We now have about 6 weeks to explore Germany, or whatever we choose.

Monday-Thursday, July 30-August 2, 2001

We left Andreas & Sabine late Monday morning and headed west to Aachen, which was only an hour or so away. As Aachen is a popular tourist town, we were concerned about finding a place to stay, but we found that wasn’t a problem in August. It seems that August is vacation month in Germany and almost everyone takes their vacation and heads south to the warm of the beach areas. In fact, the room rates were reduced, so it is obviously considered off-season. We had a great time exploring the town, which you find recorded in our Aachen page in the Germany section of Our Travels. We also used the time to get some items mailed, shopped for some computer bits and bobs, and just enjoyed our relaxing walks about town. It was quite warm and humid while were were there and so we were always on the lookout for some good, cold, ice cream. 

Friday-Saturday, August 3-4, 2001                      Top of Page

We headed north to Arnhem in the Netherlands as Jim wanted to visit the war sites there. The taking of the bridge at Arnhem was chronicled in the movie “A Bridge Too Far”. We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday and headed to the Tourist Information Office to see if we could find a hotel for the night. Unfortunately, U2 was in town that night and the place was booked. So much for timing. They finally found us a place about 20 kilometers outside of town so we didn’t have to sleep on the street. Saturday we went into town to find a few of the monuments (most are outside of the city) and did find the bridge (well, the reconstructed bridge) and a few plaques and pictures in the area. We also wandered through town, doing a bit of window-shopping, as well as browsing at the Saturday market in the center of town as we dodged the rain drops. Jim was planning on visiting the other sites and museums on Sunday when we realized that Monday morning we needed to be in Limburg, several hours away (he was thinking that our appointment for the 24,000 mile service on Verna’s bike was a week later - its easy to lose track of time traveling in the mode we do). So, Arnhem, we will be back!

Sunday-Monday, August 5-6, 2001                     Top of Page

We had an easy, but somewhat boring ride to Limburg on Sunday as we drove the autobahn the whole way. Even though it isn’t as enjoyable as the back roads, the autobahn through this area is at least very scenic and has curves and hills, so it is not too bad. We took a short walk through Limburg Sunday evening and found the interesting Dom as well as many half-timbered houses. Most of the houses had a bit of lean to them as they have settled over the years. It appeared to us that if one were to collapse, the whole place would fall like dominos. Luckily, most appeared to be well preserved and in excellent condition.

Monday we took care of our business, including Verna’s x-rays (no problems) and a 24,000 mile service for her bike (problems). Unfortunately, they found that both the front and rear brake discs were warped and had to be replaced. Fortunately, they honored our 3 year warranty from the states. The front discs were replaced but the rear had to be ordered so we made an appointment for our next trip through the area.

Tuesday, August 7, 2001                                Top of Page

Decision time again. Where to now? We decided to head back over to the Eifel area and ended up at our favorite hotel in Nurburg. We got settled and wanted to check our e-mail, but found we couldn’t call the 800 access number from our room. The staff seemed to know nothing about the problem, so we had to use a non-toll-free number. Guess this is not our favorite hotel any more. But they had a really good cherry kuken (coffee-cake) for breakfast!

Wednesday, August 8, 2001                            Top of Page

We were still deciding where we wanted to go, when Jim remembered he wanted to find a specific town in eastern Germany that makes watches. So we pinpointed the town, then make a route on the GPS using the 2 endpoints. We hit the road with no more than a straight line pointing from Nurburg to Glashütte in the northeast corner of Germany. Now this is a new route-planning method for us, as we usually do a bit more preplanning to decide what roads to take. But with all the nice back roads through Germany, it may be a bit more adventuresome this way. At least more dynamic! 

We simply found the nearest road that was heading in our general direction, and followed it until it started to veer off in an unwanted direction, then took the next road that would put us back on course. Needless to say, we found lots of interesting roads and many that were not too heavily traveled. Many times we were the only vehicles in sight for miles. We also went through some neighborhoods that don’t generally get tourist traffic, judging from the surprised looks we got as we passed through. But other than the off & on rain, we had a good time and got to practice our U-turns a lot (“Yes, that WAS our turn back there!”). We have found that unless we are viewing the map at a close-up level (e.g., 500-800m), we find it difficult to pinpoint the actual location of the turn at times. And since most of these small roads only have a sign with a town name on it (which is usually not shown on the GPS), it is difficult to know if you have the right turn or not. 

Late in the afternoon we started looking for a place to stay, but a lot of these small towns don’t have (or don’t advertise) hotels. Finally, about 5pm we came into a larger town (Betzdorf) and found a small hotel. It was the Dom hotel, which should have been our first clue that it was across the street from the Dom, which of course chimes each quarter hour as well as bongs on the hour. Loudly. Well, it would have to be loud so the whole town could hear it, right? Luckily, after 10pm, they used a smaller bell or somehow muffled the large one as the chimes and bongs were much quieter (thank you!).

Thursday, August 9, 2001                               Top of Page

Well, the loud bell came alive today at 7 am. So much for sleeping in! It is not yet raining, but looks like it could start any minute. And of course it does, just as we are packing the bikes, but luckily it is fairly light. 

We hit the road again, following our directional line on the GPS. At least Jim is. Verna’s GPS lost the route when the batteries ran down last night when we were trying to download more map info. And we found that the rechargeable batteries do not work well in the GPS, so now we have to buy alkaline ones. Argh! 

Yesterday Jim calculated that for every 1 km of progress along our “route line,” we drive 3 km. We are sure we would make much better time driving the autobahn, but it certainly wouldn’t be as entertaining (for us or for the locals). Today we passed through an area where most of the houses not only had slate roofs, but also slate siding on the second story. Then we came to the town of Raum - where almost all of the houses in the older part of town were completely slate-sided. And there was some real craftsmanship. There were intricate designs of circles, diamonds and arches in the overlapping slate that made these places a work of art. Later in the day we passed through several villages where most of the houses were well-restored half-timbered structures. And of course, between the villages were the acres and acres of golden wheat fields interspersed with dense green woods. This is why we ride the back roads and not the autobahn. Oh, there was also the village that obviously was into pig farming. Whew!

We stopped for the night in the town of Bad Karlshafen on the Weser river. It is a lovely, small resort town that obviously sees its share of the tourist trade. It seems to be fairly low-key and comfortable. There is a large camping area on the other side of the river with huge pool. Tour boats run up and down the river all day and several hotels and restaurants serve their guests on terraces overlooking the river. After seeing all this, we thought it might be nice to stay here for a few days, but with the weekend coming, everything was pretty well booked.

Friday, August 10 - Sunday, August 12, 2001             Top of Page

We left Bad Karlshafen this morning after stopping at the Tourist Information Office. We were very happy that we stopped and picked up some information about the local area. It appears that we have stumbled into the land of Fairy Tales. The Brothers Grim wrote many of their popular and well known Fairy Tales while they lived in Kassel which is about 30 KM south of Bad Karlshafen. The entire area is know as the Land of Fairy Tales.

So, we headed south to Kassel and then returned about halfway towards Bad Karlshafen and located a place to stay for the next three nights in the town of Minden. See the Land of Fairy Tales page for more info on the area.

Monday, August 13 - Tuesday, August 14, 2001         Top of Page

Today was an Autobahn day - return to Limburg and get the remaining work on Verna’s 24,000 mile service completed. The rear brake disk is scheduled for replacement Tuesday.

Wednesday, August 15, 2001                          Top of Page

Back on the road again with the brake problems resolved and we headed south to the town of Idstein to pickup some mail that had been delivered to the hotel we had stayed in when we arrived in the area on the Autozug (train) a month ago. We thought it would be test results and it turned out to be a bill for lab work. So, it was off to the post office to get money transferred to pay the bill. Most things here are done through bank transfers. These can be expensive but you can do the same thing from the post office for half the price.

Thursday, August 16 - Wednesday, August 22, 2001      Top of Page

We drove south to the town of Kandel. We had stayed here earlier in the year when attending the IEP 3. We found the hotel and then met Sascha and Michaela Leitz and had a nice dinner at the restaurant that now operates in the hotel.

Our plan is to hang out at the hotel for the next week or so and use the days to explore the Black Forest which is just south of us. On Saturday, Michaela and Sascha (on their R1100GS and K1200LT pictured at right) and the two of us took a ride through part of the Black Forest that is south of their home. Sascha is quite an accomplished rider - we think he must provide many surprises for the boys on their sport bikes because he can do better than they can on his much larger and heavier bike. Michaela is relatively new to motorcycling but is a very good rider and we want to see her on the road more so she can get more experience.

It was a very pleasant day with the temperature almost too warm. We stopped for coffee/tea and cake halfway through the ride. We really enjoy the outdoor cafe’s that are so proliferous in this part of the world. It is really nice to sit at your table enjoying your food watching 20+ Porsche 914’s go by - we think that they were participating in a rally of some sort.

On Sunday we the four of us plus their son Jonas, who is two years of age, took a tour of Karlsruhe in Sascha’s 25 year old Mercedes. See the Karlsruhe page in the Germany section of Our Travels for more details.

We owe Sascha and Michaela a great deal of thanks. They provided wonderful tour services and excellent meals at their home in Kandel. In addition to their son Jonas they have a very nice cat that Jim managed to make friends with. Thanks again for your wonderful hospitality!

Thursday, August 23 to Sunday, August 26, 2001         Top of Page

On to the Schwarzwald (Black Forest)! We spent the first part of this week exploring more of this unique part of Germany, staying at the resort of Titisee. See the Schwarzwald page in the Germany section of Our Travels for details.

Thursday, August 26 to Thursday, August 30, 2001       Top of Page

After the Titisee, we headed south through the Schwarzwald, then east to Lake Konstance, then on to Mittenwald in southern Bavaria. Great riding roads and even more fantastic views! See the Bavaria page in the Germany section of Our Travels for details.

Thursday, August 30, 2001

Today we made the fast route back to Kandel, passing through Ulm on the way. That afternoon allowed us some time to visit the town of Ulm, which you can read about on our Ulm page in the Germany section of Our Travels.

Friday, August 31, 2001                                  Top of Page

We left the bikes with Sascha today and boarded a train for Amsterdam. We got to the station with plenty of time so we stashed our things in a locker and walked to town for lunch and to buy some English novels. Upon returning to the station, we learned that we had misread the tickets and had missed our train. Luckily, when you buy a ticket, it is good for a number of days, but we needed to make another reservation for seats. We found another that was leaving in an hour, but there were no spaces in the no smoking sections of the train. So we booked in smoking, figuring that was better than no place to sit.

It turned out okay for the first few hours as no one was smoking in the smoking section! Occasionally someone would come in and smoke, but it wasn’t a problem. Yet. Then, for the last couple of hours, four American service men came in and sat across from us. They then proceeded to smoke the entire rest of the trip.

Saturday, September 1, 2001                          Top of Page

Today we flew to Dublin, Ireland. Not a long trip, but made longer by the fact that once on the plane we had to sit for an hour waiting our turn (the flight was late boarding and we had lost our takeoff time). Then when we got to Dublin, they seemed to have trouble finding someone to send out the jetway.

Sunday-Wednesday, September 2-5, 2001             Top of Page

We spent this time visiting friends in Dublin and walking around the city, bringing back memories of our 2 years there. It was really great seeing friends, both Irish and American after so much time. We keep in touch with e-mail, but it is just not the same as seeing them in person. The weather was the usual Dublin mix of rain and partial cloudiness. Of course we had to visit Burdock’s for our fix of cod and chips. Yum! On Wednesday morning we flew back to Amsterdam.

Thursday, September 6, 2001                          Top of Page

Today was uneventful as we boarded the train to ride back to Karlsruhe. However, a young family was seated next to us with a rather loud and mercurial young child. It was enough to drive anyone crazy. It was all we could do to try and ignore him and read our books. Luckily they got off after a couple of hours so we did get some peace in the second half of the ride. Yes, the joys of public transport!

Sascha was there at the station to meet us, even though we were almost an hour late. We repacked the bikes and headed out, amidst the light but steady rain.

Friday, September 7, 2001                             Top of Page

Today was our run to the Czech Republic. We stayed on the autobahn to make the best time as we didn’t have the time to wander on the back roads. We entered the Czech Republic at Cheb, southwest of Prague. There was a small line of cars to enter which moved rather quickly. The trucks were not as lucky as there was a line several kilometers long and it was moving very slowly. When we got to the officials, they looked at Jim’s passport and his registration plate, then waved us on, not even bothering to check Verna’s. We noticed a sign indicating one must buy a pass to drive on the autobahn. Jim checked and found that it was not needed for motorcycles. Yes!

The autobahn was in very good condition and the drivers quite reasonable and the traffic light. However, we saw only a couple of motorbikes. This was quite unusual for us after Germany where the bikes are everywhere. When we drove through towns, we noticed quite a bit of staring (along with smiles and waves). Bikes are not that common and those we did see were much smaller than ours.

We got to our destination campground in Litomerice by late afternoon. Although we had the GPS coordinates, we hadn’t read the instructions on how to enter the campground. We were here to attend The Second International BMW GS Meeting hosted by the BMW GS Team of Denmark. Luckily, one of the participants happened to be walking out when we passed by and he directed us in via the footpath. This wasn’t the intended route, but it certainly worked and saved us some time driving around trying to find the entrance.

We met our hosts, checked ii, and settled down for the evening. See the Litomerice Meeting page in the Motorcycle Events subsection of Our Travels for details of the event.

Saturday, September 8, 2001                          Top of Page

We also took some time in the afternoon to walk through Litomerice. The big event of the afternoon appeared to be the display of the local fire department, showing all their equipment. Much of the town came to the town center to watch the spectacle as the trucks roared through the town with sirens blaring, then proceeded to show how people would be rescued from upper windows by the ladder truck and how they respond to vehicle accidents. But other than that, there wasn’t much going on that afternoon as all the shops were closed.

Sunday, September 9, 2001                            Top of Page

We headed out midmorning Sunday toward Glasshütte, just south of Dresden. Seems the Glasshütte we had tried to reach earlier was not the right town. We learned that there are three Glasshütte’s in Germany. We were hoping to visit the town where watch-making is renown. However, near Templice as we were climbing a hill, Verna’s bike started losing power. We pulled off the road and Jim checked the fuel filter and gas lines, then drove it a bit in the parking lot and determined that it might be water in the gas tank and we had to drive it out. So off we went, with Verna lurching along as best she could. It became obvious very quickly that the problem was greater than water in the gas. The hills were the worst part as the bike didn’t appear to have enough power to pull the hill. At best, we were making progress at about 24kph. Finally on one hill she couldn’t keep it running, so we traded bikes. Jim couldn’t make it up the hill either, so he walked along side, powering the bike as best he could. All of this was made more difficult by the fact that it was raining with crosswinds up to 85 KMH (we learned the speed on the news that night) practically blowing us off the road.

We finally made it to Dresden by late afternoon and easily found a hotel. By this time we were exhausted, so found a nearby restaurant for dinner then turned in for the night.

Monday, September 10, 2001                         Top of Page

We found the local BMW dealer and limped over there. Luckily the gentleman who met us spoke English so we didn’t have to deal with language problems. They took the bike immediately into the shop to tried and diagnose the problem but could determine nothing further until the bike cooled. After an hour or so, they concluded there was a problem with the fuel pressure,. So we left to go walk around town. They later called us and said the fuel pump needed replacing and they could get one by tomorrow. See the 2001 Equipment Report Card page in The Bikes section for more details.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001                         Top of Page

We went to the dealer late in the morning to pick up Verna’s bike, only to find we had to argue a bit to get them to fix it under warranty. The issue didn’t seem to be the extended American warranty, but the fact that it was a Touratech tank and the K&N fuel filter was mounted outside the bike. The mechanic felt that the pump had been damaged when the original work was done. Our view was that since the tank was replaced by the original dealer, it was not our fault. Plus, there was no way they could prove that the pump wasn’t defective from the factory. So, after haggling a bit and our making a call to a Customer Service representative at BMW headquarters in Munich, they finally gave in and agreed to perform the work under warranty.

We have learned that warranty work is is done much like it was in the US some 30 to 40 years ago. The warranty here is the responsibility of the dealer who sells the bike. As a consumer you must take your vehicle to the dealer where you purchased it for service. BMW does reimburse the dealer for the cost of the repair. We learned this from the technician who serviced Jim’s bike two weeks later.

We spent the rest of the day visiting the Fraunkirche (a church) which had been left in rubble since it was bombed in WWII. On our return to the hotel, we turned on the news to see the awful sight of a plane flying into the World Trade Center in New York. We were glued to the TV, watching the horror over and over again, not believing what we were seeing. We are numbed, distraught, and in shock, trying to understand why. At that point we decided to drive tomorrow to Limburg where we have an appointment to have Jim’s bike serviced and just lie low for a week.

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