11-Apr-2004 -- Two days after Christian and me visited 51°N 11°E on Good Friday we decided to reach an other confluence during Easter days. The distance of 83.6 km bee-line from Ilmenau to 51°N 12°E was a bit to much for a cycling trip on this day so we took the train to Gera, started there and cycled northwards along the river "Weiße Elster", the confluence only 14.1 km in front of us.

After Christian had some problems on his bike with the bearing of the rear hub after our last trip he was a bit concerned if he will manage the distance of approximately 65 km to Leipzig over the "Elsterradweg". I'm quite familiar with bicycles so I told him: "Don't be scared - I think you can cycle with the bike in this conditions for more then 1000 km without problems!" Sounds not so interesting for this confluence report, but...

... a few kilometers later Christian realized a curious sound from the back wheel, I checked the situation - and, unbelievable but his bicycle frame was broken! Perhaps I shouldn't make such predictions anymore?!

The confluence was only 10 km away, it was still possible to cycle with his bike in slow speed so for sure we continued our way! But it was not the last breakdown because three kilometers later a spoke in his back wheel broke and we had to detach the rear brake so the wheel could spin again.

Nevertheless, even with this problems and a hill on our "Radwanderweg" along a river we reached the confluence area in nice weather conditions at the end of a small road. We already knew from previous visitors that 51°N 12°E is located in a private garden so we stopped at the last house and tried to ask someone for permission to follow the path. Two dogs welcomed us with loud barking, after a while we found the old fashioned door bell, used it and later the owner came and had no problem with our visit in his garden - yes, it even seemed that he was a bit used to people with a technical toy in their hands, watching out for crossing lines...

So we passed his ground on a path only a few meters away from the confluence, entered a small fenced area and found 51°N 12°E as our predecessors directly in front of a stone wall between blooming trees. There were no leaves on the trees yet so it was easy to get all "Zeros" on the GPS! We took our pictures and cycled back to the next village because the dogs had started barking again when we tried to get another view on the confluence so it wasn't that nice to spend a break there though the location is a really nice and quiet spot.

With Christians broken frame we rode to the next train station in Wetterzeube, waited 45 min and took the train to Leipzig where we spent about two hours before we started our way home by train.