Mr. Plow is a very good Simpsons episode and oh look I was on TV

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This post is about a 21km walk from Heilbad Heiligenstadt to Reinhausen. It has snowed and I am being interviewed on TV.

It felt like a gift. After all of the beautiful whiteness in China, in Kazakhstan, in Uzbekistan, in Turkey, and in Bulgaria, and after that one magical April day in Iran, I was suddenly blessed with fresh snow on The Longest Way here in Germany.

The problem was that I had an appointment to get to.

priorities

The day started out alright. Most of the sidewalks within Heilbad Heiligenstadt had been properly plowed, and walking was easy at first. But as soon as I left the city limits all of this stopped, and a hierarchy became apparent: the highways had been cleared perfectly, the roads had been cleared adequately, and the sidewalks and bike lanes hadn’t been touched at all.

Every step of my feet crushed a thick layer of snow that curled up around my shoes, accumulated on top of them and sometimes got into them. I cursed the gods of motorized traffic.

Then the sidewalks and bike lanes stopped altogether, and there was only a plowed road and thick snow on both sides of it. I shook my fist at the injustice.

northern German broadcasting

I made it to my appointment barely on time. A TV crew from NDR, a regional public broadcasting station, was waiting for me in a village called Bischhausen. They had come to film a news segment about my walk. The idea was to interview me as I was crossing state lines into my home state of Lower Saxony.

It was fun. I was a bit camera shy, but I had previously had a somewhat similar experience with a guy from a Chinese TV station, so I had a vague idea what to expect. The dudes from the TV crew were very patient and nice.

Once we had finished filming we said our goodbyes and I walked as fast as I could through the wintery landscape. I had to be fast for two reasons. Firstly, we had taken so long that it was getting dark. And secondly, we had taken so long that I needed to get warm again.

pictures

the walk from Heilbad Heiligenstadt to Reinhausen:

snow in Heilbad Heiligenstadt

the sidewalk in Heilbad Heiligenstadt

I guess you could walk or cycle here

the highway is free of snow of course

this wasn’t such a nice place to walk

no sidewalk, no bike lane, no shoulder, just snow

found a path through the fields and the woods

the Caboose in the snow

this was fun

I sit in the snow near Heilbad Heiligenstadt.

the road to Bischhausen

perfectly clean winter road

the former inner German border near Bischhausen

NDR TV crew

winter landscape near Bischhausen

Christmas decorations in Bremke

winter in Bremke

the Caboose on a wintery forest path at night