2010-03-04 52 13

Thu 4 Mar 2010 in 52,13: 52.3924136, 13.0166073 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

The hash is located at Werderscher Weg 5, Potsdam and can be reached by train, the nearest station is Potsdam Park Sanssouci

Plans

• Phoenix and relet plan to be there at 20:30 roughly.
• Benpicco pops up there, too

Tracklog

http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=518852

The Tour

relet and Phoenix

Since the hash promised to lead us through some interesting road and alongside the castle of Sancoussi (see also here) we planned to do a trip today. This time we took the sturdy e-Mini Car from car sharing as the tour was not very far and Phoenix was eager to find out how good (or not) this car behaves. Relet organized the car and collected Phoenix from work for the ride. Although it was already dark and very cold the idea of going to the hash on a very expensive Tram with rubber wheels excited them. Apart from the sound (almost nil) and the good acceleration the e-Mini drives nearly as a normal car (at least from the co-pilot's point of view). So to no surprise we managed to drive to Potsdam in good time through the dark woods of Brandenburg.

Due to the time of day only a glimpse of the Sancoussi park could be seen. The hash itself was on a way inside an area of allotment gardens, naturally bereft of people at night. Freezingly we took a flight of photos (phoenix complaining about fingers getting even colder with a metal camera body in his hand) and headed back to the car. The only negative incident was the outage of the car's heating, which felt even more defect on the way back (well, it was off all the time, but in the gardens all the buffered heat just left my clothes). Nevertheless we rode back happily, using some smaller, winding road to get back to Berlin to get a hot tea and check the pictures. PS: Yes, those electric cars really are good to sneak up on unsuspecting pedestrians...

On the way back, relet met another Mini-E. The two drivers exchanged a quick grin, and zoomed on.

Post-meetup failure analysis: Apparently we have been at the hash roughly from 20:05 to 20:15. I had expected the time to be more advanced, but didn't exactly check the watch at any time. And the coldness and darkness provided extra incentives not to stick around. Sorry about that, Benpicco. I hope you enjoyed finding a marker on a totally random hedge though. :D -- relet 13:36, 5 March 2010 (UTC)

Benpicco

The hash is near

already too late

There I went for my very first hash. Having monitored the hashmap for the last few days I found this one a good opportunity to begin with. So after heading to Wannsee with the suburban rail I continued with Regional Express that unfortunately already terminated ad Potsdam Hauptbahnhof, but fear not, as another train was already on it's way to Brandenburg, stopping at Potsdam's main station as well as the park in it's outskirt. After leaving the last train station on my way to the hash I had to orient oneself bearing nothing but a cellphone with a real crappy camera and a hand drawn map to guide me to the hash. Hence you may guess I have felt a certain cold, I would even claim that the temperature experienced in Brandenburg was noticeable lower then in Berlin, however due the lack of any means of measurement, this theory has to remain unproven. The major availability of snow however would be a supporting clue. (As other expeditions already have experienced time dilations in Brandenburg, it would not surprise me though.) The first remarkable thing I noticed after leaving the platform was that man, or better, a picture of on in the shanty nearby the station, staring at pedestrians. After passing below the drawbridge I found myself facing a longish dark alleyway that, according to my map would lead me to the hash. The map was right and so I turned left after leaving it for a broader lane that would bear the hash. I expected to encounter some fellow hasher, but as I reached the hash at 20:25, the Internet had already been there. I first wanted to turn back, but then some incredibly slow car seemed to chase me, so I followed the loam lane to another barely illuminated bridge. I felt a real pity to only posses such a crappy image recording device as the deserted outskirts of Potsdam gloomed mysteriously, lit only by the scattered sodium-vapor lamps. I eventually came across the avenue next to Park Sanssouci that lead my back to the train station where a locomotive soon would head back to Berlin.

Photos

Benpicco

• 

  Picture staring at passerbies next to the train station

• 

  The narrow, dark allaway

• 

  Low-Tech FTW! ;-)

• 

  painted facade near the hash

• 

  'detail' of one of the park gates

• 

  Potsdam Park Sanssouci

• 

  Inside the station

Phoenix and relet

• 

  relet leading the way

• 

  There has been a bit of snowfall earlier today

• 

  Coordinates reached! @52,3924,13,0166 (live picture of the marker)

• 

  Coordinates reached (as per the geohashdroid).

• 

  Looking down a dark alley (near the hash)

• 

  One of the colonies was called "At the imperial train station".

• 

  The other: "Relentless North"

• 

  Stupid grin #1

• 

  ..wasn't considered stupid enough by Phoenix.

• 

  Marker placed.