As I said five years ago, the most difficult part of a narrative like this is the beginning. So here we go again. Where am I now? Answer: in Austria. Why am I here? Answer: because the weather is exceptionally good. Where am I heading? Answer: North. Why am I heading north? Answer: because the weather is continuing to be quite pleasant further up north.
Here is a video clip recorded by the camera mounted behind Tiggers windscreen, taken within the first hour of the new journey in the canton of Appenzell, Switzerland:
Now lets start in a more chronological order. I did leave Switzerland as planned on Friday, 27th April 2012. Starting out eastwards meant that I had to go around the eastern end of lake constance through the Austrian Vorarlberg province. While Austria usually is motor-bikers bliss, the Vorarlberg is motor-bikers (and everyone elses) hell. But unless I accept to go around lake Constance on its western shore (which means at least a half day diversion) or access Austria via Italy (at least a full day diversion) there are few alternatives if one wants to explore a weather window.
This time it is particularily bad; the "Austries" have closed my favourite escape route through the Bregenzer forest, forcing me to join the motorway around the lake instead. Unfortunately everyone else had the same idea, and that the Austries have closed two of the existing four lanes for repairs does not help either. In the end it takes two hours to circumnavigate the lake and to arrive in Bavaria After all this frustration right at the beginning of the journey I suppose I should at least show you a picture of my means of transportation. Here is Tigger in full battlegear:
The journey onwards through Bavaria though is highly enjoyable, especially as the temperatures for the end of April are rather warm. peaking
at around 28 degrees in the afternoon. Being once again an unemployed, homeless gypsy means that I have no modern communications
except the internet connection usually available in most hotels. But I fix that by stopping at a supermarket and buying myself a pre-paid
mobile phone pack for Germany for 20 Euros. All I need to do now is finding a way to activate it...
I end this first day after 400 km in a hotel near the town of Bayrischzell.
Today the weather is already uncomfortably hot when I am loading the bike just after 9 am. However, cruising at 60 mph helps a lot and the glorious Bavarian spring countryside is most enjoyable. On entering Austria again (this time the heavenly part) the trip through the Innviertel is fantastic. I am bypassing the small town of Braunau where Adolf Hitler was born. This fact is hardly known any more by any of the numerous tourists enjoying the great weather with its 31 degrees, as these Austries have succeeded in making the rest of the world believe that Hitler was German and that Mozart was an Austrian.
In the evening I find that lots of people have made the best of the good weather and took to the road. The first hotel I stop at in
the evening is fully booked. But the friendly landlord gets on his mobile phone and calls another place down the road; they are fully
booked as well. A third place 10 miles away has a room available, so I set my GPS towards the town of
Unterweissenbach where I meet lots of other bikers at the hotel Fuerst. I also try to activate that mobile phone SIM card
on the supermarkets webpage. They want my address before activation. I believe this is compulsory in Germany and supposedly is a measure
against criminals and terrorists. I truly enter "no fixed address" into the form. The stupid page responds with
"unable to locate the address you provided". I enter my address in Switzerland and get the same silly response again. I pick a company
address somewhere in Germany that I found on the web. "Activation successfully completed" is the response from the website.
What
a fierce deterrent for potential evil-doers...
This morning it is even hotter than yesterday. After 65 km I arrive at the Czech border. I have plotted a route heading due north around Prague into the easternmost corner of Germany. Czech main roads are in good condition, but when I turn onto secondary routes to circumnavigate Prague I find that most of those roads were last mended when the Cold War was in full swing. I am not impressed, given that they had over twenty years to do the job. Slovenia managed that much better. At Prague the thermometer on Tigger reads 34 degrees and I am sweating heavily. By 5 pm I reach the German border - with a tank full of the cheap Czech petrol (if you really can call € 1.30 per litre cheap). I drive on the splendid and smooth B99 road from Zwickau to the town of Ostritz. The place was hit by flood-waters from the nearby Neisse river in 2010. At the hotel "Neisseblick" they have not yet restored the ground level rooms, so only the floors above can be used. I check with the landlord; no flooding is predicted for tonight.
I have checked the weather and further north I should be able to escape the burning hot air, so I head along the Polish border deeper into the Saxony province. The country gets flatter and flatter as you can see from this video:
I end the day at after some glorious biking in perfect biker weather at the town of Woldegk.
It is much cooler this morning, only about 14 degrees. But the sun is still shining, though the forecast for the rest of the week is pretty
bad for most of Europe. An endless supply of low pressure areas is heading my way. The precipitation charts indicate that the northernmost
part of the country is getting away lighter than elsewhere. So by 10 am I am heading westwards a few miles inland from the
Baltic Sea. At Lübeck I turn due north, towards the border with Denmark.
The roads are just as flat as yesterday, but since reaching Lübeck I find that their quality is deteriorating - a sure sign that I am
now back in the former West-Germany. With all the money being pumped into the East the roads are usually much better over there.
I end the day at the village of Oeversee, just outside of
Flensburg.
Given the bad weather forecast and the sorry state of my tyres - they were pretty worn out when I set out - after another 2000 km, I book
myself in for four days here to have new tyres fitted and take a closer look at the weather development. So far I haven't done too bad, as
none of those 2000 km was done without wearing sunglasses.
My bright idea to call a tyre dealer up here has been torpedoed and sunk by the lethargic population in this part of the country. I called
about six or seven dealerships in the wider area, and all told me the same; they are all flooded with work because everyone wants
his car changed from winter-tyres to summer tyres. Now? In May? What are these dozy fellows up to? Tyre change to summer tyres is a
long standing tradition and is done in the third week of April. The change from summer-tyres to winter-tyres is done in the third
week of October. Every child in central Europe knows that, but up here they obviously come out of hibernation much later than
elsewhere. The earliest date any dealer can offer is later next week.
I take Tigger for a ride and visit the towns of Husum and
Flensburg, both are very pretty places. On my way back I notice that the left
speaker of my Blue-tooth headset has packed up. That is the first equipment failure since the start of the journey, albeit not an
unexpected one. The Scala Rider unit I am using is produced by a US American company. Have you ever owned a US build motorcar? Then
you probably know why I brought along a complete spare unit. This is the second time that this particular fault partly disabled the
device.
I fit the spare unit in the evening and all is well. However, the problem sourcing tyres as well as the faulty comms unit
give me an idea; I check the weather again and with a bit of luck I may have a two-day window to do a pit stop in Switzerland to have
both problems resolved. A call to my tyre dealer reveals that he has plenty of time because the mad time for summer-tyre-changing ended
over a week ago down there. I make an appointment for next Monday - and after that date it looks as if the weather may improve in
the South of Europe.
The weather is holding up. I get a few drops near Hamburg and it looks fairly overcast for a while, but my luck is holding and it
stays dry all day - but I admit that I got rid of the sun glasses.
Through this flat land I make good progress, but a few miles south of
Braunschweig the
Harz mountains appear on the horizon.
Though the biking is more fun, my average speed drops considerably. Given that I have opted to bike an extra 1100 kilometres within 36 hours just
for getting new tyres, I have some hard riding to do.
Once again I notice that the Germans have succeeded in entirely wiping out any trace of the former
Iron Curtain which I am crossing twice today. The only change I notice when passing into the former
East Germany is a marked improvement in road quality. I even pass along the B247 road to the village of
Teistungen where the border checkpoint was during the Cold War. None of those massive buildings, huge car parks, control towers or concrete tank
obstacles I can remember are visible - the Germans have totally eradicated that infamous place.
I end the days a few miles on at the town of Bad Hersfeld. Just west of the town is an old mill converted into a hotel which promises a good diner and a quiet night - I have been on the bike for 9 hours non-stop.
My GPS tells me that I have 565 km of fine German country roads ahead of me. While normally I'd use mainly minor roads, today (like yesterday) I
am using mainly Federal highways. On minor roads that distance would mean an
11 hours ride. Normally those 1100 km would be a three day ride, but my choices are to do it in two days in the dry or bike the
third day through the rain...
The weather is very good once again today, but near Reutlingen on the
Swabian Jura a mighty Thunderstorm has broken through the
inversion. Normally my route would just bypass
the storm - but the B313 is closed
for all traffic near the town of Engstingen, forcing me to ride
a diversion eastwards into the storm. So yes, I get some rain, but not enough to get the raingear out.
By 1900 hours I am back at my place in Heidiland. The entire eight-day trip has covered 3230 km (just under 2000 miles) so far.
Today I first drive out to our local pressure wash place to get the muck of the bike. A few days ago I complained that all my equipment made in USA is failing. In defence of the guys on the other side of the pond I have to correct that statement. I have a third piece of equipment with me that is made in California and has given me a perfect service; my two Peli Cases which I am using as panniers. I thoroughly clean them as well with the pressure washer - they don't mind and not a drop of water gets inside the boxes. Try that with your ordinary OEM pannier...
Next port of call is the shop where I bought the GPS blue-tooth headset. They just hand me a brand new one - very good service, one problem less.
Today I thoroughly clean the bike until all is spotless again. I also remove the wheels and do all my washing etc.
The tyres are replaced and all appears to be ready to go - only the weather is still playing up, but I remain optimistic for the second half of this week.
Below is the usual map with my GPS tracklog and some trip markers.