Jerry and Jim's "High Alpine Adventure"

Day two, Sauerlach, Germany. The tour begins

    Sunday morning Jerry and I made our way down to Sauerlach to meet the tour group and pick up our bikes. This turned into a bit of an adventure within our adventure. We had no problem figuring out which of the S-bahn trains to take from Munich, and while figuring out how to purchase tickets from the automatic ticket dispenser a local woman came up and offered assistance. This is typical of the people we met, everyone being friendly and outgoing. Sometimes a little too friendly and outgoing, such as this elderly woman who approached us as we were waiting for the train. My German isn't very good, and all I could understand was that she was going on and on about 8 pfennigs and train tickets. I'm not sure if she was asking for the money so she could get a ticket, or complaining that she remembers when tickets cost that much. Since Germany uses the Euro, I suspect she was talking about the old days.

   After waiting for about 40 minutes for our train, we noticed every train except the one we wanted had gone by, all more than once. A quick check of the map and we decided we needed to take the next train to the Oberhof station, which is a smaller main transfer station on the east side of Munich. I thought that maybe the train we wanted wasn’t running through our station for some reason and we could catch it at Oberhof. At the very least, we’d be closer to Sauerlach and the route the Edelweiss shuttle has to take to the airport - a quick call and they could pick us up. When we got to Oberhof there was a train on the other side of the platform. I decided to go ask the driver if he knows which train we need for Sauerlach. As I’m walking up to the cab I notice the train number is the one we want. Talk about serendipity. It turned out there was construction on the line on the northwest side of Munich, so the train wasn’t running all the way to the Haufbahnhof.

    Our accommodation in Sauerlach was the Sauerlacher Post Hotel, a short three minute walk from the train station. Like all of the hotels chosen by Edelweiss, this was a comfortable and charming 3-Star hotel with bar and restaurant on the premises.

    The agenda for the day was to meet everyone, have an orientation meeting, pick up our bikes and have our first group dinner. Late afternoon we all met in the conference room where introductions were made and we met Harald and Georg, our tour guides. Joining us were Gail and Terry Afdem from Washington, Linda and Michael Thomas from Washington, Jefferson and Adrianna from Brazil, Glenn Dean and Walter Durant from Connecticut, Marc Janowitz from New York, Karl Kraenzlein from New Jersey, and Voncho Spasevski from New York. After the introductions and filling out additional paperwork, we headed out of town a couple of miles to a barn rented by Edelweiss as a garage for their bikes.

    Edelweiss offers a variety of BMW's, and Jerry and I both chose the R1150RS. It's a good compromise between sportiness and long range comfort. My 95 Concours has a Corbin saddle and the original 86 low bars, and I was surprised to find that the ergonomics on the RS are very close, just a little shorter peg-bars-seat. Some folks thought we should have gone with the 650 single or the R1150GS as they would be easier to handle on the tight mountain roads, but as it turned out, the RS's light weight, telelever front end, power assisted front brake and low end grunt of the R motor were perfectly suited to the roads in the Alps. These features, along with the Metzler Z4 tires, inspired confidence in all conditions. Later I found it handled just as well in the rain as it did on dry pavement.

    Leaving the barn I made a slight mistake. Let's just say I found out real quick the R1150RS is not a Concours. Entering the first right hand corner, I gave the usual shove on the handlebar and drove right off the road. The bike is lighter and turns much easier than the Concours - a gentle touch on the bar and a little pressure on the tank with the outside knee and it turns right in. Oh well, no harm no foul. Mine was the silver-dammit.

    After everyone got back from the barn with their bikes we spent quite a bit of time in the parking lot checking out the different rides and bench racing. Just goes to show that bikers are the same no matter where they're from or what they ride.

    At dinner I had barely made it through the first course when I suddenly, and I mean suddenly, started feeling bad. I stepped outside for a bit of air and realized I needed to lie down. Excusing myself from dinner I had just made it to the room when I lost it, explosively, from both ends. I spent the rest of the night in the bathroom becoming familiar with every piece of tile and porcelain. Stomach cramps, fever, alternating hot and cold flashes, diarrhea and vomiting. Every time I tried to lie down I would start to vomit, so I spent the entire night either standing or sitting. I'm sure Jerry didn't appreciate my waking him up around 3 AM, but I couldn't take it anymore.

    In the morning Harald and Georg contacted the local doctor who managed to fit me in. Seems all the other patients in the office knew each other and I could tell they were all wondering what I was doing there. After a cursory exam, the doc said it was probably a virus, gave me some stuff to control the symptoms and said to forget the vacation and head home. Well after being up all night I couldn't think straight, and as bad as I felt it seemed to make sense. Fortunately, Harald, who is one of those people who always has an upbeat outlook on life, talked me into riding in the chase van. As the day progressed I started feeling better. As to what might have been the cause? I suspect it was probably one of the Noro viruses. As fast as it came on, the severe effects, and how quickly I started feeling better, it only makes sense. Probably picked it up from something I came into contact with during the flight over.

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or on to Day three