The Plan

So, I'm leaving on my tour in about an hour, and I am all set! The plan is to take the train with Bodil to Augsburg, and from there ride a path called the Via Claudia Augusta. It goes straight to Venice, Italy. It's 700km, and I figure that it should take about a week to get there. I'll have to climb 3 large passes in the Austrian Alps, so the views should be beautiful, and I have 2 trusty new disposable cameras to capture the trip. I took the camera into the warranty shop yesterday, and they said there is a bunch of random stuff wrong with it, not just with recognizing the lens.

I'm on an extremely limited budget, so I plan on free-camping just about every night, as I can't afford to stay at even a cheap hotel or inn. It looks like there will be plenty of wooded areas to camp, so I'm not too worried. I'm not exactly sure how I'll get back from Venice, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

bicycle tour next week (Italy?)

After my Finance lecture tomorrow morning, I will have 10 days off from school, and all the equipment I need for a tour. I've been considering a tour in northern Italy, but I speak not a word of italian, and I'm not sure how many camping opportunities there would be. I may just go, and figure it out along the way. Another option would be to go back to Bodensee, but this time with a group of people from school. This has the potential to be very fun, but I was just there two weeks ago, and I want to ride longer distances than this group will likely ride. The weather has been so hot here lately, that I probably won't bring a sleeping bag, but rather just my pad and merino wool liner. The Akto tent that I have is very warm to begin with, so I probably will end up just laying on top of everything.

So, since my expensive 6 month old digital SLR camera is not working, I'm going to either buy a disposable film camera, or a used point and shoot film camera for the trip. I can always have a photo cd made from what I shoot. I will also try to go the local warranty service center tomorrow to try and troubleshoot the problem. It's really frustrating to have NO working camera!

Camera Issues (or problems)

Here's a photo from a ride to Tübingen on Friday. It's a bike path that goes through the countryside, and the weather was perfect. I put on my Carradice Sackville saddlebag, and tied on a Derby Tweed cardigan with toestraps just in case it got cool.

My Canon 400d began giving me error messages randomly yesterday. I got canon error 99, and canon error 01, saying that my lens contacts needed to be cleaned, because the camera could not communicate with the lens. I inspected the contacts, and they appear clean, but just to be sure, I used a lens cloth and cleaned the contacts on both the lens and the camera, as well as using a pencil eraser, like Canon tech support suggests. It didn't work. So now I'm probably going to take the camera to a local Canon service center for warrantee work. I think it's probably something with my Thrifty 50 lens, so I'll try my friend's kit lens from his Rebel, and see if my camera recognizes it.

This has got me thinking, fully manual film cameras wouldn't have this problem, in fact, the only electronic bits they have are light meters. I've been interested in a film rangefinder for a while, and this little "problem" has sort of shaken my confidence in the fully electronic computerized camera, even though I use it strictly in fully manual mode. I like things that are built to last, take abuse, are simple enough to repair, and allow a large degree of user input. The Canon allows user input, but it is also largely dependent on a computer chip and susceptible to weird issues like this one.

I like having the convenience of uploading photos onto my computer right away, but I don't necessarily need the instant gratification of seeing the image immediately after it is taken. I'll probably keep this camera in the long run, but I'd like to add a camera like a used Leica M6, or a Voigtländer Bessa R series rangefinder. I'm already using a prime lense, and a rangefinder focuses more accurately than an SLR anyway, since it uses triangulation instead of simply looking through the lens until everything seems in focus. I guess it's more of an issue when you're shooting in low light with a fast-ish lens.

new stash

what can I say? It's kinda fun, but I don't think it's gonna last very long. Every time I see myself in the mirror I get creeped out. Should a 25 year old guy have a moustache? Maybe if he lived in 1907

the 3 nation tour

I just got back from my tour around Bodensee (Lake of Konstanz), and it was a great trip. I left on Thursday after my finance class, and was underway at around 2pm. Bodil came over and took pictures of my departure, and I was off!
Here's my setup, I have my Ortlieb back roller classic panniers on the rear rack, and Carradice Super C front panniers. My tent is in one of the rear panniers, along with my sleeping bag and pad, clothes, inflatable pillow, and extra water. The front panniers have food, cooking equipment, camera, locks and tools.And I'm off! Musa knickers, ultralight merino wool top, and a sweet wool tweed cycling cap that Emily gave me for Xmas.

I underestimated how long it would take to get to Bodensee on the first day. It was around 120km(75ish miles) from Reutlingen to Überlingen, and I didn't get there until 10:30pm. I have to say that the ride on that first day was beautiful. I got lost a couple of times, but I got to ride through unpaved forest roads, perfectly smooth streets, and there was hardly any traffic the whole way. I felt completely safe even when cars came by me at high speed. The drivers in Germany are so cautious, they always give a wide berth. As I rode into dusk, I was very happy to have my Schmidt generator light. It was extremely bright, especially since there were no streetlights where I was riding. I was really reminded how liberating it is to travel large distances under one's own power and carrying everything with one's self.

Once I got to Überlingen, I rode around for about 45 minutes looking for a campsite, but I couldn't find any. I was exhausted from riding over 8 hours straight, and I found a public beach area with a grassy spot for my tent. There was a gate around this area that wasn't locked, so I let myself in for the night. I didn't want to get caught in the morning, so I set my alarm for 6:30am to make an early escape.
The next day I rode from Überlingen halfway around Bodensee clockwise to Bregenz, which is in Austria. I found a sweet campground with a brand new shower facility, and I was in heaven! The Hilleberg Akto tent was great, and kept my dry through a rain shower early Saturday morning. I'm 6'4", and I have just enough room inside. If I'm not sitting on my sleeping pad, I can sit up straight and just barely touch the ceiling in the middle. The vestibule is big enough to hold all of my panniers, and the ventilation was sufficient that I didn't have any condensation in the morning.
After a long hot shower, I made a feast of tuna with pesto on rice, and also some instant potato soup. Titanium cookware worked great. This little stove works great, but I think for a longer trip where I couldn't find butane canisters, I would get a multi-fuel stove.
The next day I rode through Austria and Switzerland and back to Germany. This is what a lot of the roads were like.

Riding around the lake afforded some beautiful views. That's Switzerland in the far background.
Much of the ride was through vineyards, and meadows with grazing animals.

I'm not sure what the lone donkey was doing amongst all the cows, but when I stopped to take this picture, it came up to greet me.
This is the border from Austria to Switzerland. Switzerland doesn't use Euros as the currency, so I bought a bunch of food before crossing over.




Back in Germany, to the city of Konstanz. It's a gorgeous city with well signed bicycle routes, entire bicycle streets, beautiful shorelines and beaches, and many public parks. I could live here long term if that ever became a possibility.

I had planned to take the ferry back across Bodensee to Meersburg and ride back to Reutlingen from there, but there was a group from school that had chartered a bus to Konstanz, and they happened to be there at the same time as me, so I was able to load my bike and bags into the storage compartment underneath, and enjoy a nice air-conditioned ride back home.

I didn't have any problems with my knees on this trip, which I was very grateful for. I was very careful not to push too hard of a gear with the loaded bike, and I think my saddle height is just about perfect. I want to do more of these 3.5 day tours soon, since I have 3.5 days free every week from school. I know, I have a hard life!

good ol' cape

Here's a picture I took at the Mercedes museum in Stuttgart. It's a beautiful bike, with what looks like a coaster brake, and a front brake that pushes against the top of the tire to stop. Very elegant.


After a couple weeks of beautiful sunny days, it was cloudy this morning and sprinkled on my ride to school. I brought my carradice rain cape just in case, and sure enough, it was pouring when I got out of class. Boy was I happy! I haven't had too many chances to use it, but it works great. Even flying down the big hill to my apartment, it wasn't flapping around, and I stayed totally dry except my head, because I don't really use the tiny hood. All my folders and papers stayed dry inside my ortlieb office bag, and my fenders did their job as well. I knew there was a reason I bought/installed all that stuff!

Last month, about 30 life size dinosaurs appeared in my town. I guess it happens every year, but I didn't expect it, and it was quite strange to walk out of the train station one day and see a HUGE dinosaur in the park there. I'm going to take pictures of more, but here is just a sample.

Castle Lichtenstein ride

On Sunday, I rode my bike to the nearby castle Schloss Lichtenstein. It's a very small castle at the top of the Swabian Alp, but it's very pretty and I wanted to do some climbing. I couldn't figure out how to get up to the castle at first, so I just took an extremely steep dirt hiking path. I could barely steer the Atlantis, because every time I pedaled, the front wheel came off the dirt.

Check out the full view of this picture to see a good view of the castle on top of the mountain.

At the castle, I sat down on a stone wall to enjoy a pretzel and mustard, and I saw this ant hauling a much larger insect back to it's nest.


And last but not least, here's a picture from my visit back to California. John's amazing magnetic eyeglasses.

On Thursday, I'm going on a 3.5 day mini-tour to the Lake of Constance, or Bodensee as it's called in German. It's about 60 miles to get there, and 100 miles around. I'll be taking all of my camping gear this time around, so it should be a lot of fun. Unfortunately I'll be going alone, since none of my friends want to do it in 3.5 days, and want to spread the trip out to a week during our upcoming Pentacost school holiday.

some new photos

I've been busy again with school, and also riding a lot, so haven't had time to post here. I replaced the chain and cassette on the Atlantis, as well as installing the moustache bars. It's a whole new bike! I got to work back at Rivendell for a few days during my trip home, and it was great to see those guys again.

Now that the weather is good again, my friends and I have been having barbecues and bonfires twice a week or so. Here's my new handlebar setup on the Atlantis.

There's also a really great wooded area behind my school. This pond is just part of it, and there's a swan that lives there. I rode out there one day to finish reading "The Devil in the White City," which Emily sent me, and turned out to be a great book. Good ol' basket on the Atlantis holds my shoulder bag perfectly.

Yesterday, I went back to the woods and rode some gravel roads up through the hills, explorer style. I stumbled across this teepee! There weren't any signs around, so I'm not sure what it's for.

The teepee is really well built. S24o spot perhaps? I am loving the new handlebar setup on the bike. The braking position is much better for off-road riding than with drop bars. I am using the 8cm dirt drop stem, and even shoved all the way down, the bars are still at least an inch higher than the saddle. Very comfortable.

Here are some of the spices I use when cooking curry. It's become a staple for me now, I love the heat! Bay leaves, cloves, whole peppers, salt, garam masala, paprika, yellow curry, chili powder, and some others as well in that mix.

I got to go home over Easter break for 12 days! I got to see my homies Bryan and Aubrie, as well as Emily of course. Bryan's steamroller is looking sexy! I haven't seen one with fat tires, albatross bars, sprung saddle, and a gigantic basket on the front before. he should probably consider a brake, but he does pretty well without. I want to put together a similarly set up Quickbeam, but I think I'd use 42mm Schwalbe marathons. I love the fat tires.

Yosemite Valley. I'm sure millions of people have taken this picture before, but hey, it's beautiful!

here is Emily and I on a nice hike. It snowed that morning, so everything was very pretty. If you're wondering why we have some moisture on our clothes, scroll down.

I'm pretty much a big dork, and I couldn't resist using a stick to knock snow off the leaves onto my head. I did this for probably an hour. I'm easily entertained. This is one of the least embarrassing pictures.

Emily on the other hand is much more graceful.