Spring in Madeira - Hike from the Eira do Serrado to Curral das Freiras - New video

Some random tourist in cammo outfit in the mountains.

Yes, it took a while again, but that's not so bad, since the number of viewers of the last video kept within narrow limits ;). Unexpected complications and events in the private sector caused that I could not be as productive as I wanted to for a while. Now everything has stabilized a bit, and we go on. Here is the second part of day 12 of the 2014 Madeira series!

The Plot
After we hiked to the Eira do Serrado in the last part and spent quite some time there, this part is about the descent into the valley of Curral das Freiras. After what people told me about this route, I was surpised how relatively easy this hike was. There was not a single place where I had the feeling that my latent fear of heights would force me to turn back. Don't get me wrong: I would not recommend this route to everybody. It is not really a prime example of a well-maintained trail. You will experience one or the another unpleasant surprise if you think that this trail is your everyday hiking trail. At some places the path is very steep, there are reasonably narrow passages, rolling stones, crumbling edges etc. Madeira as we know it ;). Also one should not be fooled by the impression one has when looking down into the valley from the Eira do Serrado. It is easy to think "Oh, that's not far!". As almost always in Madeira one should be aware of the fact that there is never a straight route from one point to the other on this island. And that's a damn good thing, because you do not want a direct and straight path into the valley. You really do not want that... ;). No the trail goes nicely downwards in zigzags. Still I was positively surprised by how quickly we arrived in Curral das Freiras. I had planned about 2 hours more. Once we arrived in Curral das Freiras, we first did what we didn't in 2011: We visited the picturesque mountain village more in detail. While doing this we came across a very cozy restaurant with a extremely friendly service and the best Espetada that I had on the island so far. And we already had quite a lot. Really: Not one of them was as tasty as this one. After we had strengthened ourselves, we took the bus back to Funchal unusually early and there we just fell into the bed, tired but happy.
 

As always, there's lots of flowers in this video also.

The Soundtrack
Because it was absolutely impossible to showcase the whole new Willma Poppen album in the last video, we continue with the remaining tracks of the album in this video. And also this time all of the remaining tracks could not be showcased due to lack of time. So we have to continue some time soon. Sorry to those who can not stand the Willma Poppen Sound. Yes, I know you're out there ;). As always the obligatory links to where you can buy the album should not miss. Make me rich! You can buy the album on iTunes (CLICK HERE!), Google Play (CLICK HERE!) and all other well-stocked music sites. Here's the soundtrack in detail:

Album: Willma Poppen - Willma im Wunderland

• 00:00 - Madeira
• 05:12 - Karussell
• 10:04 - Liebe
• 14:54 - Blauer Montag
• 19:30 - Nachtwanderer

An interesting "transition moment" in the video. I find it quite funny.

What's next?
Next will be again a bike ride video, namely the fourth part / day of the bike ride to the Schaalsee. And after that comes the first of two parts about day 13 of "Spring in Madeira". On the 13th day we hiked from near Camacha along the Levada dos Tornos for a while and then all the way down to Garajau. I will still not reveal too much about the plot right now, because there will be a little surprise and I would also have nothing to write in the blogs about those videos. The cut will this time not be so well-placed, because there is simply no thematic "breakpoint" in the video material. And so the next Madeira video will abpruptly end in the middle of the Levada dos Tornos.

Well, but now, as always, have fun with the video!

"Im Osten ist's am bosten" - A new part of the Schaalsee bike ride series!

Morning speech in front of the tent near Zarrentin.

First of all: Don't try to make any sense out of the title of the video. It is just a bit of nonsense. Roughly translated it would be "In the east it is best", just with a bit of a nonsensical twist. So don't hurt your brain ;). Ok, I had announced recently, that the Madeira series from 2014 now has priority. But the statistics of my Youtube channel and statements of viewers tell me that, at least currently, the bike ride videos from Germany enjoy much more attention. And because I act audience-oriented, we continue with the third part of the bike ride to the Schaalsee.

The Schaalsee near Zarrentin.

The Plot
After a quite relaxing night I spent near Zarrentin, I hit the road towards the lake. I had to ride a bit away from the lake in the evening to find a camp, because it is not really recommendable to camp in a nature reserve or even a UNESCO biosphere reserve. After a beer on a jetty at the lake I get on my way along the eastern side of the lake. Actually I expected to spend a lot of time at the east side of the lake. I wanted to visit each and every corner of the lake in detail. But this was not possible, due to the aforementioned UNESCO biosphere reserve, to which the whole east side of the lake belongs. So everything there is quite boarded up and at most places you can't even get a bit close to the lake. And so I rode the whole route rather in a straight line and quite far away from the lakes shore. Additionally a quite unpleasant situation regarding to supplies developed. On the whole route I found not a single possibility to get something to drink and/or to eat. Not even a cafe or restaurant could be found. Not to talk about supermarkets. So, after a long ride through admittedly beautiful nature, I reached the west side of the lake quite early in the evening. There I also got a well deserved cold beer at the Schaalseehof. There I had a long and very interesting conversation with the owner. Later I rode a bit away from the Schaalsee, because of aforementioned reasons, to find a nice night camp.

Unusual serious talk near the northern tip of the lake.

 The Soundtrack
As the last part already, this video is also accompanied by songs from the album  "Heroes of the Popp-Culture" by the Willma Poppen project. The soundtrack in detail:

• 00:00 - Heroes of the Popp-Culture
• 05:03 - Joyriding in Popp-Town
• 09:40 - Mrs. Von Poppen's Funny Mushroom Omelette
• 14:50 - Poppin' all over the world
• 19:44 - Poppin' on Heavens Door
• 24:40 - Strandspaziergang

The album is available on all well known music distribution platforms. For example I link here to iTunes (CLICK HERE!) and Google Play (CLICK HERE!).

The east: The final frontier... ;)

What's next?
I will upload the next part of this series after the next one of the 2014 Madeira series. This should happen quite soon, because the Madeira video is quite edited already and doesn't need much work, because few subtitles have to be written. But I have to emphasize here once again, that new videos will generally be uploaded once the most recent video got at least 50 views. I do this also because videos tend to "drown" if new videos are too quickly uploaded. This is connected to the way Youtube recommends videos to subscribers and regular viewers. I don't want to bore you with the details about this ;). In the next part of this series, I'll ride down the remaining west side of the lake to Zarrentin and then, after an extensive stop during which I make up for the omitted detailed visit of the picturesque little town of Zarrentin, I already get on the route back to Hamburg. Somewhere right in the middle of nowhere I setup my camp for the night.

Spring in Madeira - Eira do Serrado

Some random tourist on the Eira do Serrado

It is done! In just two days, I soldered this video together. I owed you that, after the mishap with the last video. I decided to divide the approximately 50 minutes of day 12 in two parts. Yes, I know: Some want their video 'en bloc'. For others, 50 minutes is too long. This time the decision was quite easy, because the video should be available on Youtube as soon as possible. Editing twice the amount of video footage would have taken at least twice as long. And also the cut in the video is quite appropriate, because after about 25 minutes we started our descent to Curral das Freiras.

The Plot
After the heavy party day we were not absolutely fit, and because of that we did not easily get out of bed. Late in the morning we took the bus in the direction of Curral das Freiras. As luck would have it, no bus with a stop on the Eira do Serrado was going at this time. So we left the bus at the stop just before the tunnel before Curral das Freiras and went on foot on the easy ascent to the Eira do Serrado. What is the Eira do Serrado? It is a small plateau south of Curral das Freiras, from where you can enjoy breathtaking views of the little mountain village and the surrounding picturesque countryside. And so this video largely consists of exactly this: Views of fantastic nature. Of course there are also plenty of beautiful flowers again, a cat and during the ascent we also had a little lizzard feeding again with cheese. I'm not talking very much in this video, but you'll see me quite often on Malina's photos. Do not be surprised that I have used so many photos of me in this video. Malina simply shot so many good pictures of me on that day that, in my opinion, it would have been a shame not to show them.

View on Curral das Freiras from the Eira do Serrado

The Soundtrack
Actually, the new Willma Poppen album was supposed to be presented in the lost episode. The music style would have also fit much better. But what happened, happened. So the album will be presented most probably entirely in this and the next episode. There will, as always, be people who do not think that the music fits with the video. To those I recommend to turn off the video sound and listen to classical music ;). If you like the album, you can buy it in all major online stores. Just for example I link here to iTunes (CLICK HERE) and Google Play (CLICK HERE). And now, as always, the soundtrack in detail:

• 00:00 - Willma im Wunderland
• 05:03 - Apokalypso
• 09:57 - RaumReise
• 13:30 - Himmelswiese
• 18:28 - RaumZeit
• 23:25 - Madeira

Without any doubt: A valley! ;)

What's next?
In the next part we accomplish the medium hard descent to Curral das Freiras, where we have a delicious Espetada in the evening and then catch our bus to Funchal quite early. I have to ask the friends of the bike rides for a bit of patience, because "Spring in Madeira" currently has priority. Of course the Schaalsee series will be continued soon. But for now, as always, have fun with the video:

"Spring in Madeira" - Episode cancelled, because of data catastrophe!

Bad news: Because of a combination of a carelessness on my part and technical shit, the long announced episode "Fear & Loathing in Camara de Lobos" will not be uploaded. I don't want to write more here, because I said everything in the video below. Why a video about this? Well, I didn't find it to be "fitting", to just write a blog about it. My handful of viewers deserve better.

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

Length:	23 Km
Alt. Lowest:	16 m
Alt. Highest:	41 m
Max. Ascent:	5,3%
Avg. Ascent:	0,5%

This is the short route of the second day of my bike ride in 2015 from Hamburg to the Schaalsee. The KML data was recorded and then manually corrected in Google Earth.

The route goes from Güster to right after Zarrentin, mostly alongside country roads. About 50% of the route has good bike trails.
Video:
 

Links:

• Download the KML ->

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

KML: Bike Ride - Mölln - Ratzeburg 2013 - Part 2 - Lütjensee - Mölln

Length:	24,2 Km
Alt. Lowest:	17 m
Alt. Highest:	76 m
Max. Ascent:	3,3%
Avg. Ascent:	0,7%

This is the route of the second 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 a rest in Lütjensee, the route goes via small country roads (some of them in bad condition at the time) through fields and forests to the town entrance of Mölln. The route is quite easy to ride, but narrow roads, the lack of cycling tracks, a bit of traffic and road damage makes it sometimes a bit tricky. 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!

"Zarrentin? We'll get there!". On we go with the bike ride to the Schaalsee!

Quite tired in the morning near Güster.

 Because of different activities, for example making good use of the few summer days in Germany, it was recently very quiet on our little video channel. I apologize explicitly for the wait.

The video
This is not a masterpiece of the AlionLive history. The reason for this is, that on the second day of the tour a phenomenon kicked in, that you already know from previous bike ride series: On the second day I'm always getting a bit tired. This was also because of the fact, that I selected a good camp for the night before from the "aesthetic" view, but rather not in terms of sleeping comfort. In addition, on the second day there was a nice headwind, which made it hard to get further quickly. So I made it just to just a bit further than Zarrentin. Nevertheless, also in this video there are some interesting and funny events and views. In particular, due to wild wind and hair, my appearance is often an amusing sight. We visit a goddess and even explore her valley slopes. What is that nonsense again? Well, just watch it yourself. There are also many beautiful and colorful flowers and at the end you can even see a funny calves ballet.

Of cause also this video contains lots of beautiful flowers.

The Soundtrack
Since the series so far already reminds me a lot of the 2012 bike to the Baltic Sea, I found it is a good idea to once again use the first album of the Willma Poppen Project. Yes, the new album will be released soon ;). The following tracks are in this video:

• 00:00 - Holy Arpeggiatorus
• 05:08 - Disco Bear
• 10:18 - Childhood Memories
• 15:16 - Poppin 'All Over The World
• 20:14 - Heroes of the Popp-Culture

Long hair, bike ride and strong winds: An amusing combination ;)

What's next?
In the next part we really get going. Promised! Due to the hyper environmentalism in the Biosphere Reserve Schaalsee, the ride on the eastern side of the lake is unexpectedly short. I managed to ride the entire east side before evening. But I will tell you more about that, as soon as the video is released.

Madeira?
Yes, I know: YOU want the 2014 Madeira series to finally go on and you also want, that we finally get started with the 2015 series. Unfortunately, the Willma Poppen album must be completed prior to the upload of the next Madeira video. Yes, I stick to that plan! Anything else would be unacceptable. Since the delay meanwhile is already getting on my nerves too, I'll put the pedal to the metal a bit more now and give this task some more priority. It is therefore just a matter of some years... Of course this is nonsense! I would say: Soon, very soon.

Nice sundown at my second camp near Zarrentin.

You do not react on comments!
Well, for some unknown reason, my internet hoster trashed the forwarding of the address alionlive-at-alionmind.com, via which I receive notifications about the AlionLive channel. So I had to find out that unusually many comments were made on the channel lately, and I was not notified. And what I do not know, I can't answer. I fixed that now. So: It's not that I do not care about your comments. On the contrary!

Well, now have lots of fun with the video. And as I said: In the next video, we really get going!