Berlin, Little Istambul, 11-04-2000. Looking around while I lock my bike I know for a fact why this part of town is nicknamed Little Istambul, an area east of the famous Unter Den Linden Boulevard and home to a huge turkish immigrant population. Short rotunt women near middle age walk by carrying head scarves and long pale dresses over woolen pants, rowdy kids in thier early teenage years hang against an old automobile giving me curious but bored looks. Most of the cars parked at the curb look on average about ten years older as cars elsewhere in Berlin. The three to four storey houses look in a serious state of urban decay, glum windows with gray colored dirty windows radiate an uncertain future to those who live here. I enter a small turkish coffee house ... read more

Berlin, 09-04-2002. With my hands still nimb early in the morning after leaving my last illegal campground, I can nonetheless sense the fast approach of spring in the misty air. It is only 60 km. more to the big metropole Berlin, the goal of this trip, but out here I am still surrounded with the wild harshness of Mother Nature. Wedlands with shallow lakes at both sides of this secondary road, lakes full with fish that attract all sorts of birds, herons, kingfishers, ducks in their thousands, coots and migrating geese. The green fields of grass are alife with mice and I sea a big bussart sweeping down and grasping one from their mids. I guess that poor mouse didn't expect to be on his menu today. I'm getting closer to Berlin arriving at a cross ... read more

Im Wald in der Nähe von Seehausen, 07-04-2000. I cycle all day under an overcast sky feeling ready to jump off my bike and put on my rain suit. The animal kingdom around me doesn't feel the need for protection against Mother Nature's occasional bouts of pissing down her heavenly waters on us the mortal lower beings down on earth's surface. No, the animal kingdom is busy preparing for the fast approaching spring, the tradional mating season and reproduction time. All day I see male peacocks slashing it out with the competition meanwhile trying to herd together a flock of females. Whenever the poor sod is distracted by females still on the loose or other males, someone or other will steal a few females out of his treasured flock. Even in the peacock world all is ... read more

Germany, Natürschutsgebiet Femke, 05-4-2000. Whether my wild camping place last night was badly chosen or not is maybe better left to prosterity. The tree I was camping under last night was an ancient oak tree whose old and wrinkled branches were spreading out in all directions and made me feel like sleeping in a cradle while this ancient wooden grand mother was watching over me. A large group of rooks must have thought so too arriving just before darkness while I was busy putting up my tent and preparing for the night. I have a strong suspicion that last night's ancient oak tree might very well have been their favorite sleeping tree...all evening while I was trying hard to get into a phylosofical mood, trying hard to contemplate these past five months in Amsterdam, reliving my ... read more

In Natuur Gebied De Klencke, 03-04-2000. As nearly always during my cycle trips I try to wildcamp experiencing the best part of my day....at night in front of my tent, my belly full with good food, my sleeping bag inside my tent a-waiting my exhausted body for the night, promising my gray haired guarding angel a safe heaven for the night, not an evil soul in this wedland nature reserve in the dutch hinterland will devour my immortal spirit. Yeah, sitting there in front of my tent in a small dune and surrounded by the blackness of a night not wasted by the big city light polution of a nearby town, the sounds of small nocturnat animals all around me while working on a six-pack of cheap and luke warm Liddle supermarket beer one can get ... read more