02-Feb-2002 -- On an idle saturday afternoon I decided to finally contribute to the confluence project and to visit the 49N 12E point, although it has been visited a number of times already.

Getting there is actually quite easy, once you know the area which I didn't. Using the Autobahn A3 Regensburg-Nürnberg, take the exit "Sinzig" and turn left and immediately left again onto the minor road. This road will lead you directly to the confluence spot. The access restriction to this road reported by another visitor actually begins only 20 meters before the spot.

The confluence is located in a wood right next to the autobahn, about 50 meters west of the tunnel below it and about 5 meters off the right side of the minor road leading to it. It makes for a nice afternoon walk, maybe even with children, thus introducing them to navigation.

Once I found the spot, I left my eTrex lying on the ground for a few minutes to average its position. I adjusted the position several times by a few meters, but was unable to get it right on the spot because every direction I tried was farther from the exact reading. The accuracy reading on the GPS was flipping between 5 and 6 meters, which is - judging from experience - about as good as it gets in a wood.

The pictures I took of the spot are a too dark because although the sun was still shining at 4pm, it was already close enough to the horizon to leave me in twilight. Thus, the photos included are the ones taken from a hill in about 200m distance from the confluence point and not the ones showing only a dark mess of trees.

As can be seen, there's a power line in parallel to the road leading to the point, but on the other side of the road. Also, during the 20 minutes I spent pinpointing the confluence several passenger air planes flew right over me, all from east to west. I guess that this maybe the flight path from Vienna or Prague to Frankfurt, given the number of planes.

Anyway, I'll be visiting the next confluence soon.