Archiv der Kategorie: Juliane

von | 25. Juni 2011 · 22:30

Transalp Day Zero

Today was a full day.  MOB and I registered for Transalp, we met our teammates, ate and slept.

We entered the registration area well ahead of most riders — at the front the peleton, as it were.

Rusedski registers!

Our high placement was confirmed when the results were posted at end of the day.
But as I had warned MOB, the registration site was full of pencil-thin, gaunt-faced 195-200 cm height 29 year-olds with shaved heads (and legs). 

I managed to sneak a photo of one of the more imposing of this rider type.  However, as he left the site, he hopped on a mountain bike 4 sizes too small and pedaled with his feet jammed inward onto the pedals, pigeon toe style.  MOB and I left the registration site 150-200 meters behind him and quickly caught up, just before our routes separated.  He was not so imposing once we got on the bike!  That will be the last time he will mess around with (or ride anywhere near) the Positivo Espresso B Team!

Positivo Espresso Europe

At the pasta party, we planned race strategy.  As the first day’s stage route was telecast with a projector at the front of the gathering, using Google Earth, we did it the old fashioned way, modeling the climb over the H.-joch with my mountainous second helping of pasta, the parmesan cheese representing the remaining snowpack visible today when the clouds finally cleared.

Visualize your line
on the descent!

We decided to get out of the pasta party early after the mayor finished his lengthy remarks in order to get to bed early for an extra edge … but ended up stopping at an outdoor cafe for some after dinner drinks.

Juliane complained that her transponder/number plate that is required to be affixed to the front of the handlebars, facing forward so as to be visible from the front, defeats the aerodynamic advantage that all top competitive cyclists seek.  We discussed countermeasures and, looking at the TOUR Magazine articles about the race, noticed that in all the photos of the top riders, the rectangular sheet appeared to have rounded edges and to be noticeably smaller than the ones we had been provided.  What chumps we must have been in 2009, riding without first getting out the scissors and cutting this parachute down to size.  As soon as we got back to the hotel, we had a little trimming party.

Transponder/front number, cut down to size

Tomorrow, we will focus on racing, not blogging.  And there is no electricity, let alone public WiFi, on the tennis courts of Transalp Camp in Imst, Austria, if memory serves.  We will report again when we can.

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Eingeordnet unter 2011, David, Juliane, Mob, Rennen, Transalp

von | 16. April 2011 · 15:51

Positivo Espresso Europe (PEE) Training Camp Mallorca

Ups, just noticed that this is the 1.000th post on this blog, so I better write something good.

Juliane, David and me travelled in late March to the island of Mallorca where we hold the traditional PEE spring training camp (since 2011). It is impossible to recount all the things we did there, but basically we slept, drank, ate and rode our bikes. Mainly the last one. We also hat a lot of good food. Within one week we rode 750 km and more than 10.000 elevation meters. We left the island one day before pure exhaustion would have prevented us to travel at all.

I had a lot of prejudices about Mallorca before arriving. In particular I thought that this is a part of Germany, where the elderly and the drunk terrorize the Aborigines. Wrong. This is a wonderful island with mountains, ocean, sun (MOS), perfect roads and friendly people. There were hundreds of cyclists out on the roads, mostly Germans, but also some Austrians, Swiss and Norwegians.

David with 5 litre water bottle.
Rest day (accidentally). On the beach.
Coastline at cape formenta or so.

Most importantly, after Mallorca we felt much more confident about tackling the Transalp in summer.

Picnic somewhere in the mountains,. Please note the red shotgun cartridge.
Juliane in good mood with 1 litre water bottle.
Last ride for my Cervelo. Frame is broken. The perfect spot for bicycle suicide.
Eduourd Manet: Le dejeneuer sur l’herbe. Or perhaps BowWowWow.
David, too fast for the rest of us.

Juliane, climbing.

Close to the Col des Reines, 682m. The road down to the sea on teh otehr side is spectacular.

Deia. Before lunch.

Mountain roads on Mallorca.

Wow.

J

Riding down to the sea. David.

Same. Juliane.
Mob racing with David, a close second.

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Eingeordnet unter 2011, Cervelo Soloist, David, Juliane, Mob, Touren

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von | 1. Dezember 2010 · 18:28

Transalp 2011

Done. David and me succesfully registered as team Positivo Espresso 1 for the Transalp 2011 race. A confirmation e-mail from the organizers came in just seven minutes ago. We are still awaiting confirmation for our (second) team Positivo Espresso Europe, consisting of Juliane and David J.

Details about the race can be find here. In brief: 7 stages. 936 km. 20.000 meter elevation difference. More difficult than the Yamanote challenge. Jerome and Juliane in 200?. David and Jerome, Juliane and David in 2009. David and mob, Juliane and David in 2011.

De facto the European home race of the club.

Ups, I should start to train but it is already dark and minus eight degrees outside.

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Eingeordnet unter 2011, David, Juliane, Mob, Transalp

von | 22. Juni 2010 · 17:53

PEEK Training Camp

For those of you who don’t know: London is a city very much West of Tokyo and a little bit North of Tokyo. It is not as hilly as the mountains west of Tokyo, but very much more than everything in the North, South, East and West of Bremen. That’s why it was chosen to become the first training camp of PEEK (Positivo Espresso European Klub) this year.I spend the day before the trip to London in Darmstadt („Bowel City„) in the district Wixhausen („Wankers Town„) attending a scientific symposium of the Logistics community in Ge many. I am not sure weather all readers of this cycling blog are interested in this specific topic, but in good faith I would like to summarize the main conclusions of the congress, which I have gathered after hours and hours of intensive attendance in dark rooms:

1. There are many problems in logistics today.
2. These problems are very complex.
3. We are currently trying to solve these problems.
4. But as I said, they are very complex.

Well, I guess one can say this also about life. Or marriage. Or riding up a steep hill.

Naturally I was very, very tired and exhausted when I boarded the plane to London. Or to Munich. Because one of the fascinating logistic solutions that airline companies offer to their customers today is, that it is much cheaper to fly from Bremen to the South to Munich and then back the same way and further North to London. But as I said, it is very complex.

I was so excited. The country were people speak proper English! Not that I have never been to London before. No, I had quite substantial London experience, being there with my parents for one full day in the summer of 1976. My parents, who stayed one year close to „Swinging London“ in the Sixties (to be more precise, they lived in Bradford) know exactly what was „in“ and showed me all the great sights. So when I came back now, I was able to tell David (born in London) and Juliane (moved to London in 2008) who are now living in the PEEK HQ building in Lambeth, where the action is: Carnaby Street!

David and Juliane don’t live in Carnaby Street but on the other side of the river Thames, opposite a very big building called Parliament. And also close to Waterloo Station, which is the place where Napoleon’s train never arrived at.The PEEK HQ building is really nice and I especially liked the view between the building and the adjacent railway bridge, clad in red bricks. Juliane and David were perfect hosts and even provided me with a very nice bike: A titanium frame Airbourne (Manhattan Project) with a long history. The frame is trippled butted in most of the places and triple triple butted at the bottom bracket. And, in case you haven’t figured in out yet, it once belonged to the bicycle collection of David. Not even the soccer cup game between England and Algeria could prevent us now from riding out!So we set off to the countryside, where we made a nice pre-tour ride for the main ride the following day which consisted of a serious of increasing challenging climbs in short sequence. For some reasons Juliane and David still have the prejudice, that I am a strong rider, although all my hill climbing abilities have been drained out due to environment in Bremen since seven weeks. Box hill, for example is a very nice climb which might be just a little bit more challenging than Jerome’s hill, but nevertheless was quite exhausting. The highest hill in the area is Leith hill, which we conquered as well, before we made a break at a local teas shop, ate some flap jacks and drank some black tea. Quite civilized riding, I would reckon.

There is also a nice and cool place called Coldlake where we took a break at the burial ground. Overall, one has to keep one’s eyes open. As riding in the English countryside is riding along hedges on both sides of the road and there is hardly anything to see at all. So you have to wait for the gap in the hedges and then look fast.First I was surprised, when I saw no new houses in the countryside. I assumed then, that like the „Chiho“ in Japan, the rural areas of the UK are slowly depopulated and that the folks are moving into the city or to retirement homes. But then Juliane and David explained, that most of the houses are actually brand new. As the local parish council controls the building permits, new buildings are only approved if they match in style and color the existing structures. So, after erecting new houses, special finishing works are being required, applying large quantities of mold, slime, grime and unstable chemical compositions to walls and roofs so that the structure matches that of the adjacent ones.

It was a nice ride and at the end we were quite exhausted. During four hours I did probably much more elevation meters as compared to riding seven weeks in Bremen. So we took the train back to town, had a good dinner at the PEEK HQ and shared some nostalgic conversation about our mutual time in Japan. Our thoughts where with Froggy, David, Shuhei, Shindo, Kurata, Malcolm, Graham, Peter and all the other riders we have met and had fun with … Paul Jason.The next morning we made our way early to Waterloo station as we had a major tour in mind. Because the royal meeting was conducted at Ascot the same day, there were many men and women with funny heads at the station. Non-suspecting tourists arriving in London that day might get a complete wrong idea about how people in the UK dress today.

We rode out to Guildford, famous not only because of the Stranglers, but also it is the claimed home of Ford Prefect from the first part of the trilogy „Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy“. Again, a lot of climbing was involved riding along hedges and catching a glimpse from time to time of the original landscape. Juliane pointed out the trees, scrubs, bushes, flowers, pest plants, insects, amoebae, virus etc. of the local environment while David try to lead us on beautiful country roads to the restaurant where we were suppose to have lunch with his parents. Well this was our main tour, but after having spend all energy already on the day before, we took it quite easy.

After passing Petersfield and coming to the town of BURITON (which I assume is the Katakana version of BRITAIN), we descended a small hill. David was in front and I was perhaps 20 meters behind him. There was a speed hump in the road which looked rather silly and I rode over it with perhaps 40 km/hr. The next things I heard was the sound of an exploding tube and the next thing I saw when dismounting from the bike was a flat rear wheel with a broken spoke, a pinched tire and an untrue wheel. Bad luck. At least we were able to repair it somehow so that I could continue to ride, but we decided to cancel the lunch, ride back to Petersfield, have a cup of tea and ride back by train to London. This was the first bicycle I destroyed that day.

Back in London, Juliane and David were so kind to show me around the city. We took are town bikes (less expensive, a Trek MTB for me) slang heavy bike logs around our waists and made way for the Parliament bridge. Buckingham Place. On the way to the place, the streets were flagged with French and British flags, it seems that the chief froggy and his wife were in town. Many war memorials are dispersed around the city centre. Many of them are connected to Germany. „To the Royal Engineers who have given their life during the great war 1914 – 1919“. Were where they fighting in 1919, when we Germans have dutifully surrendered already in November 1918? Didn’t they noticed that?

And then finally: Carnaby Street, the hot bed of Swinging London. So where is the Mary Quant shop? Where can I buy Twiggies trousers? Get a new haircut? Drink a beer at the pub that was named in honor of Jerome? Ah, here it is.We had some more beers at another place, then headed out to East London to have a typical British Dinner (Tiki Masala) at the Lahore Khebab Place. There we saw also some more WC games and finally we headed back to PEEK HQ.

Now the handle of the Trek MTB got loose from the stem and it was not because I was drank from COBRA beer, that I only unsteadily found the way back home. Second bike destroyed that day.

It has been a successful weekend and all of us have trained hard for the forthcoming Transalp race (2011 that is). The next day I took my plane back to Bremen (this time through Frankfurt) and did the one thing I did rarely in London: sleeping.Thanks David. Thanks Juliane.

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Eingeordnet unter 2010, David, Juliane

von | 27. Juni 2009 · 06:30

BREAKING NEWS FROM TRANSALP

DAY -1



In Transit
We arrived on time at CDG in Paris 415AM and are using the lounge — showers, a place to charge electronic devices, and last but not least breakfast, including a wide array of Lactalis diary products such as this delicious (delicieux?) serving of President brand Tomme Noire fromage.

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, Jerome, Juliane, Transalp

von | 3. Februar 2009 · 10:58

Tsukuba Eight Hours Endurance Race Spring Edition

I received an invitation today for the Spring Endurance Race in Tsukuba. The race is held on the Tsukuba car racing track, basically a flat 2.045 km round course, on May 3rd (public holiday) between 10.00 and 18.00 hr. I have attended the race three times; actually it has been the first race ever I attended in 2003 with Veloz, then in 2006 with David, david and Cycling Jane and last year with Alain, Jerome, Olivier, Augustine and Leonard (the two kids of Jerome) as the legendary six rider strong three rider team. This is a nice „training race“, good atmosphere, cheerleaders, camping-like atmosphere but still a lot of excitement. Normally the weather is good and it is possible to go there in the morning and return home the same day. So little effort is required. It would be really nice if we can get a strong Positivo Espresso Team together for this event. Or, if there are not too much riders interested, we can also try to get a combined team with Tokyo Cycling Club who also have some strong riders (I heard).

Teams of 3 to 6 riders are possible, however I personally find that a four rider team gives the best balance of riding and resting. It would be optimal if we could form a mixed team, this would give us some chances for a podium place although it is not easy by any means.

The fee for this race is between 10.000 and 15.000 Yen, depending on the number of riders.

I am writing this post already today because the application starts on February 14th and is limited to 300 teams. It will be sold out very fast and if possible we should have a tentative team ready before this date.

Please let me know if you are interested. we may also want to form two teams, depending on the performance levels of the riders.

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Eingeordnet unter 2009, David, James, Jerome, Juliane, Mob

von | 27. Dezember 2008 · 07:45

Sayonara Juliane

Being in Japan for more than years, Juliane left on December 20th for London. After david, – his departure somewhat related to hers – and Marek, this is the third hard core Positivo Espresso member that left Japan in 2008 and I feel very much obliged to write something about it – from my own perspective.
In the last two years we have something like a Positivo Espresso Team and Juliane was one of our core members. Needs more to be written?

Going back very much in time, Juliane came to Japan with the same scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service as I did. She stayed on and could somehow convince a German curtain wall maker to establish her as a representative in Japan. Which she than did despite all obstacles for a very long time, considering the average shelf-life of (in particular female) expats in Japan.
Juliane did a lot of interesting things here and I am glad that I could be part of some of them. She tried to sell my crappy sandwich panels from SKW when I was still working for Schindler Elevator.

She lived in Gotanda and an old wooden house with a huge garden by Japanese standards and invited us every year for cherry blossom viewing. One night we were all sitting in the garden, a strong wind blew through the trees and the cherry blossoms fell down in huge clouds, just like snow flakes. It was most beautiful and impressive.I in turn took her and her boyfriend at this time, Nils, to my favourite hair dresser in Jiyugaoka which was almost the end of our friendship. We shared some of our secrets nevertheless.
I guess the first time we were riding on a bike together was in 2001, when Johanna, Tom (my boss at Schindler), Juliane and me embarked on the first Yamanote Challenge, a round trip along the 42 km long Yamanote line, stopping at each of the 28 stations and taking photos of all three of us. It took us eight hours. Which was mainly due to the time the photo taking took, we had to ask a harmless bystander and explain him what we want. I did not even have a digital camera at this time.

We did some races then together when we both joined Tamagawa cyclists (then : Veloz) and we were together at the first race I ever attended, Tsukuba seven hours endurance in 2003. And we raced also at Shuzenji and then later at Saiko the same year.

We had times when we were closer and we had times when we were not. We met often and we didn’t. It was not always easy with here, but out of the hundreds of friends she made in Japan, I was one of the few that accompanied her from the beginning to the end of her stay here. I am not the one that took her to new shores, although.
By chance I watched „Balzac and the little Chinese Seamstress“ on video which includes a scene when the little Chinese Seamstress is leaving her small mountain village and parting from her lover and her friend to search for new luck in the big city. There is no relation whatsoever between this story and the story I am trying to tell about Juliane. But the sadness is about the same.

Goodbye. Sayonara.

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, Juliane

von | 30. November 2008 · 22:54

More Chichibu!

Twenty years from now, when most people are asked what they remember about the Fall of 2008, they will answer with some story about the greatest financial crisis since 1929, the election of Barack Obama, or maybe a international political crisis set in motion by Pakistani militants‘ attack in Mumbai on luxury hotels, train stations, restaurants and a synagogue. But for Positivo Espresso members and fans, the dominant events will be, first, David J. and Juliane Prechtl’s relocation to London, and (a distant) second, the discovery and expansion of our riding territory into Chichibu, in addition to Yamanashi, Kanagawa and the far western reaches of Tokyo-to.

Tom led the way, Michael followed, and now Jerome, Juliane and I are catching up. Even David J. managed one sortie before leaving the country to help save the European financial system. But we owe a special debt of gratitude to Ludwig, who actually discovered Chichibu in 2108(?) and mapped many of its passes, before leading the only road building crews ever seen in Chichibu that did not place unnecessary barriers in places that were likely to cause a cyclist to crash, or at least flat his/her tire.

Sunday November 30 it was Jerome’s, Juliane’s and my turn.

Jerome and I rode up the river with James Knott and his group of merry men, who were headed toward Takao/Sagami-ko on their fast pace/early curfew trip. James was on his spectacular 2008 Cervelo SLC-SC, and stayed with us as Jerome took off. … something like 5 km later we noticed that the three of us had ridden away and the rest of James‘ group was nowhere to be seen (flat tires caused the delay). Jerome and I said our goodbyes and pushed ahead to meet Juliane at Aurore Bakery in Oume just after 9AM.

The road was quiet, the air crisp, and the fall colors were spectacular after we left Oume.

On the descent after Shomaru Toge, despite explicit warning signs …

Someone wanted to go faster than everyone else:

Fortunately, a cyclist had left a spare road bike nearby, so the driver could become a rider, and join us for the rest of the day.

Jerome and I celebrated our victory about 2/3 of the way up the hill to Karibazaka-toge, after stopping to change a flat tube and enjoy the view.


We did get to the top without other problems, and the vista to the NE was spectacular.

After riding along the ridge and climbing some to Shiraishi Toge vicinity, we turned left past the Ken-min no Mori parking lot (Saitama’s version of Tokyo’s To-min no Mori) and then took the Maruyama Rindo („forest road“) all the way down the hill into Yokoze/ Chichibu-Shi, a route that allowed us to get to the Seibu Chichibu train station with only 150 meters or so riding along the crowded stretch of Rte. 299, then had an almost civilized lunch and hopped the 2:25PM express train to Ikebukuro.

*The title to this entry, „More Chichibu!“ is to be said loudly, in the tone of Christopher Walken addressing Will Ferrell in the 2000 SNL sketch „More Cowbell“.

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, David, Jerome, Juliane

von | 24. November 2008 · 07:35

LEAN AND MEAN

I promised my family to be back from cycling by 1 PM. And I was back at 1:15 PM, which is unprecedented and breaking every existing Positivo Espresso tradition. So what went terribly wrong – how could this possibly happen?Well it started with all the ingredients of a typical Positivo Espresso tour at David’s home at 7 AM. I needed to devour my 7/11 breakfast and delayed our start. Juliane didn’t show up at all and couldn’t be reached by phone. Jerome was assuming that she might be on her way to Ome, so we even didn’t had a clear plan where to go. I had previously discussed with David, that we will ride to Wada and then return through route 76 to Doshi and back into town through one of the amazing maze roads David was able to identify in the mess of Western Tokyo.

We started to ride along the Tamagawa and immediately tried to make up for the lost time. Three quarters of the members of our superior Saiko race time trial team were present and we rode a fast pace line which went exceptionally well. At Seikobashi we made a last phone call to Juliane, finally giving up on her and then deciding to do the original plan in reverse: First riding out to Tsukui, then travelling along the Doshimichi road 413 until the crossing with road 76, which then leads back to the notorious route 20.

The roads selected by David were very good, it was still early in the morning and even the traffic on the big roads was light. He led a through all the shortcuts with sherpa-like qualities. There were some fast downhills and a lot of climbs.

The crazy Tsukui climb. Almost as high as the offical approval rating of Kim Il Jong in North Korea [close to 120%]


I have done some of this roads before with David, but always in the opposite direction. Now going there it felt less than going downhill, but more like „reverse-climbing“.

We continued to pull each other through at a fast pace; David also has improved compared to the last Chichibu trip. And finally we took a break a a Daily Yamazaki Conbini where not only us, but also other customers of the shop could witness a highlight of the day:

It was cold outside and we were sweaty, naturally we rested inside the Combini at the adult magazine corner and ate our replenishments. All three of us were wearing high quality, overpriced Assos jackets in the colors of the German flag, but what was hidden beyond that jackets was quite different.

When Jerome peeled off his jacket, his space-technology grade high-tec underwear was revealed. As he explained, this garment was originally developed for the Usbekistan army as a full body condom for contraception of male army members. One cannot see this on the photo, but it fully encloses every possible boundary of the human body, starting from the toes on the neck. It also provides labour to the rural knitting community of Usbekistan, having much free time during long winter hours.Unfortunately after extensive testing by the army, for unknown reasons, it failed to shown the expected contraception functionalities, upon which it was sold to France as cycling gear. Jerome swears that it keeps him warm and the amount of sweat emitted by his body should proves him right.

We then continued along road 413 and finally to road 76. Beautiful ups and downs in the autumn scenery. When we reached route 20, Jerome decided that he would try to ride over Wada as originally planned (again, clearly against the Positivo Espresso tradition as we never ride as planned), whereas David and me decided to go home along road 20 and make it back home by lunch.

With a nice tail wind in the back we went fast to Sagamiko station where a big truck lorry, coming up the hill, wanted to turn left and almost crashed with a minicar. I stayed on the scene to watch the whole tragedy unfold, while David moved on to climb Otarumi. This was the second time in three days that I encountered a crazy truck driver.

On Saturday when David, Ludwig and me rode into Chichibu, we made a fast downhill ride at 40 km/hr + on road 299 where we were overtaken by a very long speeding truck. He left ample clearance with us, but by doing so he occupied more than half of the opposite lane and as the road was winding along the valley, there was no way to tell if cars would come up or not. A motorcycle coming in our direction was barely able to squeeze in between the truck and the guiderail, and another white family van could just do the same. I remember all the details, as I was expecting to hear the sound of a crash any moment.

So David was ahead which gave me the motivation to start the reverse Otarumi time trial. The first part is mostly flat which even some descents, but I got blocked by traffic congestion three or four times. But I was feeling good and when the real climb started, a tried to stay at 20 km/hr spinning at a high cadence. Finally I saw David in front of me and overtaking him at elevation 300 meters. He was shouting encourageously:

„Come on Michael, keep going, PUSH IT!“

which gave me the neccessary extra motivation. The last thing I heard of David was:

„Ahem, I am keeping it easy, don’t wait for me!“

I arrived at the top at 17:17 minutes, which is fast, but not my best time. But it is OK I guess.

I nevertheless waited for David on the top and together we made the fast downhill from Otarumi, which was blocked by traffic at the entrance to Takao. But after that the roads were OK and we continued at 35 km/hr towards Sekidobashi, first along road 20 and then later along the Asakawa. Where we went into pace line again.

After a last break at the Y park 7-eleven we started another fast pace line at 35 km/hr along the Tamagawa. Clearly it was starting to rain any minute and there were less people on the pathway as usual. We were really fast and that brought as home so early.

Much earlier as expected. Of course my family has given up all expectations that I would be back on time after many disappointments and subsequently no lunch was prepared. The Saturday trip to Chichibu must have been the last nail in the coffin, I guess. Everybody was out and they came home at 4 PM only, much surprised seeing me showered and neatly dressed.

Jerome made it over Wada, as usually excelling late in the ride. He was also home by 1:30 PM, so on his own he rode on the last stretch very fast as well.

Last 30 minutes are cut off, as the Ciclo stops after 6 hours recording.


A very enjoyable mid-length trip, just the right ride for autumn.
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Eingeordnet unter 2008, David, Jerome, Juliane, Mob

von | 21. November 2008 · 14:54

Chichibu Trip Number Three

Autumn is here. Yesterday the Kakis were still hanging in the trees, today they are left to dry and become delicious Hoshigaki.After two weekday trips with Ludwig, I had another one with Juliane last Tuesday. Actually David joined us as well in the morning, but due to work commitments he could just ride up to Ome, buy some good pastry and the wonderful Aurora bakery in front of the station and return back to work by train. The Aurora bakery, where Positivo Espresso riders traditionally buy their pastry proviant, is really a wonderful place and one can see the delight of the things to come in the eyes of David and Juliane in the photo below.Juliane and me continues continued along road 53 up to Shomaru Toge where we exchanged our bikes against something more fast and agile for the downhill.We then rode up to Karibazaka and continued to Ono Toge, Shiraishi Toge and Sadamine Toge in a repetition of the Chichibu Two trip with Ludwig two weeks ago. Since my first trip I wanted to write something about the unnecessary road obstacles which are so abundant in Saitama. There must be a prefectural road construction guideline which advises to mount treacherous body traps in the middle of the road.And in addition one has to slalom its way down to avoid the speed traps, for example between Shiraiashi and Sadamine Toge.Then we mustered all our courage and had lunch at the Soba restaurant at Sadamine Toge. The Owneress was quite nice, more friendliness than on Wada and more water than at Shomaru in this place.They also produce a nice sake with giant bees inside there.Although I have to admit that there was not much meat in my Niku Soba, but finally with the help of a magnifying glass I was able to find it.An amazing restaurant by the way. With a lot of stuff inside. And a lot of calenders on the wall. They surely know which day it is [Note for readers of Wilson/Shea „Illuminatius“ of the Seventies: “ A man with one watch knows the time. A man with two watches is never quite sure.“From Sadamine Toge we didn’t take the right turn (road #11) in direction Ogawacho, but the left one which led as to Chichibu city. On the way down we passed another nice scarpyard which looked similar to the Soba restaurant.Finally we arrived at Seibu Chicchibu station and took the train home, app. at 15:57 hr in order to somewhat preserve our traditions (since 2006). A very nice ride in good weather conditions within a splendid setting enjoying Julianes company. I hope it will not be the last time.

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Eingeordnet unter 2008, Juliane, Mob