HorizonsUnlimited

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

To the Prynees


So we  spent some time updating our Blog, up loading (3 attempts)  the Alp D’Huez video. And generally enjoying a free camp site of the quality that Fredric and his wife had ‘loaned’ us Fantastic. And we hope we can repay their generosity  if they ever decide to ‘tour Oz’.



So we got way bang on 11:00am, I had given the GPS a simple instruction. Andora’s capital city. And it was on the case no problems today.  But as I have said some days the Motorway is the ticket. And it would be for 80% of today. The last 20% were into the Foot hill and beyond to the western Pyrenees. I (we ?) had another great day blasting through (gott’a remember it’s a Xvr750 weighing about 550Kgs) so blasting is not quite correct…) into turns and up the seemingly never ending climbs.
Getting our 1st break sorted out (12:30)

Motorway is close by

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Autostrada



25/09/11


We left our Hotel near Venice at about 09:00, and wobbled our way onto the Autostrada hoping we could work out how to use the ticketing and payment systems for the toll, hopefully improving after our trip into Venice!!  I had the GPS try and route us quite a long distance, but once into the GPS it came up with “Not Enough Memory to compute Route” messages.   We’d seen these a few times and I figured that with all the data present in these ‘ Europe Map Set’ this model GPS is too small to ‘plot’ Aussie size routes (distance wise). So we just set the GPS to compass mode, and we were on one of Italy’s busiest  Autostraders so it was easy to point us to the west. It only got a bit trickier when passing over/around/through a city. But the basic ‘Head West Young(Old) Man idea worked.





With that it put distance between Venice and ourselves nicely  ”thank-you-very-much”! We did decide to get onto the Autostrader and ‘tour’ Northern country Italy and rode through fields of corn and other crops I did not quite know. Saw grape vines and fields with harvesters working. We stopped in a small village at a pub.  After the normal bumbling along for language we got our foccacia (which was yum) and Deb finely got milk for her black tea…




Sunday, September 25, 2011

To the Alps or ...




Which direction to program into the GPS?… OK Alps it is…

View out the window of the Hostel we stayed in.


It took some time (camp time I think) until Deb’s frosty demeanour thawed. But that is how it goes… We (I) had a good day riding over several passes and we made camp.  So we were headed to the Alp’s!! The day was a bright, sunny and clear. The overnight temp had been about 1’c - 2’c. As we have been starting late most days it was warming up by the time we got going (10:30am). We stopped at an ALDI store (not our favourite for variety) to get some (minor) supplies for a snack / lunch on the way.






You
You Tube Video of us riding through the Alps in Austria.
Click here

Wednesday, September 21, 2011



We awoke to the continuous noise of rain drops on the tent!  Dozing on & off we hoped for it to brighten up…..NO!  It rained all day; by the time we had packed up the tent we were soaked.  Luckily in the shower room there were hair dryers which we put to good use for our hair & our clothes!!  So once packed & ready to leave we realised we could not find the swipe card to let us exit through the gate.  Basically, we unloaded the whole bike to find the bloody thing!!!  After a good 20 minutes of searching we found it.  It was in Steve’s trouser pocket…….From there we rode off to the local DHL post office to send some souvenir’s we had purchased from the ‘Castles’, which took a good 45 minutes or so.  As time was getting away from us and we still hadn’t had any breakfast we decided to go to the hotel we had lunch at the day before & did a bit more emailing & blogging. Most importantly we needed to get the address of the HPN motorcycle company for our randevu  (sorry can’t spell) with Claudia & Werner.  Whilst at the hotel we decided to have a late breakfast, early lunch of delicious pumpkin soup & bread roll.


 Once underway we suffered further delays in the non-stop rain of about an hour & a half, which put us further behind our meeting with Claudia & Werner.   Mr P, one of the Directors of HPN, helped out with some minor maintenance!!  Whilst there Mr P gave us a personal tour of his ‘factory prepared’ off road endurance races, Paris Dakar.  Steve, felt very honoured to have been able to view these ‘thoroughbred race bikes’.  As it was after 7:00 pm we went to the little village & booked a room in the pub.  Claudia & Werner had dinner with us & then they headed back home for a 7 hour trip to Ramscheid.  This would be the last time we will see them again until we arrive back home in November.


Head Cam video, in Bavaria
We had a pretty good sleep, nice & cosy. When we woke this morning (Tuesday) the sky was a bit over cast but no rain.  The TV weather report showed the weather to be improving over the next few days.  So far that has proved to be true.  We were back on the road by 10:30 heading South towards the Alps.  Part way decided to do away with any GPS navigation & went by compass directions to see where that would take us.  Guess what?  We found snow on the Alps!!!!  It looked freezing cold.  I’ve got goose bumps now thinking about it. 
Leaving an Austrian Ski Lodge after Coffee.


Even more flowers !


View from a pass heading back into Germny from Austria.




Alipne Stream / River.
Another angle on the same pass.


In the later part of the day we stopped at many hotel / motels looking for accommodation, to our surprise a lot of it was booked out or way over our budget.  Finally we found a smallish Hostel , that had internet & a place out the back to store the bike securely.  It was around 8:00pm by the time we went for a walk & found a nice Chinese Restaurant for dinner.
Mess in the home last night (20Sep2011). Drying the tent etc...


Steve & Debs Chinese Laundry


Sexy Bike!! Still going great.



See you in the morning!


P.S. It's a great day. Sunny and not clouds, cool (2'c) but warming to 20'c they say. Will be heading for the hills soon.


Stephen and Deb.

Monday, September 19, 2011

We made it to 'Neuschwanstein & Hohenschwangau Castles''



Saturday 17/9/11

After a good sleep last night, we were off by 9:15 arriving at the BMW Museum around 10:30. While I was checking out the parking & fee payment, Stephen was being ‘famously’ photographed by Japanese tourists, then when he told them where he was from they took more photos. 
Our very own Wardrobe at the BMW Museum (frei)


H2R High Speed Hydrogen Powered Test Vehicle


What shall we build?  ah, an Isetta - the first car BMW built after the war

Mmmmmmmm.....................................

 It is a gigantic museum; unfortunately some parts of the museum had suffered technical problems so we did not get to see that section.  Stephen really enjoyed seeing all the bikes & vehicles, talking about the history of BMW.  We were there for a good 3.5 hours.  Now we can tick that one off, Brad.

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Loreley trail walk, Romantic Rhine.


Friday 16th Sep 2011.

We/I had spent some time using up the 5 euro unlimited Internet access, as it was quick speed, updating the Blog and more photos etc. I had even tried to upload several Drift Movies. But two at about 250Mb and 330Mb did not work. Will have to setup a YouTube account and put them up there, to link back to the Blog.

The trail begins.

The view from 1/2 up the hill, to the village.



We have planned to do a short 2-3 hour hike this morning. The kind lady at the caravan park had told us of a walk, and as we had spent some time not doing much exercise  a walk up and down a few hills was a good idea.

We woke about 07:00am and were packed up ready to leave the bike and our riding gear at the reception area for a safe area for the manager to watch over our gear and bike. Then we set off for our walk by 09:30. The hike (walk really) took us through the small town and up a series of steps before getting out onto the dirt (Yes real dirt in Germany!!) trail.  We are not (yet ?) good German speakers (getting better bit by bit) and we had thought we could get in to look at the Schloss Katz Burg. But no, the gate to the hill top castle was shut and the sign said it was a private place.  So we walked on and up a bit further in to the village at the top of the hill. We got a bit lost following the trail markers, (Yes, all good Scouters get lost!) and ended up back down the hill we’d just walked up. Oh well more leg work got us back up the hill and back on track. We were not alone in getting lost either; another couple were a bit lost too. Checking the lamp post in more detail showed the path was not too far away, and we were off again.

The gate is closed.


Castle Katz Burg.
We got back to the caravan park about 12:45 and got the laptop out again to re-check emails and any other messages. Our plan now was to ride to the next large town and cross the river, as by then the nice scenic riding would be at an end.  As the sections further upstream get busier with industry and the picture post card views are less. As we have planned to visit the Munich BMW museum we still had 430 Kms to go and many Autobhans to navigate our way through. So off we went, stopping a few times to try to get a quick photo along the way. We got some late lunch and a cuppa, and headed across the river on a ferry service (4 euro), to get out selves onto the correct autobahn, and on our way proper to the next destination.


Train Tunnel
Welcome to Lorely

Adding the Berlin Map to the GPS...in the sunshine! 


We managed to get 75kms from Munich by 21:30 and decided we’d better stop and get a motel room, as the kampingplatz I was heading towards would be closed by the time we got there.  As Deb was in booking a room in one of the large road side stops dotted along the autobhans  I stayed with the bike and gear. Plenty of German’s enjoying the Friday evening with beers and wine in the car park. I saw a Porsche GT2 Carrara Turbo in the parking bay opposite where I had packed. So over I saunter and check out this fine vehicle. After about 2 mins of ‘perving’ the blinkers flash and the lights all come on, I look up to see a couple approaching. Obviously the owner and his wife, I said he had a “fine car”, he said “English?, no Aussie I said. So we began to chat, it turns out that this weekend Oktoberfest starts in Munich!! and all the camping places,  Hotels and Pensions will all be chocca-block full of party goers!! So for sure without booking we’ll have no chance of staying in Munich. So good planning Huhh!

So new plan is too still visit the BMW Museum, but only for one day, and then head out of town over to “That Castle”, and then to the HPN factory for our meeting on Monday (19th). Then turn and head quick to Spain, and Portugal, down to Gibraltar and over to Morocco for 3 weeks.

Friday, September 16, 2011

I need to learn this GPS.

The Ring! Spot the Spot Tracker doing an 'OK' message...


Next day was another cracker of a day weather wise, clear blue skies and a crisp cool outside temp. We got underway about 10:30 and made it to the Nurnberg Ring about 12:30. Last night, Udo and I had some fun trying to sort out how to get the Garmin Mapsource to route the roads he had suggested. It took a heap of waypoints set along the road but the PC Mapsource finally would auto route the way we wanted. BUT… When it came to my GPS (Garmin60CSX), it was another matter. The GPS had us going in circles hitting waypoints and then ask to turn about, and re-routing us along other roads. Bugger, I was ignoring the GPS in the end and taking roads I thought I would get us where we needed to be.  (the GPS auto routing is upset by us wanting to take the smaller roads, even with that setting set in mapsource.  The GPS re-calculate the route based on what it decides to do)
Winding Roads.

Still we had a great day, twisting and winding up and down narrow lanes and roads. As we made our way to the Nurnburg Race track. Where we visited the info centre and started to check out the museum.  But it looked like it was all in German and with time not on our side. We headed to our destination on The Mosel River and a camp ground Udo had suggested for us. (the race track opened at 4:00 pm which was far too late for us)

More fun smaller roads and before long we were setting up camp, and getting some dinner sorted out.
A View into the Mosel Valley.



Weather was fine but cool, almost everyone else seemed to be in shorts and T shirt. But we did feel the cool breeze in the valley and were soon in our fleece tops to keep the cold out.



pluck a Duck. Or a Goose!

Dinner Guests.


We met a NZ push biker who had been riding about Europe for the past 8 weeks, with quite a few left to go.
Tim the NZ Pushbiker, and our camp.

camp the reception and facilities area.


Off we go.

So Tuesday morning and we’re packing to head off again from Remscheid. Packed up and got onto the Autobhan for the 30 min run into Koln, where we were to stop off for a quick bit of ‘pants’ shopping for Stephen.
The bike loaded.

The suspect at large.

But disaster, well not quite!! As we maneuvered the fully loaded XRV in and about the narrow two lanes where some road works were happening in stop-start-stop traffic. I managed to lose my footing and at zero Kmh the bike and us went over!!!!!  Bugger, I said as we slowly tipped over on to the tarmac…  ( I don’t quite remember the word as BUGGER?*^%#

Well we spent a few minutes picking up the beast and slipping and sliding on the spilt fuel coming out of the over flow pipe. We held up one lane for about 3-5 minutes I guess. But not one German would come over to help …..(there were many about…) The workmen were too busy pissing themselves with laughter and the car drivers were too cross or angry for being delayed I guess.


Thursday, September 15, 2011

Wedding Bells


Friday, unfortunately a little wet.but the rain was not going to upset a magical day.  2:00 pm was the Council wedding.  Claudia looked beautiful in her light blue wedding dress and Werner looked very handsome in his.  At this ceremony all the family were invited to attend.  It was held in a small room with the marriage registrar undertaking the formalities of the day.  Claudia &Werner had their friends, Hunka & Yen's as their witnesses.  At the end of the ceremony Hunka's young daughter Micha presented Claudia with a lovely posie of flowers.  They were a beautiful orange colored arrangement  placed in an intake manifold  for a BMW Boxer engine! Everyone had a laugh at that.

We then went back to Werner's parents workshop where we were indulged in beautiful cakes, coffee & monsterous amounts of food.
Deb, Werner, Jurgen &  Claudia

The Lovely Bride

The Bride & Groom

One of the lovely cakes

Black Forrest Cake

& look at these....

In side the workshop for afternoon tea



Saturday, 10th September 2011, The Church Wedding.

Once again Claudia looked absolutely beautiful, this time she was wearing a beautiful white, elegant wedding dress.  Yes, Werner looked handsome too!!

This time family and friends were present.  Some a little late due to an 8 car pile up on the A1 Autobahn.  The ceremony went well, unfortunately we had a little trouble understanding the Priest!  Our German has improved but......definately not that much.

After the ceremony, Werner had arranged to borrow an 'outfit' (motor bike & side car).  This looked great, us and 7 or 8 other bikers followed the Newly Weds home.  Bikes tooting, lights flashing and of course the cans that were tied to the back of the bike making a loud noise driving down the hill.  Many people just stopped and stared.  It was amazing! 

Once back at the 'workshop' more food was waiting for us.....I have never eaten so much food over 2 days!!!!!  Werner's aunty had made and decorated most of the cakes....The top cake had  the 2 kangaroos on it (thanks Leonie)  they were held upright in white chocolate. hmmmm, yum.

Aunty Hildegard had made many cakes from the different countries Werner & Claudia had visited, macadamia cheese cake, coconut cheese cake and bailey's cheese cake just to name a few.



Saturday, 10th September 2011, The Church Wedding.

Once again Claudia looked absolutely beautiful, this time she was wearing a beautiful white, elegant wedding dress.  Yes, Werner looked handsome too!!
Before the Preist

This time family and friends were present.  Some a little late, due to an 8 car pile-up on the A1 Autobahn.  The ceremony went well; unfortunately we had a little trouble understanding the Priest!  Our German has improved but......definitely not that much.

After the ceremony, Werner had arranged to borrow an 'outfit' (motor bike & side car).  This looked great, us and 7 or 8 other bikers followed the Newly Weds home.  Bikes tooting, lights flashing and of course the cans that were tied to the back of the bike making a loud clanging noise driving down the hill.  Many people just stopped and stared.  It was amazing! 
To the Outfit and away...

Follow those cans!!

Once back at the 'workshop' more food was waiting for us.....I have never eaten so much food over 2 days!!!!!  Werner's aunty had made and decorated most of the cakes....The top cake had the 2 kangaroos on it (thanks Leonie) they were held upright in white chocolate. Mmmm, yum.

Aunty Hildegard had made many cakes from the different countries Werner & Claudia had visited, macadamia cheese cake, coconut cheese cake and bailey's cheese cake just to name a few.
Cakes cakes and more cakes

Denim and Lace. The party kicks on...

As Claudia and Werner still intend on travelling after the wedding, many of their friends were very inventive with their gifts.  They were given a cheque for  their favorite bike manufacturer, HPN so they can buy spare parts, someone had put together a little sand pit made up like a treasure hunt – with money buried throughout the sand, money folded into origami animal shapes – amazing!

The festivities actually ended after 3 days, family members were still around to indulge in coffee & cakes!!.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Off On our own (for 3 Days at least).

Monday morning we headed towards Berlin and getting a bit lost, as Steve had not loaded the right map into the GPS! Some how missing the Potsdam map!), staying at a camping park Sanssouci. Which is right on one of the lakes surrounding Potsdam about 25 km south east of Berlin.


Due to our slight navigation misshap we stopped at trusty McDonalds for some WiFi access and to load in the missing map onto the GPS. But as we have found not all McDonalds over here have free WiFI. And this one had a Hot-Spot but only if you were a Deasculand T-Mobile Customer! We are not with them for our mobile phone access so it was just a good chance to warm up out of the rain with a coffee and a cake.

Without further problems we got to the camping park (Kampplatz) all ok. Deb sorted where and what was on offer. A ‘plot’ for the tent was 34euro per day, or we could have a barrel for 38euro! What the hell was a Barrel! So off we went to check it out with a nice young (English speaking) lady.  Who showed us a camp plot, Sandy base… and the Barrel (they had two). Which was a small pine shelter shaped to look like a barrel.  Kinda like a wooden tent I thought. We agreed we could stretch the extra $5au per day for a wooden Barrel.
Our Home for the next few days.
The Barrel Story...

Inside our 'Wooden Tent'!



After unloading the bike and storing our gear inside the Barrel, we headed back into town to an Aldi store we had seen to pick up some food supplies and also to have a short ride about to check out the general area.

Dinner this night was to be pasta sauce, pasta, cheese and something to drink (apart from Tea for Deb). I found a Cab -Sav red wine from Chili for 1.49 euro (about $1.88au). And going with Ray Dom’s suggestion that Chilean wine is a lot like Aussie wine I bought it. It was great, quite like a South Aussie Red indeed, and the price made it even better I reckon!!
Sundowner and snacks on the balcony

We sat on our balcony overlooking a lake as the sun set, sipping red wine, whilst bashing out a Blog story (MRT Rally). While the camping stove sorted out dinner, Fantastic! Hope we find more spots like this one.
Our view across Lake Havel from our Balcony.