Awesome music site

I just found this really great archive on NPR's website. Streaming concerts from some of the best bands around right now.

a couple of new pics.

I took a couple pictures of birds in the last week that I thought were pretty cool.

knee problem

I have a sore knee from my bike trip, which has become sort of a re-occuring theme in my long distance cycling career. I adjusted the saddle height during the second day, so that may have something to do with it. I'm just a little frustrated because it seems like hundreds of other people are able to go on trips that are a month or longer, without any significant problems.

Well, at least my bike didn't fall over and slice my leg open with the chainring. It would have sucked to have to get a ride to a hospital and have it stitched up and not get back to camp until 2am.

Last night my friend Kari from Tübingen came over to Reutlingen with some friends, and we all went to the Bier und Wein Akademie. Beatrice from Italy got her Bier Diplom
mmmmm, yummy German Beer!


Today I was in Tübingen for a picnic on the Neckar river with Kari and Sheena, and as always I was looking at the hundreds of bikes that are parked all around the train station. I saw this mixte with a strange front rack. It has a really neat integrated light, but there are no support arms, and the whole thing is just attached to the fork crown at the brake hole. Doesn't look like it would support much weight, and it wouldn't work with sidepull brakes. This particular bike had drum brakes.

A Quickie

I had a great time over the last 3 days. It was nice to get out of the house and see things while the weather was good.

I took the train on Sunday morning to Basel, Switzerland and got there around 2pm. Basel is a beautiful city, and it's right near the border of France, Switzerland and Germany. I had been in Basel in 2004 for the Basel Cycle Courier Championships (which I did not win!) and was impressed with the city then as well. I rode around for the city for a bit, looking at how clean and beautiful everything was.
While in Basel I made a quick stop to the Swiss Firefighters Museum to see if they had any T-shirts to add to my dad's Firehouse T-shirt collection. They didn't.
But they did have this really cool bike-ish fire-engine from a hundred years or more ago.
On my way out of Basel to Breisach, I came across this fence that was made out of recycled bike frames, wheels, and various miscellaneous parts.

The weather was absolutely fantastic on the first day. Here's a picture of the Rhein river. This is the view I had to deal with all day long! There were a lot of people out riding bikes and playing in the river.I stopped at some picnic tables, and saw a clump of fur on top of one of them. Upon closer inspection, I realized that some predator had probably pooped out a mouse or a rat from his last meal. If you click on the picture, you can even count the teeth on the jawbone!
This painting was on the side of a building along the river. The Rhein separates France and Germany.I baited this Swan with some bread, so I could get a picture of it in front of the Atlantis. It sees the loaf in my hand...And moves in for the kill! This one was very tame, and was eating out of people's hands.It was foggy the next day, but the view was still nice.I stayed in Kerl on the second night, which is right across the river from Strasbourg. I was staying in a youth hostel like the previous night, and like before, I had the entire 6 bunk room to myself! It was great. I cooked my self some rice/tuna/pesto and then read the rule that says no cooking allowed in the room. OOPS! Anyway, that evening I rode into Strasbourg to have a look around. I had also visited in 2004, and like it a lot. I stopped at a grocery store there and picked up some delicious belgian beer, chocolate, croissants, and some espresso flavored pudding that tasted exactly like mocha almond fudge ice cream! Here's what I looked at a lot of the time during my 8 or so hours in the saddle per day.
A delicious snack! Cheese on bread with a nice belgian brew while writing in my journal. On the last day from Strasbourg to Karlsruhe, I decided to ride on the french side of the Rhein, and it took me through several small villages. I really enjoyed myself, and got a lot of looks, probably because I was touring in the middle of February! Or maybe because the french were jealous that they couldn't build a bike with quite as much charm as the Atlantis! I also rode through Munchhausen, which was so small that they didn't even have a place to buy postcards. My journey ended in Karlsruhe. I decided against staying on for another day, mainly because my knees were getting sore, and I had a bent middle chainring that could only be used with a couple of rear cogs.

I changed the setup for the Atlantis for this trip. I had originally planned on bringing camping equipment and 4 panniers. I changed my mind at the last second and decided to stay at youth hostels, so then I only really needed 2 panniers. I decided to use my rears on the front down low, and use my basket for my shoulder bag and miscellaneous items. This combination worked out well, and I was happy with the way the bike handled. With the weight down low on the fork, you can stand up and pedal on hills without the rear end getting all wobbly.

Tour tomorrow, and my Moleskine saga

So, I was planning on leaving on my little tour today, but I did some extra planning and decided to leave tomorrow. So, at 7:30am I'm getting on a train to Basel, Switzerland. I'll arrive at approximately 1:30pm, and then I'll ride 67 Kilometers to a small town called Breisach. From there, I'm planning on following the Rhein river 80km to Kehl, which is directly across the river from Strasbourg. From Kerl it's 84.5 km to Karlsruhe. Looking at the topograph for this trip, it's along a river the entire route, so there are absolutely no hills for the entire distance. In fact, it's a steady decline of 150m over the entire distance. I had originally planned to try to camp out every night in order to feel manly and to save money, but after carefully weighing my options, I realized that if I stayed at youth hostels, it wouldn't be that much more expensive per night, plus I would have breakfast included. I will also sleep better (hopefully) which will help me to ride farther per day. I'll also ride farther due to the fact that I'm not carrying an extra 10 pounds of tent, sleeping bag, pad, and wool bag liner. I am going to just be taking one set of panniers instead of the front and rears. So overall, I think it will be worth the slight extra expense. This route will be so easy, I really think I may be able to go twice as far as I have planned, or just enjoy the cities and drink coffee at cafes. I think I'll just see how I'm feeling and play it by ear. I have over a week to work with, so I'm just going to relax. The route goes for another 250km or so, so I definitely have options.

In other news, last week my Moleskine notebook cracked along the spine, and the cover started to fall off. I found out about Moleskine notebooks shortly before coming here to Germany. I was really attracted to them because of their high quality. They are hardbound journals that are hand-made in Italy and have pretty high quality paper inside. They also have a handy pocket on the inside which I use to hold train tickets and my bus pass, as well as stamps and other small things. I have 2 different sizes that I use quite regularly. This one that fell apart was the smaller 9x14cm size. I was pretty upset that it fell apart, because they aren't cheap, and I was only 1/4 of the way through with it. My larger journal is still okay.

I wrote a polite email to Moleskine, and within 3 days, I received an email from the project manager in Italy. She apologized for the bad experience, and mailed me a new journal. I just received it today. Quite impressive customer service!
Today I was at the Bauhaus(like a Home Depot), and came across this tape that looked like just the thing to repair the broken journal. I figured that a new Journal costs 10 euros, and I was only 1/4 of the way through the old one. So as long as the tape works and it is less than 7.50, it will be worth it.
The tape was only 2.50, and it worked perfectly. It is designed for book bindings, and now my old journal looks as good as new. The texture of the tape was even a pretty close match. Now I have enough extra tape to repair the rest of my journals if the same thing happens to them. It's a really satisfying feeling to repair or rebuild something instead of throwing it away.

bike tour?

I was planning on going to Cologne tomorrow for Karnival, but I think it will impossible to get cheap accomodations. So instead I am considering a short tour along the Rhein river starting at the Lake of Constance. The weather is supposed to be great for the next week, so it should be feasible. I have everything ready, so we'll see what happens tomorrow. My friends are all gone, and my parents won't be here to visit for almost 2 weeks, so I have plenty of time.

Spring is here

I had another day of not much to do, so on my way to the bakery to buy a couple of Pretzels, I decided to walk around for a bit. The weather was so nice, I decided to walk a little farther and farther, until I was almost at the top of one of the hills surrounding Reutlingen. It was really peaceful, and I wrote in my journal and took a couple of pictures.

I took this photo on a recent ride, and I like how vivid the colors of the graffiti are. But then when I stripped the saturation with iPhoto, here's what happened:
The red graffiti is gone! I wonder if this would have happened if I was shooting black and white film. I suppose there are probably filters I could get to prevent this from happening while shooting b/w, I just don't know enough about them yet.

Valentines Dinner

Since Bodil and I are both single, and all of our friends have moved away, I decided to cook a fancy dinner for Valentines Day. I had been thinking about doing some kind of a salmon dish for a while, and yesterday I decided to prepare this little number. So, here is the result, it was delicious. I poached the salmon in white wine with vegetables, and made a very creamy dill dijon sauce to go on top, along with steamed veggies. Happy Valentines day to everybody!!

While in Berlin, my friend Kari told me that Clap Your Hands, Say Yeah would be playing. I was pretty excited, and we went to the venue on friday night to try to get tickets. They weren't sold out, so I got to see my first concert in Germany.
Of you look at the full sized image, you can see that he wrote the setlist on his left arm.
I also got to sample some of the yummy food, including this Krautdog.
Another neat bicycle picture that I forgot to upload before.
Kari drew this picture of our little group at the Jewish Museum. I'm really not THAT much taller than the rest of them.

Berlin is such a massive city, I could have spent 2 weeks there and still not feel like I would have seen everything. I may go back on my own or with a couple of friends in the next 2 weeks before my parents arrive to go explore some more. My friend Otto just left this morning for Finnland, so now all that is left from my original crew is Bodil. So sad!!

One of the things I was excited about in Berlin was all of the bicycles to take pictures of.

This was a very popular style of bicycle in Berlin. The albatross style handlebars and the mixte frame with a basket on the back. Even in the cold there were many people out riding. I can only imagine what it is like when the weather is pleasant!
It was very cold this weekend. The temperature was around -2 celcius, but it was windy and felt more like -8.
self portait in the u-bahn station.

back from Berlin

I had an amazing 4 days in Berlin, and I have some cool pictures to post. I just walked in the door, but I'll be putting up some neat stuff in the next couple of days. I had a couple of amazing karaoke experiences, and saw some very interesting museums. More to follow!!

Another Interesting German Bicycle

Here's another neat looking bike from a shop in Dresden. I'm not sure how comfortable it would be with the bars 10cm below the saddle, but it's a neat looking design.

The weather has actually been clear the last couple of days, and I went for a nice little ride today, with Phil Collins pumping in the old earbuds. I normally never listen to music while I ride, but I was just feeling it today. I also rode in the forest behind my school a couple of days ago, and got the Atlantis nice and muddy. I also got sort of lost, and had to ask directions back which was kind of embarrassing. There is a large series of hills behind my school, and I rode over the top of them, only to find a bunch of fire roads leading through even more hills. I'll definitely be doing some exploring in the next few weeks. I should have brought my camera with me, but it was sort of a spontaneous ride.

I went to a local bike shop that sells the Patria touring bike from the last post, and I was suprised to find that the full retail price with the sliding Rohloff dropouts and your choice of 20 colors is only 380 euros. Subtract the 19% value added tax, and that works out to be $400 even. For the price of a Surly tig welded frameset from taiwan, you can buy a lugged frameset made in Germany with your choice of colors, and some custom options. these are made to order, so you have to wait a couple of weeks, but I really feel like there is a lot of value in these frames. If you wanted a derailleur model, it would be even less than the Rohloff version. Once could conceivably build up a complete bike with decent parts for around $1000-$1200. Not bad at all for a tough off-road touring bike. Patria also makes some really neat city bikes designed for fat 60mm tires, like this Potsdam model that I like. Big cushy tires, and a fully enclosed drivetrain! That would be a great city bike, and you can also choose between 26" or 700c wheels for every size.


Das neues deutsches Wort des Tages: gern geschehen! (my pleasure!)