Now Don't Laugh!
After we meticulously weighed every bag & suitcase to make certain we had the right weight for our luggage allowance, only to find out that we were over by 9 kilograms....QANTAS said that would cost $400.00 extra for the excess baggage!! We were not happy as you could imagine. Steve rang the QANTAS Customer number to try to rectify this, as he had been told by them several times that our allowance was 72 kgs altogether. No sorry, Mr Ashley, that is if you are flying with QANTAS all the way, which Steve had given them all the details of the flights with EMIRATES also, they did not bother to tell us that our allowance was only 60kgs with them! Okay, off come the nice comfortable clothing & on with the riding gear, boots & all. Lucky Chantelle was working out at the airport - she took the kettle & a few extra bits & pieces home. Strange that the airlines don't mind you wearing the excess luggage! Each time we boarded on went the bike gear, once seated it came off.
We arrived in Melbourne around 2:30pm. There was no point going to visit anyone in Melbourne, as we were there only a short time. Around 6:00pm we left for Singapore, then onto Dubai. At 4:00am in Dubai it was already around 28 degrees! We had a couple of hours lay over in Dubai then onto Frankfurt for the last leg of our flight. Emirates staff were very nice & friendly, could not fault their service.
Thursday 1st August, in Frankfurt we had organized a rental car through Hertz. It was going to be a VW Golf (similar to ours at home).....nothing like it! It was a FIAT 500!! Steve was not impressed. The little car chugged & chugged going up the hills. Great on the down hill slopes! It did fine getting from A to B. Cars on the autobahn drive very fast, you have to get over into the right hand lane ASAP.
Warning Stephen moaning about the under powered Fiat.
We arrived safely at Werner & Claudia's parents house in Remshceid. We had a lovely warm welcome from Renate' & Wilhelm. We are very privileged to have this special treatment. Renate' is a wonderful cook. In Germany they have so many varieties of bread & rolls. They are delicious. So easy to put weight on very quickly. Breakfast usually consists of bread & or roll, assorted cheeses, assorted meats, tomatoes, radishes or jams. Wunderbar!
Friday the 2nd August was our planned shopping day, then we were to meet another friend, Udo & drive him back to Harscheid to have dinner with his wife, Dagmar & meet his cousin & wife from Australia! Shopping was great, such choices. We went to the Globe trotter store, which is a huge camping store - around 3 levels. It even has an area where you can try out waterproof gear, or try shoes on for rock wall climbing. Shopping done, now to go & meet Udo near his work to pick him up & drive to Harscheid. We had a bit of trouble with getting to the correct area to pick up Udo, as there were road constructions. We went around the autobahn ausfahrts quite a few times. It caused about 2 hours of frustration. We finally found him 2 hours later & drove him home for dinner. It was a wonderful evening, we sat outside as the weather was beautiful & warm. The sun was still up at 8:00pm. Udo's cousin; Guido & his wife Lucy cooked a lovely vegetarian curry. It was great catching up with Dagmar's parents too.
The last couple of days we have been preparing the bike for it's journey to the UK.
The weather sounds wonderful there too. We shall leave at around 4:00am in the morning & head towards Calais, where we will take the train through the Euro Tunnel & arrive in Folkstone, Dover. This is more expensive than the ferry, but it maybe the only time we get to do this. This time on the bike we hope to pack a lot lighter. Hopefully we won't need too much winter clothing.
Also here is a Google Earth kml file of where we've been.
Cheers,
Deb and Stephen.
After we meticulously weighed every bag & suitcase to make certain we had the right weight for our luggage allowance, only to find out that we were over by 9 kilograms....QANTAS said that would cost $400.00 extra for the excess baggage!! We were not happy as you could imagine. Steve rang the QANTAS Customer number to try to rectify this, as he had been told by them several times that our allowance was 72 kgs altogether. No sorry, Mr Ashley, that is if you are flying with QANTAS all the way, which Steve had given them all the details of the flights with EMIRATES also, they did not bother to tell us that our allowance was only 60kgs with them! Okay, off come the nice comfortable clothing & on with the riding gear, boots & all. Lucky Chantelle was working out at the airport - she took the kettle & a few extra bits & pieces home. Strange that the airlines don't mind you wearing the excess luggage! Each time we boarded on went the bike gear, once seated it came off.
We arrived in Melbourne around 2:30pm. There was no point going to visit anyone in Melbourne, as we were there only a short time. Around 6:00pm we left for Singapore, then onto Dubai. At 4:00am in Dubai it was already around 28 degrees! We had a couple of hours lay over in Dubai then onto Frankfurt for the last leg of our flight. Emirates staff were very nice & friendly, could not fault their service.
 |
| Inside the giant bird Boeing 777 300 LR |
 |
| The night stars of Emirates |
 |
| Dubai Emirates Business Lounge |
 |
| Having fun whilst waiting at Dubai (Playing with the new camera). |
 |
| Ole' |
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| At Row 50 aisle & window seats (2 seats only at the very last row), waiting for departure from Dubai |
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| You ready? |
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| The guests bedroom. |
Thursday 1st August, in Frankfurt we had organized a rental car through Hertz. It was going to be a VW Golf (similar to ours at home).....nothing like it! It was a FIAT 500!! Steve was not impressed. The little car chugged & chugged going up the hills. Great on the down hill slopes! It did fine getting from A to B. Cars on the autobahn drive very fast, you have to get over into the right hand lane ASAP.
 |
| Fiat 500 L (large) .900cc petrol. |
Warning Stephen moaning about the under powered Fiat.
We arrived safely at Werner & Claudia's parents house in Remshceid. We had a lovely warm welcome from Renate' & Wilhelm. We are very privileged to have this special treatment. Renate' is a wonderful cook. In Germany they have so many varieties of bread & rolls. They are delicious. So easy to put weight on very quickly. Breakfast usually consists of bread & or roll, assorted cheeses, assorted meats, tomatoes, radishes or jams. Wunderbar!
 |
| Great Breakfast every day. |
Friday the 2nd August was our planned shopping day, then we were to meet another friend, Udo & drive him back to Harscheid to have dinner with his wife, Dagmar & meet his cousin & wife from Australia! Shopping was great, such choices. We went to the Globe trotter store, which is a huge camping store - around 3 levels. It even has an area where you can try out waterproof gear, or try shoes on for rock wall climbing. Shopping done, now to go & meet Udo near his work to pick him up & drive to Harscheid. We had a bit of trouble with getting to the correct area to pick up Udo, as there were road constructions. We went around the autobahn ausfahrts quite a few times. It caused about 2 hours of frustration. We finally found him 2 hours later & drove him home for dinner. It was a wonderful evening, we sat outside as the weather was beautiful & warm. The sun was still up at 8:00pm. Udo's cousin; Guido & his wife Lucy cooked a lovely vegetarian curry. It was great catching up with Dagmar's parents too.
 |
| Deb and Steve up at Harscheid. |
The last couple of days we have been preparing the bike for it's journey to the UK.
 |
| Fitting smaller Blinkers at the rear, to clear the new pannier boxers. |
 |
| Same garage! |
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| Same bike, new panniers. |
The weather sounds wonderful there too. We shall leave at around 4:00am in the morning & head towards Calais, where we will take the train through the Euro Tunnel & arrive in Folkstone, Dover. This is more expensive than the ferry, but it maybe the only time we get to do this. This time on the bike we hope to pack a lot lighter. Hopefully we won't need too much winter clothing.
Also here is a Google Earth kml file of where we've been.
Cheers,
Deb and Stephen.
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