2023-05-21 52 10

Location

This Geohash is located on a path near a forest in Wahrenholz.

Participants

About

Geohashing Day 2023 in Germany

Plans

DLichti and a friend plan to arrive at Wahrenholz by train at 13:58. A friend has to leave again by train at 15:00. It should be possible to reach the location in between.
Baarde and Fippe plan to arrive at 11:30. Fippe will leave at 16:30 at the latest.
JoDaEmPa (wir kommen zu zweit) wollen so um ca.: 12 bis 15 da sein, leider mit Auto. Wollen dann auch noch Geocachen . 52_10 passt uns daher besser !
π π π plans to camp near 2023-05-21 52 9, reach it early in the morning, then come to the meetup. If all goes well he will arrive with the same train as (presumably) Fippe and Baarde, otherwise 12:06 at the hash.
GeorgDerReisende tries to be at the hash from 14:15 to 15:15.

Migration Geohash

Can we manage to represent 5+ graticules and achieve the Migration Geohash? Let's try different criteria:

Geohasher \ Graticule of...	...Birth	...Residence	...Occupation
Fippe	42,-87	52,8	52,8
DLichti	49,8	52,9	52,9
Baarde	48,7	48,7	48,7
π π π	53,10	53,9	53,9
Ms. JoDaEmPa	52,9	52,9
Mr. JoDaEmPa	52,9	52,9
GeorgDerReisende	52,9	51,9
DLichti's friend	49,7

Expedition

Baarde

I left home at 21:00 and walked westwards to the train station. The sun was setting in a beautiful mix of orange and purple. After changing train in Strasbourg and crossing the border, I boarded the Nightjet train from Zürich to Hamburg in Offenburg. I managed to sleep about 3 hours during the travel and arrived well rested in Hannover at 05:30.

I spent a couple of hours visiting Hannover before joining Fippe in the train to Braunschweig. We met π π π and his bicycle at the train station in Wahrenholz and walked/cycled together to the coordinates, which were located on a path between two rows of trees. We recorded proof, then π π π tried to teach us how to play Skat, but JoDaEmPa arrived before he could finish explaining the Reizen (biding/auction). GeorgDerReisende arrived afterwards, then DLichti and his friend, bringing the total of participants to eight.

We exchanged sweets and pastries while sitting on Fippe's chairs and drinking JoDaEmPa's beers and wine. DLichti's friend had a train to catch and left shortly after arriving, then JoDaEmPa continued on the path to visit a nearby geocache. Finally the rest of us walked back to the train station. DLichti showed me Uelzen station (which is nice but also incredibly crowded) then invited me to his home in Hannover. We ate dinner and played Dutch Blitz. Then I went back to the train station and took the Nightjet train to Offenburg.

It was nice seeing DLichti again and meeting so many friendly people. Thank you all for this great expedition.

Fippe

In the early morning, I took the train eastwards. In Hannover, I met Baarde when he joined the RE60. Together, we took the train to Braunschweig and switched to another train there. In Gifhorn, we thought π π π would join us, but didn't see him. When we arrived in Wahrenholz, it turned out that he was in the bike wagon since he brought his bicycle.

The three of us walked/slowly cycled the rest of the distance to the coordinates. (Thank you Baarde for helping to carry the chairs!) Near the coordinates on the path, there was a bridge and a box stand. At about 11:30, we were the first to arrive. After locating the coordinates and recording proof, we traded stories and candy, and later π π π taught Baarde and me how to play Skat.

The next to arrive were Mr. and Ms. JoDaEmPa, who brought even more sweets, and drinks. GeorgDerReisende joined soon afterwards, and last but not least, DLichti and his friend arrived at about 14:30 - we saw their train passing half an hour earlier. Everyone had the chance to meet a real Antarctic meteorologist.

The two of them added two more graticules of birth, so the eight of us managed to represent six graticules in total, earning us the Migration Geohash: Hamburg East, Hannover, Kaiserslautern, Kenosha, Mannheim and Strasbourg.

DLichti's friend left as he had to catch a train soon afterwards, but DLichti stayed. We went through the list of achievements to see if there was anything else we could do achievement-wise: Baarde earned the Pie Geohash for bringing home-baked banana bread, and π π π and Baarde earned the Circus Geohash by juggling.

Everyone who had announced plans had arrived by now and we weren't expecting anyone else. After 15:00, the JoDaEmPas left for some Caching. The rest of us packed our stuff soon afterwards to not leave anything behind, and left at 15:30, walking back to the station.

At the train station, I parted from the group since everyone else was taking the train north to Uelzen, while I was going south to Braunschweig, and then via Hannover back to Osnabrück.

It was very nice to see and to meet all of you you, thank you all for coming! Like we discussed, it would be awesome if we turn this into an annual event - probably on Mouse Over Day the next time.

DLichti

Our trip began at noon, first to Hannover Hbf by bus and tram. There, we took RE30 to Gifhorn, and RB47 on the Mühlenbahn to Wahrenholz. Everything went fine so far, and I took the time to do some OSM mapping at Gifhorn station. Knowing the others should laready have arrived, I tried to spot them from the train. But there were too many trees, so that I couldn't see anyone. We arrived at Wahrenholz at 13:58, just as planned.

A friend had to catch the next train 1h later. So, once the level crossing opened again, we didn't loose much time to reach the location. Arriving there at about 14:25, we exchanged greetings, took a group photo, and discussed the migration achievement. Only 10' later, a friend had to leave again. He managed to reach Wahrenholz station in time, but the train was a bit late.

I stayed with the group, learning about geocaching, and exchanging more cake and pastry. It was nice to meet again with Fippe, Baarde, GeorgDerReisende, whom I already knew. But also to make the acquaintance of π π π and the JoDaEmPa's.

Back at Wahrenholz station, I went with the group north to see the northern part of the Mühlenbahn and Uelzen station. The Mühlenbahn is a small but nice rail line through Lower Saxony's countryside. Uelzen station is supposed to have some artistic decorations. But unfortunately, the underpass is also much too small for the passenger flows, so that it took about 20' just to get from one platform to the other. We made it to our train, but there was no time to explore the station.

I had invited Baarde for supper. We arrived at my place at about 19:00, which left us enough time to spend a nice evening playing some rounds of Dutch Blitz. Some time after 22:00, Baarde left to get back to Hanover and catch his night train home. Hope he arrived well rested.

GeorgDerReisende

I left home in the morning, walked to Ihringshausen, took the trains to Göttingen, to Hannover, to Gifhorn and to Wahrenholz, made a short walk around Wahrenholz and walked to the hash. Some people greeted me on my arrival, other people arrived later. I took proof, after a short dance.

π π π

Getting there

Most things have already been said, so I'll try to keep it short. I started my day at 2023-05-21 52 9 (the original Geohashing Day German Meetup location until it was moved to here on Friday), where I had spent the night. I rose early, cycled to Lindwedel station and took the train to Hannover, where I bought some food and drink. Then, I boarded the RE30 to Gifhorn and subsequently the RB47 to Wahrenholz. At the station, I met Fippe for the second time and Baarde for the first time, and we walked/cycled the 2.5 km to the hash together. It was located perfectly, right on a quiet path halfway between a bridge and a forest inside the "Ise mit Nebenbächen" nature reserve. Amazing luck, you could hardly wish for a better random meetup location.

At the hash

Fippe had brought chairs, we talked about Geohashing and other things and I started to teach them the rules of Skat until the two JoDaEmPas arrived and the language switched to German. It seemed everyone, especially JoDaEmPa, had brought some sweets or biscuits, and we soon had a whole sugary buffet in our midst. Georg arrived not long after, and I finally had the pleasure of meeting the legend himself, the true Geohashing Grand Sorcerer. Georg told stories about his adventures hitchhiking in France and JoDaEmPa educated everyone about their passion for Geohashing's sister game, Geocaching.

Some time later, DLichti with his signature has and his friend arrived and the largest Geohashing meetup in a long while was complete. I told DLichti's friend that I considered his South Pole globalhash expedition the greatest of all time and the pinnacle of Geohashing, but sadly he had to leave before long. JoDaEmPa left too to go caching, and the rest departed shortly after 4 pm, Baarde, Fippe and me having spent 4.5 hours at the hash.

Getting back

Back at the station, it turned out Georg, Baarde, and DLichti would take the same train as me, and I said goodbye to Fippe (though me'd meet again only three weeks later at 2023-06-10 global). I talked a bit with Baarde and DLichti until our train arrived in Uelzen, where I had to change. However, as everyone rushed out of the train and tried to get to the next platform, there was a huge jam in the tunnel connecting the platforms and I could only crawl along with the masses at a snail's pace, my bike constantly bumping into people frantically scrambling in the opposite direction. I've never seen such a congestion at a train station. When I finally arrived at the platform (of course carrying my bike with all my luggage up and down the stairs on a sprained ankle), the train had left.

Since the next one was in an hour, I decided to cycle through Uelzen, which turned out to have a couple nice streets. When I got back to the platform with plenty of time to spare, I encountered masses of cyclists already waiting. The train arrived and everyone tried to secure a spot in the single bike wagon (of course you're not allowed to have your bike anywhere else on the train). People piled into the train even though it seemed like there couldn't possibly be any more bike space, but just as I was second in line, the wagon was declared full and everyone had to wait another hour. Everyone shout a big hooray for the German rail system. I didn't want to risk also missing the next one, so I spent the hour, together with countless other cyclists coming back from weekend trips, in front of the spot where the doors should open. It was again tight, but I just made it into the wagon (many others did not). Due to my two-hour delay, I scrubbed my plan to visit Lüneburg and instead went to Hamburg Hauptbahnhof where I narrowly missed my U-Bahn such that I incurred further 20 minutes delay. I finally arrived home in the late evening.

Conclusion

Thanks to everybody who came, it was great meeting you all. For most, geohashing is usually a lonely affair, but on expeditions like this I am viscerally reminded of the amazing community of like-minded nerds we have. Hash on, everyone!

(Well, so much for keeping it short. I don't think I'll ever master the art of not doing way more than necessary.)