First day in Ruhpolding and Registration

Hallo aus Ruhpolding, Deutschland. (Hello from Ruhpolding!). We made it here yesterday, with an uneventful flight from Heathrow to Munich, with a rapid 50 minute gap from touchdown to catching the first train at the airport, made with 30 minutes to spare due to German efficiency. A second intercity train across Germany past Chimseee (big lake) and onto a local single track branch line to Ruhpolding at the end of the line. The only hiccup was continuing to sit on the train in Ruhpolding as we thought there was another stop to go. The hotel had arranged to pick us up for the short trip to the hotel. Here it is, Hotel Fuchs. A very comfortable hotel, despite the local pronunciation. Having checked in, we then enjoyed a Chinese meal (when in Rome etc!!!), which included an intriguingly translated chicken, pork, beef and 'quacking grass' for main course. We think it was the duck! After a long night's sleep, we felt it would be good to loosen the legs with a short run. We ran up the valley along the trails that start the Transalp itself. Beautiful paths through the woods, including this bizarrely arched tree, clearly thinking the light is coming from a different direction to all the other trees:

The trail runs beside a shallow river that descends speedily down the valley and contains lots of fish camouflaged against the rocks.

After our 6 mile run, we decided to go for a lunch at the top of the nearby mountain, so with ham, cheese and rolls in hand we walked off. Great scenery and alpine views along the way, including this horse and cart. You can see some of the hills we will be running round (and over) in the background.

And in case you thought we had lost our marbles, we went up the mountain on a chairlift:

From the top we had great views down on Ruhpolding...

...and great views across to the high Alps. This looks South towards Austria (the snowy peaks are in Austria) and the mountains we will be running over in a couple of days time.

After lunch and the cable car back down, we spotted a challenging conundrum. It was in the form of a 6 inch long fish in a mountain stream. The stream was only about 2 feet wide and was very fast flowing and steep, probably about 1:10. So it ran over lots and lots of large rocks and boulders before getting down to the river 2 miles downstream. How did the fish get there. It couldn't possibly have swum up and over all the boulders and it couldn't have simply hatched at the top by magic. Our best suggestion was a bird of prey had dropped it as it flew over the stream, but even that suggestion sounds implausible. A conundrum that will vex us over the next week.

Having not solved our puzzle, we went over to the Transalp registration area. Lost in the back of a large sports hall on the outskirts of the town, we met Uta Albrecht, race director (A blond German lady for those who aren't sure if Uta is a boy's or a girl's name) so she could check us off the list of 280 teams entered.

We picked up our race numbers (51-1 and 51-2) and photo passes, route maps and enormous holdall with lots of goodies inside (energy gels, nutrition supplements, buff, event tee shirt, notebook, drinks bottle). Now we're contemplating where to eat dinner, and lots of it, as we will need the energy for the week ahead.