EPISODE 50
Heinz Stücke: The World by Bike (Part 1)
What do you do if you absolutely, positively do not want to work as a toolmaker with a wife and 2.4 kids in post-World War II Germany? If you’re Heinz Stücke, you simply get on your bike and don’t come home for fifty-one years. In this landmark episode of The Accidental Bicycle Tourist, your host Gabriel Aldaz treks through a snowy German winter to find the man who cycled 648,000 kilometers across 196 countries—only to discover that the residents of his hometown aren’t entirely sure if he’s still alive. Entering Heinz’s home is like stepping into a travel-themed archive, packed with enough maps, photos, and artifacts to make visitors believe that they have entered the Museum of Heinz Stücke. To inspire the legendary traveler, Gabriel has brought along a surprise: a Christmas cookie tin filled with 500 scraps of paper. What follows is a whirlwind tour through the memory of a legend. Heinz recounts sneaking into the 1970 World Cup as a professional photographer and flying over Montserrat a year after a volcanic eruption buried its capital, Plymouth. From hiking to the world’s tallest waterfalls to witnessing the “crunchy” charm of fried tarantulas in Cambodia, Heinz proves that a life well-pedaled is never boring. Tune in to part 1 of a hilarious, awe-inspiring 2-part journey through five decades of life on two wheels.
Episode Transcript
Heinz: For me, the life was not to end the journey. That was taboo, because it was the success of my life.
Gabriel: You just heard Heinz Stücke, a German man who set all kinds of records during his 51-year journey by pedalling 648,000 kilometers and visiting 196 countries and 86 territories. To partially fund his travels, Heinz wrote his story in a booklet that has been printed, in various forms, 80,000 times. He has taken 100,000 photographs. He has been interviewed by countless newspapers, magazines, radio and television shows, and indeed, podcasts. Therefore, when preparing to interview Heinz myself, I faced the challenge of not asking Heinz the same questions that he had already answered a thousand times. I decided I would try something a little different, a surprise specifically suited to Heinz’s unique personality, which I hoped would also get him excited about the interview. If you’re also curious, I invite you to come along with me on my train journey across Germany to interview, in person and in his home, possibly the most accomplished touring cyclist of all time.
Sandra: You’re listening to The Accidental Bicycle Tourist. In this podcast, you’ll meet people from all walks of life and learn about their most memorable bike touring experiences. This is your host, Gabriel Aldaz.
Gabriel: Hello bicycle touring enthusiasts. Welcome to this milestone Episode 50 of The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast. Episodes 50 and 51 will be devoted to the legendary Heinz Stücke. These episodes found their start—as many others have—during an interview with a previous guest. In this case, it was Claus Andersen in “The Biking Viking.'” Let’s have a listen…
Claus: You know Heinz Stücke from Germany? The old man.
Gabriel (Flashback): Well, I know of him, of course. Yeah.
Claus: I went to see him two, three months ago.
Gabriel (Flashback): Really?
Claus: His best friend, the guy who does his Facebook group and everything, his name is Henrik Schumacher. He’s half Danish, half German, and he’s a very good friend of mine. Henrik, he’s also a touring cyclist. He’s also been to every country in the world. Me and Henrik went to visit him in June.
Gabriel (Flashback): Oh, wow.
Claus: Yeah, and I have his contact. So, if you have any interest, his brain is very sharp. He can’t stand up, he can’t walk anymore, He has an extremely sharp mind for somebody who is 85 years old.
Gabriel (Flashback): I looked up the town where he’s from. It’s on the western part of Germany.
Claus: Yeah, it’s near Bielefeld.
Gabriel (Flashback): Yeah.
Claus: So, he gets visitors every week from around the world. He’s very happy to have visitors. People can stay at his home if they want to.
Gabriel (Flashback): Yeah, this is so interesting, because when I started the podcast, I thought, who would I like to interview? And I said, well, I know who I’m not going to interview. I’m not going to interview Heinz, because there’s nothing accidental about his bicycle touring. I mean, he set off to do it and he was gone for 42 years, right? Then on the other hand, I thought, yeah.
Claus: He did it because he didn’t want to work at the factory.
Gabriel (Flashback): Yeah, ok. Maybe that’s it.
Claus: He was like, just a guy who was really bored with his factory job in Germany. And his parents kept telling him, like, “Oh you know, you should be happy that you have a job. And don’t worry, Heinz. Soon you’ll find yourself a little wife and then you have a couple of kids, and then you’ll have that to worry about and you won’t mind going to work any longer.” And then he thought, no bloody way, man, am I going to spend my life doing this. So, like the first 10 years he went traveling, it was more or less to try and avoid having to go back to the factory.
Gabriel: That is how Claus convinced me that it would be worthwhile to interview Heinz. He gave Heinz’s number and I started calling. No answer. I tried day after day for one week, two weeks, three weeks. Still no answer. I thought the number must be wrong or disconnected, so I stopped calling. Weeks later, Sandra encouraged me to try Heinz one more time.
Gabriel (Flashback): Ok, this is our last attempt to contact Heinz by phone.
Heinz: Hallo?
Gabriel (Flashback): Oh! Hello.
Gabriel: That was admittedly a slow start, but I managed to recover. Heinz told me that he had been hospitalized for some weeks but that he was home now and ready to accept visitors again. Now that it was winter, there weren’t so many people coming around. We settled on a date for me to visit him in his hometown of Hövelhof. When I asked for his address, he replied, “Just ask around in town. Say you are looking for the bicycle rider. You’ll find me.” On the agreed-upon day, I began my journey from Potsdam to Hövelhof, approximately a 4-hour train ride with changes in Berlin and Bielefeld.
Gabriel (Flashback): I am at the cavernous Berlin Hauptbanhof, the Berlin Central Station. The temperature is negative ten degrees Celsius, and I am waiting for the arrival of the train to Düsseldorf, which I will be taking to Bielefeld.
Deutsche Bahn Employee: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome aboard the ICE to Düsseldorf, via Bielefeld, Dortmund, and Essen. We wish you a pleasant journey.
Gabriel: I settled into my comfortable seat on the train and started preparing the interview. I had brought with me 500 small, rectangular pieces of white, blue, and green paper and an empty Christmas cookie tin. One or more words were written on each piece of paper, and I had the tedious job of folding each one carefully and putting in the cookie tin. This was the surprise for Heinz.
Deutsche Bahn Employee: Ladies and gentlemen, we are now arriving in Bielefeld. Thank you for choosing Deutsche Bahn. Goodbye.
Gabriel: It may not come as a shock to some of you to find out that my train arrived late and I missed my connection in Bielefeld. Luckily, it wasn’t long before I could catch another train.
Gabriel (Flashback): Well, I just got off the train at Hövelhof, and I always thought I would get here by bicycle, as sort of a pilgrimage, but there is snow on the ground and it’s cold. It’s a lot warmer than Berlin but still around freezing.
Gabriel: My next assignment was to find out where Heinz lived. In German, the word for bicycle rider is Fahrradfahrer. Rolling my suitcase over the cobblestones, I stopped to talk to the first person I met.
Gabriel (Flashback): Hallo. Eine Frage.
Friendly Woman: Ja, fragen Sie.
Gabriel (Flashback): Ich suche den Fahrradfahrer.
Friendly Woman: Fahrradfahrer?
Gabriel (Flashback): Ja. Kennen Sie Heinz Stücke?
Friendly Woman: Heinz Stücke?
Gabriel (Flashback): Ja.
Friendly Woman: Ah, den. Der lebt noch?
Gabriel (Flashback): Ja, er lebt noch.
Friendly Woman: Sie müssen zu dem alten Schwimmbad gehen. Wissen Sie, wo das ist?
Gabriel (Flashback): Nein, keine Ahnung.
Gabriel: The friendly woman is surprised that Heinz is still alive. She says I need to go to the old community swimming pool and gives me detailed directions.
Friendly Woman: Und da hat der gewohnt. Nicht in dem Bad, sondern da gegenüber in den Häusern.
Gabriel (Flashback): Gut. Vielen Dank.
Friendly Woman: Ach, der. Ich meine, jemand… Heinz Stücke. Ja, der hat doch immer hier. Der ist in der ganzen Welt rumgefahren, ne?
Gabriel: The friendly lady clarifies that Heinz doesn’t live in the swimming pool, but in a nearby house. She knows that he’s traveled the whole world. I follow her directions and find the swimming pool. Now where? As I am looking around, clearly lost, a second woman volunteers to help me and points out a low building, a bungalow, she calls it, where the bicycle rider lives. Ironically, there is a sign prohibiting bicycle riding on the street in front of the house.
Gabriel (Flashback): I am the front door, and I can see the this is the right place. It says, “Hallo, willkommen. Ich kann nicht Laufen.” “Hello, welcome. I can’t walk. Please call…” and then it’s the number I have for him. I think I will call him and try to get in.
Gabriel: Heinz immediately picks up the phone and tells me I’m in luck. The neighbor is inside with him. A few seconds later, the front door opens. The neighbor invites me in. The first thing I see in the foyer resembles a shrine dedicated to Heinz Stücke. Moving into the hallway, I see four closed doors, labelled in German, the bathroom, the storage room, the visitors’ room, and the exhibition room. The doors and walls are covered with color photographs. The shelving is full of old newspapers and magazines. The neighbor ushers me into the living room. But this is no ordinary living room. Against one wall, there is a single bed, where a thin man is lying under blankets, his bald head and shoulders propped up by a thick pillow. The rest of the room is filled with desks, shelves, and archive cabinets. Every surface is stuffed with notebooks, magazines, and loose papers. Again, the door and walls are covered with colorful photographs, newspaper clippings, maps, and souvenirs. Heinz greets me warmly and invites me to take a seat on one of the three plain chairs that face him. The neighbor removes several plastic bottles filled with a liquid that is not apple juice, goes to the bathroom, and returns with empty bottles. She places fresh bread and other provisions on the low table next to the bed, within Heinz’s reach. At arm’s length, Heinz also has access to reading glasses, important papers, a digital camera, a flashlight, and gripping tongs to reach the many items around him. Satisfied, the neighbor excuses herself and wishes us a good interview. While I set up my equipment, Heinz tells me all about his hospital stay and the procedures he was subjected to. Finally, we are ready to begin.
Gabriel: Heinz Stücke, thank you for being a guest on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist podcast.
Heinz: Have you made many interviews? Podcasts. I mean, you call it podcasts. Pod shit.
Gabriel: Heinz, you are a very special episode. Episode 50.
Heinz: Shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot.
Gabriel: I’m shooting. So, I’ll start by telling you a little bit about how we got here today.
Heinz: How did you get here?
Gabriel: Yes. The reason I got here today…
Heinz: In this bloody cold. Real winter, for a change.
Gabriel: It is definitely real winter right now.
Heinz: So how did you get here?
Gabriel: I did an interview with Claus Andersen, a Danish man. And Claus…
Heinz: Ah, wait a minute. Claus Andersen, he is a collector of islands.
Gabriel: A collector of islands?
Heinz: Maybe I’m wrong, but I know a lot of Danish, because Henrik Schumacher, he is one of the Globetrotter Club in Copenhagen.
Gabriel: Exactly.
Heinz: He discovered my story and he came one time in front of the door, and he showed me, “This is the Museum of Heinz Stücke.” That’s the first thing I know, but that is what is fake news, because there was always talk about making a museum. And so he found out and he came in and he saw, it is like a museum. And then he took over. He’s very active on the Facebook. He has a hard disk with 3,000 of my pictures. He is a big traveler too. He has been in all countries of the world as well. So, he selects something that he doesn’t know much about and he asks questions, you know. He has no information about the picture, he just has the hard disk. And then he asks, “How about that picture where you have that blue shirt?” Okay. Usually I know those, these are only the 3,000 on the hard disk. So, I tell him, okay, such and such. He is a collector of countries. I am a traveler of countries, but I am not a collector of countries. But I have also collected countries.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: Usually people want to tick it off. “I have been there.” Tick it off, you know. Henrik Schumacher, he is my groupie. Or I am his groupie.
Gabriel: When I was talking to Claus, he asked, “Do you know about Heinz Stücke?” And I said, “Yes, for about 30 years.”
Heinz: For a thousand years.
Gabriel: Yes, for a thousand years! Because already 30 years ago, you had bicycled 400,000 kilometers. And then it was 500,000 and then 600,000.
Heinz: Yeah.
Gabriel: I know you’ve told this story many times, but would you mind sharing how you got started?
Heinz: Poor people in the ’50s. I was always interested in geography. It’s just maps and cards. In the school, there was a roll and it was hung up. And then you see Africa or something like that. I was right in front, you know, I wanted to know about these places. And I would dream about places. How would it be when you would be there? I look at the world map. I could look for hours just to follow China. And how big is China? And where are the roads? So you dream, but we don’t have schooling, no high school or anything. You have Folkschule, the ground school, and that was it. And my father says, “What do you want to do?” Well, what was available at the time? We had a driller, a carpenter, you could become a toolmaker and I chose toolmaking, four years. And while that time, with 14 I was already in apprenticeship, I was an eager football player. I played in the youth team and we even made the champion of the… Kreis champion as they call it, you know. So it was football. That was my ambition of my sports.
Gabriel: A Kreis is a district, so you were the champions of the district.
Heinz: Yeah. My father had a chicken place and I had to help him on Saturdays and I was always in trouble with my father. We had to clean the cages and stuff like that for his hobby, which was raising poultry, you know. And I wanted to go play football. So I was already at that time sportive-minded. I got into the apprenticeship, you got holidays. So what do you do? You take a bicycle and go. So I had every time in four years of apprenticeship, every year I cycled with my bicycle with a colleague. The first time already across the border. We were so proud to go one day only to Strasbourg then I’ve been in France. Hey, I’ve been in France. I crossed the Basel into Switzerland. So I was starting to count countries already with 14 years old, 14, 15, 16, 17. Every time somebody was coming with me, but I was a dictator and I was riding too fast and nobody ever came with me again the next year. And eventually, at the end of my apprenticeship, I decided to make a bigger journey. But nobody would come. So I said, okay, I’m going around to Mediterranean. So I took four and a half months to Yugoslavia. Israel I had to quit because I couldn’t go to Israel at the time. Then over by boat from Latakia to Alexandria and then around the Mediterranean. So that was a big journey. When I was 18, four and a half months. So I had already the taste of travels. And then I worked for a while in my profession. I collected money, and so on. But a year later I decided to make a bigger journey. So I started in 1961 and towards India. I managed to get into Russia. I came back and then I worked. And then I said, look, I’m going to travel again. And I was 21 at the time. You had to think about women already. You’re going to get married and you had a girlfriend. So I said, one more quick journey. So I said, okay, maximum two years. In 1962 I started and I never returned. Because I thought, I cycled to Africa. I arrived in Africa. I go to South America. Cycled to South America and also go to Japan. Go to the Olympics in 1964 in Japan, at the time. Look, 1971 I arrived in Japan. Not in ’64.
Gabriel: So you missed the Olympics.
Heinz: How did I think that I could make Africa, South and North America in just two years? You know, it’s impossible. It doesn’t really matter. Did I arrive? South America was the answer. South America is full of Germans. Full of Germans that have schools, have clubs. And I stayed with the German community in South America. Whenever I come to a big city, I went to the German Embassy, the German club. I played football there. I made a slideshow, collecting money for me. And I was told to other Germans in other parts of the country. So it took time. I had a great time with those German communities. And they said, “Oh, you’re going to Cordoba? There’s a German club there.” “You’re going to Mendoza? There’s a German club there.” So you hang around. And so I said, it’s a great life. Why should I race through Argentina when you can have a good time? Never mind, when I will get to Japan for the Olympics. Never mind. I got a great time now. So I took my time. And so it was just three years in South America alone. But basically, in every country in South America, you got the German community. And you got stuck with them, you know.
Gabriel: When did you return to Europe?
Heinz: In 1976, I arrived in Istanbul. The first time, after 14 years, I came back on European continent in the Bosporus. I was supposed to go home, but that life I had was so interesting. And it became really the thing I wanted to do. And I wanted to be content all my life. So I stayed. I was riding like, how do you call it? Like a cat, like a cat around a hot plate. Around all the Germany, I went to Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Holland. And then my sisters came to visit me in Holland. “When are you coming home?” I said, “Well, I must go to London. I can market my story in London.” And so it happened. I went to London. And I made really good progress, lots of newspapers. And I was really one of the famous people in London. In that time, I managed to get an agent in London, and he kept selling my story. But since, in 1978, I said, I’m going to travel to every country in the world. So there was a lot of countries. So I had to go to Africa. Africa had 50 countries, or more than 50 countries. 1978. And I had the backing of the agent. It took three years. And at the end, I had four countries left. But it was almost all the countries in 1978, 79, 80, 81, 82. I was in Africa all in one go. For me, the life was not to end the journey. That was taboo, because it was the success of my life.
Gabriel: So you never went back to Germany after you left?
Heinz: First time I was bribed. Because a guy wanted me in a big show in Germany called Stern TV, Günter Jauch. It was an evening show, like an America Carson Show, late night show. There was one in Germany as well. And I didn’t want to go. I said, they could take pictures in France when I was at that time. But they said, no, it’s a live show in the studio. And I thought, “What money?” “No. Money? You know, you become famous. You can sell your book.” I didn’t have any book. And I said, I want 10,000. And that was 2,001.
Gabriel: So, euros?
Heinz: Deutschmark. That’s when the change was. But they picked me up by taxi. They took me to the studio in Cologne. I had the evening show. After the show, Günter Jauch is a famous moderator. He had a brown envelope. And 7,000-mark Scheine, brown. Do you ever see the old German marks?
Gabriel: Yeah, I remember them.
Heinz: They were brown. One thousand. Seven of them inside. No signature. Nothing. It was just pocket money. It was the biggest tip I had in my life.
Gabriel: Yeah, I’ll say. So that was one time you were back during your trip?
Heinz: That was 18 hours in Germany. The rest of the night, the hotel. In the morning, a taxi took me back to France, to Paris. And I kept traveling there, you know. Then I never came back until now. In Germany, I was back 2003, 2004, the first time. Because I was already back, so it didn’t matter. But I never went home. And home, I went in 2014. I was the first time in Hövelhof.
Gabriel: So you were gone for more than 51 years, to be exact.
Heinz: And then it was proposed that they wanted to make a museum. And I said, look, I can come back. Because I had too much material. I sent it to my sister. My sister didn’t want it. They broke down the house, and I had the whole room full of souvenirs, of travels and pictures and what what. So I said, “I need a place to build up an archive, no rent. It has to be free.” And I wanted money. But they didn’t want to give me money. So they said, “Okay, you can start. And you will see what’s happening.” So this is how I got to this place. It was all empty here. Water in the walls. I turned up here. Now I’m rotting away here.
Gabriel: Oh.
Heinz: I have diaries. I have pictures, slides, over 100,000 photographs there in the cupboards behind you. You can open one. You can see them.
Gabriel: Okay. Oh, wow.
Heinz: And I’m working on them now. And I make books of every country. But I have gone through 80 countries. You want to see one? Take one of those.
Gabriel: Sure, fine.
Heinz: You see what I do now with countries.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: Every country in the world is a book.
Gabriel: Mali. Okay.
Heinz: I’m very productive, although I’m lying here. And I’m bedridden. Every night until five o’clock in the morning, I work on papers, you know. And so the pictures I choose, I got a thousand pictures of Mali, of which I have chosen about 300. And then I have to add to it the places and my route there. The year 1979 is all ’79’ pictures are there. For every country, I make a book like that. So everybody can see my work in the country, the route I have done there. It’s a massive job. But I’m not twiddling my thumbs here. I’m not doing that.
Gabriel: No, definitely not.
Heinz: People always number one. All these years now here, people in front of the door. So I have had, I can easily save hundreds of people here. Since I’m bedridden especially. Sometimes, “Oh, just a few hellos, buy the book.” And three hours later, they’re still here. And nine o’clock at night, they’re still here. Midnight, they’re still here. And then sometimes they sleep here. So then I go to my work here. I’m preparing a book that is all the years. What is it called?
Gabriel: The title of that notebook is, Buch der Stichworte über alle Jahre.
Heinz: And so whatever I know from a place, I have the main things of a place in there. Now I started it in a primitive way. So now I’m getting it in a more organized way.
Gabriel: Yeah, so these are keywords for each year.
Heinz: That is keywords. Or I do only the ones that were here. Because I did that from memory. Those ones, I would have to get my diaries. To reach through the diary and take Stichworte.
Gabriel: Yeah, keywords.
Heinz: Keywords out of it, you know.
Gabriel: So Heinz, you’re going to love what I did. I have with me, check this out.
Heinz: I got a statistic book…
Gabriel: Okay.
Heinz: That is every country. That’s interesting. Because if you want to take a picture of them. Look at this one here.
Gabriel: I see.
Heinz: You can count any country you want. I have the statistics of every country. So how many times I entered, how many kilometers I did, the dates I did there. So you name a country.
Gabriel: Well here’s what we’re going to do Heinz. Just listen now. Heinz, just listen, we’re going to use it.
Heinz: Yeah, what’s this? That’s a funny thing.
Gabriel: I have with me a cookie tin with a lot of small pieces of paper in it.
Heinz: A puzzle.
Gabriel: No, it’s not a puzzle. Each white paper has the name of one of the countries that you visited. And how many countries have you visited?
Heinz: All of them.
Gabriel: All of them. Well, they’re all in here.
Heinz: Plus 80 regions and half countries and semi-independent countries. Have you heard of Niue?
Gabriel: Yes, it’s in here.
Heinz: Niue is now a country. It has become a country.
Gabriel: Has it?
Heinz: I heard it on the news.
Gabriel: Oh, that’s a new country?
Heinz: It’s a new country.
Gabriel: Well, Niue is the perfect name for a new country. Niue.
Heinz: N-I-U-E.
Gabriel: Okay.
Heinz: It’s written differently.
Gabriel: All right, written differently.
Heinz: Google it.
Gabriel: It’s in here.
Heinz: Niue is in 2500 kilometers north of New Zealand. It used to be a territory of New Zealand. But it’s in the news now that the Germans don’t want to make an embassy there, but they are recognizing it. It’s a country. You know that Niue is a country.
Gabriel: I didn’t know it.
Heinz: Ah, you think it’s Niue. It’s a new country. No.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: No, no, no.
Gabriel: Niue is in the cookie tin. So, in here, every piece of paper has the name of a country you’ve been to, or a territory that you’ve been to. Okay? Those are the white pieces of paper.
Heinz: All of them are white?
Gabriel: Yeah, they’re all white.
Heinz: Which atlas have you used? The famous one is the Times Atlas. It’s the famous English one that the Guinness Book of Records takes the dates out of… The Atlas is there, lying there.
Gabriel: Uh-huh, you have it?
Heinz: But, okay, never mind. Go on with the story.
Gabriel: So…
Heinz: But you needed an Atlas for it.
Gabriel: Yes.
Heinz: Which Atlas? Wasn’t it the German Atlas?
Gabriel: No, it was the Encyclopedia Britannica, online.
Heinz: Oh, that’s different. Yeah, because Britannica uses the Times Atlas. Oh, okay. The Times Atlas is the source.
Gabriel: The source.
Heinz: Anyway, go ahead with what you wanted to test now.
Gabriel: Right, well, it’s not a test, but it’s fun.
Heinz: Yeah, well, I’m not a child.
Gabriel: And then there’s some green pieces of paper, and they have a year on them from 1962, which is when you left Germany all the way until 20…
Heinz: 2014.
Gabriel: Oh, I actually went further. But I have all the way until 2025.
Heinz: Yeah, I’m here.
Gabriel: Okay, well, we’ll see what happens. Then I also have some blue pieces of paper, which have a word that somehow relates to bicycle touring. Some of them are a little bit obscure. In total, there are 500 pieces of paper in the tin.
Heinz: You want to take me one of every color?
Gabriel: Well, there are only three colors, but I thought you can take one and see…
Heinz: Oh, okay.
Gabriel: So, why did you draw?
Heinz: Oh, Philippines.
Gabriel: Philippines.
Heinz: I spent a long time there, several times in the Philippines. Every island of the Philippines. Nah, there are 14,000 islands. So, not every island. But you got the big one in Zambuanga, with Mindanao. You got…
Gabriel: Cebu.
Heinz: Cebu, of course. Moktan. You know what happened in Moktan?
Gabriel: Earthquake.
Heinz: No. A historic, very historic place.
Gabriel: Really?
Heinz: Yeah.
Gabriel: What happened?
Heinz: Magellan was killed there.
Gabriel: Really? Way back then.
Heinz: Yeah. Moktan. Kleine island in front of Cebu.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: He could have sent his soldiers. Those days, the leader was front. And one of the local ones, he clubbed him. He killed him, right? On the spot, you know. Famous pictures, stamps, and Philippines all over. This is one of the historic places. What else? You want to know more about the Philippines? Capital is Manila.
Gabriel: No, no. That’s a perfect story. Magellan was killed there.
Heinz: In Moktan.
Gabriel: Hence, he failed in his attempt to circumnavigate the world.
Heinz: Who?
Gabriel: Magellan.
Heinz: He was killed there, but he had several ships on the trip around. I think five ships. And some of them already scuttled before. One turned around in a storm. Wasn’t he the five ships that he started, Magellan?
Gabriel: Yeah, he started with a lot.
Heinz: With five ships.
Gabriel: And in the end, he died. I didn’t know it was there.
Heinz: One ship made it back.
Gabriel: Yes.
Heinz: In Tarnate or Tidor, one of the islands where they loaded muscat. And that load was paying for all of it. From the original team, there was very, very few people from the original team on the last ship.
Gabriel: Oh, yes. That’s perfect for the Philippines.
Heinz: Next one. Woo! Woo! Kennst du das Uberhaupt? Kennst du das?
Gabriel: Guyana.
Heinz: You don’t know where that is.
Gabriel: Yes, it is in South…
Heinz: Oh, sorry, we have to speak English. You tell me about Guyana.
Gabriel: Guyana is a country in South America.
Heinz: And what else do you know?
Gabriel: It’s a former British colony. The capital is Georgetown. There’s also French Guyana. There’s two. There’s Guyana and there’s French Guyana.
Heinz: There are many Guyanas. It is just now big in the news because they found oil there. And Exxon is exploring, but it doesn’t help the people. Although there are millions of barrels of oil outside Guyana in the waters, you know. And it’s a disaster for the people because they don’t benefit from it. The two groups of people in Guyanas sind Africans, because they have been used that this was used to be an English colony and they used to have slave labor for sugarcane and tropical plantations. But the Africans are never considered very good workers because they like to drink, they like to fuck around, they like to dance, but they don’t like to work. So they brought Indian laborers to Guyana. And now you have 50% Indian Guyanans and 50% African Guyanans. And now the Americans coming with the oil business there. And I walked in Guyana. One of the most natural, amazing phenomenon. What would it be? Do you know anything about Guyana? Nothing.
Gabriel: Hey, hey, have some respect now. No, I’ve not been there.
Heinz: There is one of the most amazing waterfalls there. 220 meters straight fall. The river is called the Potaro and the waterfall is called Kaieteur. And Kaieteur means Old Man’s Fall. Because the Indian tribe that lived there would put an old man into the canoe for his last ride down the waterfall.
Gabriel: Oh, wow.
Heinz: And I walked 10 days, returned from Georgetown. It’s the capital that you know, that now you know.
Gabriel: No, I knew that.
Heinz: And I walked from Georgetown to the waterfall and back 10 days walking through the jungle. And in the jungle, you will find more, the Brazilians call them Garimperos. These are people that look for gold and diamonds. And they got a lot of diamonds there. And so I walked through the forest where there were camps of diamond hunters and gold hunters. And later, on the Venezuelan side, they got the highest waterfall in the world, Angel Falls. And not far from there used to be a Dutchman called Jungle Rudy. And he made adventure strips on the river to the bottom of Angel Falls and climb the Angel Falls. But I couldn’t do it because it was very expensive, you know. But I met Rudy as well. And this has to do with Guyana because the same kind of table mountains all over the place, you have the table mountains. Anyway, that’s Guyana. But I’ve been there two times, you know.
Gabriel: Now remember, you can also draw blue.
Heinz: What was blue?
Gabriel: Blue is just something to do with bicycle touring.
Heinz: That doesn’t ever come from me because it’s not organized. I’m a single one, the bicycling. What was the other one here?
Gabriel: Green is a year.
Heinz: Oh, that’s difficult. But only the year. Yeah, only the year.
Gabriel: 2008.
Heinz: All after 2000 is complicated. But 2008 I cycled most, 21,000 kilometers. That doesn’t sound much because there are a lot of people that ride, ride, ride. I get people that say they’re 35,000 a year. But that’s almost 100 kilometers per day. But that’s not traveling. That’s making records, you know. But this one just so happened that I had a round-the-world ticket. And every time I have a round-the-world ticket, I try to go to countries where I can ride a lot. So I go to Australia. So I ride 8,000 kilometers in Australia, go to another country and ride a lot of kilometers. But it was mainly to collect missing countries. Then I came back to Paris in November and I had 19,000 kilometers. And I said, hey, I can make a record year out of it. This is not important, but it’s sort of a teaser. So I said, oh, I’m going to visit my friends in Germany. And so I went to visit friends. And then I went to Berlin. Then I went to a house in southern Dresden that I’ve met in the South Pacific before. And then I went I cycle, I cycle, I cycle into Czechia, then into Hungary. And then into the Pusta, only to make kilometers. And Christmas, I arrived about 100 kilometers east of Budapest. I added the additional kilometers and I already reached the record number of that year. So I said, OK, I’ll turn around. And then I cycled back onto the Danube. And that was a cold year, 2008. And the Danube was frozen. And I cycled on the Danube cycle path. And there was no signs. There was no snow plowing on the cycle path. And I couldn’t cycle on the cycle path. I had to go on the main road.
Gabriel: Or on the river.
Heinz: I got pictures of it with ice-covered trees. It was a wonderful time. It was 15 below zero. I slept in my tent there all the way back and back and back until I decided, well, that was 2008, back in Paris again.
Gabriel: Wow. So that was a record year for you, 2008.
Heinz: Just under 22,000 kilometers. My best year. But 19,000, 20,000 several times.
Gabriel: OK, Heinz, I’m going to stop you.
Heinz: Another. Rapids. That’s a very… I’ve got so many rapids in my life. The river, one of the famous ones is on the Madeira river. Because on the Madeira is a side river of the Amazon. Have you heard of the Madeira?
Gabriel: No.
Heinz: Oh, well, then I can tell you not a lot of stories about it. But the Madeira, as a side river, is over 4,000 kilometers long. So among the longest rivers in the world, even the Madeira arrives among the 10 longest rivers in the world. But it’s only a side river. And on one part of the river, there are rapids for hundreds of kilometers. So shipping all over the Amazon, a lot of shipping. The biggest ships in the world can go to Iquitos, 5,000 kilometers in the Amazon, because it’s up to 100 meters deep. In many of the seas, you can’t get 100. But the rapids prohibit that. So the Madeira was only rideable by boat up to a place called Porto Velho. And from there, there was a train. It’s all scrapped now. But when I was there, the train was still running to a place called Guajaramirim, about 400 kilometers bypassing the rapids of the Madeira. And then in Guajaramirim, you could go into Bolivia.
Gabriel: Okay, here we go.
Heinz: What do you want me to take?
Gabriel: Whatever you like.
Heinz: Well, countries. I take a lot.
Gabriel: One at a time. There, you got one here.
Heinz: Oh, my God. This is the smallest country in the world.
Gabriel: Really? What did you get?
Heinz: Yeah, what is the smallest country in the world?
Gabriel: The smallest country in the world is the Vatican City.
Heinz: Oh, I get it and that’s not… it’s one of the smallest. It’s called Liechtenstein.
Gabriel: Ah, a European country.
Heinz: I passed through it. And three hours later, I was out again. And I was very upset about it, you know.
Gabriel: Yeah, before you know it, you’re out.
Heinz: On the other side of the river is Switzerland. So one day, when I made lists of which country I had visited, I decided, shame. Three hours in Liechtenstein, it doesn’t count. So I turned around and went especially to Liechtenstein for a number of days. And I cycled up to the mountains where there is skiing area. Have you ever been up there?
Gabriel: Not up there, no.
Heinz: Otherwise, you can’t stay long in Liechtenstein because it’s a very small area. Come on, get some more exciting countries.
Gabriel: All right. You’re the one drawing.
Heinz: Oh, it’s a very long one. It’s a Caribbean. It is two islands. I’m testing you now.
Gabriel: Trinidad and Tobago.
Heinz: No, it’s not. It’s an island group where every year the sailing week happens there. And when you can go up on the top of a hill, you can see billions of money blowing down below because all the big yachts are joining in a harbor. It’s a round harbor. It’s just thick full with each yacht cost millions. And it’s the famous sailing week.
Gabriel: I give up.
Heinz: This is called Antigua and Barbuda. Have you heard of it?
Gabriel: Yeah, I think you say it An-ti-gah, actually.
Heinz: An-ti-gah. “Ah,” “gua,” you cannot pronounce it properly. But it’s English-speaking and French-speaking because sometimes French, sometimes English. But now it’s more like English. When Antigua went to Montserrat, it’s a country where the volcano erupted. You know that? I met a pilot there in the boat from Antigua to Montserrat. There was a pilot who had to fly to measure the ashes in the air because the capital, Plymouth, was called, was under five meters of ashes. Sometimes the top of a building is stuck out of it and you could fly over it. And the volcano there was a very dangerous one. If you ever heard of Pompeii?
Gabriel: Sure.
Heinz: Why were the people killed in Pompeii? Why?
Gabriel: They were buried under ashes.
Heinz: The ashes, they were long since dead when the ashes fell.
Gabriel: The smoke, they died of asphyxiation.
Heinz: Yeah, this was a pyroclastic eruption. And the pressure built, hot air built in it until it broke through and then a wave of hot air would roll down the mountain with 500 kilometers an hour. Nobody could escape from it. That’s why so many are in good condition. They all died and then ashes. And that was Pompeii. Nicht Antigua. Ah Montserrat, I went to Montserrat, it had a pyroclastic eruption as well there. But Plymouth was evacuated long since, you know, so nobody was killed. The pilot went there and he flew over the volcano where you could still see smoke because it was maybe a year or so earlier, but it was still active. Which was a very interesting trip that I did with the pilot across the mountain. I shot some pictures with the whole side of the mountain where the pyroclastic and the ashes and then the lava as well came. That’s Antigua and Barbuda. There is another time, I missed my flight. I had a round-the-world ticket flight and I came to Antigua. I wanted to get a flight back to London. I went to British Airways and they said, “You missed your flight.” “Well, when is the next flight?” Six weeks later. It was impossible. So I, of course, came with my booklet and I told my story. And suddenly they put a British Airways map on my head. A British Airways T-shirt. The local news came and so it was taken. And, of course, the next flight was a place for me. I had to wait a couple of days and I flew back to London. A guest of honor.
Gabriel: You did it again. This time, take a blue one.
Heinz: What’s the blue? That’s the year.
Gabriel: No. Green is the year.
Heinz: Sleeping bag, that’s it. Thirty years, the same sleeping bag. Forty years, the same sleeping bag. I still use it.
Gabriel: Oh, I’m looking at your sleeping bag?
Heinz: But I don’t need it. What was it, a mark? This has to be in the same position because I have to use it on my cover. It’s actually rolled in because it has to have a special position to clip it over. See that?
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: See that? But it’s down, but it’s badly used. What are you looking for? A name on it or what?
Gabriel: No, I think it’s remarkable that…
Heinz: Nah, I don’t know, maybe it was Cremon. Do you know any sleeping bag firms?
Gabriel: Lots of sleeping bag firms.
Heinz: Yeah, I know.
Gabriel: Karrimor.
Heinz: That was a Karrimor.
Gabriel: Really? I got it.
Heinz: Yeah, yeah. This one is a very firm cover and the new ones, the feathers come out there. Suppose we are down sleeping bag when you feel feathers in there and it’s not down. It’s feathers and they are not as good. And they finally make their way through. It’s still here, you can have it. I never used it. After a couple of times it was shit. I choose something exciting.
Gabriel: Let’s see.
Heinz: Bloody hell. Mexico.
Gabriel: You can skip if…
Heinz: More than one year in Mexico, with girlfriends and everything. I have been many times in Mexico. Back through again, back again, back, back, back, back. Because Mexico is always on the way. When you go from North America to South America, you gotta go to Mexico. At 1968 Olympics I saw a lot. I saw the Black Power Salute.
Gabriel: Oh yeah?
Heinz: But the Americans, they were thrown out afterwards.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: It was not a good idea. I saw the 8.90 meters jump of Boeman. What was his name? It was 30 years. Never anybody jumped further.
Gabriel: The long jump.
Heinz: Long jump. What was his name?
Gabriel: Bob Beamon.
Heinz: Yeah. I saw that.
Gabriel: You saw that live?
Heinz: I saw that live. Football. I was a photographer behind the goal of the World Cup of 1970.
Gabriel: What? Wait, wait, wait, wait. That is surprising. How did you… Hold on. How did you get to be a photographer for the World Cup?
Heinz: Well, when I was in Mexico, I used to go to Agfa to ask for films. I had a booklet. I would put Agfa on the booklet. Well, if they had money, okay. If they had no money, films. So I asked for films and I went to the representative of Agfa. They were quite big in Mexico. Roberto Ramirez was the PR person at Agfa of Mexico. Agfa from Germany.
Gabriel: Just to clarify, Agfa made photographic film.
Heinz: Yes. I knew Ramirez and he proposed to come to be a photographer for the World Cup. I was in the center for reporters and journalists and the photographer people were there. And I got accreditation and I could choose where I wanted to be. To be a photographer, you know. The opening game was Mexico El Salvador, I think. Mexico won.
Gabriel: In fact, the opening match of the 1970 World Cup was a 0-0 draw between host nation Mexico and the Soviet Union. Mexico’s second game was a 4-0 victory against El Salvador. Since this is just about the only factual error I found when verifying Heinz’s responses, I am going to give him a pass.
Heinz: All the most exciting games I could choose where I wanted to be. I went when Germany played England. We lost 4-3 against Italy in the semifinal. You know that. And the final, of course. The final, I got pictures. Oh, many pictures of Pelé, Brazilian. 4-1 against Italy. Pele goal where he’s high up in the air. So he’s the short guy. But he jumped so high that it looks like he was two meters above the ground. When he made a goal with his head, you know, it’s all on the pictures here. Next time you come, when I can run, I show you the place. That’s interesting. If you see the magazine called L’Équipe, it’s a big famous French magazine. If you see it, where I’m in the picture.
Gabriel: Really? I need to see this.
Heinz: If you go and you see all the magazines behind the cupboard. And if you look through them, you find L’Équipe and you bring it.
Gabriel: Okay. Be right back.
Heinz: Behind, low, nay, not under, on the side.
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: Not there, at this height, at one-meter height.
Gabriel: Here.
Heinz: Before the door, the door in the middle. Yeah, down below. No, not that door. Big door.
Gabriel: Stay calm.
Heinz: The big door. You don’t need to shift it around. Just lift them up, lift them up, lift them up…
Gabriel: I’m not shifting.
Heinz: Until you see L’Equipe.
Gabriel: It’s simply not here.
Heinz: Well, sometimes it’s in another place because a lot of people are looking.
Gabriel: I’m coming back.
Heinz: I would show you, but I can’t show it. The greatest glory. And you see a centerfold with everybody storming the field when Brazil won the final with Pelé number 10. And I was there and I can see myself in the crowd as photographer, my camera in the hand.
Gabriel: That’s cool.
Heinz: Mexico is a very long story with girlfriends and what have you. When I was at Lucho’s, I don’t know if you heard of Lucho in the north of Mexico, in Trujillo, where he had Casa de Amistad, mainly for cyclists. I stayed there once, two weeks because I had a stiff neck. I couldn’t turn my head. You can read my booklet as sometimes I mentioned in the booklet. Did you ever see the booklet?
Gabriel: No.
Heinz: You will get it here. You do it right away before I forget it again. Under the green book. That’s my product that I’ve had all the time.
Gabriel: This?
Heinz: Yeah. I wrote it and everything that other people wrote are not exactly because sometimes they get the story wrong.
Gabriel: Oh, yeah. That’s common. So this booklet is called, Mit Dem Fahrrad Um die Welt or The World by Bike in English.
Heinz: I produced it and I went to a printer. I had it printed about 80,000 times printed.
Gabriel: Eighty thousand. Wow.
Heinz: This particular one is 20,000 printed. The 10,000 English ones and 10,000 in German. The English ones are virtually all gone. All sold. There are plenty of German ones left.
Gabriel: That’s Mexico. Okay, what’s the blue one you’ve got?
Heinz: Blue river. Romance. Well, the longest romance was the girlfriend in Belarus, Zoya. Eight years lasted. Every time I called, she said, “If you don’t marry me now, it’s over.” But every time she never had a better deal. Whenever I was back or called again, she accepted me. Until the day when she said, “I’m married now.” She was a translator. We spoke English together. And a translator proposed to her. She was fed up with the people that promised and never, never, never… So she said, “Unless you marry me, you don’t get me.” So he proposed right away. When I called that time, I was back from another trip around the world and I called and I finally got hold of her. Before that, she was working in Moscow. I only got her hold of her mother and she said, “Zoya is married now.” Well, that was it, you know. Telephone a few times back and forth. She was still waiting for the papers to get out of Belarus. She disappeared in England. Never heard of her again. But it was good because I could concentrate on my travels again, you know. Before that, she was already tough. She always wanted money. So she was also getting expensive. Romance, that was the biggest romance. But I had a romance with a violinist in Colombia, Luz Elvira Espinosa. She played for the Colombian Orquesta Sinfónica. There was a Swedish guy. He was a fashion designer and he was married to a Colombian woman. He invited me to his house for a steak dinner and his wife, Victoria, invited Luz, her sister. Both musicians, both when they sing together. Well, as long as I stayed there, she was my girlfriend. But then I went on my journey. Then I went into the Amazon and many, many weeks hunting for gold. And I met her in Bogota again. And we stayed together. I rented a room in Bogota. And so that was about the end. I kept on traveling and never heard about her again. But it was my fault, of course.
Gabriel: How are you doing, Heinz? Do you need a break?
Heinz: So you want to make a break?
Gabriel: You’re the one talking. Do you need a drink?
Heinz: I last forever. What do you want? Do you want a beer?
Gabriel: Yeah, I would have a beer.
Heinz: Can you drink a whole bottle?
Gabriel: Yeah, or we can split one.
Heinz: Or split one. I have a glass here. You want one with alcohol? I’d like that for change, with alcohol.
Gabriel: With alcohol.
Heinz: It’s monk beer. You know the opening?
Gabriel: Yeah. Plopp!
Heinz: Pluck. I hope you find it. One and a half years I haven’t been in the kitchen.
Gabriel: Okay.
Heinz: You got the right glass. This is my glass. Only half full. Because the way I drink here, I spill it.
Gabriel: So this is your glass? You want it half?
Heinz: I want to try that beer. No, no. Sideways. Sideways. You know the German way.
Gabriel: Yeah, I know.
Heinz: So that’s good enough. Prost.
Gabriel: Well, give me a minute.
Heinz: I will, I will.
Gabriel: Thank you for welcoming me to your home.
Heinz: Prost.
Gabriel: Prost. And here you have to click the bottom of the glass.
Heinz: On the bottom of my heart.
Gabriel: You ready? Should I take one? Now that you’ve got, should I read you one? Or you take one?
Heinz: Hallelujah. We have to stay until tomorrow to go through all of them.
Gabriel: No, we’re not going through all of them. Here’s the next one. It’s blue. Money.
Heinz: It’s most people do this for a time, but they can’t find money while they travel. And they would have to go back and then they travel again and then they travel to go back again. But I managed to find money on the way. First of all, you don’t spend much money. And you have a tent, you have a smile in your face. Every time you meet a person, you need to smile at him. And it’s amazing what a smile will do, you know. And you’re willing to talk to him. You always have time for other people. Most people, they are doing their thing. And that’s the problem. Leave me alone. I’ve got to make 150 kilometers today. When somebody stops, we talk and let’s have a drink. And we drink, and we drink another one. And we drink another one. And the rest of the day, I spent the time with him. But that is not somebody who has to go at a certain goal at that day, you know. But my goal is, it doesn’t matter what happens. I have time for people all the time. And eventually I managed to get basically also enough money because the first time I made a story for papers and I went to newspapers, magazines in South America already was over. So I can ask money for it, you know. The biggest money I got, about 7,000 for a story in Ubuntu, one of the German magazines, you know. But anyway, that was one way to find ways of making money. That was the way. And I had my booklet. It’s the first time in South Africa I made a booklet. And I started to give it away. It’s like a name card, you know. But it was bigger. It was four pages, six pages. A couple of photos, a little bit of story. My name, address, signed. And each time people said, “Oh, can we keep it?” “Sure.” I find German printers, they print it for free. And I would give it away. But they always asked, “Can we pay for it?” “Why can’t you pay for it? I can always use money.” So I start to sell them. The first time ever, and kept on, on the main post office in Cape Town, I sold it on the street. And in no time I had sold 4,000 booklets, you know. Hey, that’s a good idea. And in South America, I started to get first of all in the city, I got a new booklet. And the German communities, of course. So I found ways of not piling up the money in big ways, but easily enough to invite other poor Globetrotters, the other Globetrotters, they never had any money. And one time in Mexico, I sold booklets on the Zocalo, on the main square. And another guy was there, he was cycling around the world. And he was trying to make slideshows. And he found me there. At that time, you know, I didn’t give any change. He would throw the money into my back. And it was full of coins. He had a hard time raking in the money for a slideshow or something like that. And he said, he counted, he counted like 300 dollars in one day, you know. And he said, I think I must be doing something wrong.
Gabriel: Should I take the glass?
Heinz: No, it’s not… there’s something in there.
Gabriel: Okay. I’ll have a bit more.
Heinz: I’m a slow drinker. Do you want to have some cookies? There’s some cookies up there. Okay. Speculations.
Gabriel: But that’s not a proper dinner.
Heinz: Well, I can order a pizza from here. You can order it as well. And there’s somebody who will answer. Giovanni. Pizza Giovanni. I order it many, many times.
Gabriel: Okay.
Heinz: Look at the kitchen. Did you see on the roof? That’s everything from Giovanni.
Gabriel: So I’m in the kitchen now, and the ceiling is indeed covered with old pizza boxes. Many of them have been signed and dated by earlier visitors.
Heinz: I hope none have fallen down.
Gabriel: No, not yet. Here’s a pizza box signed by “The Film Crew. Albert – Jordi – Pau – Salva.” Those must be the guys who made the Netflix film about Heinz, The Man Who Wanted to See It All.
Heinz: Formerly, every evening, whenever some come up at nine o’clock, we drink and talk, blah, blah, blah. And then, “You’ve got something to eat there?” “Well…” “Okay, we’ll order a pizza.” Every other night, we ordered a pizza, you know, you see on the roof. Everybody is there, who signs it. And it’s kind of a souvenir.
Gabriel: The next one is blue. Very appropriate. Exotic food.
Heinz: Ein Weltenbummler isst grundsätzlich alles.
Gabriel: Alles. Yes. A world traveler eats basically everything.
Heinz: Da kommst du dann und musst dann gebratene Tarantulas essen. Tarantulas.
Gabriel: Yeah, Tarantulas, yeah.
Heinz: Spinnen.
Gabriel: English. English, Heinz. Switch to English please.
Heinz: The tarantulas. They’re already prepared. They were fried, stucked up there. And, well, if you order, it was a curiosity for a lot of tourists would go to eat tarantulas, you know. So it was, well, maybe even the local people, because it was not exactly only made for the tourists. It was an original thing that the locals used and it was an edible tarantula.
Gabriel: And where was this exactly?
Heinz: It was 100 kilometers north of Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. I’ve heard about it. I made a bypass there, but I was there in the morning and at the same time they had cashew plantations. They have huge cashew plantations. And the cashew fruit, do you ever see cashew plants?
Gabriel: Yeah.
Heinz: And it’s sweet. The fruit is sweet, but the cashew is hanging below and it was taken off and then you have, then it’s inside the nut. But the fruit is just a sweet fruit. It has a bit of acid, but there at that time where I was there, it was just a plantation. As far as I could see, the plantation of cashew and they were also selling [tarantulas] there morning, morning at nine o’clock I was there. I did not even want to… and I mean, some people just for the heck of it will bite into it. But I see this and I don’t need to eat it. Not at nine o’clock in the morning.
Gabriel: No, definitely not.
Heinz: So I bought the cashew plants next door to a few yards away from it, you know. But I watched the people, but there was not many people at that time there.
Gabriel: No, I’m surprised they were open.
Heinz: The tourists are coming at a certain time. Organized tourism, they got a bus. They got to get breakfast in the hotel. The first start was from 10 to 12 o’clock. It’s the visiting time. Okay, off we go to the tarantulas.
Gabriel: If you are enjoying this interview with Heinz, stay tuned for more incredible stories. I will also delve into his notebook of statistics, his diaries, his notebook of keywords for every country, and his filing cabinets. It’s all coming up in Episode 51, right after the pizza break.
Gabriel: The transcript for this episode is available on The Accidental Bicycle Tourist website. I welcome feedback and suggestions for this and other episodes. You’ll find a link to all contact information in the show notes. If you would like to rate or review the show, you can do that on your favorite podcast platform. You can also follow the podcast on Instagram. Thank you to Anna Lindenmeier for the cover artwork and to Timothy Shortell for the original music. This podcast would not be possible without continuous support from my wife, Sandra. And thank you so much for listening. I hope the episode will inspire you to get out and see where the road leads you
Gabriel: What year did you get?
Heinz: It’s impossible, because it’s 1917.
Gabriel: No, I didn’t do 1917.
Heinz: That’s what I mean, 2017. I’m here.
Gabriel: Oh, you’re here.
Heinz: Not 1917
Gabriel: You said 1917. Play the tape!
Heinz: 1917 I wasn’t born. Come on.