KML: Bike Ride Hamburg - Mölln - Ratzeburg 2013 --- Part 1 - Hamburg - Lütjensee

Length:	20,5 Km
Alt. Lowest:	31 m
Alt. Highest:	80 m
Max. Ascent:	3,0%
Avg. Ascent:	0,7%

This is the route of the first video part of my bike ride in 2013 from Hamburg to Mölln and Ratzeburg. I created this KML manually right after my return from memory (which works excellent ;) ) in Google Earth, because at the time I had no GPS device. Due to the fact that I went no special side routes and rode this route several times during the recent years, errors are almost completely impossible.

After I left Hamburg successfully, the route goes through the nature reserve Höltigbaum, and after Braak on a well-constructed bike path, running parallel to the country road. For about the last half of the route it goes on on a really great long distance cycle track through meadows and forests. The times of the markers in the KML relate to time positions in the video linked below.
Video:

Links:

• Download the KML ->

ATTENTION: BEFORE USING THE KMLs, PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE FOR ALIONLIVE KML'S!

KML: From Moinhos up on the Eagle Rock (Penha d' Aguia)

Length:	3,38 Km
Alt. Lowest:	58 m
Alt. Highest:	558 m
Max. Ascent:	70,7%
Avg. Ascent:	25,9%

This is a hiking trail, which I, after a gone-wrong ascent to the Penha d' Aguia, composed out of several route decriptions and publicly available KMLs from the Internet. The trail goes from Moinhos (easily accessible by car or bus) on the easiest way up to the Penha d' Aguia. I never hiked that route myself, so I take no reponsibility for the correctness of the route, but I can assure you, that I have done my best.

Links:

• Download the KML ->

ATTENTION: BEFORE USING THE KMLs, PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE FOR ALIONLIVE KML'S!

KML Hamburg -> Güster (Bike Ride Hamburg - Schaalsee 2015)

Length of route:   44,3 Km
Altitude lowest:     17 m
Altitude highest:     51 m
Max. ascent:         3,7%
Avg. ascent:          0,3%    

This is the route of the first day (June 7th 2015) of my bike ride from Hamburg to the Schaalsee in 2015. The route is mostly small country roads and contains no major ascents or descents.

Video:

Links:

• detailed description on the Blog ->
• download the KML ->

ATTENTION: BEFORE USING THE KMLs, PLEASE READ THE TERMS OF USE FOR ALIONLIVE KML'S!

Here is the start of a new video series! Bike ride to the Schaalsee.

As mentioned in the last blog post, I went on a little bike ride in June again. And almost one month after the bike ride, we now finally get going!

The plot and stuff
Due to technical complications ... Awww!... I just dawdled, I got on the road late in the afternoon. However, I made it to just before Güster, almost 50 kilometers from Hamburg. I have no idea why I did do this to me on the first day and, as you will see in the next part, it would have been better if I didn't do it. Then this part also would have been maybe not so short. But after all it fills, including nearly 50% of talk, almost the targeted 20 minutes. Still, I would have liked to have filmed more, but this was prevented by me "eating kilometers". Still there are very beautiful landscape views. A highlight here was the impressive Mansion of Wotersen. It was probably the most detailed filmed of all the places I filmed during the whole tour. At the end of this part it was, as the title of the video ("To Güster, and then it gets dark") says, very dark near Güster. And so this part ends with very dark impressions of my night camp, including a not really perfectly set up tent.

The impressive Mainson of Wotersen. I just thought, that this would be the perfect residence for the Chaoslord ;)

The Soundtrack
Due to lack of new sound material, I had to resort to older stuff again. However, the 4 tracks (that could be heard already in some AlionLive videos) from the alionsonny album "Reggae?" fit very good with the visual material. Here is the soundtrack in detail:

• 00:00 - Summertime 2008
• 04:26 - Hamburg
• 09:56 - Travelling Lion
• 14:26 - Springtime 2009

If you like the music, and you do not already have bought the album, I would be very happy if you would support me a bit by buying it. No, I'm still not wealthy ;). Representing all online stores where the album is available, I put links here to the album on iTunes (CLICK!) and Google Play (CLICK!), because from sales there I get a bigger part than anywhere else ;).

A bit older (2010), but still fresh: alionsonny - Reggae?

What's next
So first I can say that this series will most likely have 5 parts. This is due to the fact, that I "magically" filmed about 20 to 30 minutes on each of the 5 days. Perfect! In the next part we ride from Güster on towards Zarrentin, where we arrive quite late. Due to technical problems regarding my body, I did ride less than usually on that day. That's all I want to tell now about the next part, which is already in progress, for "tension reasons".

Somewhere right in the middle of nowhere.

And what about Madeira?
Let's put it this way: It's slowly but surely progressing. The work on the Willma Poppen album is still quite extensive and has priority. Some peculiarities and the double length of the video delay the completion also. The main obstacle is, that I talk a lot in this video, which is causing an enormous amount of my always loved writing of subtitles. Well, man is his own worst enemy by the work he creates for himself and which would actually not be really necessary ;).

At the end of this part, in Güster, it went really dark. Good night!

 

Well, now have fun with the video! I know: It's not a highlight in AlionLive history, however, and I can already tell this, from Part 3 on we really get going!

The video heap grows... News from AlionLive!

No AlionLive without beer! On the bike ride on the 11th of June at the Kurpark in Mölln.

The announced time of silence is over, because there is some news to report, and I also forgot to tell about one or two things during the, somewhat busy, recent days ... Well, who do I want to fool here? These are just excuses, because I am just having a great time on spending those hilarious amounts of Youtube-Money ;).

On the cable car from Funchal to Monte on May 1rst.

Ok, first one or two folks pointed me at the fact, that I forgot to tell, that Malina and I visited Madeira this year already again. Yes, again. And why was nothing to read about this here? Because I did not have time, or because it's embarrassing that now there is again a Madeira series stockpiled, while the 2014 series is not even remotely finished yet. Yes, we were back in Madeira 2 weeks ago, from the 30th of April to the 14th of May. We brought back a lot of nice new video material, although this trip was a little different than the previous ones. We put more emphasis this time on living the good life, than to set up hiking records. Nevertheless, some beautiful and long hikes were done and we tried many new things. I'll post no detailed daily schedule this time, because I want to surprise you ;). When will the new series be available? No clue. To avoid confusion, I'll not upload two Madeira series in parallel. So, let's say, the series will be uploaded once "Frühling auf Madeira" is complete. Because there's a minimum of 9 parts to come ... I bow my head in shame ;).

On the Pico Arieiro on May 7th. The biggest hike of our 2015 trip.

As if that was not enough, I set off for a 5-day bike ride a week ago towards and around the Schaalsee and filmed about 2 1/2 hours of new video material. The guy is crazy? I never denied it ;). This will become a very nice series again and all friends of bike rides in northern Germany can look forward to beautiful early summer impressions and much nonsense in front of the camera. When will this series start? Simple answer: Very soon! Yes, this series can run parallel to the Madeira 2014 series, without a risk of confusing people. This will of cause delay all the other stuff again, but it also gives me some welcome variety of work. So the series "Bike Ride Hamburg - Schaalsee" is coming soon and, by the way, it will be again in German with English subtitles.

At the Priestersee on the bike ride on June 8th.

So, I guess I did not forget anything. Then let's get to... Stooop! What about "Fear & Loathing in Camara de Lobos"? What about the album of the Willma Poppen Project? The album is progressing well (and I mean really) and the video is 2/3 finished. I came up (not enough work) with some nice gimmicks that will make this video even funnier than it is already. So I can't set any specific dates but ... soon :).

Current state of the cover for the new Willma Poppen album.

Ok, that's it now really. Let's get to to work!

AlionLive takes a short break!

 Image: Wikipedia User S Sepp - Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.5 Generic

Don't worry, not for a long time. Soon we will continue. But as you, the friends of AlionLive, are dear to me, I don't want that you are surprised that there will be nothing new for... well, I do not know how long it will take. I have uploaded quite a few videos recently, and thus, with the exception of the very busy viewers, all others should still have a lot to view.

Why the break? The reason for this is nothing bad, but for you rather something positive. For me it means stress. I have put myself into a small self-made but, however necessary, catch-22. As the attentive readers of this blog may know, the next part of the series "Spring in Madeira" is a special one. It is the Party episode "Fear & Loathing in Camara de Lobos". This part is, from the amount of material alone, quite a challenge. With 40-50 minutes length it is a double length part, which will be uploaded in one piece. I simply do not have the heart to cut this epic work (*giggle*) into two 20-minute parts. Due to the party mood I have plenty to cut here in a very sensible fashion. Not everything happening is suited for the public. No, I have not done anything, that would be too embarrassing, but I still don't want this to be published as it is ;). I also talked a lot and therefore a lot of my "favorite work" needs to be done: Writing subtitles *yawn*.

But the main reason for the break is much more serious: The listeners of my music project "Willma Poppen" are already waiting for so long eagerly for the new album... far too long. Since the party part absolutely perfect fits with the "Willma Poppen" sound and I do not want to use the old debut album as the soundtrack again, it makes 100% sense to use this special video for featuring the new album. But: A lot of work needs to be done at the album still. And that's the nice catch-22 that I have maneuvered myself into. The new video can therefore only be uploaded if:

1. the album has been completed (not only the approximately 8 tracks for the video)
2. the album is available on iTunes etc. So it must be uploaded and be given the nod by the distributor and the retailers.
3. the video material is edited (including intro and outro, subtitles *yawn* and all the other stuff)

So, and this is the state of affairs. Let's see how fast I get that finished. The good thing at this is, that I can't, nor I want, to invent more excuses for further delays regarding the release of the "Willma Poppen" album. So let's go! There is much work to do!

Spring in Madeira - From the Caldeirao Verde to Queimadas - The end of day 10

This is the fourth and final part of the mega hike. Now that I have watched the whole thing several times while editing, I am somewhat proud of our performance. To surpass this is going to be somewhat difficult, but we'll see what we do on this year's trip.

The Plot
Well rested after a reasonably long rest at the Caldeirão do Inferno, we went surprisingly rested on our hike to Queimadas. We had long abandoned any hope to somehow still reach a bus. This was not just slightly having an impact on our mood. However, here you will experience a little twist: Where I was the one in the previous part, who was rather worried and Malina had to cheer me up, Malina was now recognizable frustrated by the length of the remaining distance. Thus, it was now up to me to take care of encouragement and to calm things down. We hike across steep stairs, along a spectacular Levadas, and of course through more and darker TUNNELS. We stopped only briefly at the Caldeirão Verde and there was no time to visit it in detail. After a long time we finally arrived in Queimadas. And as already announced, we encountered a nice surprise in terms of our return to Funchal. What exactly? No, I will not tell that here ;).

This is the whole route, retraced in Google Earth.

Soundtrack
Again, the soundtrack consists of songs from Cimelium's album "Mesopotamia" ...with one exception: I couldn't resist to integrate the preliminary version of the track "Queimadas" from the album "Madeira by "Cimelium, which is still in production. Do you still need the link to the album "Mesopotamia"? Okay, better safe than sorry. This time I link again to iTunes. And also the link to the homepage of the album with other sources should not miss. And here is the soundtrack in detail:

• 00:00 Lilith (Mesopotamia)
• 06:06 Dagon (Mesopotamia)
• 16:57 Queimadas (Madeira)
• 22:00 Enki (Mesopotamia)

The height profile of the hike. NOTE: Some important information about this is in the video.

What's next?
After such a long hike we had truly earned a day off. This was spent in Camara de Lobos and here we, to put it crudely, drank alot. In this video there will be a musical premiere of historic proportions ;).

And now have fun with the video!