High!

Thomas de Groot schrieb:

> ...And you should go to the deepest points too! (not caves!)
> - Alexanderpolder (NL) -8m, if I am correct
> - Death Sea
> - Death Valley
> - Kara Bogaz
> ... and several others certainly

Here in Germany, this would be some place west of Hamburg, in the "Altes 
Land", about 2 metres below sea level... and in my still favourite 
country on this planet it's where Amu Darya river leaves for 
Turkmenistan, 280 metres above sea level... Mt. Noshaq (7490 m) would be 
definitely more sophisticated to do!

But I generally more like being on high places than in murky marshlands 
(which also goes well with my other hobby, stargazing), so in spite of 
being an absolute non-climber, trying to get as high as possible without 
breaking my neck seems thrilling... and, so, to "collect" highest 
elevations of sovereign countries, preferably on foot or by bike.

Let's take a look on what would be doable:

Germany: Zugspitze (2963 m) would be too alpine (except by funicular) 
and, beside that, no mountain peak in the world has been that much 
disfigured with concrete platform buildups like this one unfortunate 
enough to be Germany's highest... but nevertheless a great spot to have 
a night at the telescope!

Also off limits are Austria, Switzerland, Italy and France, with all of 
them being in the 4000 or high 3000 metre range.

Mt. Snezka (1603 m), the highest elevation of Czech Republic, would be 

(Finland, 1324 m). Then there would be Luxemburg's Kneiff (560 m), San 
Marino's Monte Titano (756 m, which I in fact already visited in 1979 - 
so I must admit that I was wrong with my recent bold statement about my 
trip to Vaalserberg!), also the highest point of Monaco, probably only a 
few hundred metres high, but possibly very expensive ;-); Croatia's 
Dinara (1831 m)... and, certainly, Spain with her Pico de Teide volcano 
(3718 m) on Tenerife island - then also the Fujisan (3776 m) in Japan 
would be a possible destination for me... are there more countries whose 
highest mountains are easily accessible shield volcanoes?

If we stretch the term "sovereign country" in a creative way, then also 
Bergisch Afghanistan's Sang-e Surkh (German: Rothenstein, 600 m) would 
be a candidate to be biked by me...

See you on www.khyberspace.de !

Yadgar

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