Latitude 51 - a virtual world tour along 51 degrees North latitude
January 2021
Because Corona and Lockdown currently make traveling impossible and I can only pursue my hobbies geocaching and urban sketching with restrictions, I gave myself a trip around the world for my birthday. Inspired by the events of the virtualtravelsketchers, I started a virtual journey along 51 degrees North latitude on January 7th, 2021 and I will document this journey with sketches. My goals on the trip are not the big cities or tourist highlights but confluence points, the intersections of the whole-numbered longitudes and latitudes. Most of the confluence points on land are in meadows, fields or in forests, which is not so interesting for the drawn documentation in the long run, so I will look for urban structures in the vicinity of the confluence points and draw them.
If possible, I will find out a little bit of background information about the place or object I'm drawing, just as one explores one's destination or travel destinations on a trip.
Why I travel along 51 degrees North latitude? I live near a confluence point at this latitude, so that I can start my journey with the first station practically on the doorstep. I am travelling by bike, i.e. I head for my goals at a correspondingly decelerated pace. At the 51 degrees North latitude, the confluence points are approx. 70km apart on straight-line distance, which can be comfortably done in 2-3 day stages by bike, depending on the terrain and route.
February 2021
My short virtual stay in Erfurt gave me the idea of not only documenting the points of confluence in drawings, but also places along the route that I notice on the way, just as I stop at interesting places on my real bike tours and look at them. This slows down my travel speed, but as the saying goes, "the journey is the destination".
July 2021
Even if real trips are now possible again, this trip in real form would still be more difficult than before the pandemic. What I have come across on my virtual tour so far is so interesting that I can certainly imagine doing this journey in real life. At first, however, it continues virtually. After I reported about a station every day in June because I had coupled the trip with the Challenge 30X30DirectWatercolor, things are now going on more leisurely.
August 2021
The virtual world tour takes a break.