement. Although I have long heard the sound of the waves, there is this blink of an eye moment of childish doubt: is it really there? After all, I was gone. And then it lies before me, the sea. It was there millions of years before me and will be there for millions of years after my arrival, reliably biting off cliff shreds bit by bit.

I'm cold, icy cold, with wool on my head, fur in my boots and down in my coat. How many animals and species have helped to warm me? But now is the time to stop off. This too is a ritual and, as the Chancellor would say, without alternative: the "Strandhalle" towards List with (Austrian!) Specialties. A Viennese Schnitzel, which laps generously over the edge of the plate - as anticipation for the summer holiday in the mountains.

Beautiful winter hotels on Sylt

Grand Spa Resort A-Rosa Nestled in a dune landscape on the wadden side of List, with a very nice spa area and large pool. Winter arrangement z. B. "Fresh breeze" with four nights in a double room with breakfast and four dinners, entrance to the spa area from 597 Euro / person, bookable until 28.3.2013 (Listlandstraße 11, 25992 Sylt, Tel. 046 51/96 75 09 92, www.resort.a-rosa.de). Ferry house Sylt Known for its exquisite cuisine, the magical house in Munkmarsch in January offers the special "Culinary Winter", three nights with gourmet half board from 447 Euro / person (Bi Heef 1, 25980 Sylt, Tel. 046 51/939 70, www. faehrhaus-sylt.de). Recommended reading The amusing booklet "My Sylt" by Fritz J. Raddatz (18 Euro, Mareverlag).

In the loneliness: ski touring in Switzerland

Winter is a welcome challenge for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN employee Stefana Häberle: pushing your own limits - on ski tours in Switzerland.

I follow the lonely trail of my friend Sebastian. We are together on this ski tour in the Appenzell Alps, first up to the Risipass and from there on the steep final slope of Stockberg, 1781 meters high. Like a caterpillar, I work my way up piece by piece. Tiny needles of ice fall from the mist, burning in the face. The sweat trickles under the jacket, at the same time I can barely feel my fingers from the cold, despite thick gloves. Walking with touring skis is tiring. The strength subsides, my legs tremble, and I have to concentrate on every movement. I just want one thing: go on. Every vertical height that I overcome makes me stronger. Give me inner peace.

The winter landscape is wearing delicate veils. Overgrown pastures and wide corridors wrap themselves in haze and silence. Mighty mountains on both sides of the valley are reminiscent of entering a different world. One hears the soft rustling of the wind in the tops of the firs and pines, the call of the golden eagle, who circles in rocky heights. A place far removed from everyday life.

At the summit: glistening light, view over snow-stained mountain peaks to the horizon. I cry with happiness. Because I am where everyday life does not go. Because this view is so incredibly beautiful. None of us is talking this precious silence. A quiet "fantastic!" is enough to share this magic moment together. It always draws me back to Appenzellerland. Here in the Swiss idyll south of Lake Constance. A picture-book landscape: Gentle hills, lovingly draped with light forests, rise from the twilight of the afternoon. Pasture fences rise out of the snow as dark lines. Abandoned cross-country trails cross. Here is a village with colorful houses around the market square, there a secluded homestead. We have lodged ourselves in a 200-year-old farmhouse, whose magic touches us so deeply that we return again and again to spend the winter holidays here. The farmhouse has downstairs a kitchen two lounges and under the roof two bedrooms and a small garden and an apple tree in the middle of the cow pasture. Sebastian heats the tiled stove vigorously, which spreads pleasant warmth. We eat small baked potatoes with melted cheese, for dessert there are baked apples with cinnamon. Later we listen to the roar of fire and the whispering of the flames, which sounds like music in our ears. Slowly the muscles relax. Pictures of the day appear, a landscape barren and enormous. Lonely never before in winter. The longer I'm here, the more I move away from things that seem to be important to us. The simple life grounds me again. At least for the next few months.

Travel Tips: Winter in Appenzell

Mountain houses and apartments in mountain houses, which are rented in winter, are available at www.appenzell.info. Here you will also find mountain inns that offer quaint double rooms, z. For example, the mountain inn "Kronberg", www.kronberg.ch, or the forest inn "Lehmen", www.lehmen.ch.

Those who are unfamiliar with the mountains should not be traveling alone in winter. Better are guided snowshoe / ski tours. Further information about Appenzellerland Tourism, Tel. 00 41/71/788 96 41, Fax 788 96 49.

One, two, departure!

Tobogganing, until the lanterns approach, as they used to when they were children - that is the most beautiful thing in the winter time for ChroniquesDuVasteMonde WOMAN employee Andrea Hacke.

As soon as the first snow lies outside, the transformation happens in me: in the abdomen it starts with that joyful feeling, then the lightness reaches the ribcage, and already I feel the energies within me, which an adult person no longer possesses.

I'm happy when the speed increases, I fly through the air and sometimes cry out for a moment, when a sudden bump in the ground suddenly takes control of me. But wait, I'll have you again soon! Sometimes we fall down off the sled, let ourselves be thrown through the snow, and I'm glad to have children with whom I can experience such exuberant winter fun.

When the world turns white around me, I feel like a child again, jump into waterproof clothes, I have barely time to put on my hat, scarf and gloves, because out there the mountain is waiting. "Kids, off to the slopes!" Now the battle cry is called, then my two sons and I each grab a sled, and our faces, as we run out to the side, radiate towards the climax. Soon we will be there, sledding, whizzing downwards through the falling snowflakes. What counts is the train, the self-built ski jumps and the other tobogganers, which of course we want to overtake. My mind is free of conferences and unfinished tasks. Now my life consists of start-up, downhill, and sled-pulling. And again from the beginning.

We only go home when the sky turns off our light. And then comes the next coronation: At home, when our cheeks and ears are glowing after the change from the cold to the warmth, we plaster our toboggan dinner - Kaiserschmarrn with cinnamon plum or baked apple with vanilla sauce. We also talk eagerly about tobogganing, the hardest fall and the best evasive maneuver. We are one unit. And secretly, I hope it will not thaw for weeks.

Three wonderful toboggan runs in Germany

Kranzberg / Upper Bavaria 1.6 km long route from Kranzberg to Mittenwald in the Karwendel (www.alpenwelt-karwendel.de).

Am Wallberg / Upper Bavaria With 6.5 kilometers the longest natural toboggan run in Germany, from 1620 meters uphill it goes downhill (www.wallbergbahn.de).

Lunch summit / Allgäu 5.1 kilometers to Immenstadt (www.mittagbahn.de). The sledges can be rented at the respective base stations.

Recommended reading "Tobogganing - the 50 most beautiful routes in Germany", exciting descents in the Bavarian Alps, the Black Forest, the Harz and the Bavarian Forest (12.95 euros, Bergbild-Verlag).