2008-11-24 49 9

Mon 24 Nov 2008 in Würzburg: 49.2317385, 9.1789348 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

The hashpoint is right in front of the diocese church St. Peter in Bad Wimpfen. This church is ranked as one of the most significant examples of early German Gothic architecture, so the hashpoint makes for a refreshing change from all the damn fields those hashpoints usually tend to lie in.

Expedition

ilpadre and Danatar earned the Holy hash achievement by reaching the sacred (49, 9) location, which is in front of a catholic church, on 2008-11-24.

ilpadre and Danatar earned the Snowman Geohash Achievement by building a snowman at the (49, 9) geohash on 2008-11-24.

ilpadre

Planning: I really hope i can make it! This would not only be a new graticule for me, but an expedition in the true spirit of geohashing, taking me to an interesting place I most likely would never have seen otherwise.

Looks like I don't have to work on Monday. I think I'll take the 9:21 train in Heidelberg and arrive at about 11:00 at the hashpoint (given the usual train delays and a ten minute walk).

Very nice, only 47 to go for the migration geohash. Do you want to join me for 48 10? (Back home at 19:48 or 21:03.) - Danatar 13:13 MEZ

If I can use a Baden-Württemberg-Ticket to get there, I'll be coming with you! I didn't plan on buying that ticket tomorrow, but it's only 8 Euro more. Could also be useful for a midnight hash on the next day (it's valid until 3 am of the following day), if the coordinates are tempting... Wait, you plan to got there by bike? Sorry, but I won't take a bike with me. :(

The schedule is ambitious by bike, but impossible without. You would have to go to Wimpfen earlier and meet Danatar and me not before the station of Jagstfeld. There's a poor bus connection: line 539 or line 813. Although the Baden-Württemberg-Ticket is valid on the train to Illertissen, it's not valid on the bus, since it's in Bavaria.

Well, i guess I won't go with you, then. I was fooled by Google Maps again, they always show a shorter distance in the map legend. I initially thought it would only be about 6 km to the hash and back.

Expedition: I arrived first and passed my time by building a snowman.

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  And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour...

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  'sup?

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  ... and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks...

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Danatar

Planning: I will arrive at Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld train station at 11:00 and be at the hashpoint to make sure that ilpadre behaves well in my graticule (i.e. does not use foul language as seen above / wash his feet with holy water / cut occult symbols into the church benches...). If no other obligations show up until Monday, I'll take the 12:12 train to go to the 48 10 hashpoint afterwards (I pay the ticket = I use the ticket).

My 48 10 trip will be: 12:12 Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld -> Stuttgart -> Ulm -> Illertissen 15:13 -> to the hashpoint and back (13km) by bike -> return train at 15:58 or 16:25 -> Ulm -> Heilbronn -> back in Würzburg at 20:30 or 21:22. - Danatar 13:13

Expedition: Early in the morning I found out that in the VRN (Verkehrsverbund Rhein-Neckar, Rhine-Neckar region public transport authority) you don't have to pay extra for bicycles, so I brought mine. I boarded the train at 9:37 and arrived at Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld 8 minutes late. I rode to the bridge over the Neckar and... found a large number of workers doing their job, i.e. blocking the bridge with heavy machines (I forgot to take a picture). On foot, I would have either had to walk for quite a while to get to the hashpoint, or earned my first consolation achievement. Yay for my bike, I jumped back on instead and rode as fast as I could to the next bridge. It was not as far as I thought, I arrived at the church 15 minutes later. Ilpadre was waiting for me, he had already marked the hashpoint and built a snowman, using up half of the snow available. With the remaining snow I built another one, then we took pictures and had a quick glance into the church. After that, I rode back to the train station and arrived there just in time. I was back in Würzburg at half past 1.

Another public transport geohash, I cycled 5.4 + 5.1 = 10.5 km. My first Holy Hash and the first snowman built since 19xx.

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  Bad Wimpfen town sign

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  The ugly one is Danatar's

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  St. Peter

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  Return train. Picture taken directly after arriving on the platform.

Ekorren

Cancelled! Since Danatar wants to turn around immediately after reaching Bad Wimpfen, I'll cancel the whole trip. There will be another chance to get to Buch, maybe without geohashing. Lots of organizing for nothing, and I had finally decided and was already preparing everything :-(

Considering: I just saw that the 48,10 hash is at Buch near Illertissen. Due to something that's crazy even in terms of geohashing, I need to go there some day not too far in future. Would be tempting to make that a multihash and a good start for the minesweeper, although I'd prefer better weather, a later date, and some more daylight for that trip.

HOORAY for Illertissen! I had planned to leave a note on your page anyway (because you didn't allow me to visit 48 8). If you are at the 49 9 hashpoint by the time ilpadre and I are there (~11:30), I already have all the maps and plans ready. You could be back at TÜ by 18:23. - Danatar 13:13

Additional question: Is there a reasonable way to cross the Neckar river by bike to get from Jagstfeld to Wimpfen im Tal? According to the aerial photo on google maps, it could be possible to use the railway bridge but I honestly don't remember whether it's accessible and legal although I went that line countless times... And last time I was there by bike, I came from Untereisesheim and proceeded to Wimpfen am Berg. I even could prove I've been there but I missed the hashpoint by 30m, so no DejaVu...

There is a bridge between the Bad Friedrichshall-Jagstfeld train station and the hashpoint visible on the satellite view. Openstreetmap.org says it is possible for pedestrians, too. I depend on this bridge to get to the hashpoint and back in time. - Danatar 13:13

I know I should have checked OSM! That actually is the railway bridge, which seems to carry a pedestrians walkway additional to the track, most definitely on the base for the planned but never finished second track. To be sure: You plan to take the bike to get from the stations to the hashpoints, don't you? Cause it looks a bit too ambitious for walking.

Yes, I need the bike anyway for 48 10. If the bridge is not there, I can cycle over the car bridge in time.

The bridge was there when I came through Wimpfen last time. I just wasn't sure whether you can use it without a train around you. The aerial photo combined with OSM convinced me you can.

Schedule Squeezing: Ok, let's think it through. I could start with the 9:00 IRE train from Tübingen, arriving at Stuttgart at 9:43. Catching the 9:45 to Jagstfeld (there 10:47) would be virtually impossible unless it goes from the same platform (which it doesn't). I estimate the chance to catch that train to be around 3.84% which proved to be a pretty sure thing last week. If I miss it, the next connection will arrive at Jagstfeld at 11:14 or at Wimpfen at 11:21 (I actually think the latter would be faster to get to the hashpoint, so do not wait for me at Jagstfeld in this case). Then I'd race to the hashpoint and should arrive there around 11:30.

12:12 from Jagstfeld would take us to Illertissen arriving 15:13, i.e. around 15:30 at the hashpoint. When at Buch, I need to leave some books there, buy postcards (which could get difficult at such a place), scout whether there is anything worth visiting, and document my visit for another report, so I'd stay there for some time and not take the first train back. That actually is the reason why I would have preferred to arrive there more than one hour before nightfall. Damn daylight-wasting-time.

Sober twenty-second thought: There are still a number of things which keep me from going. First, fixing my bike's lights proved to be more difficult than expected, and I'll probably need spare parts I currently don't have in stock. The battery light is a bit on the weak side, ok for city traffic, not really good to get back to Illertissen in the dark. Second, I don't know yet whether I can shift all other plans from tomorrow to tuesday. Third, there's the money part (the ticket alone is 22,50 which actually isn't a bargain for me at the moment). Fourth, the weather forecast still isn't too promising, though getting better.

You don't need light at 4 pm. Weather doesn't count. Your other plans are not as important as geohashing. And money... okay, that's a difficult one. Try to let nick_mz pay half the ticket. But you're coming to 49 9? - Danatar 16:21, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

As I need to stay at Buch for a while, I probably won't make it back to Illertissen before nightfall. I aim for the 18:03 train to go to Stuttgart to attend a bookcrossing meetup. And tt seems I just got my bike some additional light. Hooray for workarounds and a stock of parts you'll never know what they were originally made for. Nick_mz hasn't time (I didn't ask him because he already told me that he only could go hashing on weekends anyway).

2008-11-22 48 10 was just created. With the virgin achievement now gone, there are only the normal Public Transport and Multihash achievements to win. And being on the road the whole day is perhaps too much time for that. I will probably wait for a simpler location, nearer to my own graticule, to go to 48 10. I'll be in that area anyway in December. So 49 9 will have to be enough for one day, and I think I'll leave the bike at home (2 * <2km in 1 hour should be possible). - Danatar 21:18, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Under this circumstances (i.e. you turning around after the visit to Bad Wimpfen) I won't go at all. All or nothing. --Ekorren 21:30, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Just checked whether there would be alternative goals, but the 48,8 for tomorrow is most definitely a MNB geohash, and it's actually the last virgin graticule in Baden-Württemberg. I'm quite sure there will be a chance for you to get 48,8 and 48,9 as a multihash some time, maybe even with the virgin graticule or a border hash achievement. So we do consider the Buch hash cancelled then? --Ekorren 22:09, 23 November 2008 (UTC)