2009-04-30 49 8

Location

The hashpoint is at a playground in Wieblingen.

Expedition

ilpadre

I hadn't been on an expedition for over a month, mostly due to the hashpoints being too far away, but also because I had to study for an exam on May 5th. That hashpoint, however, was just too close to not go there, so I used it to add another walk geohash to my list. The hashpoint area looked accessible on satellite view. OpenStreetMap showed the place to be a playground, and I've always loved playgrounds. It was easy to find, and I had fun taking pictures of me playing on a swing set.

When I was back home, I uploaded the pictures and noticed fivetonsofflax had left a message saying he wanted to go as well. That would have been a great opportunity to meet my fellow Heidelberg hashers, but I'm sure we'll meet some other day.

On my way to the hashpoint, I came by a house decorated with a banner and posters saying "We Won't Move!" and "Demolition? No Thanks!" put up by the residents. As I took pictures, I was approached by a woman asking me if I was from the press. She looked a bit disappointed when I told her I wasn't. Apparently, in the course of one of Heidelberg's many controversial construction projects, the city will demolish 45 houses, forcing several hundred residents to make way for construction of modern (and unaffordable) housing. When I came by again on my way back, a truck was being loaded with an old lady's moving boxes. I don't think the residents will win this fight. Do they ever?

They catch fish in the Neckar river.
He does, too.
Stop!
Tram time!
The hashpoint is on that playground.
Marker
I found a swing set!
Oooo...
...weeee!
Vegetationszonierung is a very German word.
Spring!
The conservative party's attempt at viral marketing

euterkuh and fivetonsofflax

Piece of cake. This was a very good opportunity to get the Walk and the Tron Achievements. We met at Euterkuh's place, took two bottles of beer each with us and started from there. The distance was about 2.7 kilometers.

Shortly after we started we got attacked by huge swarms of gnats who lived at the Neckar River. We resisted their vile attacks and their attempts to get into our beer. Later, we passed two weird children, one of whom almost collected one of our empty bottles. We soon reached the hashpoint and looked for ilpadre's xkcd marker. After we had taken a few photos, fivetonsofflax ate a waffle and we went on our way back.

We wanted to claim the Tron achievement, so the following dialogue ensued: "You do know that we have to turn left?" - "Yes, well that's where we came from. Let's take another way." So we decided to make sure we could get the achievement and tried to find another way back. It all went well for a while. but after we had passed a field of rape, the way ended next to the tram tracks. We crossed them and went backwards, which suddenly turned out to be the right direction. Then we came to a huge fallow area close to the main station. It had gotten pretty dark by then and although this was our closest hashpoint yet, it was becoming quite adventurous. We somehow managed to get back to civilized areas and went straightly to our favourite Asian restaurant to have some sweet-and-sour meat... stuff.