Holiday in Mannheim

My parents have been in Mannheim for a good week, visiting the city and surroundings. We have been to castle Auerbach and did a bike trip along the river Neckar to Bad Wimpfen, a very nice old city on top of a rock overlooking the Neckar valley. A very nice scenery.


The castle Auerbach


Me and my recumbent bike


Bad Wimpfen


Me and my parents on top of a city tower


Good old cobblestone


A friendly tree in Bad Wimpfen

Ameland - a treasure in the Northern Sea

After a long club evening in Utrecht on Friday, Basti, Eli, Sebi, Judy and me went to Ameland. On Saturday we explored the small Frisian island in the Northern Sea by tandem bike, enjoyed sleeping on the beach and trying out the newly won kite (at Thursday's regular table in the pub). Before closing the day in a small pannenkoeken restaurant, we went swimming in the Sea.

At night the big rain started. Wet - but happy - we reached the ferry on Sunday morning.

Some visual impressions:


Ameland - the Frisian island in the Northern Sea


Eli and Basti on a tandem bike


On our way along the beach


Fun with the Dutch bikes




Me, Judy, Eli and Basti at the beach






The cold sea competition :)

Four summer days spent outdoors...

May first is a national holiday in Germany, so I made it a long weekend. The current summer weather with around 25°C during they day is simply too tempting.

Saturday I went to Alsbach to receive my "new used" race bike which I bought from protrainingtours.de. It's a nice black one and I immediately tried it out on a 70 km mountain tour back to Mannheim.

Sunday some collegues and friends participated in a Neckar valley cycling tour from Eberbach to Heidelberg. Not too hard and not too easy, a good mixture of exercise and rest.

Monday I spent time at home, planting some summer flowers on my balcony among other things. It was a funny trip buying flowers with my bike in a garden discount market out of town. :)



In some hours I will join a hiking tour in the Palantine woods with some friends to finalize this short break from work. It won't be the last for May, luckily.

11:59:21 - this time it'll be hard to do it again...

Tomorrow I'll leave to Glücksburg with my mother. I am planning to compete in the Ostseeman longdistance triathlon once again after my premiere last year.

Last year I finished in 11:59:21 hours, but this time it'll be hard to do it again regarding the reduced training intensity in 2006. Compared to last years training kilometers I did 30% swimming, 33% cycling and 55% running. So in my opinion I will really get into trouble on the 180 km bike course. This will be the crucial step to success on Sunday.

Regarding this I set my goal on Sunday to simply finish. A new personal best would be a nice brithday presence in advance, but no must to be satisfied.

Press your thumbs for me, I'll need it!



For last years race report (German) you can download here.

Below you can see me accompanying Petra on her 50 km run at the Deutschlandstaffel, a 15 days, 24 hours a day relay race around Germany. I also ran 3 legs and accompanied some on bike. Photos and report can be found in the logbook (German) at the relevant legs. I was involved from Luebeck until Alt Bukow.

Biking in Spain
So, today I registered my bike for the Spain flights, cause I couldn't find a cheap bike rental in Barcelona. I think about taking my skates with me as well, as the beach boulevard seems to be a perfect spot for skating.

Kai's is also moving out of Ingolstadt next week and he offered me to take most of my stuff on a trailer to Hamburg. So I don't need a rental car and will just leave Ingolstadt with my backpack, bike and cello on a train. Then, after coming back from Spain, I can pick up these things in Hamburg.

Daily Life
Another swimming session with Tim today, followed by a trip to a Vietnamese restaurant. The afternoon I spent in the university visiting some friends and professors as well as researching for jobs.