With passport, plane ticket, and international drivers license in hand, "Sam" and I leave Colorado on June 21, 2004 along with Linda Swart for Topster's place in South River, NJ, and my flight to Frankfurt. Five days later I'm sitting in a 'cheap seat', crossing the Atlantic . . .
Arriving in Frankfurt in the early hours on 27-Jun, I finally meet Jörn Böse, he rides to the airport on his bike. It sounds kind of simple, but Jörn and I had only exchanged 2-3 emails (in broken English/German), and here he's offering his "Teil" to me for the next two weeks. L to R, Jörn, Mark Cipriano, me. I'm putting on my riding gear at the airport. Let me repeat, AT THE AIRPORT!
Jörn and his daughter depart with his wife in a car. Mark, Mark's daughter, Dean Orfield, and I depart for the German wine region on bikes to complete the day. Mark figured he'd keep me awake 36 hours to 'burn off' any jet-lag. It worked :-)
Here we are near a couple of steps from the Mosel. Pretty intense first day if you ask me.
BBQ at Mark's place in Landsthul that night, we tweaked a few things on the Teil, I tried out the German ATM and bought 100gm of sliced sausage for sandwiches the next day. Practiced my German. . . I don't think they could tell I was a foreigner, I sounded just like Sgt. Shultz! :-0
Posted a few messages to the list and forum via Marks DSL connection too.
Off toward Luxembourg (GDL) in the AM, to meet with Linda, and Patrick (Bordeaux, France) who I'd been in constant email contact with since mid Feb. Linda and Patrick leave The Netherlands that morning, Mark and I from Germany a bit later, and we all meet in Athus, GDL literally within two minutes of each other. Weird.
Tour GDL with an excellent guide (Stephan), we stop for refreshments along the way. BBQ with Stephan and his family that night, then retire on a cushy featherbed (I tell ya, this is already a rough trip) for the night. The next day Stephan bows to my request to see the memorial in Bastogne (and a light lunch in the town) then a fortress on the Maginot line in early afternoon. Off toward Austria!
Patrick 'scores' a room in Pirmasens, Germany for the night. It was music watching him play the locals for an available Gasthaus (B&B) at 10:00 PM local. We check in, then head downtown to find some grub. Chinese will have to do tonight.
Heading further East in the morning, none of us (Patrick, Linda, or I) know squat about Munchen (Munich), so Patrick calls Hans Dressler on his "handy" (cell phone). The Autobahn around Munchen must be 'no restrictions' as Hans rides 30 some odd KM through Munchen in under 12 minutes to meet us west of town. Converting this to European furlongs per fortnight equals "honking fast".
Dinner in Munchen, then it's off on some 'lesser' known roads in Germany to the border with Austria, and finally Altenmarkt im Pongau, where we met Dr. Walter Kirchweger, and the crew at the Landhaus Klausner, our home away from home for the next three days. Too cool!
The pix to the left is where an old border crossing building was. Germany behind us, Austria in front.
