Tombraider Meeting, Lage Germany June 22-24

This was such a fun trip.  Liz and I went to Amsterdam to Gerty's house and met up with Ian and Dutchy there.  We also had dinner and visited with Jantje, another friend who wasn't going to the meeting in Germany with us.  Then we set off from Amsterdam for Lage.  We met up with Titya in Hengelo and had a nice lunch and then set off in our little convoy.  It took about 3 hours to drive from Amsterdam to Lage and the countryside was beautiful.  Very very green and fresh and the weather was quite cool.  We arrived in Lage and checked into our hotel, Jagerhoff Wellie.  Then we headed to the hostel Naturfreund Haus where the meeting was being held.  The hostel was only open for us so it was just a huge group of mainly German Tombraider custom level players and builders.  Not everyone was German, Ian came in from England and Dutchy is...well...Dutch...but he lives in Turkey, Gerty and Titya are Dutch and I was the only American there and certainly the only American living in India to be there.  It was basically a huge LAN party.  Everyone came in with their computers and set up.  Team Gerty, as I dubbed us, set up on the little terrace because most of team Gerty smokes so they like to be outdoors.  Then it was Tombraider playing non-stop for two days.  I got a chance to try some levels and also to try out a beta which drove me NUTS.  We shall refer to this as the great four leaf clover incident of 2007.  It was such a great time and we left for Amsterdam on Sunday afternoon.  Dutchy coined the great term "Lage lag" for how we were feeling that day.

Some of these photos were taken by others, the group photos are courtesy of another Tombraider at the meeting and some were taken by Gerty and Ian

we set off from Amsterdam in cool and rainy weather

I start out with Gerty but when we meet up with Titak in Hengelo Gerty drives with Titak and Liz drives Gerty's car

Ian and Dutchy follow...or try to ;)

the drive is beautiful, I've never been in Dutch countryside in a car and never been outside the airport in Germany, both are so clean, cool and green.  I love it.

Gerty had booked rooms at a hotel for us

then it's Tombraider Tombraider and more Tombraider, next year I'll bring my own laptop so I don't feel like such a parasite, my laptop graphics card  is not up to speed for games but it will be before next year's meeting, Liz and I relied on the kindness of others to play

my TR faceWait, I'm smiling, did I do something right!?

Titak won this for level design fabulousness

Naturfreund Haus, is the site of the meeting

Okay this shall be filed away as the great four leaf clover incident of 2007 and we shall never speak of it again.  I could NOT find that bloody four leaf clover and I looked for hours.  I started the rain and the clover grew and I could NOT find it.  Gerty had a try and she couldn't find it either even though she found it once before....grrrrr....I went walking in the mountains in Austria on Monday and flinched every time I saw clover!  Cute level though.  Finally found the clover by someone saying, "Hey there it is."  By that time I was already scarred for life.

no matter how old I get, I still think if I lean over I can see around the corner in the level

and on into the night

Saturday was barbecue day

sitting behind the heat waves from the barbecue grill

the cigarette garden

 team Gerty is ready to head back to Amsterdam Sunday

Group photos, I wish I had written down who took them but I was doing too many things at once and lost track, I hope it's okay that I've used them on my site