Montag, 23. Juni 2014

Spring in Madeira - Day 3 - Hiking from Santo da Serra to Faial

From the intro ;)
Currently it is going blow upon blow with the videos :). Just a week ago I uploaded the last video, and here's already the new one. While we are on the subject: From time to time I am asked why I am not, like My Let's Play colleagues, able to upload at least one video a day. This is simply impossible, because the editing of the video takes as long as it does. I have, for example, never seen a Let's Play with hundreds of cuts, transitions, and certainly none with subtitles. Ok, so this should be clarified ;).

The latest video, as the title suggests, is part of the series about our this year's trip to Madeira. In this third part the regular viewers will once again see many familiar places. Somewhat late we took a bus to Santo da Serra, where I was already on day 8 of the 2012 series. Initially we planned to hike the Levada do Furado to Ribeiro Frio. Fortunately we met two nice hikers who told us that this Levada is still closed. How long is that supposed to take? I mean: It is closed since early 2013 already. The information given by the nice hikers saved us hiking half the Levada and then have to hike back. But now we were absolutely clueless about where we should hike to. So we decided to hike north and to see where we end up. So we hiked through valleys and mountains in almost uncomfortably burning sun to Portela. There we rested a while and then made our way towards Faial via Referta. Those who have seen the 2012 series, will remember this route from the video of day 12. However, we missed a turnoff somewhere near Referta, which should lead us to the path of my 2012 hike. Due to extensive breaks and filming, we were already very late and the missed turnoff caused that we actually went to Porto da Cruz. There we found out that at least from there no buses were going anymore. So we went on a forced march to Faial, where we arrived after 8 pm. At this time really no buses are going to Funchal from there anymore. So we decided, after some daring plan games, to burden our small travel fund with the cost of a taxi ride to Funchal. Not nice, but still better than having to spend a night on the north side of the island or to do a nightly hike across the island ;).

The route
The soundtrack also this time consists not only from the works of the house of alionmind, but there are again two guest musicians presented. This time it is DecibelAlex and Anthony Charretier, two nice fellow musicians whom I met on Facebook. At this point I would like to say thanks for providing their wonderful pieces of music. The rest of the soundtrack consists of 3 tracks from the recently released alionsonny album "Continuity". But first I want to introduce the guest musicians properly:

Decibel Alex:

Anthony Charretier:

The soundtrack in detail:
The alionsonny album "Continuity" is available on
 And now: Have fun with the video!

Dienstag, 17. Juni 2014

Bike Ride Lüneburg Heath in 2013 - Part 3 - Through the heart of the heath!

The Totengrund
Yes, currently the videos come quite quickly. I've told you, that I want to finish this short series soon. And that's why it is here already: The third and penultimate part of the bike ride through the Lüneburg Heath in 2013. It begins with a short and plenty tired morning speech at my campsite near Steinbeck/Luhe. After that, I'm on my way via a village with the beautiful name Hörpel, through a beautiful heathland with the equally beautiful name Totengrund, to the Wilseder Berg. So the route goes, as the title says, really through the heart of the Lüneburg Heath. From the Wilseder Berg I get slowly on my way home and ride north during the remaining 3 hours of daylight. From this last part of the day however, there is not much to see because the lighting situation was too bad, and I also was in a hurry to find a way to provide me with urgently needed beverages. The day ends in a beautiful quiet valley near Asendorf. The route this time was, despite of the extensive film breaks, still 40.7 km long and was in the heath area also usually far from easy to ride on a bike. In particular, the routes in the area Totengrund and Wilseder Berg were actually only to manage by pushing the bike.

The Route
The soundtrack consists this time of a very colorful mix. It starts danceable, with two pre-release versions by Willma Poppen. Among them is the latest track, destined for the "Willma im Wunderland" album, "Nachtwanderer". Then it gets a bit more quiet, adequately for the images of nature. And here happens something completely new on AlionLive: From now on I am not only introducing my own music in the videos, but also the works of talented musicians whose music I like. This time I present to you the following pieces of music:

"My Little Sunshine" by Michael Klatte
"Forgotten Tale" by WAHEB

I really recommend you to check out the other works of these artists. You can do this on Michael's Soundcloud page and also on the one of WAHEB. WAHEB also has a little video channel on Youtube, which still needs some subscribers and absolutely deserves them ;). The soundtrack ends with two pre-release versions by Cimelium, which are destined for the "Madeira" album and will be familiar to the regular viewers already.

The soundtrack in detail:
00:00 - Willma Poppen - Nachtwanderer
05:05 - Willma Poppen - RaumZeit
08:24 - Michael Klatte - My Little Sunshine
09:57 - WAHEB - Forgotten Tale
14:34 - Cimelium - Cais do Sardinha
19:28 - Cimelium - Parque do Lido 6:30 am

Well, and that's it already. Next comes a part of the "Spring in Madeira" series. And now, have fun with the video!

Dienstag, 10. Juni 2014

AlionLive - Spring in Madeira - The second part is here!

And on we go with the second part of the current series about our trip to Madeira. We start slow and easy in this part, but we already start with the hiking. The route will however be familiar to those, who have followed the series from 2012. We hike from the Parque Ecologico do Funchal up the plateau north of Funchal and then to Poiso. Afterwards, we still hiked further, but unfortunately no video material of this exists. Why the repetition? In fact I hiked that route one time alone and once again together with Beatrice in 2012. The repetition has two reasons:
  1. 1 We were pretty exhausted still from the early arrival the day before and wanted to start things slowly. Therefore, a not too strenuous route was chosen, which I knew well already.
  2. 2 Malina of cause had viewed the videos of 2012 and of course wanted to see the views of Funchal and especially the plateau herself.
In addition, one and the same place on Madeira looks completely different in different seasons and in fact it was a totally different feeling to walk this route in spring. Initially, it even looked as if we would hike this route this time in bright sunshine. But only until the wind pushed some cloud banks against the mountainside. It did not come to a weather apocalypso like 2012, when I had to leave the plateau quite hastily, but it was quite foggy.
This part of the series is also, with a little over 22 minutes, quite short. After the long winter break, I had first to get myself rolling again. Also, I had already told you beforehand that I film less when I have company than when I'm traveling alone. However, I believe that this video will be quite entertaining. Have fun!