What an exciting opportunity to travel to Munich Germany for the latest offering of the Human Evolution course! I felt so honored by the folks at Lindebergs Academy with their gracious hospitality, amazing facility and yummy German treats.
We had a great group of attendees from not only Germany, but also Denmark, Italy, and China, as well as Michigan. It’s hard to imagine digesting the content of any PRI course in another language and this group really seemed to connect to the concepts presented. In fact, we had intellectually enriching discussions about the concepts of crawling, sensory processing, tonic neck integration, clockwise and counterclockwise sense and motion, and the sequential development of the glutes, to name a few.
The stairwell in the academy was the perfect place to experience kinesemiotic forward and backward stair climbing, not to mention additional sensory afferentation.
Munich is 6 hours ahead of our east coast home in North Carolina. I was thrilled to find out that Munich turned their clocks back one hour on Saturday night (after day one of the course) and that extra sleep was so welcomed. Upon return to NC, another hour was granted with daylight savings the following weekend! How lucky! However, I’m still not sure what time it is as I write this a couple days later.
Being that far from home, my partner and I had to stay to explore a bit. The trip was enriched with a delightful hike to the base of the Austrian Alps in Innsbruck. Though the descent proved to test my eccentric fitness… (turns out I have none). I left Austria with an amazing case of the DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness), which in direct German translation means “muscle cats.” Whew… my cats were mad!
On to Bolzano, Italy where we enjoyed some shopping and delicious Italian fare. After a gondola ride to the base of the elusive Dolomites due to the clouds, for another hike, we had to go to the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology to see “Ötzi, The Ice Man”. Ötzi is believed to have been killed in combat of some sort more than 5,300 years ago at the age of 40, during the copper age. Because of the cold climate, his body was well preserved, and these intact remains were found in 1991 by some hikers. The museum showcased research results of his physiology, gut, tools, and DNA for education. It was not at all surprising to see that his x-rays revealed more compression in his right hip than his left hip, VERY wide dental arches, and a more compressed right apical rib cage than his left. The photo depicts an approximation of what he might have looked like. You gotta love science!
A BIG THANK YOU to my gracious hosts Daniel Müller, Eckhart Acker (the best chauffeur in Germany!), Sonja Voracek, and Regina Frank for taking such good care of me and for hosting a yet another PRI course. Also thanks to PRC’s Nadja Himmelseher and Tracey Blain for your valuable contributions to the conversations. It will be a trip we will remember forever. So grateful for you all and for this memorable trip.
