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Saturday morning we blasted off
at the crack of eight for Germany and what is called over here a "Biker
Party". It's called the Free Willi Run and it's held outside of a
little village in Germany called Wolfegg (yeah, I didn't know they laid
eggs either!)
We departed in the hazy morning
of the beginning of a beautiful day in Switzerland in the direction of
St. Gallan where we picked up Christof and Liz. Then on to
breakfast in another village that I can not pronounce the name of and to
await the arrival of Willo and Beatrice who would be leading our motley
crew into Germany. As Willo found out, a Road Captains job is a thankless
one.
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I'm finally getting used to driving
on roads that may or may not have a stripe down the middle (no stripe means
might makes right). Our trek to Germany was through more of the beautiful
Swiss countryside. This time we finally got out of the mountains
and into just rolling hills. Sort of like Kansas on steroids, only
with green as far as the eye can see and farms and cows and vineyards and
more cows and the occasional castle thrown in for good measure, then more
cows. Oh yeah, and a village every three of four kilometers then
more cows.
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We arrived in Germany in the usual
manner, by boat. We boarded a ferry on the Swiss side of the Sea
of Boden which is a natural lake, of which they have hundreds of here.
The ferry crossing took about forty five minutes and was another new experience
for us. Not often you get to ride your bike onto a boat and cross
a body of water in the states.
Upon our arrival in Germany Fessi
found us a friendly official who stamped our passports to prove to us that
we really were in Germany. No country stamps passports any more and
you have to find an official who even knows where they put the stamp the
last time it was used, but they are used to silly American tourists by
now.
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We rode about fifty klicks into
Germany where we found our tent for the evening. A very nice little
Gastehof that even had sanitary facilities in the room!! All that
and breakfast included for 110 DM, that's about 48 USD. We had a
hard time getting used to how inexpensive things like rooms and meals were
in Europe. We're used to gettng gouged for a room at Motel 6 that
only has a vending machine if you want breakfast.
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The run site was about nine klicks
from the tent down a twisty road through the farm land that was perfect
for rolling out of turns on the gas in time to brake and hit the next hairpin,
lots of fun even on a Glide. Once at the run site we were greeted
by the German polizei doing their best to try to keep some sort of order
in the traffic. They weren't very good at it and it took us a while
just find the entrance gate.
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Inside the run site you could
park just about anywhere you could find a spot wide enough to stick a bike.
Amidst the bier booths, vendors and band stands there wasn't much room
and pedestrians figure that you aren't really in that big of a hurry so
neither are they.
The one thing we noticed very
quickly at the run was that if we Americans had come to find stuff from
Germany we were bound to be disappointed. Everything there was American,
right down to the biker wallets made in China. The other thing we
found was that in Europe there is no such thing as a T-shirt with the location
on the back. If it's a HD shirt it just says that and nothing more
most of the time, but unlike American bike runs we didn't see any "Trailer
Bikers". We made a few laps and tried to stay in the shade as best
we could.
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T and I stayed for a couple of
hours until the heat got to both of us. It was extremely humid and
hot so around five we took off for the motel and a shower to return later
when it had cooled off. By the time we got back, Fessi and Sylvia
were about done in too so we had a couple of biers and set off to find
a restaurant and some decent food.
About drinking and driving in
Germany, DON'T!!!!!!!!!! The legal limit is .05, half of Arizona
and you're drinking German bier so basically once you've opened the bottle
you're over the limit. The polizei are all over the exit with breathalyzers
and it's kind of a game to see if you can miss them. If you get caught,
say good-bye to your bike for a while 'cause they're gonna give you a ride
home, theirs not yours.
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Our ride home on Sunday took us
along the Rhein river to the Rheinfalls, kind of like Niagara in Switzerland.
We didn't do a lot of sight seeing on the way home as we had to be there
by five for an appointment. We discovered with the help of Fessi
a great tattoo parlor in Schlieren and figured that we should take something
home that will last longer than the pictures.
Our next scheduled adventure will
be a four country tour. Suisse, Liechtenstein, Austria and Germany.
Does it sound like we had any fun yet????
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