Warm and sweet

The temperatures have been really nice here in Portugal for the last two weeks. But what this guy does is close to suicide in the heat of summer. Imagine now!!

Afterwards he went running on the beach wearing nothing but his shorts. I guess he's what we call a "bikkel", or just plain crazy!!

Hmmm, tomorrow it's 2012.... which should we pick to start the year with ;-)

Pounding in the head

Got some serious pounding on the head today, waves were awesome. Tried to catch a few biggies, but they are still out of my league. Getting better though.... ;-) Surfed till sunset.

The world looks funny through a fish-eye lens.

Although it depends where you aim.

Parked on the jetty. This is a nice view, but the view in the other direction was nice too. Overhead waves, breaking just 50 meters from the car.

Thai

Thai food it's gonna be. Gamba's, coriander, Butternut pumpkin, peppers...

Toyota FJ40

As kid I've spend a lot of time in the backseat/bench of this car. My parents took me across whole Europe in that 4x4. Rough and rugged, that car worked always! Till now it's still on of the finest/nicest machines out there...

Great memories...

Why I like snow..

Smoked salmon

Great taste. The result: got the feeling I got a fish swimming in my belly...

I ate to much..

Portuguese Christmas

I always get a lot of questions about the traditional Portuguese Christmas. And especially about the 'Bacalhau'. The dried and salted codfish. It's the traditional Christmas dinner. But there is a lot more....

Afterwards the plate looked almost as clean ;-)

The 'Bacalhau'!!

Off course some local wine.

But after the 'Bacalhau' the sweets come out. First the 'Bolo Rei' the traditional cake with fruits. And after that a lot more.

The 'Pão de Ló', a sweet cake.

And my and Ella's favourite, a plate full of 'Rabanadas'. A kind of pancakes with an inside that's a lot like pudding.

And off course there is a lot more. Chocolate, nuts and other sweets. Enough to fill your belly for days. Now we wait for Christmas lunch, which is even better ;-)

Snow is only frozen water...

Went from Innsbruck to the Pitztal. A glacier area with tops till 3774m high.

A big chance to find some snow and ice...

We went up into the mountains and played with the elements. Hauling winds made it very tricky. Zero visibility and icecold!

Oh boy did we found that snow. During the night a big storm came over and snow dumped nonstop.

Getting energy/"kraft" in the evening

Stoked when you wake up and got this view outside of your window..

Locals..

Never been so happy with cleaning the car...

Wave of snow on the roof..

-20 + windforce 8 = windchill -38... Weather that separates the boys from the men!

Bonus effect: empty mountains

Self portrait..

Stoked to point out some future lines..

Fresh lines

Roy

Specific Mountain Pow tools : 173 & 168

Did I mention that it was cold?..

Stoked at the end of a day

View from the top upon the glacier

Paul surfing the mountain

That's me

Fantastic impressive views from the top

Just another day at the beach

It wasn't as sunny as the other days and the wave forecast wasn't great, but the temperature was nice. And the sun would be shining during lunch hours. So Another trip to the beach ;-)

Lunch in the sun was perfect!!

Waves were small but with a light off shore breeze they were nice to play with.

When the clouds came, it looked impressive. But in this case it was like we say: "Barking dogs don't bite" ;-)

Kicking the ball ;-)

Waiting for better wave forecasts in the upcoming days.....