Here we come again...

Well campers, as at our last update we had been enjoying our 2 days at the great Bike Friendly family hotel in the Italian Alps. At the small town of San Giacomo Filippo which is north of Como and near the Swiss Border.

But the time has come for us to move on and ride back into Germany. But first we had to cross Switzerland and the route I had chosen was the Splügen Pass which was several ( 20 - 30 windy) Km's North of our hotel. Unfortunately the weather had caught up with us and the morning was grey and very overcast. The hotel was at about 630 m and was not so cold, but with the pass at 2100 m and with the current weather situation we dressed warmly. It was time for winter gloves and neck warmers. We said our goodbyes and rode off with a full fuel load of 43 L into the gloom of the big hills.

Lorena our fantastic host, great meals and great place to stay. Thumbs up from Deb and Steve.

As expected the fog and drizzle got worse the higher we climbed into the mountains. We trundled along at about an average speed of 40 kph, dodging cars and trucks for the first 1/2 of the climb to the border post which is at the top of the pass. It wasn't long before we were alone as we climbed to the top of the pass.

Splügen Pass,

No temp gauge, but I reckon it was about 2'c or 3'c at the top.

Into Switzerland.

The unmanned border crossing @ the top of the pass.

The roadway we came up from Italy.

Splügen Pass, looking North into Switzerland.

A few kms below the top of the pass, we rode through the Swiss Border Station, again not manned it would seem.  Thankfully the weather was  improving fast, with patches of blue sky appearing over head. The clouds were breaking up as they were being pushed over the alps.

On into Switzerland, only about 3 kms from the top.

Check out that curvy roadway!! 

Deb was not so keen for me to 'Check out the Curvy Roadway"!  A few weeks before, we were on a new clean tarmac road on the island of Hvar (nice and warm/sunny 27'c day). On a particular nice set of curves I (somehow) managed to ground the right side pannier to the roadway. Put a nice chamfer on the edge protector of the new pannier. Not what I had planned, as a crash is sure to follow such dare devil riding... And this was with a well worn TKC80 front and a very worked TKC80 rear both running reversed to get more Km's out of them!

Just shows how much grip you can have with knobby tyres in the DRY!! Anyhow we descended safely to the valley and out onto the good (Swiss) 'B' road and headed north to Zurich.

The rest of the day was in warm (for this latitude and time of year) sunshine as we traversed Switzerland to get close to our next destination Stuttgart, where the Porsche Museum is situated.

At about 15:00 we pulled off the Autobhan (we were back in Germany now) into a small town to get a drink and some afternoon tea. It was Thursday and we/I was surprised at the number of motorbikes zooming about. We got into chatting with a couple with a new baby. They informed us that it was a German National public holiday, Re-unification Day. Which was why there were so many bikes out on the road, enjoying the last bit of sunshine before the weather changed. Then he so kindly informed Stephen that the Touratech factory  was a little further down the road in the small town of Niedereschach.  As I've availed myself of their products and services over the years (I) we thought (I) we should go and "have a look" in the morning  as they were shut due to the holiday. Deb booked a room as the cafe also had rooms available.

Glen, looks like the right color for your next bike!!

Touring motor biker's accessory heaven.

For wet and cool climate Rukka riding gear is the go!

Got some frame ideas for the FZ1 to mount the new panniers to that bike.

I've seen this old XRV750 in a few photos B4, now in the flesh ...

Amazingly when we left the Touratech factory we did not have anything extra to pack!! Deb was truly amazed about this!!

Porsche Museum.

What can I say about our Porsche Museum visit ... One day I'd like to own one, (letters GT3 sound nice ...).

yes please ...

Steve's gone google eyed at so many Porsches

                               Speyer Technical Museum.

This car is covered in sparkles - as are the dummies behind.

Up Scope ...

was a gloomy and wet day.

(ship) Schiff diesel engine.

Some music anyone ?

(Video)

Back end of a Boeing 747.

USSR Brahun shuttle, would it have worked ?

Classic BMW

In the belly of the Brahun.

Fire Engine Red!

Bikes and more bike, floor after floor.

Steve luved the 'real' life cut-a-way dissections.

For Werner, look  no air filters 

Pregnant?  No! just keeping the camera dry!!

Same orange and green jackets as last time...

Truck racing anyone ?

 

Video of the train.

Tri-plane, so small, so much lift ...

Inside the Antinov Transport plane.

It's raining again (still)

Actually it rained most of the way home from the Speyer Museum!  We were drenched by the time we arrived back at Remscheid.

After spending most of the day at the museum in and out of the rain, we had decided to collect our gear from the hotel luggage room and get moving.

We left Speyer around 3:00 pm in the afternoon.  We did not venture onto any back roads, we used the motorway all the way to Remscheid.  We were very cautious as the traffic around us were still driving at 130 kmh down the motorway.  Too fast and not a great deal of vision or stopping time.
Around 20 kms out of Koln (Cologne) the rain stopped. 

We managed to dry out the jackets and pants (mostly), but Stephen had not correctly 'tucked' in one of his shirts. Which had got exposed to the rain and soaked all the front of his shirts and under jacket clothing.

A quick unpack, a warm shower and we were ready for the party that followed...
We had arrived on a special Saturday night. The one night that all the local town pub's collectively and with a promoters helped get live bands in to help 'boost' their businesses.

So we were out with Werner, Claudia, Jurgen and Petra for a rage. We had a very good time, in the two pubs (out of 17) we attended, they played a collections of old and new 'cover band' songs like: Metallica, "Whiskey and the jar" was one we knew well!! At the second pub the solo singer was into Johnny Cash and Deb and I knew most of these songs too.

While I don't have any photos to prove it, Deb was drinking Beers with the rest of this 'party' crew!! (Well 2 x 200ml drinks does count!!).

Sunday was a slower day and we all had a bit of a rest, some more than others.... I managed to fit the new tyres to the bike, and tried to install the new front brake pads but was not able to remove the retaining 'pin' covers so the bike had to go to the Honda shop to get this sorted out.

On Monday (07 Oct 2013) I went with Werner and Deb up to the Clinic (Doctors) and booked in to see a Physio Therapist to sort out my lower back.  By this stage, I was in quite a bit of pain, walking was not good (sitting or standing, lying down was ok), (fitting the new tyres may have exceeded the work limit of my sore back ...).

I had an x-ray and some back manipulation and sent home with a packet of anti-inflammation pills and the dreaded "Take it easy.." message.  (Not so easy for Stephen)

This weekend we have a small camp with several of the local 'Touring' riders down in the Koln area. After this I will completely strip clean the bike to get it ready for it's travel back to Australia around April of 2014.  This will be our last days in Germany as we start our return journey on 21st Oct from Frankfurt Main Flughafen (airport)


We've had another great time traveling Europe. This time was certainly better than our 1st trip. We were simply better prepared and knew a bit more about what to expect. We managed to get lost a lot less, rode much more smaller 'back' roads and did not buy any carpets ...

We have covered a bit over 10,500 kms, we passed through 10 country's and had mostly good weather (not quite as good as last time). We never had any scary moments?? 


It was great  (for me) to completely use the front tyre (got our moneys worth out of that one!) and used up the last of the original rear TKC80 and then use the last of Claudia's TKC80 rear too. But, as you bikers know, it's a new bike on fresh rubber ...

We would like to sincerely thank Renata & Wilhem Steffens for their most wonderful, warm hospitality.  Also, thanks to Jurgen for getting the motorbike registered and roadworthy once again.
Thanks to Mr & Mrs Sabel for storing the bike in their garage.

A HUGE thank you to Claudia & Werner for inviting us to their wedding 2 years ago, as if it wasn't for that we may have still been dreaming.

Last but not least, a very big thank you to our darling children, Bradley, Chantelle & Leticia, for if it wasn't for their maturity we would not have been able to go on our holiday.


Again here is the last Google Earth track for these days.

This is the Total Track .KML file. (this is 120Mb) and shows our total trip.

Cheers,
Stephen and Debbie.