Date: 6-11/05/2017
From/To: Berlin
Distance:–
Road:–

 

The service on the yellow bike wasn’t done, so we decided to do the usual – change oil and spark plugs and get new brake pads -our self’s. Changing the spark plugs required a bit more work than expected. It looked like we had to dismantle half of the bike J

 

 

 

 

 

In the next couple of days we organized the bike insurance, the registration and organized a visa for myself, since we would like to stay for more than 3 Month in Europa. Now we are officially residing at Connie’s and Klaus’s house. To get mail in Germany to that address our name had to be put onto the letterbox; otherwise the mail would be returned to sender.

Klaus and I successfully entertained the girls, since doing all the paperwork is so boring.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

To get the bikes complete, we needed some additional parts, which we ordered in the meantime. That included a larger windscreen, bash plate, luggage rack and a top box. All that got delivered and fitted to the bikes.

We needed as well a tent, since we left ours in Australia due to weight restriction on the flight. We talked to Steffi and Julia at Anita’s weddings anniversary and they mentioned they had a spare one. They were even so nice to bring it to Klaus’s house. They had the tent spare after they bought a VW bus.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Date: 2-5/05/2017
From/To: Berlin
Distance: 1286km
Road: Highway

After a nice stroll through the city with Bodo, Gabi and Linda, we got picked up by Conni und Klaus. We made a detour to Polo to buy Chain Oil. On this occasion I remembered that I left my raingear in Australia-it was leaking anyway after a while. So we had a look and found something really nice and inconspicuous. Siggi tried the jacket as well

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a nice evening at Klaus and Connie’s Place, with lots of talking and planning. The next day we started our trip to collect the bikes. First Klaus drove us to our first destination, Gottmadingen, close to the Bodensee. It was raining heavily during our drive; I was hoping that the weather will clear up the next day.

In the evening we arrive at Sonja’s and Sebastian’s house, I took the bike for a short spin.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then we finalised the paper work and I could drive our first bike to the accommodation. This was a great feeling! After month of planning things started to fall in place.

Next day we were aiming for Aachen to pick up my bike. The weather hadn’t cleared up jet, so I had the opportunity to test my new raingear. We made a small detour to Doris for a coffee and picked up our gear we left there. We arrived later this evening, but I was so excited that I forgot to take any pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We booked some accommodation close by. The hotel had a garage were we could park the bikes; unfortunately Klaus had to park the car in the street. For dinner we organised some pizza that night and went to bed.

 

 

 

 

The next day we aimed to get back to Berlin. First we tried to get some bike insurance, but that did’t work. We were told to get the insurance in Berlin. Below are our two beauties

J

So we hopped onto the bikes and off we went. The weather cleared up and we arrived in Berlin close to midnight, completely buggered but happy.

 

Date: 29-30/05/2017
From-To: Berlin
Distance: —
Road: —

No, I’m not talking about the Australian political party. We were meeting with Sigrid family before we would start to organize the bikes and me my Visa. We used the ICE to get to Berlin. Bodo and Gabi were so nice to pick us up from ‘Ostbahnhof’. On the next day we had a short walk around inner Berlin, trying to get a Currywurst from a famous stall. We forgot that it was Sunday. We kept walking and stumbled across a Beer garden with some stalls.

 

 

 

We had something to eat

and Sigrid gave “Moonshine” a local liquor a go.

We went back to Bodo and Gabi’s flat and checked out possibilities to get to Anita’s and Bernd’s celebration. The location was on the fringe of Berlin, but the public transport is great. So after looking at an public transport app and getting some instructions from Bodo, we were ready to go. Bodo showed us to the train station and we took a picture of the station, so we would know on our way back where to exit the train. So off we went, had a beautiful tour through the outskirts of Berlin. .

 

Anita and Bernd celebrated their 20^th wedding anniversary and invited us last year. When our trip/retirement started to get closer, we thought we would like to attend and celebrate with them together. The location was at the ‘Rübezahl’, a location on Müggelsee, a big lake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The setup was fantastic.

 

 

Anita and Bernd spend a lot of attention to details. On each of our place setting we found small chocolate hart with ‘Liebe ist’ sayings, which we remembered from our youth.

Couples married more than 20 years even got an porcelain angel which was very cuteJ.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We really enjoyed to catch up with our family and appreciated the warm hospitality and the generous setup of the celebration.

 

 

 

 

 

 

As a side note –Sigrid and I tried the whole day to get a currywurst, without success. As we learned now, there is a ‘Midnight Currywurst’ custom at parties in Berlin, that mean that at midnight a currywurst was severed. As you can see, we really enjoyed it. At the end of the night we were ready to take the public transport back, but Dagmar convinced us that it would be better that she would drive us back to Bodo, which she did.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next day we visited Gabi’s and Bodo’s Garden where lots of flowers were blooming. It was a beautiful day, but it got cold very early, so we packed up and went back to Gaby and Bobo’s flat.

where we warmed up by coffee and cake.

Date: 25-28/05/2017
From/To: Adelaide – Wiesbaden
Distance:–
Road:–

On the last Day, we had still a long task list to finish. Below are some pictures how I felt with the number of tasks and the time remaining.

 We packed our luggage and put it on a scale. Hmm, no  way that we can take all our stuff with only 30kg luggage  per person. At the end, we sacrificed our tent, repacking  everything, back, forward, back again until we just made it  with 30kg luggage person plus 7Kg hand luggage. Not  sure how we can carry that, don’t worry, we will be fine.

And here an attempt to carry most of the luggage.

 We finished just in time when  the family came to pick us up.  Together we had a fare well  snack with the family at the  airport,

 And off we went, Europa we are coming. The first leg  was to Doha, where we were lucky enough that each of  us would get a 3 seat row, so we could have a good night  sleep. The layover was without any problems and we  arrived in Frankfurt the next morning.

 

 

 

 

 

Now we had to carry that entire luggage to/from the train which was a harder than we thought.

 Doris has organized some  dinner with friends where we  tried  some specialties of the  regions.
 On the next day we had a very  relaxing breakfast , visited  Dieters grave (Sigrids Dad) and  went with Doris and Helga to a    restaurant that served freshly  harvested ‘Asparagus ‘.

Next day we packed up and left for Berlin. This time we left some luggage at Doris’s place; the plan was we would pick it up later when we pass by her house while picking up the bikes.