2010-10-20 49 8
| Wed 20 Oct 2010 in Mannheim: 49.2776468, 8.6759830 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox |
Location
Today's location is in a piece of forest at Wiesloch-Frauenweiler.
Country: Germany; state: Baden-Württemberg (EU:DE:BW); administrative region: Karlsruhe; district: Rhein-Neckar-Kreis
Weather: Rain
Planning
I will go, if I can meet Robyn and Wade. When? - Danatar 13:40, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
Count me in, since it's only a 10 min train ride from Heidelberg and a 4 km walk from Wiesloch-Walldorf. --ilpadre 13:54, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
Maybe count me in as well (7km bike from Bad Schönborn).Timing is rather bad from my side, either before 12:00, when Robyn and Wade are in Heidelberg and you both are probably busy too. Otherwise after 17:30, when it's already starting to get dark. Koepfel talk 14:01, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
I obviously have to go. I flipped out and woke up Wade accidentally when I saw it was right near here. Wade is working all day (he is not on vacation) and can't do anything until after 6 p.m., and probably later so he probably won't go at all. By preference I would go before going to Heidelberg, because I wanted to spend the day there. Can everyone come in the morning? We could do the hash and then go to Heidelberg. -Robyn 21:21, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
- Morning wouldn't work for me, I need my bike from Bad Schönborn on (that's where my student ticket ends, so I don't have to buy anotherone), but I can't carry a bike in the train before 9 am. As oppoed to what I said before, 12:00 wouldn't work for me either. Though I understand you want to spent the evening in Heidelberg Koepfel talk 21:31, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
- You can buy a daypass Ticket 24 from Wiesloch-Walldorf to Heidelberg for 5.20 € (single ticket is 3.50). This includes unlimited travel to and within of Heidelberg for 24 hours, but not any further.
- As said before, sadly - I can't come. I have a dentist appointment in the afternoon. I'll check the thursday options as soon as I come back from the dentist. --Ekorren 21:36, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
- No, I don't really want to spend the evening in Heidelberg alone. And I really want to make this work. If you leave at nine a.m., what time can you get here? Can others do 17:30? I have to go to bed now, because I'm keeping Wade up, but plan something guys. WHENEVER. I can go to Heidelberg on Thursday. -Robyn 21:38, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
Danatar and me have decided to meet at 17:40. Both our trains run every 30 mins, so later would also be possible, but it will get dark. Earlier doesn't work for me. If you want to change anything, I'll check this page occasionally during the day, as will Danatar. Koepfel talk 22:06, 19 October 2010 (UTC)
I will meet you guys at the hash at 17:40. Looking forward to it! Anyone who is excluded by this, we will make another opportunity. Wade and I will BOTH be geohashing on Saturday, with no geographical limitation. We'll be looking for an awesome geohash that allows us to see cool things and meet cool people. -Robyn 05:38, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
- I'll try to be there at 17:40, too. --ilpadre 05:46, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
- Ilpadre, I plan to take the S3 leaving HD Hbf at 16:48, so we'll probably see us there - Danatar 08:36, 20 October 2010 (UTC)
Expedition
Danatar
I left my parents' place and boarded the train to Heidelberg at the last moment. In Heidelberg I had to change trains and met Ilpadre on the platform. We took the S-Bahn S3 to the Walldorf-Wiesloch (or Wiesloch-Walldorf?) station. From there we walked along a backbuilt railroad track, then along field tracks to Frauenweiler. When we arrived there it started to rain, so we decided to take the route that would lead us to the hashpoint from the north, through the forest. We hoped for the trees to protect us from the rain, but they didn't. Soon we were standing on the track near the hashpoint.
Ilpadre entered the underbrush and remarked right away that this would ruin our shoes. I only had the one pair of shoes available and used a different place. Each of us made his own way through the thick and wet forest until we reached the hashpoint almost at the same time from different directions. I tried to take a picture of my GPS unit at the exact coordinates while ilpadre was fixing his stenciled hashmark to a nearby tree. Not much later we saw Robyn make her way through the forest. She was using a tiny trail we had only discovered at the hashpoint.
We talked for a while and finally Koepfel arrived. We talked some more but it got darker, so we decided to leave. Koepfel left us while we were still in Frauenweiler, because he had to cycle to a different train station. The rest of us walked to the Wiesloch-Walldorf train station. Robyn crossed the tracks there and cycled "home", while ilpadre and I took the train.
field track to Frauenweiler
signs
lake near the hashpoint
GPS
ilpadre reaching the hashpoint
Robyn arriving, with surprise flash
Ilpadre
Tracklog: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=857401
It started to rain.
(Probably) not the exact hashpoint, but the nearest tree.
After Robyn arrived at the coordinates.
Final group shot 25 minutes later.
Robyn
I started my day in Heidelberg, where I visited a castle, bigger and more turrety than the one I saw yesterday overlooking the River Enz, walked through streets in the Altstadt (which, when selecting a bus to jump on, I bravely and fortunately correctly decided meant Old Town), visited excellent museums, and bought some souvenirs. I also got wet.
I then boarded a train back to Walldorf, dropped off my purchases at the hotel and headed out towards the geohash. It was incredibly close, I just had to get past the railroad tracks to get there. That meant, after a couple of failures to get onto roads that went over the tracks, going back to the train station, carrying the bicycle through the stairs under the platforms and then riding around Wiesloch to get to the road to Frauenweiler. That was a good road, and there was a bike route going in the direction of the hash, with a cyclist riding right ahead of me. I wondered if he was one of the geohashers I hoped to meet. The person was riding kind of slowly, which was going to be a problem, because I had already spent more time than I should have getting this far, and needed to hurry to the geohash. I didn't want to veer out into car traffic, to pass, as it was a kind of busy road, but I really didn't want to go that slowly. Eventually I went up on the sidewalk and around him that way. Not quite the way it should be done, but it worked. I pedalled ahead and then moments later a car did the same thing I had done. There was a car going slowly, or maybe stopped waiting to turn left, I didn't see, and this driver just drove up on the sidewalk, ahead of me, around the other car and back onto the street. I did not see that coming. I guess the trade-off for being treated just like any other vehicle as a cyclist is that other vehicles can act like cyclists.
I continued following the road, managing each time the GPS arrow swung abeam my track to find a road that went in the correct direction, until I reached the edge of the little woods that held the geohash. There was an electrical transformer box or something on the corner, and a trail that went behind it, so I followed it, and then when it started to pass the geohash I parked the bike against a tree and followed a narrower trail towards the hash. I was about five minutes late, hadn't seen any other bicycles, and I was within thirty metres of the geohash. I was just starting to say "Allo? Geohasheren?" when a camera flash went off at short range. I'd walked right up to Danatar and il padre, although between the camera flash and the number of raindrops on my glasses, I'm not sure I'll recognize them again. I'll have the fun of meeting new geohashers all over again.
I bored them to death with detailed accounts of my day in Heidelberg, and demanded new words and grammar (most of which I have forgotten), and ate yummy Swedish cookies provided by one of the blurry wet shapes in the forest until Koepfel joined us, at which point there was more photography, more conversation and then a shortcut back to the train station in the dark.
That was wet, and consequently cold and soon dark, but fun. Now I have successfully geohashed two German graticules, met three German geohashers, and seen two German castles.
a view of Heidelberg from the castle
Nibs, sent by thepiguy. We missed him.
this is how wet Koepel looked
I got to cuddle with his mini-T-Rex!
Koepfel
Uni ended at 16:30, so I rode to the Durlacher Tor stop, caught a S5 to Durlach and waited for the 17:03 S-Bahn northwards, which brought me to Bad Schönborn-Kronau, the last station my student ticket is valid in. From here by bike. I rode through Bad Schönborn, towards the federal road B3.
About half-way to the hashpoint, it started raining heavily, the rain soon turned to hail. No bridge or bus stop (they sometimes have small shelters for waiting) nearby to protect me from the rain. I was soaked within a few minutes, which would make the rest of the day very uncomfoertable (cold).
With all the trouble with the rain, I forgot I had to turn right on the L594 road and kept going on the B3. When I noticed that, I was nearly past the village. So I carried my bike through some field and entered the village from the west. I was already over 20 minutes late when I entered the forest paths close to the hashpoint. I walked around, eventually I saw Danatar, and also Robyn and Ilpadre, who were waiting at the hashpoint.
My GPS had trouble finding the exact spot in the dense forest, so I trusted the others' measurings. We took another group photo, now with all four geohashers and ate cookies Danatar brought.
We stayed there for about half an hour, then left, since we were getting cold. I parted from the others to ride back to Bad Schönborn, the others kept walking to the Wiesloch-Walldorf station.
The way back was uneventful, except some idiot honking at me for driving on the road, since there was no parallel footpath for some parts of the road. I reached the station just in time for the S-Bahn at 19:34. After changing trains in Bruchsal and Durlach, I was back in Karlsruhe by 20:25.
My photos, especially the ones at the hashpoint, aren't very good, since my phone-camera sucks at photos at bad light. You can still see them here, but I'm hoping the others will upload better photos.
Achievements
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Koepfel earned the Drowned Rat Geohash Achievement
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Others feel free to claim this as well, I feel like I definitely earned it.
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Danatar, Ilpadre, Robyn and Koepfel earned the Meet-up achievement
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