09-Apr-2004 -- Easter 2004 - and with our visit, it seems so that 51°N 11°E becomes a traditional Easter-confluence. Why? Christian and I were now the third visitors during the last four Easter who came to that confluence!

Our way started in Ilmenau 35.5 km bee-line away from 51°N 11°E with the bicycle in the morning. We followed the road to Elgersburg and continued on "Gera-Radwanderweg" over Arnstadt to Erfurt. The weather was grey, clouded and cold but dry and that was fine for us. From the cathedral in the center of Erfurt we only had 3.1 km left to the confluence so we started searching our way through different streets hiding northwards. Passing the library of Erfurt University we came closer and finally reached an area with houses which have been build recently between highway B4 and some "Plattenbauten" only 300 m away from the confluence.

So after about 50 km we placed our bikes there and walked out into a muddy field. The signal strength of the GPS in this open area was very good, so we easily located 51°N 11°E and got all "Zeros"! We celebrated the confluence with our favourite biscuits and took several pictures. Probably interesting for previous visitors of this point because apart from the new buildings they covered the highway with a fence. On the way back to our bikes we surrounded the field on a small path, trying to clean our shoes a bit after the cross through our muddy confluence area.

We continued our cycling tour northwards along the "Gera-Radwanderweg", visited Straußfurt and cycled back to Erfurt in the evening. We unfortunately missed the train back to Ilmenau, but an hour and an icecream later we finally took the train home after almost 110 km on the bike.