2009-11-14 49 8

Location

In the middle of the Ettlinger Tor shopping centre in Karlsruhe.

Participants

ilpadre
Koepfel
Fluxkompensator
Mo6eB
other participants were: Fluxkompesator's daughter, Ilpadre's girlfriend, two of Mo6eB's friends without a wiki account, bringing up a total of 8 people.

Plans

ilpadre thinks about being there at 16:00.

According to the satellite image, it's in the main hallway, even under a glass roof. I'm going on a pre-expedition right now, mainly to check if I should risk a walk geohash tomottow. Koepfel _talk 15:56, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

Got as close as 10 meters on the parking deck (the only place you'll get a somewhat decent GPS signal). Not a chance inside, one might attempt to count the windows from the exit to the parking deck to the hashpoint, assuming that the satellite images are correct. Inside, a level 3 Stacking achievement might be possible. Koepfel _talk 18:01, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

I'd like to visit the hashpoint, but if I go I'll be there before 16:00. 15:00 to 15:30 for instance. --Fluxkompensator 22:49, 13 November 2009 (UTC)

I'll be at the mall from about 13:00, probably until it closes. I'll look out for you at 15:00, and be at the hashpoint (ground level) around 16:00 in any case. --ilpadre 09:44, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Will also aim for 15:00, maybe a little later. Koepfel _talk 12:34, 14 November 2009 (UTC)

Expedition Reports

Ilpadre

Full report later (still no internet at home). According to Google Earth imagery (and an overlay with plans of the shopping centre), the coordinates were just at the edge of the ground floor central space, allowing us to stack ourselves three levels high.

The coordinates weren't accessible on the roof, as expected
Probably the most crowded hashpoint in 49 8 ever
Standing at the hash, view from above
Standing at the hash, view from below
Level 3 stacking:
Koepfel
Fluxkompensator
me
Meetup time!
And a most excellent meetup it was
Level 3 stacking again
Hash in the background

Koepfel

I started walking from my home at 14:30, 3.2 km later, I arrived at the Ettlinger Tor Shopping Center at about 15:00. The weather was okay, when I left, but got worse on the way, as it started raining. Luckily, the hashpoint was located inside. Ettlinger Tor (Ettlingen Gate) was the name of the former city gate in direction to Ettlingen (hence its name), The gate was built in 1803 and demolished in1872, today, it's the name of the Ettlinger-Tor-Platz, a large, noisy sqaure, which is actually no more than an offramp of an inner.city highway, and the name of a tram stop of said square. In 2005, the ETK (Ettlinger Tor Karlsruhe), the large shopping center was opened.

The hashpoint was located in this shopping center. Just before I left, I saw that a new user named Mo6eB has added himself to the list of participants. The other two users, Ilpadre and Fluxkompensator I already knew, so it was no problem finding them.

As there was no chance of getting a GPS-signal inside the building, we had to find the hashpoint some other way.Eventually, we agreed, that it was on the southern walkway, in front of a coffee shop (basement), in front of a perfume store (ground level) and in front of a clothing shop (first floor).

We wanted to get the (still in proposal) stacking achievement, so Ilpadre walked down to the basement and I went up to the first floor,while Fluxkompensator and his daughter stayed at the ground level. Ilpadre took a photo of us on different floors, then we met back at the ground level. Fluxkompensator had to leave, so we said goodbye, Ilpadre (and his girlfriend) and me decided to meet again at the hashpoint at 16:00.

After doing some shopping for myself, I went to document the hashpoint's location. On my pre-expedition the day before, I discovered that it was actually possible to get a GPS signal on the parking deck. On the Google Maps satellite image, one could see that the hashpoint was 12 windows south-east of the northern exit to the upper parking deck. Standing 12 windows from the exit, on the parking deck, the GPS told me to go about 10 meters in direction of the main hallway, which should be right in front of the stores on the south-western walkway inside the building. Inside, I also went 12 windows from the parking deck exit, ending up at the hashpoint.

At 16:00, I was back at the hashpoint. Waiting for Ilpadre and still expecting the new users, I was about to take out the xkcd-sign I had in my backpack, when somebody asked me, if I was waiting for some people at a random location. I then asked him, if he was from the internet, new users were met, three students, that spontaneously decided to go geohashing, when they discovered that hashpoint was located so convenietly close.

Shortly thereafter Ilpadre arrived, we discussed weither it was possible to do a level 5 stacking, now that we had enough people, including the two parking decks, but since the parking decks were not located above the main hall but next to them, it seemed impossible. Getting on the roof above the walkway was also impossible, so we did another leevl 3 one.

Then, we looked for an opportunity for the Pub Geohash. On the first floor, we found a pizza-stand, about 5 meters from the hashpoint. Even though Pizza sold at malls is usually crap, we were surprised that this one was somewhat edible.

We then said goodbye to Ilpadre and his girlfriend in the mall, to one of Mo6eB's friends in front of the mall, to the other one at the market square and Mo6eB, whose home is in the same direction as mine, and me walked home.

Here's the Tracklog (.gpx, .kmz, in Google Maps) of my walk to the Ettlinger Tor Center.