Archive for the ‘Background information’ Category

The final chapter of this epic journey begins today. After good and bad parties it’s time to leave to Poland. Without Joost, but with his spirrit (trust me we can’t get a lot of songs out of our heads thanks to that guy…).

Yesterday we were able to meet up with Jenny, a friend who I met during new years eve. We went to a very very cool club and we partied till 5 in the morning…

YES we had some drinks (many), YES we met a lot of cool people and yes I feel exhausted. Around 6 we arrived home and we fell asleep.

Now we’re leaving to Poland. The weather is great and the spirrit is very high. This is for all of us not the last time that we’re hitting Berlin.

Kosti, thanks a LOT for your couch, you’ve been an awesome host!

The plans?

Go to Poland, get home around sunday next week.

Byyyeeeee!!

The destination has changed. The route is updated and the distance we should travel has been increased. New goal:  Poznań.

Poznań is quite a large city in Poland going about 280 km inward from the German borders. It was the year 1253 before they first had the right to call themselves a city. Since then the city has been expanding since.

During the German occupation, the city was made the capital of the Third Reich province “Reichsgau Wartheland”. Many of the habitants were executed or forced into slave-labor. Before the war, about 3000 habitants of the city were Jewish. After the war all were executed.

On a brighter sidenote, the city is also famous for it’s clubs, great music, lot’s of cultural activities, a growing economical center and many historical buildings.

For us it means another adventure-achievement. So even though we will not be adding to Poznan’s history, it will add to ours.

To Poznan!

Streetracing is quite popular amongst lot’s of people with pimped cars. So why write here about it? I have to say that we can remove the car part and make that “Streetracing is quite popular amongst lot’s of people with pimped rides”. Since my ride is pretty much pimped, I decided to do some streetracing myself.

I’ve been a big fan of Formula One racing for quite a while now so the racing track really is a thing for me. I like to ride my recumbent bike and I’ve always associated these 2 interests of me. I mean, riding a recumbent is racing. You are low to the ground, just like in a F1 car. Everything is tweaked to the max, just like in an F1 car. You try to be as aerodynamically as possible… just like an F1 car. And it’s nice to cut corners, accelerate as fast as possible and break as late as possible….. just like in an F1 car.

So that’s why I today decided to point out a track of about 2 km, and ride 5 laps on it. Just to see if I like it. With my new Garmin 60Cx device I was able to record laptimes, see my average laptime, total laptime and afterwards see the captured track results. This gave me a good insight of where I went what speed and when I lost a lot of speed. This information is incredibly handy! I’ve seen that when I steer in pretty late compared to what I’m used to, I take turns a lot faster. Great fun!

Anyway tomorrow I’ve set out a different “circuit”. It’s close to the one I did today but instead of 2.1 it’s 1.5 km. Also it’s safer cars-wise and has a few slower turns. Can’t wait to try that circuit out!

I remember when I bought a recumbent bike for the first time of my life. It is still the only recumbent I ever bought.  It was the Optima Stinger in a light greenish blue edition combined with silver parts. No additional gadgets, one chainring on the front, no headrest and brakes that merely braked.

Times have changed. I’ve gained more experience and am demanding more and more every day from my bike. I couldn’t have it in the state as I bought it so I added additional components. From that awesome simple bike I went to the bike as it is today. Readers, fans, family and friends, I present to you my Optima Stinger in it’s current, awesome, shape:

What did I do today to it?

I’ve painted the rims and some other parts black. It now has a nice blue-black color scheme. Also I’ve added the GPS mount. This will hold my newest gadget of all.

The Garmin 60Cx

I knew it, I had to get a gadget. Something new, something that would make life easier. Something cool, something i could regularly use. Then I came across another recumbent bike fanatic and saw the GPS system on his bike. I was happy, I had a goal. My sweet female friend Emma stayed at my place and we’d be shopping on Saturday. What a great time to get the GARMIN 60Cx!!!

We went to the shopping center, visited all the shops who could possibly have it but alas, none had it. Until I had the great idea to call Bever Zwerfsport. They had one Garmin left, and we were on our way.

I saw it, fell in love, bought it, felt happy, bought a apple-cider-home-brew-set, went home, launched the GPS device and knew I bought something I wanted. This made my bicycle complete.

It not only made my bike complete, it works. I was delighted to see that I had the maps I wanted added to the device quite fast. The device itself is awesome. It’s water proof and since I once threw my camera under water, this is a feature I love. Also if the backlight is off, the visibility gets better when you hold it in the sun. Speaking of battery-saving-awesomeness! When it’s dark I’ll just put the backlight to 10%.

In no-time I had the whole route added to the device. Oh and don’t forget: there’s also games on it!

So just to round this post up, I really tweaked the bike. It’s nice now, I have a nice GPS unit and it rocks.

Yes I’ve been promoting recumbentbikes for quite a while now and it’s good to see that also stationary fitness bikes recognize the benefits of a recumbent bike. I’ve came across an article about fitness bikes today that underlined the advantages of a recumbent bike. Was this from recumbent bike fans? No it was not.

In this article they compare fitness bikes like stationary bikes, spinning bikes, dual action bikes and recumbent bikes. This was written by fitness fans simply comparing all the sorts of equipment that they work with.

In their article they state out a lot of benefits but I love this quote more than anything else in the article: “The Experts Recognize the Advantages of Recumbent Bikes”.

FINALLY! I mean recumbents rocks. A lot of people find them weird or scary. Today I had 6-7 kids watching my bike and saying “wow cool bike!”. One of them said “is that for disabled people?

I just replied joking with “yes it is, I have only one leg, my other leg is fake”. On what he replied? “wow… really?” And then me going “No”. So yes that was quite fun.

ANYWAY I just recommend you reading this article and have fun!

Pro Fitness Rowing Machines - Recumbent Exercise Bikes

Training Route Steve *Click to enlarge*

Hey guys! It was a bit silent but 2 MAJOR newsupdates are coming up! But next about this… eh, soon. When we think the time is right for this special announcement haha.

SO what else is going on? Well, I (Steve) found myself a job. It’s a VERY nice job and I love doing it, but it costs me 12 hours a day 5 days a week. Why? I spend 2 hours getting there, 8 hours at work and 2 hours to get back. Training is difficult but I try to eat there around 5-6, go home, get here around 8 and go for a bike-ride around 8:30. This is the route I’m currently doing, tested it today and it’s a fun route.

I’ve had major problems with the hills in Sweden since I’m on a recumbent bike. A lot of recumbent bikers are saying I shouldn’t complain about it and just train so that is what I’m doing. By doing this route I will go up six large and quite long bridges. They’re not the end of the world but I guess better than training on a 100% flat surface.

Also I’ve been doing this WHOLE route in my highest gear. Except for the first 5 minutes of warming up. By doing this I want to train my legs to become stronger. Besides this I also want to train on cardio so I can do this all day long, but I don’t see any problems in this.

Either way: I’ve got a busy schedule. That’s for sure.

So what was I doing? Planning my way through Germany. That’s all. I went to Google Earth, I selected a waypoint, checked the roads… then I said to Joost: “Hey look at this, the roads are really bad here. Hm here the buildings look quite old as well… wait a minute…!”. It was this moment I zoomed out, saw it all and realized what it was.

Krampnitz is a small village near Berlin. It’s about 80 km east of Germany’s capital. Near Krampnitz is the old Russian base that has been left years ago when the wall fell. The barracks, buildings, main residents and many more buildings are still standing today, rotting away removing it’s own history. There are lot’s of beautiful history-rich buildings which are a perfect set for some great photo’s.

So our plans? Yeah we’ll stay a day, take photo’s. This is the reason I might take a lens or two extra with me. The 23mm, 15mm fisheye and the all-round lens that I bought (will post about this later) are certainly going to get along with my Canon 5D MKII. What to expect? A lot of pictures. That’s for sure.

So where to sleep you might think?

Yeah good question. I think there’s a good chance we can sleep near the whole base. I’ve heard many reports of patrolling cars. However, I’ve also read a lot of people just go there for a day to take pictures. If this is true I guess we can freely take some great photographs of the whole base. I hope to find a lot of Russian paintings, texts and more stuff.

Anyway I google’d the place so here’s some more pics for you to enjoy!

FERRIES! No we haven’t had enough! 2-3 ferries? MORE MORE! Yes we LOVE THEM! This time the Rogätz Ferry will be on the menu. Important to check when it actually goes. If you look it up you find where the Rogätz Ferry is going. NO SHIT that it’s traversing the Elbe. The fact I know the name Rogätz Ferry might probably also show I want to pass the Elbe…

Anyway after a LONG search I’ve found out that the trip will cost us 1.50 and they will rest for 3 days in the whole year. BUT. Be aware that “sometimes the weather is also crazy” they might not sail. This is from their website.. WHAT THE HECK DO GERMANS HAVE WITH THE WORD CRAZY!?

Anyway it seems like a done deal. The city itself is pretty cool as well. It’s small, it has a ferry and some very old medieval structures. Awesome! We’ll be enjoying the ride!

SUMMER SCHEDULE
1st April – 31 October
Monday – Friday
5:45 am – 20:00 h
Sat / Sun / Holidays
8:00 am – 20:00 h

Lunch break each 12.00 – 12.30 h
11.45 h last crossing

Source.

Hillersleben. If you are looking on Google Earth you will see this small town that I’d rate xx. (2 out of 4.. It’s not a town but more a large town with probably a supermarket and some resources). But I decided to look it up anyway, I mean you’ll never know what for a weird, cool or shocking history 5 houses and 2 streets might have.

By doing this I quickly found out more stuff was going on here. Apparently these 20 houses and some roads (okay it might be even a bit more) used to be the hometown of quite some engineers in the second world war. The Nazis built a secret base near the town where they built a lot of experimental things.

A WEIRD MINESWEEPER

If you think this minesweeper is from a movie, you’re wrong. This is a minesweeper that was built in Hillersleben’ secret Nazi base. There was one finished, and captured in Hillersleben in 1945 by the American troops. Quite a weird vehicle hm? I mean place it in a game like Red Faction (which takes place on Mars) and it would just be “another Marsian vehicle”.

More info on this … thing… can be found HERE.

Okay but apart from making semi futuristic vehicles built to clean minefields (mostly created by themselves I guess lol!).. what else does Hillersleben hide from us?

In 1943 the Nazis tested a gun near Hillersleben that would be used for long distance targets. They tested the weapon for about half a year and with partial charges. In other words they shot at very close range to just test the basics of this weapon. So what was this for a weapon?

Okay if you hold an average rifle the barrel is about 40-50 cm long.
A tank as a barrel with a variety of 0.8 up to 3-4 meters long. Some long distance tanks have longer barrels ( 5-6  meters…)

This device had a barrel of 30 meters…. ’nuff said I’d say.

Anything else?

Yeah I guess the town has some nice houses and a very cool old church. Also there’s supposed to be an old hospital that is not being used anymore. I guess we could couchsurf there and be on our way again the day after. If we do an average of 120 km/ day then Hillersleben would be on our planning to make camp anyway.

But we’ll see!

One of the typical places we will pass is Lehrte. While looking it up on google I saw a picture of a weird concrete old-ish tower. When I was looking up Hannover I saw the same kind of towers. So I wanted to know what was the use of these concrete, large weird towers. They looked like a bunker but… no guns!? Could have been that they removed the guns, but then you’d at least see an obvious place where the guns should have been.

Well what appeared to be the case with these:

When there was an air attack, people would run and take shelter in these weird towers… and to some degree it makes sense to make a tower. Seen from above a one storage building with  big surface has a lot more chance to get hit than a tiny (well from above…) tower. A big big chance the bombs will fall next to the tower, or it it but not frontally. Also a big advantage.

There are a lot of variations in these weird shelters. From very long to quite wide. With a thick concrete wall and some with a very thin one to reduce the odds that they would get hit. Either way we’re bound to see some and I can’t wait to enter one and see what it’s like.

Here’s a plan of the whole structure:

Anyway that’s not all. Lehrte is also a city with a rather central train station and has several train tracks leaving the city. It’s not a big surprise lot’s of typical German trains can be found here. The usual train is red and has the easily recognizable DB logo on the side. I’ve been knowing these trains since I was a kid because my dad had a Fleischmann railroad set. Of course their catalogs where full of the famous red German train loco’s.

In 1843 Lehrte started working on the Hannover to Braunschweig railway line connecting the city with both towns. When they started working on the town they had about 700 people living in the city, a tad more. 60 years later the city had ten times as much people living in the city.

I guess you can say a railway really get’s people moving haha.

After the trainlines where completed the city of Lehrte expanded with lot’s of industries. Cement was made, clay was produced and even a sugarfactory. When the cementfactory closed they converted it into a cattlemarket and it became the most important cattlemarket in Northern Germany.

I think when we pass Lehrte we’ll see quite some nice old buildings, perhaps a bunker or two (and couchsurf there? Haha!) oh and lot’s of trains.