20th - 24th of May - Birdwatching in Spain

The trip to Spain went significantly easier than when going to Manchester - no issues with the transport going to the airport adding to the stress and it was easy finding the rest of the group in the terminal; just look for the people with large camera- and lens bags. The flight to Madrid went without a hitch just like the pickup and drive to our hotel in Villacañas 1½ hour drive south of Madrid. We arrived just before 2100 where we checked in and went to have dinner.

Out floating hides. Notice how little space there is above the cameras. 

The hide to the right is the local guide's - it's recognizable by being significantly roomier. 

 

White-headed duck. 

The following three days followed the same schedule; pickup at the hotel at 0600, return to the hotel at around noon at the latest, pickup again around 1645 and return to the hotel around 2100-2130. Sunday we still did the morning routine but in the afternoon we left for Madrid to fly home in the evening. We were 8 people in the group (7 clients and the tour leader/pro photographer) being transported in two cars, and as the hides only had room for 4 people at a time we would be split up, but throughout the 7 hide visits we would all visit the same 7 different hides. Depending on logistics we would either be driven directly to the hide from the hotel, or driven to the main buildings (which seemed to be old farm buildings now used for storage/usage for the photo tours they were running) where the driver/handler picked up bait and/or waited while other clients were driven out to their hides.

 

Little owl. 

 

The 7 hides we got to use were a floating hide, little owl, raptor, European roller, lesser kestrel, wading birds and bearded reedling. With two exceptions the hides were similar; a small hut, just big enough for two people to sit next to each other on small usually uncomfortable chairs with a tripod and camera with no real room to stretch so you were stuck until the end of the session. We were then sat there behind glass for 3-4 hours until our pickup returned. 

 

Western marsh harrier.

 

Spanish imperial eagle. 

 

For the wading birds we were placed in small hide tents instead - very low chairs and almost any movement of the tarp created noise so you had to be careful moving around. At least the seats were low camping chairs; while not optimal they were significantly more comfortable than the small metal folding chairs we were met with in some of the other hides.

European roller.

Lesser kestrel (female). 

 

Lesser kestrel (male).

The other exception were the floating hides. That was an experience. Imagine a u-shaped flotation device; you place yourself "inside" the u, resting your arms on the.. eh... arms of the u, and at the base of the u you mount your tripod head or gimbal. On top there was a tent that covered it all and made you look not human in an attempt to get closer to the birds. Despite not looking like much its buoyancy was good enough that you could put your weight on the arms and still stay afloat. The tent on top was surprisingly small; not much taller than to allow the camera to be mounted which meant that you were hunched over for the entire time, which also meant the only visibility was what you saw through the camera and whatever space between the camera and tent. Adding to the frustration it wasn't much deeper than you could move around on your knees which meant that after the few hours in the water I returned to land feeling quite sore. They had a line of wet- and dry suits, but unfortunately the only I could fit were the dry suits. And remember: if it looks like a dry suit, is presented as a dry suit, and after going into the water above the knees you get wet, it's not a dry suit. 

 

 Collared pratincole.

 

The floating hides were the first hide I did, and while it was fun to try I was glad it was the first so it was over and done with. The other half of the group didn't do it until the following day and I am so glad I wasn't part of them; we were quite honest about our experience (also - we never really got close to the birds) and you could just see the others get discouraged. And when they returned they pretty much agreed with our assessment.  

 

The view from the bearded reedling hide. It wasn't quite representative for the rest of the hides as there was plenty of room in this one. What you see in this photo is pretty much the full width of the hide, with another one next to us. 

 

In spite the problems and uncomfortableness involved I was glad I got to try it, but I am also not planning any other trip involving floating hides anytime soon.

 

Bearded reedling (male). 

 

 

Big thanks to Mads Hagen for being an excellent guide on the trip, and thanks to Jan, Anne, Dino, Lars, Mikael and Jacob for being equally excellent travel buddies along the way.

Full album can be seen here.

16th - 20th of April - Manchester

Packing for these kind of trip - extended weekends - has almost become routine and as such the preparations are done on autopilot. The night before departure curiosity got the better of me and I checked the foreign ministry's travel advisory to see if there was anything to be aware of when there. They didn't have much about that, but they did mention you now need to apply for an ETA before arrival which can take up to 3 days to approve. Woops. So I apply for one and give the necessary information (who I am, passport information, if I've done crime etc.) pay and send it off. It said up to 3 days before getting a response but often shorter. I was getting ready to be clenching all day before departure, but only a minute after sending my application I received an approval. Phew. Can't get any more stressful than that! ...Right?

 

 I was surprised to see how almost desolate it looked not far from the airport, 

despite it being on the outskirts of Manchester.

The flight wasn't until late afternoon, and as there is a direct connection from my office to the airport I decided to have a normal work day an go directly to the airport after work. I left so with the ½ hour travel time with the metro I would have almost 2 hours at the airport before departure with no need to rush. Two stops into the trip we are all asked to exit the train due to technical issues at the station. And then we were stuck with no trains coming or going. Because I wasn't willing to chance that they got things running again in time I quickly grabbed a bus near the metro station and a train (I hadn't had the afternoon traffic in mind so of course the bus was delayed enough that the reason I made it to the train in time was because of the absolutely loads of people getting on), getting me to the airport an hour before departure. For someone who would rather be too early and be bored than cutting it close this trip was turning into a very stressful one - and I hadn't even left the country yet. And the line through security was longer than usual and slow (I considered telling the woman in front of me that this was the fast lane, not the snail lane - and also her home must be really messy because she seemed incapable of putting her 5 (!) baskets away, clogging up the flow for the rest of us). And immigration was equally slow - I don't understand why they don't use the self-service stations they have installed. I finally reached the gate when they had started boarding, and I could finally plonk down into my seat. From then on everything went as scheduled, getting out of the airport was easy (it didn't look like much when taxiing on the tarmac when when we deplaned there was a sign saying 560m to immigration). Got the train to the city and checked into the hotel 5 minutes from the station at around 2000. Kicked back for a bit before going for a short walk in the neighbourhood. The drinks in the fridge in the hotel room are free! And they get restocked! 

View from the hotel room.

 

Friday and Saturday was spent sleeping in and taking it easy in the morning - or rather until almost midday. No need to rush. Friday was started off by picking up my runners kit at the store. Apparently most UK citizens have their numbers mailed to them, limiting the number of people having to pick them up in person. Still, I'm glad I it picked up at the time I did because I can imagine a bit of chaos is that store when more people shows up. Following this I had lunch (fish & chips - I am pretty sure it is illegal to go to England an not have fish & chips) before going on a walk around relatively aimlessly and reached Peel Park before heading back to the hotel. Not because I really wanted, but  the forecast 0-1 mm rain turned out to be an almost constant downpour. Glad they hadn't forecast 5 mm! In the evening I wandered around trying to find a place on eat, after a while I happened by chance by a small nondescript Japanese restaurant with great gyoza and pork katsu. Saturday I headed more eastwards following along Ashton canal, getting away from traffic and ended out at the Etihad stadium, before returning back along Rochdale canal. There were surprisingly many locks along the way but it wasn't until getting closer to New Islington houseboats (that I would assume use them) started showing up. Slowly moving towards the hotel I came past Sackville Gardens and the Alan Turing memorial. 

 

 Just outside the Manchester Cathedral.

 

 Walking along Ashton canal.

 

Sackville Gardens.

 

Leaving on the Sunday morning for the marathon I was taking the tram from a nearby stop out to Old Trafford where the start was. I knew what line I was supposed to take and arriving at the platform there obviously were other runners waiting, too. The first tram that arrived was not "my" line but everyone else got on so I decided just to go with the flow. When I thought we had arrived at the station at the stadium no-one moved, until someone gave out a surprised yelp and exited, opening the floodgates for all the runners in crammed tram left. It's fine going with the flow, but if everyone does that, who decides where to go?

 

The parking lot on the east side of the stadium was reserved for the runner's area, and if you expected anything but very long lines to the lavatories you'd be disappointed. Luckily I was there early enough that I didn't worry about time spent queuing and information about what wave was being sent off was clearly announced over the PA system. When a wave was called they were channeled from the parking lot via the A5081 to Bridgewater Way. Here we were sent off in an orderly fashion strictly controlled every few minutes. And finally my group was sent off. 

 

I was surprisingly enough having fun despite the limited training. 

 

We headed east towards the center along Chester Road until reaching the roundabout over A57 before heading south along Chorlton Road, turning down Stretford Road with a quick detour back to Bridgewater Way running parallel with the first kilometer of the run on the opposite side of the road before bringing us to Talbot Road, Warwick Road and the A56. Except a small detour along Kingsway and Barton Road we stayed on the A56 southwest bound until reaching Park Road at Trafford College where we turned left, reached Timperley where we turned further southwest, circling Altrincham station before returning towards Timperley. From here we split from the previous path and zigzagged through Brooklands, passed Worthington Park and Priory Gardens before coming back to the A56 but only following it northeast until Stretford where we turned right along Edge Road and Wilbraham Road, turning left along Manchester Road, Upper Chorlton Road and back on Chorlton Road. Where we in the beginning went from Chorlton Road to Stretford Road, we reached the same intersection but this time from the south and turning east, towards the center. A couple of turns later, reaching Denmark Road and Oxford road where we turned left, northbound, crossing the finish line. 

 

Well, maybe not having fun all the time. 

 

The course was actually quite nice; a majority of roads were wide never feeling cramped (it also helped spreading out the starts), quite flat (142m total ascent) and when there was support it was loud and... supporting. In the starting area they kept talking about there being support all the way but that was definitely not my experience; maybe for half or two thirds of the distance in total, but when they were present it was quite the experience. And there were so many people handing out Haribo. Overall the course was relatively easy going.

 

I ended up finishing in 4:18:06, putting me as 14646 out of 28046 overall (top 52,19%), 11650 out of 18770 men (top 62,07%) and 1382 out of 2106 among M40 (top 65,62%). Far from my best result, but my relative place ended up surprisingly better than expected. In spite of that, though, this was probably the run I am the happiest completing. "But Jakob, you ridiculously handsome and magnificent man", I hear you say, "your goal is sub-4 hours, why are you happy with almost 20 minutes slower than that?" Well, I had some issues with my groin which resulted in only 2 short runs in the 4 weeks before the run. So basically I have run a sub-4:20 marathon with practically no real preparation. And the fact I wasn't slower than that makes me very happy, though I was going through a crisis throughout most of the second half and I got very slow towards the end. So yeah, I am pretty chuffed with how it went. 

 

Luckily the finish line was close to the hotel (it's as if I had planned for it to be so) because after crossing the line my legs were sore and I was sore - probably the sorest I have been post run. So I slowly waddled back to the hotel and relaxed as much as possible. Luckily there was a restaurant just behind the hotel so the walk there was manageable in the evening and I didn't have to exert myself to get something to eat for which my legs thanked me. 

 

Flying over Roskilde before reaching Copenhagen. 

 

The following morning I grabbed a train around 0700 - yes, in the morning. It's very much against my principles to get up that early during a vacation (especially the day after a run!) but it was either a flight in the morning or in the evening which would have me back home far too late considering I had work the following day. To my relief the process of getting to the airport and flying back home was a much less stressful experience than getting here. A nice way of ending my extended weekend. While most people wouldn't call a running trip "relaxing", it was nice to get a way for a bit to shut off, but the city didn't impress me much; unless you're interested in football I didn't get the impression there is much to do as a tourist, and especially leaving the old center it gets fairly dull.

 

Full album can be seen here. 

Returns to Spain

With the trips in recent years tend to prioritize runs of various kinds I have had to down prioritize wildlife tours which I try to find opportunities to do something about. A colleague who is an avid photographer mentioned a professional photographer who guides tours mostly around Europe which sounded fairly small and manageable among my running trips so I jumped onto the site and took a look.

 

Immediately there were a few trips that piqued my interest and considering they were all including 2 professionals they were quite affordable, too. And I had just splurged on a new camera body for wildlife photography so I had to find a justification for the expense, so it came easy to me to book two trips to Spain.

 

20th - 24th of May

We'll be flying out to Madrid where we'll be picked up and go to Villacañas where we will be staying during the trip. The following three days will have a similar schedule; leave in the morning for a large private property and get settled into a bird hide before sunrise, leave midday for lunch and return in the afternoon until sundown. There are plenty of hides places on the property so with some rotation there will be plenty - and new - opportunities throughout the days. On the last day we have another photo session in the morning before leaving for the airport in the morning and return home.

 

10th - 14th of December

Once again we'll be flying out to Madrid and checking in at a hotel near by. The following three days will consist of us leaving before sunrise to a nearby property (a different one than the previous trip) and occupying the hides from sunrise to sunset. During that time the hope is to get an opportunity to photograph the Iberian lynx. Yes, that one again - I do tend to be a cat person when it comes to wildlife. The last day we may or may not be able to do a morning session in the hides before returning to Madrid and flying back home.

 

Being Spain it's easy to get back and forth (and therefore not a long flight) and not a huge expense for what I get from it. And while wildlife is never guaranteed, even if what we are hoping for doesn't show up I expect there will still be plenty to look at during the wait. In any case I think this will be two enjoyable small tours to do.

10th – 13th of October – Eindhoven

There were no flights directly to Eindhoven so instead I flew into Amsterdam and then took the train 1½ hours to Eindhoven with a change in Rotterdam. It made getting back and forth a bit more complicated but the trains were on time and it was a comfortable ride, so there was no issue. Arriving in Eindhoven it took less than 10 minutes to locate my hotel where I checked in and claiming my room that turned out to overlook the finishing area of the race, and soon after I left to go to the Technical University where I picked up my bib and shirt. As it was getting late and dark I wandered about for a bit and realized that the city seemed to enjoy Italian and Japanese food, so I ended up in a ramen place where I started off with some Takoyaki before having a delicious bowl of ramen. Not having any desserts (what?!) I left and had a quick visit to a kiosk to bring some back home to the hotel. You can’t have dinner without dessert when you’re on vacation!

 

A striking photo.

The next day I had a walk outside the center of the city and realized how correct it was when reading on travelling sites saying that Eindhoven isn’t really a tourist destination. I therefore returned to the center where I spent time visiting the DAF and Philips museum. The former had a bunch of vehicles presented from throughout the history of the company and while there was no real walkthrough of the history of the company itself the descriptive plaques for the vehicles combined gave a fairly good overview of the company, too. The Philips museum focused on the company’s foundation, the light bulb, the later years’ development of hospital technology and more recently the implementation of AI. The average consumer only see a fraction of what Philips do – and the home appliance divisions have mostly been sold off or split into other companies; focus now is health technology (ultrasound, respiratory care, radiography and lots of other fancy stuff). They have also helped found – among other things – ASML which is one of the world’s main suppliers to semiconductor industries around the world, supplying equipment for chip production. It’s some serious high-tech stuff, and together with numerous other high tech industries in the city it has made Eindhoven a major tech hubs in Europe.

One of the vehicles that participated in the Paris-Dakar rally. 

 

Derp. 

The starting area was only a 10 minute walk from the hotel, on the opposite side of the station, on Montgomerylaan. While the street was wide they only used on side for the runners which meant that the starting area was stretched quite a bit. But all was good and we were off on time – just before the starting line we were squeezed together to half width and while annoying and stopping the flow it meant that it helped spreading the runners over a larger distance, loosening up the group and not having a too crowded start. 

The course generally consisted of long stretches with not too many turns which meant it was easy to get into a zen mood without having to focus on constant making turns and positioning yourself optimally. It wasn’t until around 30km we started making more regular turns. Going north on Montgomerylaan we made our first turn down Winston Churchilllaan, circling around Luytelaer before returning west and going up along Henri Dunantpark. From here we headed west until we ran south down along the airport until reaching the High Tech Campus which we circled (the place seemed huge!) before taking a quick nip down into Voldijn before returning north and finishing in the city center, almost right outside my hotel.

The cheering was limited along the course, you met them in groups near stations and intersections, but getting back into the city the energy was high. Also, the last couple of hundred meters we merged with the half-marathon course which suddenly made otherwise nice conditions very cramped. It was manageable considering the relative short distance and you could distract yourself with the onlookers. Unfortunately I didn’t quite avoid the hand-on-shoulder push-you-aside runner a few meters before the finish line – hurray for you, you gained 3 seconds! (he turned out to be a double-dick as he was also the type that just completely stopped the second he crossed the line).

I managed to finish in 3:53:43, a very respectable time, my 4^th fastest marathon time. I came in as 2340 out of 4356 overall (top 53,72%), 2065 out of 3635 men (top 56,81%) and 331 out of 501 M40 (top 66,07%). A surprisingly fast group of runners I would have thought my relative result would have been better. I was a very flat course, though, with 48m up and a little less down over the entire course.

Getting back to the hotel was a completely different challenge, though. I could look right up at it but we got channeled past, split up in half and full runners, and we, the full marathoners had out exit in front of the station. Getting back to the hotel was wild. It was crowded getting out because of all the +1s waiting for runners, and then getting across 18 Septemberplein was nearly impossible as that was where the half marathoners exited, and that was a significantly bigger group of people with their +1s waiting. The down Hermanus Boexstraat which turned out to be the last stretch of the half marathon meaning the sidewalks were packed. It took me close to an hour walking the 1km back to the hotel. It was absolutely maddening.

Had a shower (it was a bathtub with a shower – it’s never fun getting into one of them after a run) before going out and had a pile of fries before settling in in my room and only moving again to go out for dinner.

The following day was spent in the hotel before leaving for the station and taking the trains back to Amsterdam and flying home.

Full album can be seen here.

18th – 21st of September – Oslo

Flying into Oslo it was easy to grab the express train into the center and from there it was a short walk to my hotel. The hotel was intentionally chosen as it was less than 5 minutes from the city hall in front of which the marathon would start and finish. It turned out the hotel entrance was facing the warm-up area which was an extension of the starting pens. I could barely be any closer.

Checking in I left and went to the expo – located in the starting area – and picked up my shirt and bib. Here I also met with my sister and her husband where we had a short talk and planned for meeting for dinner the evening before and after the run. She would be running the half marathon, starting 4 hours after the marathoners would be sent off.

Floating saunas. 

 

Art installation called "Eyes". I respectfully disagree. Those are not eyes.

On the Friday – the day before the run – I went for a walk in The Vigeland Park – a park filled with sculptures by Gustav Vigeland. The sculptures were weird, funny, a lot going on, but what they all had in common were fantastically expressive faces. You could spend hours looking at the individual statues, the fountain and the monolith just to be sure you got all the details. 

 

Haven't we all at some point been tempted to do this?

 

Standing in the car shop Carl realized he had misunderstood his friend 

when he said that he had gotten a new car for his two kids.

 

Having the marathon starting at 0900 the following morning I strolled out of the hotel around 0830 and walked maybe 100 meters and found my spot in the starting area. I had registered my finishing time around 3:50 and my start group covered 3:45-4:15. Standing maybe ¼ from the front I was therefore surprised seeing both the 4:00 and 4:15 pacers set up in front of me. Oh, well, I would just spend the first few km to pass them and put some distance to them.

The first groups were sent off on time and a few minutes later I also crossed the starting line. I started aiming for passing the pacers and the groups that were amassing around them, but I realized that the course was surprisingly narrow – especially in the beginning. We started west from the city hall with an early turn to the left and zigzag through a quiet residential area before coming out on Munkedamsveien followed by Drammensveien and after a bit turning right onto Halvdan Svartes Gate. From here we circled almost the entire Vigeland Park before coming back the same way and reaching Drammensveien we turned right and turned towards the water, turned east and ran along the E18 until we could turn onto Tjuvholmen, through Aker Brygge, pass the city hall and the start/finish area, past Akershus Fortress before turning up trough the central part of the city with quite a few sharp turns, reaching Pilestredet, Holbergs Gate and Sofies Gate before doing a u-turn on Martinus Lørdahls plass and taking the same way back (with the exception of circling inside Bislett Stadium) until past Pilestredet where we did a different zigzag and ending up in front of the town hall. And then doing it all once more as that was only a half marathon.

The course was generally narrow; most of the time we had half a street while we parallel with E18 stayed on the side walk and bike path. It also meant that it could be difficult at times to pass other runners, especially in the beginning when we were all crammed together. Also, the course was not flat and consisted mainly of two hills; the first from about 3km up to halfway around the Vigeland Park from 5 to 60m and down again towards the water, and then again from Akershus Fortress at 5m to when we did the u-turn before entering the stadium at 45m. Due to the layout and the visibility of the road ahead the second hill fell significantly worse than the first, even if it was smaller. But it helped knowing that you would be running down again the same way so you had something to look forward to. 

Despite the hills and narrowness I still ended up finishing in 3:55:21. That put me as 2340 out of 4356 overall (top 53,72%), 2065 out of 3635 men (top 56,81%) and 331 out of 501 M40 (top 66,07%). I’ll admit I was surprised how slow I was compared to the rest of the runners, but I assume it’s because Norwegians are outdoorsy people and therefore generally not in bad shape. And regardless, I’m still happy with my result, getting (another) sub-4 hours run.

Instead of the more common procedure of entering your race number and then getting your photos in return I had to upload a selfie. I didn’t have high hopes for the success of finding that many, but within seconds it came back with almost 200 (198 to be exact) photos, all with me in varying degree of in focus. I’ll admit: I was pretty impressed with both the response time and quality of some of the shots.

I made it just in time to see my sister off and give her a bit of heads up on the course before walking the long 200m back to my hotel and had a much needed shower. One of the last zigs (or was it one of the zags?) on the course passed by 50 meters from the hotel entrance, at the end of the street opposite of the starting area, so I managed to get out and cheer my sister along when she passed by, and then wobbled my way down to the finishing area and saw her finish, too.

Before meeting my sister and her husband for dinner I managed to meet with a friend I met on my trip to Madagascar and hadn’t seen since. We met at a wine bar (where she was already meeting with other friends) where we had a glass of wine and had a quick catch up before I continued to the Japanese and Chinese restaurant which turned out to be just around the corner. I am pretty sure my slow walk afterwards wasn’t due to the marathon but rather due to the amount of food eaten. It was a delicious izakaya-style restaurant. 

 

View of the waterfront from the Akershus Fortress.

My flight the following day wasn’t until the afternoon so I had a slow walk around town and checked out the Akershus Fortress before heading back to the airport.

Full album can be seen here.