2024 was a difficult year for me for various reasons, but it improved towards the end. Like in 2023, climate change was very evident in 2024. We had surprising adventures, watched a lot of good art, fulfilled a childhood dream of mine, and took two beautiful vacations. Otherwise, we often withdrew and sometimes had to deal with mental and physical crises… and we did NOT see any manatees, so we added a new item to our adventure list.
Pictures
Vacation
In the spring, we traveled to Lake Garda and Tuscany, where we saw a variety of things: medieval towns, Etruscan tombs, surprising modern art, brutalist architecture, Niki de Saint Phalle’s Tarot Garden, the stormy Mediterranean, delicious food, thermal springs, Spritz with friends in Bologna, and the water spirit. A great vacation.
Our vacation in Belize was a quiet, perhaps somewhat boring vacation, just right for me to relax, with some obstacles, but still nice. Would I recommend Belize as a travel destination? Maybe not, but following our Yucatán vacation last year, we have now seen more or less all the important Mayan ruins and fulfilled one of my childhood dreams from Star Wars with Tikal
The surprising connection between the two vacations was that in Belize, we stayed in the Swan Villas in a house that strongly resembled Niki de Saint Phalle’s house in the Tarot Garden
Sports
Another year without hiking and running. It’s crazy that we didn’t go skiing even once in 2024, a clear sign of the difficult start to the year. We did some SUP in the summer and ventured onto some slightly more turbulent rivers and a narrow gorge for the first time.
I just ordered new running shoes that match my running style, so maybe 2025 will be a running year, perhaps the Allgäu Panorama Marathon or the Athens Marathon.
Family & Friends
The first big Christmas gathering of my family since the COVID-19 pandemic was very nice, celebrating with all the old traditions with thirty (!) people. I/we didn’t make any new friends; we were more focused on ourselves. On Instagram, I „met“ new people and participated in their Instagram lives (and vice versa).
Beautiful Memories
The beautiful memories are the most important section of the entire annual review for me, to close the old year. Without context, some memories may sound cryptic 😉
Picnic on the Isar gravel bank / Bloody Parking Lot Repairs / „Strictly Police Parking Only“ / Robot shows me the way in the supermarket / Secret Pussy Riot vernissage / Loud bird chirping at the San Ignacio market / „Fake it, until you make it“ with Comet Tsuchinshan-Atlas / Deer head in the jungle house / Avenue in Tuscany / Strange vending machine with Bengal fire, condoms, pregnancy test, batteries & champagne / First aid kits for surfers at the Eisbach wave / Astronaut projector / Kingfisher in the constant rain / Finally understood the Stuelpnagel parameterization of SO(3) / Dante’s Divine Comedy / Relaxing with Lego / Snake with golden eyes / Ai Weiwei’s Huantouguo / Belize rum tasting / Pumpkin field / Lost in Niki de Saint Phalle’s garden / Helicopter at the hotel tower and at the Brenner / A swinging door problem / Eating outside in a thunderstorm at the Jäger vom Fall / Autumn walk in the leaves / Anti-graffiti robot / Adventurous ferry in Xunantunich / With the SUP in the gorge / CalaWash / Photo safari with jaguars / Robinson Crusoe / Shipwreck and blue tiger stripes in the coral reef / The strawberry vending machine is open again / Mangrove garden art / Instagram follower greets me in real life / Holy Spirit pigeon flock / Stormy on the Mediterranean beach / Unicorn and Rainer Langhans / Pending statues / Airplane Brocken specter / Fooling around with black-faced guan / Mennonite carriages / Invented a motto for a birthday party / Comet 12P Pons-Brooks but with gin tonic and Saharan dust / Beaver tracks / Cat & mouse with the guard at the distillery / Tequila tasting / Mating vultures / Pickle juice popsicle / With my parents to the Blue Rider / Cat wants a gold bar / Breakfast with hummingbirds / Gourmet cuisine after the office / Recording motivational videos for a running friend / Birds see more colors / Watching storks with Banu / Alone at Artschnitzel in Hall 6 with the house cat there / Rain flood & antipasti at Müller’s Volksbad / Dragonflies / Indian balloon bread / Blue margaritas / Forest spirits / Yellow graffiti cat from 2022 visits / Pancakes & expensive maple syrup / Like Chihiro through the flood to Munich / NAKO study / Taylor Swift & ACDC / Mirror at Niki de Saint Phalle / Eye-catching Totoro sweatshirt at the family gathering / Fuck Normal I Want Magic / Arrival party with palm fronds / Poorly hung art / Almost destroyed the balloon artwork / Killer cheese grater / With Luke Skywalker on Yavin IV / Astronaut gets new helium / Fun with sugar eyes / Cuddling sharks and snail cemetery / The unicorn subscribes to Basque cheesecake / Donation machine / Purple lake / Rocket marvels at the Great Blue Hole / No waiting time at the diplomat immigration checkpoint / Climbing in the thermal spring / Bicycle mural by Miriam Frank / Paddling through the mangroves / Sky blue Birkenstocks with neon yellow socks / In the Imperial Palace on Kaitain with Princess Irulan / Mortadella in the hailstorm / Always only five pyramid steps at a time / Treats for Stinky and Willy / Dino at the garden center / „Be a pigeon, don’t care“ / Night drumming and flag waving in San Gimignano / Astronaut & rocket balloon / Rainbow crepe cake / Bats /
Rocket
The curly bear Rocket discovered his adventurous spirit with us.
Pareidolia
Beautiful Gift
My wife organized a private tour to Tikal to the Star Wars temple, fulfilling a childhood dream of mine.
Nineteen seconds! Only NINETEEN SECONDS! You can see the Millennium Falcon over the Mayan ruins of Tikal, aka the forest moon Yavin IV in Star Wars from 1977. These 19 seconds impressed me immensely as a child in the open-air cinema during a camping holiday, and I would have loved to see these ruins myself back then. Now, this long-forgotten childhood dream has come true.
Physical & Mental Health
2024 was exhausting. At the beginning of the year, I had a depressive episode, which fortunately resolved with therapy. Nevertheless, we did little in 2024 because our adventurous spirit and energy didn’t match.
Strangely, I had two fever spikes with nearly 40°C (104°F) fever, but without other symptoms and no elevated inflammation markers. Towards the end of the year, I caught a cold, but the expired cough medicine showed me that I had hardly been sick since the COVID-19 pandemic.
A „self-inflicted“ sun allergy showed that dietary supplements are not harmless. Strong sun combined with PABA, and suddenly I had an annoying rash. PABA is supposed to help the skin deal with the sun better, but for me, it had the opposite effect. When I stopped taking PABA, the rash disappeared, even though the sun continued to shine.
Unfortunately, a preventive test came back positive for me, so we’ll see what further examinations reveal. At the moment, I’m not worried (despite my hypochondriac tendencies).
Things I Could Have Done Without
My car suddenly making terrible noises when steering in the mountains was unnecessary. The defect was „only“ a broken shock absorber, but my car is getting old.
Art
Ai Weiwei . Quaderstatuen . Spiegel . Heilig Geist Kirche . Kreaturen in der Unterführung . Pussy Riot . Artschnitzel . Fahrrad-Mural
Architecture
Goldhaus . Weiße Kirche Seliger Pater Rupert . Tomba Brion . Niki St Phalle . Swan Villas . Branntweinfabrik
Surprising Discoveries
There are actually pretty (!) vultures. We saw several king vultures at the Belize Zoo, very clearly vultures, but really pretty. King vultures have colorful heads and beaks with black and white plumage and are so large that they can chase away all other vultures, earning their well-deserved title.
Storms
Three storms from 2024 will stay in my memory. The massive floods caused by Vb weather (mediterranen ) patterns are clearly due to advancing climate change:
- Thunderstorm with power outage
- Continuous rain due to Vb weather pattern
- Consequences of the storm in Belize
On May 27, 2024, there was a very strong thunderstorm in Augsburg, which first flooded my supermarket and then struck two substations with lightning, leading to a massive power outage in downtown Augsburg and Lechhausen, causing significant IT problems. I believe this was the first power outage in Augsburg in my over 20 years there. A surprising discovery is that there is a boundary of power supply in the middle of my street. So, on my side of the street (and the entire downtown), the power went out, but on the opposite side, the lights were on as if nothing had happened.
After the storm was before the storm, because four days later, the continuous rain (Vb Mediterranean low) started and flooded large parts of Swabia. In Augsburg, almost 100 liters of rain fell in one day, and nearly 200 liters per square meter in three days, more than ever recorded before. Around Augsburg, one disaster alarm after another was triggered. A dam on my long-run route broke, but I got off relatively lightly in Augsburg; nothing at the house or office was flooded, and the roofs withstood the continuous rain. However, the drive to Munich after the rain was strange, as parts of the highway were flooded, and the landscape strongly reminded me of scenes from a Ghibli film. In September, the next Vb weather pattern then flooded Austria, and I hoped for the best for friends and family in Austria. In Munich, there was a lot of rain and rising river levels, but that’s not really unusual.
From November 15, Hurricane Sara brought a lot of rain to Belize. About 10 days later, we drove through still flooded areas with our rental car, many houses still standing almost a meter underwater, and fish swimming between makeshift stepping stones on the way to the hotel bar. We had to take detours because some roads were underwater. Near San Ignacio, we were looking forward to the jungle house with SUP (Stand Up Paddle Boards), but the river directly under the house was too turbulent with large whirlpools. We also had to wait for the ferry service over the Mopan River to Xunantunich to resume. Even the locals were surprised by the force of Hurricane Sara, which was anything but ordinary for them as well.
Urban Exploring
Urban exploring at the distillery at Leuchtenbergring was initially very surprising, quite impressive, and ended in a somewhat hasty escape from the security service 😉. The distillery is located on both sides of Leuchtenbergring with very large tanks standing dystopically in the water, which can be explored via shaky stairs and ladders. The brutalist building, whose upper floor consists of a single huge room, would be the perfect film set for a Dune movie. There were plans to use the distillery for public interim use, but unfortunately, these plans fell through.
We also „visited“ other places like the tipi at Father Timofei’s, a closed Etruscan tomb, were alone in Hall 6 at Artschnitzel with the house cat. In San Gimignano, we sneaked onto a monastery grounds to see Anish Kapoor’s Underground. In Bologna, a resident let us into the Palazzo Fantuzzi.
The art hunt with Artschnitzel was a bit frustrating because we were always a bit too late and found nothing.
Best Quote
When I saw your wife with a surfboard, I knew it was you!
Instagram Follower
For the first time, I was approached by one of my Instagram followers in the wild and felt like an influencer for a moment.
Job
Nothing new, but the tense economic situation worries me.
Bestes Food & Drink
Gnudi were a culinary discovery on our Tuscany trip. Gnudi means „naked“ because you can imagine them as „naked“ ravioli, i.e., without pasta shell. They consist of ricotta with semolina and other ingredients and are wonderfully light and fluffy.
On a warm summer night out, I tried Pimm’s No 1 Longdrink for the first time and was thrilled. The long drink might not be that great, but celebrating a milestone outdoors & relaxed made the drink unforgettable.
Gadgets
This year, I bought a river leash for our whitewater SUP adventures. The river leash allows for quick release if it gets caught underwater on a tree or rock in whitewater. Along with the SUP folding fins that fold on contact with the ground instead of getting stuck and a self-inflating life jacket, we are now equipped for whitewater adventures with the SUP… Maybe we still need a dry suit.
A light meter shows the significant difference in brightness between indoors and outdoors. Even on gray, cloudy days, there is much more light outside, and a light meter can clearly show us the stark difference and motivate us for a mental health walk.
The new mud running shoes took up too much space to take to Belize… but they would have been good for the absolutely slippery descent to the waterfall.
Movies & Streaming & Music
There was no particularly impressive movie for me this year, but with the visits to Tomba Brion and Tikal, I visited the Imperial Palace on Caitain (Dune 2) and the forest moon Yavin IV (Star Wars: A New Hope) in my imagination.
I had a lot of fun with the series KAOS with the modern Greek gods. Surprisingly, I really liked the adventures of „Star Wars: Skeleton Crew.“
Music is not that important to me, but the Taylor Swift hype in Munich was hard to miss. Taylor Swift feels rather shallow, but I listened to her lyrics for the first time and can now understand the hype better.
Events
I only attended one event in 2024, Shakespeare’s „Twelfth Night,“ very colorful and for the first time at the new Volkstheater building. The theater evening with friends was nice, but the play itself was not so great. Maybe I couldn’t really get into it or had too high expectations. The new Volkstheater building is beautiful and has the most modern stage technology, but is that really good? The Volkstheater used to have a special charm, precisely because of the hardly existing stage technology. Selfishly, I find the new location stupid because it’s no longer around the corner but across the whole city… OH NO, DAMN, I’M GETTING OLD AND SAYING THINGS LIKE „YOU KNOW, EVERYTHING WAS BETTER IN THE PAST.“
Cooking & Baking
The highlight recipe of 2024 was the pretzel dumplings with sweet mustard in wheat beer sauce.
I’m not a baker, but I liked my homemade pandan cake. My wife and colleagues had only two reactions, either „super delicious“ or „yuck,“ and nothing in between.
Books
I didn’t read much in 2024, but the „Locked Tomb series“ by Tamsyn Muir is a completely new kind of fantasy and somehow incomparable to anything else, which rarely happens to me. A spoiler-free summary of the book series is „A space opera of lesbian necromancers with swords and dirty magazines!“ and I think that says it all.
With the textbook „Orientations and Rotations,“ I now understand some of my everyday work even better.
First Time?
Did Again After a Long Time?
Caught a cold, the first since the COVID-19 pandemic, actually a good sign.
Bad Decisions
It was a bad idea to drive from Augsburg to Munich during the century rain because the highway was partially flooded. It looked spectacular, but a little more water and the highway would have been completely underwater. Lessons learned, we turned around in front of a deeply flooded road in Belize.
I shouldn’t have taken too many booster shots at once because after several feverish nights, I was pretty exhausted, but at least my vaccination protection is now up to date, and my immune system is better prepared for tick bites (risk areas in Bavaria for tick-borne encephalitis TBE).
Drinking Belize rum in the evening without mosquito repellent or long pants was not smart.
My descent in flip-flops to a waterfall in the mud after heavy rain reminded me of tourists in high heels in alpine terrain.
Good Deeds
I was there for other people, donated money, helped put together affordable first aid kits to donate to the Eisbach surfers.
Plans for 2025
Second attempt at the Athens Marathon and maybe admire the Big Five.
René Rössig 