After heavy rain showers of the last days there was something like blue sky and sunshine once again and thus weather conditions for a bicycle tour given.
After our days in Venice and on Lake Garda, the next stop for several days was the ancient Roman city of Aquileia and its surroundings in the Italian province of Udine as a starting point.
The vast area outside the city of Xanten, which we pass on our bikes after leaving the city gate, testifies the Roman past, especially the Xanten Archaeological Park (APX) and the Birten Amphitheater.
The Danube Cycle Path, which has been heavily frequented for several years, mostly runs on both sides of the Danube, sometimes only on one side, so that the Danube has to be crossed several times during the cycle tour.
Left and right along the dikes of the Elbe river or Buten or Binnen ... as people usually say in Northern Germany if you enjoy a perfect bike ride with BTurtle for a long weekend within the dyke lines (directly at the riverside) or outside of them.
Benjamin had been working in the camping equipment branch for some time, so we had met him as a distribution partner for folded caravans during a large outdoor festival.
Tinkerers and hobbyists are numerous - sometimes you do it off with a tired smile, then again you are amazed about the basic idea and then there are those who really implement their creative ideas into reality and .... use them too.
It has only been a year since we had reported about the mini-caravan or B-Turtle of the company GentleTent from Vienna as part of our trade fair tours during the Caravan Salon Düsseldorf, which at the time was very well presented in the media on a large scale, which had led to huge interest by the visitors.
During last year's Caravan Salon in Dusseldorf and the CMT in Stuttgart countless inquiries were meeting with the air tent manufacturer GentleTent, when asking if renting the mini-caravan or better the B TURTLE will be possible in the future.
In our report about the cycling routes in the Lednice region we had already announced another report on the used recumbent bike of AZUB, whose manager had made this test trip possible for us.
We had heard several times about the GR 2013 long-distance hiking trail, a 365 km long hiking trail that took us through the landscape of Provence to the metropolitan region of the southern French port city of Marseille.
In the mid-1990s, bulldozers were levelling the area for the construction of the Lohmen rehabilitation clinic when a Bronze Age settlement was discovered.
Once we were gripped by the fever of collecting stamps to receive the Harz hiking badge, this was simultaneously linked to research and subsequently visiting other highlights in the Harz.
After a few hiking tours, it was now time to relax a little and even enjoy the pleasure of "daily" life: we wanted to participate in one of the well known rafting tours on Cetina river. We probably do not need to tell anyone of our readers what is going to happen during this so much popularized recreational sport, if, at all, the customer / us usually uses wild water of different levels of difficulty.
We had already made an appointment several times to meet with Ömer for a canoe tour on the Oymapinar reservoir, at the so-called "Green Canyon", but something always came up.
From our location Camper Stop Hotel Baron, we, headed by Florian, went from Tirana a few kilometers into the direction of Elbasan.
A few years ago, we had already searched for a path through the Wadden Sea to visit the Minsener Oog bird sanctuary. At the time we were with some friends from the south of Germany who wanted to get to know the mudflats for the first time and thus the healthy effect of the mud and the fresh sea breeze (click here for the article from that time).
Today we took the bus to the Vieux Port in Marseille for the first time, which turned out to be the best option as the terminus of bus line 82 is just a few meters from our accommodation.
As part of our project "Cultural journey along the Roman road system", the topic of mountain hiking is for us, in addition to attractive sports, outdoor and leisure activities for everyone, which can be carried out without large investments in equipment or local facilities, also an important topic that is meaning of the project could be successfully implemented elsewhere.
Once again, the time had come - Ömer had invited people to hike a section of the Seljuk caravan route across the Taurus Mountains. Despite his many years of experience, which he had gained during the various routes through the Taurus between Manavgat and Akseki, the planned section was a first ascent for him too.