Münster Trilogy

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Reece

Once again very picturesque though I had to put the volume right down, there is some sort of clicking sound in the background that is quite off putting!

There is, but I think it is intentional. Its seems to be chaotic and random, but more and more falls into line with the rythm of the musical composition. I am not certain, but thats my impression.

I have done my last long range tour yesterday. Sunny day, great weather, and off too Osnabrück I was, 120 km back and forth, 8 hours. Busy but relaxed day in their pedestrian zone, I had Asian noodles in the midst of it, and enjoyed a wonderful day, visiting some old familiar places, I lived there for ten years. I luckily escaped a police control because people warned me that it was ahead, behind a turning bend, and driving was forbidden (construction site). I did not only stop and walked, but made sure I quickly dismounted the camera... That was close! Less than 60 meters, to be precise. When I got there and passed, they already had pulled half a dozen bicycles to the sides. Lucky lucky dog I was.

I will save the video of this and my second-last longer trip of this year . But I do it differently and not with intention to adress an audience with it. Who wants to watch it, can do it, but know what you get:


In the first season I did the "On Tour" videos. They were normally fimed at 1x speed and with sound. In post-processing I accelerated it to 2x, the sound got distorted, I cut pieces out to shorten the films, it was plenty of work, and I had some royalty-free music inserted, but mostly it was the distorted whining of the engine that was to be heard. The image is a bit nervous, and Bit-compresison was not great.

Next season i started with the "Warp Drive" series. It was the new Timewarp mode, it had way better image quality, the smoothness was improved greatly, and speed was accelerated to 5x, which allowed me to skip the plenty of editing and cutting to bring it down to a film of endurable length. Thes filmns thus show the complete tours, back and forth, in movies of 60-80 minutes length. I like the results, the virtual speeds are around 100-120 km/h: a car on a highway. It sdjustg that the closer to any of the two cities you are, the more repetivie it becomes. The variations lie in the centre sections.

What you guys have seen here in this thread, is the same principle, but again at just 2x acceleration.

I have four main corridors of traveling to Osnabrück, the centre parts of the tracks are where it varies dramatically. I want to shoot them all again in this Timewarp 2x mode, and at both directions, which means it is 8 tracks, so to speak, and I have completed 4 of these in recent two weeks, and in interesting autumn weather, from foggy mornings to golden noontimes. I will glue the pieces together and make one trip direciion one film, leaving it free of any further editing, which means it is quite a longer film then. Its a library for myself, so to speak, when i am old and grey and cannot do these trips anymore, I can get a VR helmet and then retravel the trips again, and at modest speed. There will also be no music, so one can pick ones own favourite tunes. I will only provide time stamps for places and tour sections.

Its not for everybody, I know, but especially the tour to Osnabrück and then the vicinity of it, north of the Teutoburger forest, that is so idyllic a landscape and different a mood, I want to conserve that for me (and my parents as well), and if you guys fancy such rides in the driver's cabin, well, I will not stop you then. Personally I occasionally like to watch videos like this on train locomotives, just watchign the track ahead and landscape while I have lunch or dinner. I did these tours before, but as I said: at 5x speed, and in summer's dark green vegetation. I will also prepare a map for overview, so that you know what it is about and how the tracks differ.


Four of eight sectiosn are done. The other four will follow next late spring.

[Skybird]

I have four main routes to use to tour between Münster and Osnabrück. There are more options, but these are the ones that are most pretty for bicycles.
I videographed them all many times now, but I plan to do so a last time with the latest method or technique that proved to be the most pleasant one to the eye: timewarp at 2x. The other, older videos all are 5x. For myself I want to do every route in both directions, and to not cut or edit it much. Its an archive for myself, once I am not capable anymore to do these day-long tours, I can watch these when feelign melancholic then.

Since the distance per lag is 50-70km, I end up with quite long videos this way, short of up to 2 hours. Thats why I think almost nobody will be interested in watching these. But since some guys here seem to have liked the Münster videos or the video for the idea of them, I set up the link, and if you are not interested, simply dont watch it. I know that most people will not, and that is okay.

I did not cut in this stuff, and added no sound file. Its just an archive. But this has one advantage: by choosing your own music background before playing the video, you are free to alter the playing speed without being affected from musical or accoustic distortions. I recommend to try out Youtube speed settings of 0.75, 1.0, 1.25 and 1.5, they all work well. The original speed of the video is 2x the real driving speed. 0.75 gives you 1.5x the real driving speed, so almost like doing the real trip in real time. 1.25x gives you 2.5x real driving speed, and 1.5x gives you 3x the real driving speed.

Going slower or faster than these means to invite stuttering.

What do you see? A shooting "from the cockpit", all tour long, without any cuts or expections. Can be relaxing, though I admit probably not 2 hours in a row. May be fine to watch when sitting on a home trainer. Or while having lunch. Please understand, this is more a sober video-documentation of the driven tracks, not so much sophisticated entertainment film. Every film is only one leg, the way there and the way back home are separated. And it will take time to post the other three films, and the other two legs, four movies will be done next year anyway (if I post them all at all, that is...)

All videos are no public, can only be played via a direct link. All videos are as usual fullHD: 1920x1080, 60 frames.

[Skybird]

Fahrtenbuch 01:

From Münster

via Ladbergen, Tecklenburg, Exterheide to Rubbenruchsee and Katharinenviertel in
Osnabrück

1h 49m

One of my two favourite routes and being the most Western track I use to get to Osnabrück. Being there, I drive through parts of regions where I lived in my beginning years in Osnabrück, even through the street were I lived first for three years, under the roof (the house to the right at 1:48:56 ). The film was done this Octobre (not September as the opening says), I started almost at dawn (camera lightens the picture up), it was hazy and fog was hovering over the meadows and the water of the channel. Later in the day it became warmer, clear, blue sky, sunny, colourful, and a wonderful and real fantastic day. I enjoyed this trip tremendously, and had a fine okay lunch at an okay-price at a cafe at the Rubbenbruchsee (who have a really good, not-so-sweet cheese-cake). One of the best days I had this year, everythign was perfect, including the grey moody start. The Katharinenviertel at the end of the movie is one of the coziest living areas in Osnabrück, and back in my years there it was almost completely occupied by students.

If you want to skip the transit, i recommend to start with the start, and then when you get drowsy jump to "Hasbergen". From there on its old familiar tracks that I use an awesome lot 25 years back.

I add the time stamps to the video comments in a few minutes.

[Reece]

I finally had the chance to finish this rather long video, I can understand why you ride a lot, the scenery is stunning. We have nothing like that over here, if you go to Leighton South Australia using Google maps and place the man on any road you will get the picture!! The government has broken down the railroad system here by about 80% so the roads are full of trucks hauling 2 to 3 trailers pounding up the roads, the council can't keep up with the repairs, very sad!!
Back to your video, I liked when you had to take a lunch break at the cafe, looked yummy!! I wonder if they sold pumpkins?
Thanks for the tour.

[Skybird]

Really...? Wowh, I admire your patience! I had not expected that anyone ever would.

In the first four years when I lived in Osnabrück, I lived close to that lake and cafe, but I never visited the cafe. This year, after over 30 years, was the first time ever I sat there and ordered something. The food was well in taste and fair in pricing.

I love that region very much, i miss it.

In a straighr line its 40 km from here to there, but the whole day's tours back and forth are 130, 140 km.

[Skybird]

For the few who may enjoy these kind of videos:


Fahrtenbuch 03

This is the second of four main tracks I ride most between Münster and Osnabrück. It lies, for the most, severla kilometers east of the track in the first video. In Fahrtenbuch 01, Osnabrück was approached from the West, this time the entrance route leads into the centre form the South.

97 minutes. The real beautiful part tarts with the crossing of the hills at Lengerich, somewhere at around 01:00:00, from there on I'm always in heaven. The area around Hagen and Hüggelschlucht is the most beautiful one. I call that part of the track "the magical 16", since I love it so much and it is around 16km long.

The other two approach routes I will reshoot in the style of these two videos this autumn. I never filmed in autumn before, and found it to be so rewarding to the eye: the gentler light, the colours... Should have done it this way already earlier.

[Reece]

Hi Sky, Very nice and relaxing to watch, I am up to the 45mn mark, just passed 3 women with prams coming head on, looked funny!!
I notice that most of the roads are bitumen and very narrow, no center white lines, are they all one way?
We have nothing like these roads here in Australia and likely not over in the US either.

[Skybird]

Many, most of those narrow roads you mean are a local speciality here, in Münster's slang they are called "Pettken". These are mostly agricultural and operating routes origioanlly for the farmers, sometimes even in private possession by the farms but allowed to be used by the public. Its what the Münster region is famous for, they are smooth (mostly), and almost free of car traffic, or tourism. Do not think of them as public roads for mass traffic - these we have between Münster and Osnabrück, too, but I mostly avoid them. "Pettkenfahren" means to drive a bicycle tour on these kind of small roads. The word comes from Low German and Dutch language. This infrastructure gets specially cared for in the Münster region, is kept in very good shape, and that is one of the reasons why Münster is a very, very famous bicycle region in Germany. For bicycles, it is ideal grounds.

Münster also has its own regional dialect, or better, it had, because it is almost not spoken anymore: Masematte. It is a slang originally of the lowest working class, and consisted of only a few hundred words and had roots both in Jiddish and in medieval dialects typical for the so-called Fahrendes Volk (=didicoy?). Some of its terms found entrance into common modern German: a Schickermann is a drunk, schickern means to drink for getting drunk, Leeze instead of Rad is still a bicycle, plömpsen means to go swimming, and eine Knierfte vertusemantuckeln is the same like in modern German ein Butterbrot essen: eating a buttered bread.

But to 99% that is just folcloristic jargon to please the expectations of tourists. In the wild, I never have heard anyone ever using for example "Leeze" for Fahrrad, although TV series mercilessly keep this clichée alive that Münster people only say "Leeze". It simply is not true. And I know this place since my childhood.

The Teutoburger Wald region northeast of Münster's Pettken, becomes more idyllic, but also much more hilly. I know some tours there that really are hefty to ride, I never see ordinary bicycle tourists there (well, only very rarely, and then they are pushing their bikes and walk ) , only race drivers training who want to sweat and bleed, and mountainbikers for similar purposes, motorbikers, very rarely an e-biker like myself. It can be exhausting, but the sights and landscapes are worth it. We have one famous serpentine track here were in May huge "gangs" of motorbikes use to haunt the road which is winding up and down and very steeply on that track. Frequent police controls there, too. For bicycle its not complety free or risks, its steep, hairpin follows after hairpin, and the car traffic has drivers who stare at the wonderful forest, I once almost flew off the road in an hairpin there, too, got carried out of the corner since I was too fast and brakes almost did not cut it. I brought a long column of cars from both directions to a standstill. To my displeasure the drivers were grinning. Its easy to forget the road because one only has eyes for the sights and the landsacape. And it looks so harmless!

My favourite part of that video is from around 1:00:00 on. I know that track from university times, and love it since then. Its partially a part of the so-called Cherry Road, a bicycle tour track, at Hagen which is home to a genetic arch for cherry seeds, and almost every garden at every house seem to have one or more cherry trees, unfortunately not the pink Japanese kind of blossom, but sober, small, white ones only. I have made a video of that track two years ago, its stabilised and smooth, but it runs at 5x speed. Back then I used to shoot videos a bit different in style.

[Reece]

Well I finally got to finish the tour, was very nice, and I see what you meant about the 1hr 1mn mark, the woods were stunning, then came across cows and horses grazing near the road, no fences that I could see!!
I must assume that the high pitched roofs on most constructions are for snow to slide off.
I notice you seem to change gears on the right hand grip or is it a clutch engagement?
This trip ends in quite a metropolis, I assume Osnabrück, would have taken in real time quite some time (4hrs at a guess) I bet a cafe was in order!!!.
All up you are a lucky man living there, so peaceful and picturesque.

Cheers,
Reece.

[Skybird]

Its an e-bike. On the left handle I switch the engine's gears (4 of them) that decide on the level of motor support, on the right handle is the classical changer for the mechanical gears that you have with any traditonal bicycle as well (8 gears, I use an internal gear hub, not an external derailleur (chain) gear (less dirt causing wear and tear). If you have never driven an ebike, I only recommend: try it. The engine you do not change often, usually just once an hour or so, depenbing on weather, wind, conditions. The changing of gears for stop and go in the city is almost exclusively with the right handle, like on a normal bike. Getting there and back home usually costs around one and a half battery's charge (I always have a second with me on these tours). thats is around 130-145 km. The longest I did with two batteries was around 180km, and then I had 30% of their loads left, because I was far away from home (no round track, but by train to the starting point more than twice as far away than Osnabrück) and did not know the places and route and so drove very economically and energy-preserving, to be prepared for any surprises that still might lay ahead. I usually set the engine so that the pedal'S resistence feels like an ordinary bicycle on a normal day in even terrain. The physical effort thus is mostly the same. At hills and against strong wind, I call for more support, of course, thats what the engine is there for. All in all it feels like an ordinary bicycle ride, just that the bike is twice as heavy, thats why you need the engine even under ideal conditions (if not going downhill).

I love e-biking, I would not miss e-bikes, even more so since I have no car, and of course become older). I would not do these tours with a classical bike anymore, I did in some distant past and know how it feels - no more for me, thanks. My right knee also would not like it, especially at hillclimbs.

These "Fahrtenbuch" ("log book") films are shot in 2x speed, so multiply times by 2, then you have the real duration. Older films of the "Warp Drive" series were shot at 5x speed.

The roofs, well, they have this effect on snow, but I do not know whether they were build with this feature on mind. In many regions of germany houses traditionally were built with such roofs. Flat roofs are a relatively new thing of the modern present.

Osnabrück actually is a bit smaller and has a smaller population, than Münster. I consider to cut some scenes from my many other films and glue them together, where I have made some touring through the old town. It has some beautiful spots, but mostly is a working class town, and you see that it is poorer than Münster. The real star is not the city, but the surrounding landscape and stunning nature. The city itself has the old town, yes - but thats it. And it is not too big either.

Most of the woods that you admired, if not all, are doomed to die. In two or three decades, there will be no more Teutoburger Forest as we know it today. Three years of droughts and then bark beetles have overwhelmed the forests of the Teutoburger Wald. Today the forest is made mostly of spruce, which is non-local (the Teutoburger Forest originally was an oak forest), and this mono-culture now needs to get cut down. Many light places you may have noticed at that 1 hour mark - these are freshly cut places, just three years ago it all was dense, dark thick forest from beginning to end. In the coming years, practically 70-85% of the forests you have seen, will be cut and in the following decades replaced with mixed trees. But the change will need decades before the trees can be home and food-producers for small animals again. My heart cries, because I know how dramatically the look at the horizon is around that area, you do not see that so much in the video. Everywhere are these many empty, brown spots in the forest, the sights have changed dramatically in the past five years since I do these tours. Its a catastrophe in slow motion, and most Germans are still not aware of it. For European red squirrels, who - different to their many American cousins - prefer prefer conifers to broadleaf trees, its an armageddon. I only hope that as many as possible will find their ways into the cities and towns and adapt to them, their protection from predators (but for that: cars and traffic), and much better food opportunities. The situation of red squirrels in germany since two years is dramatically worstening, every squirrel rehab station across all Germany knows that. The only ones who claim to not know it, are the state rangers and bureaucrats, but it is them the media refer to. They better should ask the real experts: the wildlife rehabbers.

[Reece]

The problem is the world is overpopulated, not nice to say but need a WW3, but with nukes that would be the end!!
Thanks again for the video's.

[Skybird]

Two more in coming autumn.

[Reece]

Excellent!

[Skybird]

I have finally done the videos of the return trips from the two Osnabrück trips posted above. Fahrtenbuch 2 is the return trip of outward journey Fahrtenbuch 1, and in two days or so I will also post the Fahrtenbuch 4 which is the return trip from Fahrtenbuch 3 outward journey, I have not yet uploaded it.

The trips back home on autumn afternoons means I have to drive agaiust the low sfun,which causes some costs on brightness quality of the images. I tried to slightly edit it a bit by artifically raising the exposure value in post processing, but that works only so far and not further. I cannot help help it, it is like it is.

No sounds, play your own music.

Enjoy if you are interested, if not, thats very okay, too. The way out there is always nicier than the way back home. 4 will be visually nicier than 2 now, it was some week slater when the colours of autumn were more accentuated, and it was sunnier.


Fahrtenbuch 2 (trip back home to Fahrtenbuch 1)

[Rockstar]

Crickey you almost crash into a pretty blonde and get run over by a red car, all within the first minute of recording. One hour and twenty five minutes too go! Can’t wait