Festival in Soest

So finally, this is my post about the Soest road trip. Marina, Franzi and me started on a Saturday morning to go the whole way up to the marvellous little city Soest, near Dortmund. But what for? That's too easy: Just to see and experience its world-famous festival. After a perfect dinner we drifted through the narrow streets. The city was crowded, and everyone was drinking very ugly-looking shots called e.g. "bullseye". A nice atmosphere was hanging in and over the city with its bars, pubs and carnival rides. It was a weekend that was absolutely worth it!

CVJM Erlangen

The new season 2008/2009 has started, the first games are over. To be honest, not satisfying from my point of view!!! Follow the ranking, results, timetalbe and stats here.

Munich & its Beer Festival

It's weeks ago, but I've been to Munich one time, visiting some school and college mates. I arrived Friday night, getting a first impression in some student bars and cruising around by bike on Saturday! Tourist attractions en masse, and Jakob as tourist guide.


Colourful art in MuNicH CiTy!



That was kinda controversial: Surfers on so called "waves" of the Eisbach, somewhere in the city centre, Munich's English Garden. There wasn't only one, there were heaps of 'em, queueing to get their chance on the water ... How strange does it look for foreigners, seeing some guys stepping out of their doorway carrying a surf board. Close to insanity, I reckon! Nah, just kiddin'



And of course, I can't miss the Munich Beer Festival. I've seen so many unbelievable scenes there, you wouldn't see those things somewhere else. People in Dirndl dresses (I wouldn't wear that in my worst dream), beer everywhere -> almost dead bodies in every corner, food stands and thrill rides. Oh my god!!!



Evaluation: Bavaria is and remains a state you can't compare with an other one. It's a sorta unique.


Me in front of the Nymphenburg Palace.

7 hour trip to Bremen

Hi there. I was on tour again. This time: a city-exploring-weekend in Bremen, including a visit of my good old classmate Friedel. She made me not to miss one single detail of Bremen city. So every second we had was used completely. And I got a short impression of the northern nightlife, that was a kinda extraordinary, something I haven't seen before in that manner. I really had to take care of the bottle in my hand, not because of the beer, the bottle itself was the interesting thing about it. It could happen that you loose it certainly, just because of the deposit other people want to have ... :D


The world famous river "Weser" is going through Bremen. Perfect for strolling around, if it's not raining, as it does on usual days! :)


The Böttcherstraße, very special in its appearance, built of those red bakestones, one after another.


Bremen Town Hall

The southern Norway

The Alps were left behind, finally! And from then on, everyone deserved at least a little bit of leisure time to gain ones power back. Let me explain what this means:



We hopped on the night train, leaving Basel at 9:20 pm, and sat down in a convenient seat. The air conditioner was broken, but we didn’t bother. Luckily, it was simply the hottest day of the year. So what, who cares? I do!!! I looked for another seat in an air-conditioned wagon. The good thing: This train was going to Erfurt directly. And 4 hours time must be enough for gathering together all the Norway stuff. I.e. we almost missed the train going to Hamburg. We caught up with another cousin, cruising through Denmark and approaching the ferry on time. From then on, it had been six of us, with 15 x 10 litres of beer and 7 bottles Havana ...



We stranded in Kristiansand late at night and crashed down in a 6 bed dorm in the Radisson SAS Hotel. The rest of the week had been perfect, strolling around a bit and enjoying the Norwegian beauty, fishing the everyday’s dinner in the wide ocean and climbing the world famous Preikestolen that offered one of the most spectacular lookout on earth (at least) with a vertically descent 600 metres down to the Lysefjord. Awesome!!! This is always worth seeing it, as well as the almost unknown Kjerag, the thing I surely will see the next time in Norway. So long ...

Thousands of pedal strokes

A group of four started on 13 August 2009 to fulfil their destiny: Crossing the Alps from Italy back to Germany with nothing more than their bikes, backpacks and themselves: Stephan Rink aka Rinkes, Tobias Prüger aka Tobi, Christoph and Andreas Wagner aka Magic Ändie.



Day 1: Samedan - Dongo
After a perfect night in Lindau (Bodensee) just in sleeping bags we jumped on the train early this morning. Destination: Samedan – end of the train travelling and start of the Alp Crossing 2009. We climbed up Bernina (2330m) and had one of the greatest trails down to Poschiavo (riding down took us almost as long as going up from the other side) and further on to Tirano. Italy welcomed us kindly with some fireworks later on this evening.



Stats: 86,27 km; 629 metres in altitude; 5:19 h

Day 2: Dongo – Lodano
We just had to go from “Lago di Como” to “Lago Maggiore“. Sounds too easy!!! We figured out that the way up to the Passo San Jorio (2014m) must be much better. And it was – a perfect experience how hard life can be.



Stats: 94,89 km; 2046 metres in altitude; 7:01 h

Day 3: Lodano – All'Acqua



Passo del Naret (2438m) was called to be climbed on that day. And this tiny little thing is an Alp-challenge at its best. We started at a height of approx. 300m, passing the stunning Miggia valley. The street was getting smaller and smaller, winding up the mountain up to the very top. The overview was reward enough!!! It took us hours to go down again and to find a cosy place to stay for the night. Negative point: Day three had taken its toll - Cristoph had to give up. Sry man!!!



Stats: 64,63 km; 2414 metres in altitude; 6:55 h

Day 4: All'Acqua – Melchsee-Frutt



What a seriously insane part of the tour – passing three mountains on one day. I have nothing more to say, just read this: Passo della Novena (2478m), Grimselpass (2165m), Melchsee-Frutt (1920m). Ufff!!! Almost dead!



Stats: 98,45 km; 2953 metres in altitude; 7:37 h

Day 5: Day off
Not a single minute on the bikes that day. Relaxing, going fishing and sunbathing was exhausting enough!



Day 6: Melchsee-Frutt – Luzern



Nothing but sun on this day - again! We had taken Switzerlands longest single trail - very nice and always worth taking it. To the right: the mountain; to the left: the depth which you don't wanna explore how deep it really is.



Stats: 86,19 km; 973 metres in altitude; 5:57 h

Day 7: Luzern – Basel
One of the hottest days of the year and an unexpected mountain on our way to basel. But that couldn't stop us anymore. We reached Basel on time. An awesome tour!!! And everyone survived ;-)



Stats: 129,57 km; 820 metres in altitude; 6:49 h

Overall stats: 560 km; 9835 metres in altitude

Crook job completed!

Saturday, 19 September 2009. Perfect weather, racing machine and rider in excellent condition and fully motivated... Project 200+ was completed successfully. :D



Overall results:
Time: 8h 28min 57sec
Distance: 221,10km
Metres in height: 1424m
Average speed: 26,1km/h
Maximum speed: 72,3km/h

Crossing of the Alps 2009

There it is - the profile of the this year's crossing of the Alps. This is one of the hardest we've ever done, I reckon. 7 days sitting on a pushbike, struggling with the mountains and the weather, 9 summits, 591,3km and - believe it or not - 13451Hm. That's absolutely crook!!! Hey mates, honestly, you think we're gonna get this (on time)???

German & Bavarian Sportabzeichen

I had some extraordinary hard weeks, and it's not gonna be easier within the next. Daniel said we are just going there, taking everything easy and relaxed, drinking some beers and running a bit. Paaah, dream on!!! We were forced to do the German AND the Bavarian Sportabzeichen all together on one day. Holy shit!!! That happens if you do some sports on Sundays and the examiner has to much time.

The first discipline: Long jump. Not that difficult for a basketball star. 4,83m - just enough for silver!


Instead of shot put, we were allowed to hurl some balls with a weight of 1,5kg. 39,40m had been enough to reach the gold width.


Next discipline: 100m-sprint. My first test sprint was around 14,7s!!! That's absolutely non-acceptable. But I'm getting faster - the more I run the better I get. 13,3s last Wednesday! Anyway, just enough to be in the bronze region. Keep on tryin'...


1000m: I can't remeber how fast (or slow) I was once, at school. But I'm proud of my 3:18min ...


3000m: Oh my god, I was so dead after that, and couldn't walk for 2 days. :D 12:34min (what a funny time) is perfect, and I don't have to retry ;)

20km cycling was coming up next. My favourite discipline - and I coped with this brilliantly. I was said I will participate in the Tour de France, but nothing happended. 33:10min!!!

And last but not least: Swimming. 100m in 1:57min (I have to go faster, 12 seconds, to climb up to the gold region) and 200m in 4:26min (That was enough to pass).

Overall result: I proudly present a German Sportabzeichen, and a bronze Bavarian one (but that is gonna upgraded to silver, at least, within the next weeks) ;)

Street Race

I proudly present some short videos of our trip - a bit too late, but that doesn't bother anyone ... :D



And another one:

Thru 4 countries

Another highlight of the year was coming up. I had asked hundreds of people, but Rinkes was the only one who was willing to follow me up the hills. Good boy!!!



Day 1: Lindau – Bischofszell
We had to get up early this morning. But that doesn’t bother us – we had plenty of time in the train going down to Lindau. But to be honest, it wasn’t as good as I’ve expected. Too many people biking, walking, running, skating, … around the Bodensee. We had been too slow to reach the day’s final destination and got stuck in Bischofszell. But, however, we’ve been lucky again, finding a fancy hotel for just half the price – special offer for racing machine riders. Or in other words: We must have looked absolutely piteously. Stats: 82,04km; 257Hm



Day 2: Bischofszell – Feldkirch
That day was some kinda weird – in all respects. Let me summarize:
• Getting up at 6:30 a.m.
• Eating a well prepared brekky in a 4 star hotel in Swiss for 2 hours
• Riding the racing machine for almost 8 hours while crossing 3 mountains (145,80 km, 2183Hm)
• Approaching Feldkirch at 9:30 p.m.
• It was like pain in the ass :D



Day 3: Feldkirch – Lingenau
What a day!!! Perfect weather that couldn’t be any better. Our aim today: To cross the Furkajoch (1760 m) in Austria. We ended up lying on the summit, eating baguette and delicious Alp-cheese, drinking Almdudler. The rest of the day was easy, keep on rolling down the hill. Stats: 80,94km; 1511Hm; max ascent 17%



Day 4: Lingenau – Immenstadt
The final day in the Alps, and just one last mountain to climb - the Riedbergpass, 1420m above sea level. After thousands of hard pedal strokes we reached the summit, had a perfect and refreshing last "Almdudler" before speeding down the hill and finally chilling out at the Alpsee, near Immenstadt. Stats: 57,98km; 954Hm; max. ascent 16%



Overall stats after 4 days in 4 countries: 366,76km; 4905Hm

German CVJM Championship

I don't want u 2 miss anything. Listen, we've won the title ... No, not really :( We had an extremely unlucky and disappointing championship and finished as fifth. Of 6. I have nothing more 2 say ...

New Shoes

I've got some new shoes called 'Reebok Slam Grenade'!!! There isn't any better expression 4 it. Now I'm ready 4 the German CVJM Championship coming up next weekend!

Fully packed weekend

Just to have at least one single post in April ... I'm gonna write some facts 'n' figures about what I did last week ... Hang on a sec :) ... Ok here it comes, finally!!! On Friday I had Basketball Training, sure what else??? I got up early on Saturday morning, to prepare the welcome back (from Tansania) n birthday breakfast 4 a great mate. What a surprise! Nice, isn't it??? :D Afterwards I hopped on the train to Munich, to see Chris and the good old Ilmtown connection. We strolled around the city and the Olympic Park - very cool. And last but not least, a perfect Basketball game with Jakob against some Munich Pros. We lost, but it was fun anyway :D